# Yamataï

Yamataï is a board game for 2–4 players. It plays in 40–80 minutes and is meant for ages 13 and up. Ludoya players call it best with 2. It is rated 5.2 out of 10 by 36 Ludoya reviewers.

- **Players:** 2–4 (best with 2)
- **Playing time:** 40–80 minutes
- **Minimum age:** 13+
- **Complexity:** 3 out of 5
- **Year published:** 2017
- **Categories:** Mythology
- **Mechanics:** Action Drafting, Network and Route Building, Contracts, Increase Value of Unchosen Resources, Modular Board
- **Ludoya rating:** 5.2 out of 10, from 36 reviews
- **Owned by:** 38 Ludoya players
- **Plays logged on Ludoya:** 135
- **Unique players:** 183

**Designers:** Marc Paquien, Bruno Cathala

**Artists:** Jérémie Fleury

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## Rules questions

### When I take a fleet, do I have to use its special power right away or can I save it for later?

A fleet's special power can be activated at any point during your turn but it is optional; if you don't use it, it is lost (see pages 3 and 7).

### Can I use boats placed by another player to build, or do the boats have to be mine or ones I just placed?

You may use any boats adjacent to the island to meet a building's requirements—even boats owned by other players and even boats you didn't place this turn—and boats are not removed when you build (see page 5).

### How many Culture Tokens do I get when I choose to Collect?

You take one Culture Token for each boat you placed on the board, and each claimed token must have been adjacent to a spot where you placed a boat (mountain tokens count as well) (see pages 4–5).

### What happens to boats I don't put on the board—can I keep them between turns?

At phase 4 you place unused boats on your player mat: your harbor holds one boat (unless upgraded), the other boats are put aside and cannot be used; at game end you lose 1 PP for every two boats put aside (see page 6 and scoring on page 7).

### How many trades can I make on my turn, and can I buy or sell gold?

You may perform at most one transaction per turn (buy or sell a single boat), and gold boats cannot be bought or sold (see page 4).

### Do Torii and Palace buildings get standard building bonuses or do they affect adjacency scoring?

Torii and Palaces are Prestige Buildings and are not affected by Standard Building bonuses, but each Standard Building constructed next to an already-constructed Torii or Palace scores +1 PP when it is built (see pages 5–6).

## Links

- [This page](https://www.ludoya.com/games/yamatai)
- [Yamataï in the Ludoya app](https://app.ludoya.com/g/yamatai)
- [BoardGameGeek entry](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/213893)

_Data from Ludoya, updated 2026-09-19. Ratings, ownership and play counts are Ludoya's own._