It’s hard not to think of board game designer Cole Wehrle as a kingmaker. 2018’s Root drove Leder Games to greater heights and ambitions, with hits like Oath and Arcs solidifying its reputation as a top-tier publisher.
Two years earlier, he worked a similar magic with Hollandspiele. Wehrle himself tells me that An Infamous Traffic, his strategy game about the Opium Wars, had been a flagship launch title for the publisher. Its success helped co-founder Amabel Holland quit her job to work on Hollandspiele full time.
For Wehrle, though, that success was a double-edged sword. The turnaround time on the project was relatively quick, so he had less time to mull the design’s flaws. And, when he did have time, An Infamous Traffic had already shot to success. There was no chance of changing things when the current edition was in such demand.
Hollandspiele returned the rights to the game to Wehrle in 2019, and he’s been pondering a fresh edition ever since. Now, after 10 years, An Infamous Traffic 2e is almost ready. I tested out the prototype with Wehrle at UK Games Expo, and it’s worth getting excited about.
Wehrlegig Games may have been absorbed into the newly-formed Buried Giant Studios, but An Infamous Traffic still bears its signature style. This is a heavy game in all senses of the word. Its strategy is rich and deep, like the pockets of an Imperial entrepreneur. Its theme is just as carefully considered, and it explores the often reprehensible actions of real-world figures.
An Infamous Traffic plays out across four decades (or five with smaller player counts), starting in the 1820s. You’ll play as merchants of the British Empire seeking to make your fortune by exporting opium to China.
Most of the board is taken up by a map of China, showing its key ports. Most of the action takes place in China, but your interests also lie in London and India. You’ll need to visit the latter often if you want to lead the market’s opium production. As for the former, you’ll return here to expand your business and, more crucially, collect prizes (victory points).
In China, you’ll generate revenue by completing supply chains. Dice next to the port spaces show there is an opportunity for trade, and they dictate the exact demand for opium. When a full supply chain shows the same value or less, demand is met, and everyone who helped build the chain gains revenue.
You can fill up these supply chains with ships, opium, and merchants of varying values. Smugglers and bureaucrats can also help meet and adjust demand by joining the line, though they don’t contribute to any one player’s revenue once the chain completes. If you want to make dough, you’ll need to chuck some high-value tokens at the chain – or adjust the value of one of your tokens before the chain completes.
Beware, though. Those tokens represent the price of your merchants, ships, and merchandise. Another player can take your place in the chain by undercutting you, replacing your token with one of their own with a lower value. Any token you remove from the board loses any revenue associated with it.
Players can also disrupt competitor profits by breaking a supply chain completely. This is usually done through the conspiracy action, which introduces new figures to the board. Some of these will be Qing forces that conduct police investigations into the (very illegal) opium trade, removing tokens from the affected port.
Occasionally, tokens are removed from supply chains due to an opium war. An Infamous Traffic tracks the outrage sparked by opium smuggling and the investigations into it. When the right combination of British and Qing Forces are in play, a war breaks out.
This destabilizes the nation, but it also creates new opportunities for your merchant to profit, with opportunities and demand shifting across the board. In fact, it often benefits your merchants to stoke the fires of war, as a destabilized China is less able to regulate your growing opium trade.
While all this is going on, just keep an eye on the Taiping token. Representing one of the deadliest civil wars in human history, this token grows in strength as the decades pass, and it has devastating effects when resolved.
Taiping is one of the most noticeable changes made for the new edition, but Wehrle has made plenty of other changes. The Industry Leader and Special Envoy mechanics are gone, and the investment system has been replaced with one that tracks debt against your revenue. The Scion system has been streamlined, and more emphasis has been placed on your time in India and London – in particular, taking the Inquire action to draw action and prize cards.
The sum of these changes is a snappier, sleeker game. Once we understood the core rules, turns felt lightning-fast, with pause only taken when considering the most strategic play. If you’ve always wanted to play John Company but can’t justify its lengthy table time, this might be for you.
A lot may have changed, but the emotional core of An Infamous Traffic remains the same. This is a game that is tremendously cruel, but also profoundly human. The greed that drives you to push drugs on China is personal.
The prizes you draw to win represent your ticket to social mobility back in London. Profits from China allow you to fund a well-to-do family, a political career, or land ownership. Sometimes, the prize can be as simple as a quality outfit that will earn the respect of the landed gentry. From your point of view, opium trade is your ticket to a better life – and once you’ve got it, you’ll need to keep up with those expenses, no matter what.
These small details had us roleplaying around the table. When I undercut a rival, the player would guilt me by asking me to think of their poor wife and children. I’d fire back that I had my own sires to support. This wasn’t just business; it was survival.
It’s all too easy to see your fellow London socialites as obstacles rather than people. The same goes for the citizens of China. Those Qing tokens on the table begin to feel less like human beings and more like resources to twist to your advantage. The quest for profit and prizes turns you into a monster, if you’re not careful.
An Infamous Traffic examines why systems like this come to be. It highlights the culpability of ordinary people in historic moments of exploitation. It challenges you to examine how far you’d go to defend your family, career, or reputation. What would it take for you to start viewing people as playing pieces in a game of strategy? How easily could you fall into the cycle of greed?
The game explains its thesis elegantly, with just a handful of streamlined rules sparking intense emotion. My time with An Infamous Traffic was brief, but I hope, once it’s ready to release, I’ll get to relive it again and again.
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Source: Wargamer
