After establishing themselves in Honshu, the Lords and Ladies head north to Hokkaido. Beholding Hokkaido’s mountainous landscape, they see that expansion on this land will prove to be a greater challenge than before.
Hokkaido is the second map-building card game in the Nippon series, bringing new ideas and mechanisms to the first design Honshu. A game of Hokkaido consists of twelve rounds, each divided into two separate phases. Each player must expand their personal map to maximize their scoring possibilities.
—description from publisher
candoo
In the vein of its predecessor, Honshu. It's really just a variant of that. Quite decent for an intermediate filler.
JimFitz
Nice variant to Honshu. Mountains add a challenge to the tableau building process, and the scoring of the second largest city means that building is more considered. Bit thinkier :)
DrWildcat
A nice, non-offensive, good for travel card/tile laying game. Can handle up to five which is nice and has optional goal cards for when you want to up the ante on complexity. Pretty flexible game that gamers and (probably) non-gamers can enjoy. Drafting is always a welcome mechanism, but it really isn't the focus here.