Samurai Swords

Yesterday, we played two games. First up was good old Shogun. The easiest way to describe this game is Risk meets Axis & Allies.

You play a Shogun that is trying to unify Feudal Japan under your rule. The game begins with all of the 68 cards being dealt to the players evenly. Any remaining cards are up for grabs by the players during the game. Gameboard units are divided into two groups, Daimyo armies and provincial armies. Provincial armies are limited to a maximum of 5 units per province, and can be comprised of any type of unit. They are limited in that they can only attack adjacent provinces and can only move at the end of your turn. Daimyo armies have a great deal more flexibility as they can move before and after a battle. Their movement allowance is equal to the experience level of your Daimyo (which you get for fighting at least one successful battle during your turn, you are limited to one increase per turn). Daimyo armies are also limited in the number of units you can have in each. You can have no more than 3 Daimyo armies.

Combat is resolved by rolling dice. There are several different units, each of which have their own set of capabilities.

Samurai Bowman - 1 koku - Samurai bowman hit on a 6 or less on a d12. They fire at the beginning of every combat phase, and losses they inflict are immediately removed.
Samurai Swordsman - .5 koku - Samurai swordsman hit on a 5 or less on a d12. They attack at the end of the combat round. Losses they inflict still get a last shot in that combat round.
Ashigaru gunners - .5 koku - Same as samurai bowman, but they hit on a 4 or less.
Ashigaru spearmen - .33 koku - Same as samurai swordsman, but they hit on a 4 or less.

After combat, the province is left vacant of troops. During final movement, the attacker can elect to move into the province or leave it vacant. With combat covered, let's go into the turn detail.

The first step is the planning phase. Each player counts their territories and divides the number by three and rounds down. This is the amount of koku the player receives. He then plans his expenditures for the turn.

The second phase is drawing swords. Players allocating money here pick their position in the turn order, while the others draw swords for their turn position. This determines which order they will fight and move their armies later in the turn.

The second stage of the turn is the building phase. If a player allocates two koku to building he may place a castle or upgrade a castle with fortifications. Each player can only build one item per turn. Castles and fortifications give you additional troops for any battle fought in the province.

Next players raise troops with any koku they have allocated here during the planning phase. Only one unit can be built/raised in any province.

After raising troops, players hire ronin samurai (basically samurai swordsman) and place them on the province card where they will be raised. The ronin samurai can be played at any time during the turn.

Finally, players reveal who got the ninja. The ninja allows a player to assassinate an enemy daimyo or they can look at another player's koku allocation on the next turn.

Players then in turn order do the following:
First movement
Declare battles
Resolve combat
Final movement

When the final player does each of the above, the round is over. Players then count up their total provinces and if one player has more than 35 provinces, he is declared the winner.

I like this game a lot. It is the best of the light wargames out there. However, there is one big problem with the game and that is downtime. We played a five round game, and it took about 3.5-4 hours to play. I give this a 7 out of 10.