Samurai Swords

[aerolb]

Shogun was the last game in the Milton Bradley Gamemaster series, a series of games that aimed to bring the ‘toy’ factor into boardgames. They were generally characterised by very beautiful components, simple gameplay (glorified Risk, really) and Shogun was the last of that series. There was a second printing under the name Samurai Swords (seems like there was some copyright issue with James Clavell). :p

Components

No talk of Shogun or any MB Gamemaster game can continue without a discussion of the components. For Shogun, let’s begin with the army pieces. There are 6 kinds of army pieces in Shogun: Daimyo, Samurai swordsman, Samurai bowman, Ashigaru gunner, Ashigaru spearman and Ronin swordsman. Each type is lovingly detailed. The base of the daimyo figure is even shaped according to the shape of his clan emblem. When these figures are placed on their army boards, with the daimyo standing arms akimbo, the bowmen standing behind the kneeling gunners ready to fire, it just looks magnificent. Also, I’m not sure if this effect was intended but the Ronin figure raising his sword in a block appears to be foiling the downward chop of the samurai swordsman in a sword duel. Then, there’s the ninja figure, standing on a base shaped like a shuriken. There’s absolutely no use of the ninja figure in the game, other than indicating who won the ninja for that round, which is easily remembered anyway. But the game just wouldn’t be the same without that ninja. I suppose it stands out for two things: 1) it’s a freakin’ ninja! and 2) it is a unique piece in the game. That always makes something special.

But that’s not all. The game comes with 5 Styrofoam containers, shaped like a castle and has grooves to accept a screen, printed with a Japanese painting of a samurai warrior. The screen nicely covers the slots in the container where players place their koku – red plastic coins – to allocate their resources. On top of this, and this takes the cake as far as components go, are the 5 plastic samurai swords, about 20 cm in length and comes with their own Styrofoam sword stands! What are the swords for? They determine the turn order. Each sword has 1-5 pips on the blade. Players draw swords (like drawing straws) and the sword they draw determines their turn order. All that to determine their turn order! The game also comes with plastic Japanese castles with a snap-on base to turn them into fortresses. They think of everything! The map is nice with suitably sized areas. I’ve rarely seen a situation where the army pieces were flowing out of their territories. As anyone reading this can tell, MB put in a lot of effort to make a pretty game. So how does it play? Read on and find out.

Gameplay

Unlike previous MB Gamemaster series games like Conquest of the Empire and Axis and Allies, Shogun doesn’t have a fixed geographical victory objective. It’s not about capturing your opponent’s capital or such. It is about conquering territories but there’s no “grab this territory and your opponent surrenders (or is hurt real bad etc)”. So, to hurt your opponent’s military force, usually, you have to take it on force-on-force. There’s less element of strategy in Shogun in that it’s not about manoeuvring on the board in the way that you bring your armies sweeping into India from Persia in A&A or some such thing. Shogun is more focused on the tactical – intercepting opposing armies, cutting deals with neighbours (usually short-term) and using lots of Ronin (Ronin are only present in the turn that you buy them so they are more applicable to tactical manoeuvre). So in Shogun, armies roam around, kill stuff, gain experience and eventually battle it out in some titanic struggle. Of course, like all other MB Gamemaster games, it all comes down to rolling a lot of dice and hoping for the best.

So given all that, is it a fun game? I would give a qualified yes. The fun of playing the old MB Gamemaster games was derived primarily from the idea of pushing beautiful plastic armies across an equally beautiful board, rolling dice and killing other plastic armies. Along the way, there’s jolly banter, trash-talking, negotiation, back-stabbing and raucous laughter. The non-fixed placement of armies and random distribution of territories means that no two Shogun games are going to be alike. This is unlike A&A where the Germans will do this and that and the Japanese will do that and this for almost every single game. That does make Shogun a lot more interesting than A&A.

I had bought this game when I was 13 and played it a lot, right up to my university days. We played it so much in university that my friend (Daimyo on BGG) created a variant set of ‘artifact’ cards which would be assigned to any one of a player’s three armies. This was him putting his Japanese studies course to good use! The cards were written in Kanji giving lots of flavour to the game. I don’t remember what most of the artifacts were (Chew Ee, feel free to jump in here and elaborate!) except for the ‘Dutch Cannon’, which allows the Daimyo of an army to shoot first, even before the bowmen and gunners! That was a hoot. Needless to say, that really jazzed up our Shogun games and made them bloodier (which was the whole point).

That said, Shogun really needs these ‘homemade’ injections to keep the replayability in current times. The rules are not as clean as the other MB games (the disorganised rulebook has been commented upon in BGG) and after a while, the lack of a strategic focus is detrimental to Shogun, when it is compared to other such games that have such a focus, like Struggle of Empires. And of course, the game length is always a problem. 6 hours for 5 players is the usual playing time. I’ve not had games go shorter than this.

Conclusion

Shogun is still a good game but definitely superceded in my book by games like Struggle of Empires, which has almost all things which Shogun has (negotiation, battles, armies) but also has a strong element of strategy and shorter playing time. The only thing which SoE doesn’t have is pretty army pieces but since I’m no longer 13 years old, that is less of a consideration for me now.

Have a copy and posting this para makakuha ako ng regular playgroup that would like to play this game at least once a month.  Para sulit naman yung buy ko, hehehe.

[Adrian (the other one)]

Sign me up to play it regularly or semi-regularly.

[ChineezPnoy]

Dependin on d player-personalities ur gaming w/, ur sometimes forced to allocated "koku" (resources) on d Ninja-hiring just to deny other players frm getting it.   

Tho d Ninja & Ronin hiring adds some sort of 'fog of war'; its still a game-ender (in a 3-player game) wen d player w/ d territory lead is neglected coz player B got "tunnel vision" in killing player A; giving player C d win.
A 4-player game set-up might prob remedy this.

I can't imagine playing 6+ hours w/ d max 5-players considering patience will wane & u will need to deal w/ d diff idiosyncrasies of 4 other ppl.
But if u jive w/ dese peeps den dats another story 

[aerolb]

Found a more agreeable variant for Samurai Swords on BGG - the next time I bring it out, we're using these:

Samurai Swords Variant

A. End Game and Victory Conditions

The regular game lasts 6 turns. At the end of the 6th turn, Victory Points (VPs; see below) are calculated. If one player has at least 3 more VPs than any other, the game is over. If there is at least one player that has a score that is within 1, 2, or 3 VPs, the game is extended a turn and VPs are again computed at the end of the 7th turn with the consideration to whether any player is winning by at least 3 VPs. If there are no players within 1 o2 VPs of the leader, the game is over. If there is no clear victor ahead by 2 VPs, there is an 8th round. At the end of the 8th and final round, the player with the highest VPs wins.

B. Set-Up

1. Deal Out Province Cards.

Players are given an initial number of province cards and spearmen based on the number of players in the game.


Number of Players and Initial Province Cards

3 = 22
4   = 17
5 =   13

2. Claim Provinces

Each player places one spearman in each province they drew.

3.Draw Swords.

4.Claim Extra Provinces and Place Reinforcements

Each player takes 18 spearmen from their reserve. In sword order, players place 3 spearmen with the following restrictions:
• Only one previously unoccupied province may be claimed
• No province can have more than 3 spearmen during set-up phase.

After placing 3 spearmen, the next player follows with a similar placement until all spearmen are placed.

5. Set Up Army Cards and Place Armies

Each player has the following units to divide among the three army cards:
• 5 Bowman
• 5 Swordsman
• 6 Gunners

Players then take turns in sward order placing their Daimyo’s armies until all three have been placed in separate provinces.

C. Player Elimination

A player is no longer eliminated when there last Daimyo is killed. If the player without a Daimyo controls other provinces at the time their last Daimyo is killed, at the end of the turn they choose another province and promote a unit of their choice to become the Daimyo. If they have no other provinces, they can choose any province with 1 spearman from another opponent (whose spearman is removed). If there are not provinces with 1 spearman, the player may choose an opponents province with 2 spearmen (that are then removed), etc.

The player who eliminates the last Daimyo of an opponent collects any Koku the opponent was saving, a 2 Koku bounty from the bank, and regains any of their own lost Daimyo armies.

The player with the reinstated Daimyo is given a 4 Koku stake at the end of the turn instead of their regular income. Their units are no longer eliminated.

D. Death of First Daimyo

When the first Daimyo of any player is eliminated the player responsible for killing him keeps the figure. If he still has the figure at the end of the game (i.e., unless the owner kills the last Daimyo of an opponent and regains their lost Daimyos) it is worth 2 VPs.

E. Saving Koku.

At the end of the Plan phase, players may save 2 Koku for future rounds. Any more than 2 that are not allocated during planning are lost.

F. Daimyo Experience

When a defending Daimyo survives a battle against another Daimyo (who retreats or is killed), the defending Daimyo gains and experience level.

A Daimyo’s army may only gain 1 level of experience during a given player’s turn (including the owning player’s turn).

G. Victory Points

At the end of Turn 6, VPs are counted based on the following:
• Total the number of provinces and Koku the player owns and divide by 3. Keep track of fractions for tie-breaks.
• 1 VP for every Castle
• 1 VP for every Fortification base beneath a Castle
• 2 VP for every “1st Daimyo” of an opponent that was eliminated that is still possessed

[aerolb]

For those wanting a copy of Samurai Swords - Hasbro will be doing a reprint this year. Take a look at the first preview image:

http://images.community.wizards.com/community.wizards.com/user/ah_grenzewolf/large/355ff352a51a4513577ed68eb5788235.jpg?v=180000

They've renamed it Ikusa but it's Samurai Swords and I will be definitely be buying a copy.

[aerolb]

And speaking of Samurai Swords, I have a hankering for a game? Anyone have game space and time + players next week?

[Talismanic (Mark)]

Wow, nice looking reprint! Sad that it lowers your game's value though  But I guess its better that great AT gets reprinted 

[aerolb]

Hahaha - I'm a collector not a reseller - kaya ayus lang bumaba value. I'm actually going to buy Ikusa so my copy stays in pristine condition. 

[aerolb]

For those who didn't notice it - NG is selling copies of the latest edition - now named Ikusa!

I've bought a copy and it's essentially a shinier and brand new version of the game. Drop by NG Glorietta on Wednesdays or Sundays if you're up for a game.

[catch8088]

This game is indeed worth more than its Php 3600 price tag.  Unfortunately, I have decided not to acquire games with an average playing time greater than 3 hours.

My only game that is an exception to this rule is Die Macher.  Unfortunately, it hasn't hit the table since I got it.

[aerolb]

Actually, we manage to get it under 2.5 hours. All you need is no AP and someone to chivvy the board. Don't think, CHARGE! 

[Ian Ortega]

I played Samurai Sword once a month using also the supplied event cards on BGG that I downloaded & printed and adding my 1/72 samurai miniature from Zvezda/RED BOX/Ceasar/collection for real tabletop wargaming. Together with the Ikko Ikki/Peasant warriors & additional Ninjas+Cavalry from Zvezda & using the board as a map,I then created some warship made from ice cream sticks & also made my own mini fortresses,my set-up usually takes 30 mins. playing time will reach 2 hrs. but I only use 2-3 armies only & divide the provinces accordingly. setting up is the fun part & I play it by myself just to distress & have a piece of history happening before my eyes.It is the fun & satisfaction that I get after playing it that really matters. Hopefully in the future I can play it with some of you...thanks for this website to enable me to share my hobby. Merry Christmas to all

[kookoobah]

I'd like to shamelessly plug that I'm selling a new copy of this. We played it once, and we didnt even use the cards. (Used the cards from my copy of Samurai Swords)

Anyway, I'm selling my copy for 3000 pesos. Please contact me if interested.

[aerolb]

Just drop by at NG Glorietta if you want a game Ian - we can rustle up to usually 4-5 players at any given time, though we do use a few house rules to spice a few things up.

[catch8088]

Actually, we manage to get it under 2.5 hours. All you need is no AP and someone to chivvy the board. Don't think, CHARGE! 

Good for you.  I guess that means that there's a group out there that 5.5 hours, since 4 hours is average playing time for this baby.  If you add a 0.5 to 1 hour lunch break, that would reach 6 to 7 hours.

I actually think that the people I play with would fall in this bracket.