Shogun

I felt I needed a war or area control game for my library and Shogun seemed like a good match. I have always had a thing for Japan, Samurai and Ninja's are always cool.

Opening the rather weighty box I was pleased with the components, the board is nice as are the cards and the usual wooden cubes. The tower stands out and before anything else was done I had to assemble it and throw in some cubes to see what happened.

The group arrived and we went through the rules, I must admit it seemed it would be a bit of a struggle to start with. But after running through a practice round it seemed to make sense.

Colours were chosen and the board was set. There were four players and to save time we decided to run with the suggested starting positions.
Spring of year one went past with everyone having at least one attack, the lure of the tower was just too much. I built a temple, just so I could build something.

Spring went to autumn and a few provinces were lost and a few gained. By now we had a grasp of the round order and what we could do. Winter arrived along with a few riots from hungry peasants. Mainly for the war mongering players who had over extended themselves. I managed to score the most, mainly because I was paying attention to who had built what.
Year two started and the others had caught on that war doesn't always mean victory. I think they realized this too late as there frantic building attempts seemed to rushed.

The play time was speeding up now as we all had our agendas. I wanted to win most castles in the regions I had the most provinces in. The warmongers were after rice rice and more rice.
Winter arrived too soon and this time healthy scoring was had by all. Unluckily my early lead was too much and I won with 56 points.

Overall I really like this game. It has great pieces and plays really well. The tower is a great game piece that seems to work really well. There were no arguments of, it cheats or its not random enough.
The fixed play time is also a great bonus, to know when its going to end gives you a real incentive to finish you plans and not over extend.

All the guys were happy with the game and want to play it again and I m happy that I have another quality game on the shelf.

Components 9/10
Mechanics 8.5/10
Playtime 8.5/10
Rules 9/10

Overall 9.5 / 10

This title was formerly known as Wallenstein, a game whose reputation was as high as its sales were low. The transposition of the theme from Belgium to Japan was an attempt by the publisher to make the game more commercially viable (ie Samurais more sexy than Walloons). There have been a few rule tweaks from the original game but nothing major. The most important thing is, the Battle Tower has been retained.

I played this game with four pals who not only had never heard of Wallenstein, but had hardly played a board game in their lives. It's a testament to the rules that they picked up this game very quickly and furthermore, couldn't wait to play it again.

The play itself is varied as various strategies can be employed - battles are fraught with peril, especially if the farmers come out in support of the defending territory. Building reaps rewards but their provinces must be well protected. It's all far cry from the dice-rolling slugfest of a game like Risk.

The game design is superb. Sure, there's a bit of this and a bit of that but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts - the fact that newcomers can take to it so readily is a testament to its quality.

As one has come to expect from German games, the production quality is top notch. The full colour rulebook, written in a learn-as-you-play style, gets the game under way from the off. So, what are you waiting for?