Shogun: Cube Tower and Samurai Power

Shogun is a wonderful, happy marriage between Risk and Euro-style games.  That is, a marriage between a terribly boring dice rolling sort-of wargame and the best types of games on the planet. 

There are several games out there that attempt to  create a good Euro-Risk experience.  Kemet comes to mind as another one that I have played that is pretty excellent.  Check out Jake's blog for a quick overview of Kemet as well as other some other things if you are a BSB enthusiast (Beer, Speakers, and Boardgames.  No Backstreet Boys, sadly).

Shogun is another Euro-Risk game, and it is also pretty excellent.  It is a Japanese re-theme of the German themed Wallenstein.  They are basically the same game, but just in different thematic settings.  The choice of me grabbing Shogun over Wallenstein was my love of Japanese-themed games, so an easy choice.
Actually, I bought this as a Christmas gift for my brother, who I have converted over to Euro games despite him loving Risk even though it is a horrifically bad game. Considering all the boardgames I bought as gifts this year are Japanese-themed, I had to get this one.  It was the perfect gift, really.   He loves this game now. I'm a gift-giving master.

Here's the box.  That samurai gentleman is quite handsome, looking out into the distance like that.

The sun sets, and Samurai Sam surveys the seaside for sushi for his supper.

The game takes place on a map of Japan, with players having armies on the territories that they own.  Over the course of the game, more armies will be added and existing armies moved around and used for attacking other territories.  Sounds just like risk so far...looks kind of like it too...

On top of that, there is a building element to the game.  Players can build castles, temples, or theaters in the territories they control.  At the end of each year (the game is played over 2 years, with four seasons/rounds per year), points are scored for each building built and territory owned.  Furthermore, there is an area majority mechanic that awards extra points in each collection of territories of same color for the most of each type of building built there.  This is actually the most effective way to get points, as having a castle and temple majority are worth 3 pts and 2 pts in each province. 

A temple built along the coast of Kii.

And the game continues to get more complicated (it took us 45 minutes to learn the rules and set up.  Worth it, but this game has a lot of little rules and complications).

Every round consists of 10 possible actions:  3 building actions, confiscate rice, confiscate money, a few reinforce troop numbers actions, and 2 attack actions.  All of these are depicted on your player board.

Player board.

These actions resolve in a different order each round, determined by random draw, so you can't always do things in the order that you want.  The order of the first 5 actions are revealed before the round, and the others are revealed during the round one at a time.  A common issue is the money action coming up late in the round, so you don't have enough cash to do what you want.  Got to plan around that...

Speaking of planning, before each round you place cards, relating to territory you own, onto your player board facedown. The action you take then applies to the territory whose card you placed on that action space.  For example if I place a territory card on the "build castle" space, then I can build a castle on that territory.  Likewise, a territory card on an attack space lets me attack using troops from that territory.  Not only is this an interesting idea in its own right, but it also makes it so you can't add troops to a province and attack with it on the same turn.  Again, got to plan ahead.

Planning planning, choices choices.

Getting rice (to feed the people of your territories later) and money makes the farmers of the land upset, and creates the chance for a revolt.

Revolt marker.  Don't steal from these people again.

Taking over an unoccupied territory or inciting a revolt by getting stuff from your own territory already with a revolt marker starts a fight with the farmer armies (FARMIES!!!).  Not being able to feed all of your territories at the end of the year also can lead to revolts, with the more food you can't provide leading to more and bigger revolts.  This is another typical Euro-style game mechanic of feeding that keeps overexpansion in check.

Mozzie, the bear with the drunken past and affinity for headwear, very much enjoyed the farmies.  He rooted for them from the stands.

Mozzie.  Sporting a holiday bow, sun-shielding farming hat, and a fine silver pitchfork.

But there's one more surprise left, a core element of the game....The CUBE TOWER!!!

Cube Tower!!

The cube tower is the impartial God that can turn the tide of battle.  In a battle, both attacking and defending army cubes are thrown into the tower. Whoever has more of their cube armies come out of the tower wins the battle.  All defeated side armies plus the equivalent number of winning side armies are removed and the surviving armies put on the newly conquered territory.
But here's the kicker.  These initial cubes enter, and only some of them come out.  Some of them don't.  And sometimes, ones that don't come out come back out during a later battle.

SURPRISE!!!

   

    

Top-down view of the cube tower.  There are people stuck in there!

It's fun and adds an element of suspense to every battle.
Thematically, though, I don't think this makes much sense...

In the Suruga territory:

Samurai 1:  "Where's Johnny?!"
Samurai 2:  "Lost in the mountain again, I presume.  I don't think he's quite all there."
Samurai 1:  "Well we lost the battle because he wasn't here!"

In Iyo, on the complete other side of the country:

Samurai 3: "We won the battle!!  It's all thanks to the new guy who showed up."
Johnny:  "WHO AM I!!!!"

Makes. No. Sense.
And teleporting samurai are already unrealistic, so I have no qualms naming a samurai "Johnny."

The cube tower is AMAZING!  If you have the edge in armies going into the tower versus your opponent, you will probably win the fight, BUT you always have to take into consideration what cubes are left stuck in the tower.  Maybe you fight a risky battle where you are at a disadvantage, because you have been unlucky on other turns and remember that you have a lot of cube stuck in the tower.  So there is a small element of luck here, but somewhat calculable odds of winning just means you have to choose your battles wisely.
And the suspense when throwing those cubes in is just fun.  And the surprises are fun.

Onto actually playing the game (finally).
First things first.  I started off the game with an energizing beverage.

For 100% kids, like me.

This game is intended for 3-5 players, but we only had 2 willing participants at the time.  So we went with a very simple, unofficial 2 player variant, which basically consisted of 3-player rules but on an artificially shrunk map. It's not perfect, but it worked pretty well.

The game was close.  It came down to one final battle.

I lost by one army in that battle.  Which caused a 2 point swing in the game.

Final score.  I'm yellow.  Obviously.

I lost by 2 points.

Shogun is great.  It does take about 2 hours with only 2 players, mostly due to some analysis paralysis in the planning phase later in the game.  With 3 or 4 players, it would probably take 3 hours, which is pushing my limits on how long I want to play a single game.  But that is really the only major flaw I see here.
It's pretty cool.  And the cube tower is a winner.

And in case you were wondering what happened to Samurai Johnny:

Parrots Love Boardgames, Too!

A little birdie told me I don't post enough on this blog.  The same little birdie receives more hits on her blog than I do.  
So even though I am in fact working on a full post for a new game we recently played, here's a quick post to pass the time...

Boardgames are awesome.  So are pandas.  You know this to be true, because I have told you.
It is on the internet now, so you must believe it.

Parrots are also awesome.  And it turns out they enjoy boardgames too! 

The talented Mr. Chaucer and his wooden meeple friends.

Chaucer is a nifty guy, as evidenced in someone else's blog.  (I feel obligated to plug said blog, because it seems a majority of my meager number of hits are linked from there...)
He is being particularly well behaved here, balancing that meeple on his head long enough for a picture.  Unlike the day before, where I was trying to make some very difficult game related decisions and he kept trying to bite me.  Maybe he just wanted to play too...

By the way, the big red guy next to the green guy is a colossal meeple from meeplesource.com.

In a cage match between the Chaucermeeple, Colossal Meeple, and Pandameeple, who would win?


I promise a full boardgame post is coming soon.  I'm working on it now.  There are vegetables and rubies and puppies and dwarves in this game.  You are looking forward to it, I imagine.

New Games on the Block

Despite what your parents told you, new board games do not come from the stork.  That would be ridiculous.  Board games and babies couldn't possibly come from the same place.

No, the answer is not so simple.  The process of picking out, buying and prepping a new board game for play is more complex than that.  Here's how it works.

Step 1: The Board Game Itch

You haven't bought a new game in a while.  You are a collector, always looking to add to your collection.  And there's that empty space on your shelf.  And that paycheck is burning a hole in your pocket.  And you start to develop a little twitch.  And then...and then...!!!!  And then your self control is gone!

 

This is the board game itch. It's like having an army of spiders crawling along your back.  Spiders made of poison ivy.  Poison ivy spiders that eat your money.  But you love them.
And it was meant to be scratched.  Just like a cookie was meant to be nommed.

When it strikes, you need to find a new game to buy.  The place to start looking is boardgamegeek.com.  If you've read my other posts, you'll see several links to this site already, and there will be more to come.  Look at their game list where you can find pretty much every game ever made listed in order of user ratings. The top 100 are a good place to start looking for a new game.  Unless you are like me and have a gaming group that already owns most of those.  But the site is huge, and you can spend hours searching through the game list and forums to find just the right one.

For my latest search, I looked at games by designer.  Our group has been playing a lot of Stefan Feld games lately and enjoying them very much.  I stumbled upon one game that looked intriguing.

Luna:  A game with a moon on the box.

The box was pretty.  I won't go into game details here.  I just wanted to show you the box with the white haired witchy woman with the glowy stick.

So the game looked interesting, the box looked interesting, and the game designer is known for putting out some gems.
But it also appeared to be out of print in the US.

This happens a lot.  Designer board games are only printed in limited quantities.  Sometimes they get reprinted after the first sellout.  Sometimes they don't.  And it's terrifying to think that you will never own a great game because it is not available anywhere.
But sometimes you get lucky and can find that one, single online store that has a couple copies left in stock and is not selling them for ridiculously inflated prices.  So you buy it...

Step 2: Buy another one

Because you are already paying for shipping.  Duh.

I bought this one too, another Feld game that was just published last year.

I like boxes with puppies on the cover.

Step 3:  Wait

Wait for it...

Step 4: Ask and you shall receive

I ordered these games from an online store called Game Surplus.  The information section on their website has this amusing little tidbit:

"we further minimize our shipping costs down by reusing boxes and shipping materials (in clean, good condition ) whenever possible. So, don't be surprised if a box of 'Pop Tarts' shows up at your door."

I got super excited about the pop tarts.  Or something better.
I was actually a little disappointed with the box I got.

Sorry to say it, but this box is boring.

 It's not a bad box.  It is in one piece, made of sturdy cardboard, holds things well, does everything a good little box should do.  Sadly, though, it isn't pop tarts or gopher repellent.
There is some interesting graffiti inside though...

 

 What strange markings...

And inside there were board games and some appreciation!  So I was very happy.

YOU'RE WELCOME!

Needless to say this place is awesome and I will probably order from them again in the future.

Step 5: Punch and Package

In my opinion, the best part of a new game isn't that fresh new cardboard smell.  It's the piece punching.  It's just so much fun! Look...

Pre-punching:

Mid-punch:

Post-punching:

Awww...why's the fun gone?

Wasn't that exciting?!  The answer is yes.  It's the best.
And then you wish you had more games so you could punch more.

And now with all those tasty little cardboard bits, you have to put them somewhere.  It's great when the games come with their own little baggies.

A cacophony of wood and plastic.

Of course, you can trick out your game further with nicer storage options.  And putting card protector sleeves on all cards is a must.  Hey, you just spent $50 on a game.  Protect your investment!

Put the cardies in the sleevies.  And the bits in the boat.

Step 6:  It's Playtime!

Everything is set.  Grab some friends and play!