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Shogun
Author: Dirk Henn
Publisher: Queen Games
Year: 2006


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This time we are heading West, to Japan, to be more precisely, to let our clan reach its full growth. At last Europe is not the battlefield this time, in spite of all possible rocket shields. We grind opponents who hinder us to pulp, but in safe areas we build castles, temples and theatres, we are no barbarians, we are not! Living in the sixteenth century is only of importance if we want to dress according to the spirit of the times. We play two years, after this we must have accomplished one or the other; well, for some conflicts one does not need that long, and otherwise they might get worried at home! We start out with a preset army of different strength, that we place in different, possibly spread areas; from our war chest we pay new mercenaries and build the various buildings.
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Three times a year we plan our actions: build, reinforce, raise taxes or rice, and attack; we plan our actions on a separate player board by putting the card of the area to the wanted action for that area - blind, that is, as all players plan their actions simultaneously.

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That makes it guessing about what the others will do: is there still time to reinforce that weak area, or do I already lose it in the first conflict? Planning gets even more obscure as the actions are executed one by one, each season in a different blindly shuffled order, and only the first five actions are laid open during the planning phase, revealing the sixth card as soon as the first action has been performed by all players; the seventh after the second action, and so on.
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Raising taxes and collecting rice are very unpopular measurements, and each time when an area is subject to one of these actions, a riot marker is placed there. It is advisable to not rob an area too often and annoy the peasants, otherwise it could revolt with the possible outcome of loss of the area; in this case all armies and buildings are removed, and the area gets a neutral status.
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From a stack of event cards four are drawn and after the planning phase one is drawn from this four to act as the actual event for that season, bringing things like bad harvesting or extra income. When three seasons have been played, there is a fourth winter season in which no actions are taken but together with the last event card is checked if a player has enough supply of rice for his areas - the number at the lower end of the event card is used for the reduction. If a player has a rice number lower than the accumulated areas, some areas revolt, and he might lose them in the ensuing internal battle against the peasants.
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After this the points are rewarded: one for each area, one for each building, and bonuses for a majority of buildings in each province. Rice markers are reset to zero, and a second and last year is played, after which the player with the most points has won.
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Besides the planning of actions, which is the most important phase in a given season, there is another showy element in the game: the cube tower. This tower is used to resolve conflicts. How does it work? When a player has dedicated an area to attack, he may choose with how many cubes he wants to engage in the attack; the defender probably will want to defend with all present cubes. The assembled cubes are thrown into the tower; and because of small locks inside the tower some of the cubes get temporarily stuck, and maybe other, not involved cubes in the conflict get released.

Important for the outcome is how many cubes came out of the conflicting armies; the winner may take the surplus and put it in the conquered - or original, if defender - area; all other involved cubes go back to the stock. When the attacker conquered the area he immediately gets the area card for that area from the defender - or the stock, if the area was neutral. This might cause the defender to lose an action, if he had planned an action for this area this season!

Some time most of the cubes roll out, other times some more keep stuck in the tower; it all works like a die with a memory - a player will think twice if he wants to attack a player from which he knows he has quite some cubes stuck in the tower - they might come out in his attack, or not...!


'Shogun' is a remake of 'Wallenstein', that already has settled itself as a classic. Is 'Shogun' better? The rules have been edited somewhat and the involvement of peasants in the attacks is simplified: they now only act in favor of the defender if there is no riot marker in the area, otherwise they do not favor any of the conflicting armies. Funnily this initially adds to new confusement for players who already have played 'Wallenstein'. The main question thus still remains: what do the peasants do?
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New is the bidding for player order; this gives a nice but not overly crucial extra to the game. Players bid with money; the highest bidder may choose his turn position (first, second, etc.) and may take the accompanying card from that position that gives him a nice extra such as an additional cube in each attack or defence that season, an additional rice when raising rice or taxes, or an extra army (cube) when reinforcing. In 'Wallenstein' players could 'hide' themselves in the outer areas of the board and build all bonus buildings there; in 'Shogun' sea routes are introduced that must dam this but it remains unsure if this is sufficient.
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The best improvement in this version may be the dice tower; this now has a translucent tray that is very convenient for players that are at the other side of the table. Less convenient is that the mapboard now has a very large rectangular side; but at least in 'Shogun we are supplied with a score track around the board edge. Players who already own 'Wallenstein' should make out for themselves if they need 'Shogun' as well; players who have missed the former but are interested in this genre may be given a clear advice: buy it!
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In 'Shogun' we play on a map of Japan, well, that makes us Westerners deal with unisonous names such as Suruga, Sagami, Shimosa or Shinano; they could as well apply to the sushi card! Fortunately all area cards have graphical and colour references as to where to find them on the map. Shogun is a nice conquering game, in which the planning of the actions and the execution of the attacks with the unique cube tower form the heart of the game. One must have enough time, however, as a game of 'Shogun' will take two hours and more to complete. But who cares, as time flies in this wonderful executed game!
© 2007 Richard van Vugt

Shogun, Dirk Henn, Queen Games, 2006 - 3 to 5 players, 12 years and up, 90 to 120 minutes

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