Samurai

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 10 out of 10

   -xXx-

   What an elegant game. Light rules, deep gameplay, language independent, attractive presentation. Do they still make games like this? Some say it's abstract but to me it looks thematic. Castes, tiles, board and screen all make sense. Abstract is what Ingenious looks like; Samurai is not that abstract. Rules are clear and concise. Knizia usually puts me off with intricate end game conditions but here the scoring is pretty logical. It's simple as that: you aim to either get a majority in two castes, or get a majority in one caste while staying competitive in the other two castes. In other terms: you need two big scores (AB) or one big score and two small ones (Abc). There is a slight difference between editions: in the original if no player has majority in a caste, everyone loses. In the zman edition the player with most pieces of all castes wins. First player advantage is overrated and is of no significance if players draw starting tiles randomly.

2. Addicted2EuroGames

   2 - 4 players. Teaching: (yet to teach) Mastery: (45 minutes as quoted) Large thin box. Embassy_&_Outpost Hello again, Knizia. Area influence via tile placement. Set collecting. Simple mechanics, complex dynamic! Complex(ish) scoring. Light-medium weight (not many rules, just slightly detailed ones to keep track of). Medium player interaction. Very low theme application. There's some light math involved when planning for and claiming scoring pieces but it's simple and good for the brain. Ultimately simple and easy to play.

3. 6.5 out of 10

   adamw

   For abstract area influence, this is probably one of the best. But that type of game isn't something I long to play.