2003 Independent Games Festival Technical Excellence Award
Reiner Knizia's Samurai™ is a turn-based strategy game of balance and conquest,
and an adaptation of the board game of the same name. Set in pre-unification
Japan, the objective of Samurai is to become sovereign by securing influence
within three feudal castes through careful placement of your resources, while
thwarting your opponents' efforts to do the same. Samurai offers a strategic
challenge in one of three game play modes: Single player against one or more
computer opponents, hot-seat style multi-player on a single computer, and multi-player
networked, pitting your skills against others across a local-area network or
the Internet.
When Samurai begins, Japan is in a state of political, social, and economic
disunity. In the game, you assume the role of a warlord vying against your rivals
to unify Japanese civilization under one central authority.
The civilization of feudal Japan is made up of three social castes - peasants, clergy, and nobles. As you play, you must obtain pledges of loyalty from representatives of the noble, clerical and peasant feudal castes who live in cities throughout Japan. You must court the allegiance of these social groups one city at a time by promising military protection, offering favors or resources to specific castes or sending merchant ships to encourage trade in the region.
During game play, these resources (military protection, resources, etc...) are represented by tiles that you must place on the map in spaces adjacent to the cities and villages that contain representatives of the social caste(s) whose full allegiance you are courting. Those representatives are represented as pieces on the game board. Once sufficient influence has been exerted on the cities, you, or your opponents may be awarded a pledge of loyalty from the population. In essence, a vote in your favor in the contest to become sovereign!
The game concludes when there are no more pledges of loyalty to win. At that
time, the population gathers into their castes and declares their support for
you or your opponents. Only through careful currying of the greatest and most
balanced favor can you achieve a sovereign declaration, and through such, win
the game!
