Understanding the Game
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Game Components | The Map | Pieces | Tiles | Taking Turns | Winning the Game
Game Components
The social castes - peasant, nobility, and clergy ‹ that make up feudal society reside in cities throughout Japan. These cities and their occupants are represented through the game pieces displayed on the map. You must attempt to win the allegiance of these social groups by using the resources at your disposal to gain pledges of loyalty from the occupants of the cities and villages.
The game board map of Japan is divided into hexes of three different types:
City
A city hex can contain 1-3 pieces. Small cities can contain only 1 piece, medium
cities 2, and large cities 3. No city may contain 2 pieces of the same type.
Land
These hexes, adjacent to cities, are initially empty, but are the locations
where the majority of your game tiles wil be placed. Most kinds of tiles are
placed on land hexes.
Water
While most of the area surrounding Japan is water, the coastline immediately
surrounding the island is very valuable for trade, and contain the hexes you're
your ship tiles are placed.
The area of contest within the map will vary with the number of players. The more players that participate, the greater the region of Japan that will be contested for control.
The game pieces represent the three types of support you may seek from the population in order to win your contest:
Buddha (clergy)
Helmet (nobles)
Rice (peasants)
To capture the pieces, the players deploy their tiles on the board. Each tile influences the capture of 1-3 piece types, but only if the tile is on a space adjacent to the piece. When a piece is surrounded by tiles on land spaces, the player who has the strongest force of tiles which can influence the piece captures it.
The number of pieces in play during a game depends upon
the size of the population in question, which is directly related to the number
of players participating.
The tiles represent your commitment of resources to a specific geographic region when placed on one of the map. The effect of each of the twenty tiles is represented in each oneีs characteristics:
With one exception (Piece exchange), all tiles have a number representing their strength. A tile influences the capture of all adjacent pieces, of the type(s) indicated on the tile.
The Basic Game Tiles
Only one basic game tile may be played per turn. Each of these tiles has a number indicating the impact that resource will make on the residents of the village.Samurai
These tiles represent a promise of military protection. You can use these tiles to influence any social class in any village.Buddha, Helmet, and Rice
These tiles represent a favor or a special service you are offering to specific social classes.Fast Tiles
You may place fast tiles on the board during the same turn that you play other game tiles. Each of the tiles has a number indicating the impact that resource will make on the residents of the village. Fast tiles are marked with aMerchant Ships
These tiles represent the attempt to encourage trade. You can use these tiles to influence any social class, but you may only place them tiles on the water spaces.Ronin
This tile represents a promise of military protection. While strength is limited, his speed is valuable and influence any social class in any village.Special Tiles
To increase the strategic challenge, Samurai has several special tiles that let you change the course of the game. You may only play these tiles once, so pick the time to use them carefully.Tile Exchange
The tile exchange tile allows you to reuse a tile that you had placed on the map earlier in the game. There are several instances where the tile exchange is useful. (Pledge redeployment)Piece Swap
The piece swap tile allows you to alter the social composition of city by taking the representatives of one social class and swapping them with the representatives of a social class in another city.The basic game starts with all pieces placed on the board and each player with a hand of 5 tiles drawn at random. [See "advanced game" below for alternate game play beginning]. The players take turn selecting one or more tiles from their hand to play on the game board, starting with player one. Here is the order of game play.
1. The player selects one or more tiles from his hand, placing each on the board. At least one tile must be played. Remember, although only one slow tile may be played per turn, a turn can include one or more placement of fast tiles as well.
2. When tiles occupy all of the land hexes surrounding a city, it is no longer possible to vie for the allegiance of the social castes that live there. At that point, the city is considered "closed" and the each piece is individually awarded to the whose total influence is greatest on that piece type. For example, a rice piece is influenced by rice tiles but not by helmet or Buddha tiles. Samurai, Ronin, and ship tiles influence all three kinds of pieces.
If two players have equally influenced a piece, then neither may win that loyalty pledge. The contest for that loyalty pledge is considered tied, and the piece is removed from the game.
Note: After a city has been closed and the pieces awarded, each player's score will be altered to reflect any additional pledges of loyalty. However, players' scores are not revealed to one another until the conclusion of the game, when the castes gather to make their sovereign declaration.
3. When done playing tiles within a turn, the players end their turn. At that time, new tiles are automatically drawn into the hand at random to replace the ones you have played. When a player runs out of tiles to draw, he plays with fewer tiles.
4. After a player has drawn tiles, play continues with
the next player in clockwise order until all pieces have been awarded from
the game
board. At that time, game play is finished, and the game will reveal all players
scores and declare the new sovereign! (NOTE: The conditions for
ending game play in the computer version of Samurai differ from those of
the original board game.)
Players who obtain the most pledges of loyalty from the representatives of a social caste will win the full allegiance of that group. To become the uncontested sovereign of Japan, you must win the full allegiance of two out of the three social castes.
However, not every game ends with the emergence of an uncontested
sovereign. In some games (games with 3 or 4 players), a warlord may become the
contested sovereign of Japan by winning the full allegiance of at least one
social caste and the plurality of loyalty pledges from representatives of the
other social castes. This plurality, or "balanced" support, is critical
in order to rule in a contested Japan, and is represented by the ancient symbol
of "Ying Yang."
Types of Support
Becoming Sovereign (a.k.a Determining Who Won)
The sovereign is declared based upon the following rules: