Shogun Again
We had 16 contestants with two games in both heats. After
the swords were sheathed, we had five qualifiers who all returned
for the Final. Several of the finalists had won or placed well
in previous years. As always, the game started with the forces
of the five players scattered across Japan. The first phase
of the game requires a player to successfully disengage from
the others and establish a well positioned power base. Lance
and AJ sucessfully concentrated; Lance on the islands and end
of the peninsula and AJ in the center of the peninsula. Charles,
the GM, and Justin had a poor starting selection and when Justin
made plain that he could only play the cental position anchored
by the Kii intersection, Charles had an unpleasant choice. Since
early combat usually leads to an early exit, Charles chose to
try to pull a position together in Shinano and beyond. This
entangled him with Harald who was also in the north. Negotiations
were gritty between the two and during the first turn Harald
moved his armies closer to Charles, crowding him. At this point
Charles was faced with accepting a disadvantaged position and
playing for time and potential allies against Harald or striking
as hard as possible. Given the tenor of the game, potential
allies seemed scarce and faced with Harald's reputation (laurels
galore), Charles decided to attack immediately rather than accept
an untenable start.
Charles bid to go first and took Ronim, temporary shock troops,
and forfeited his early build up. On Turn 2, Charles' attack
on Harald was an overwhelming sucess that destroyed an army.
Harald expanded and prepared to extract revenge. Meanwhile,
Lance and AJ formed an alliance that consolidated their positions
and bore down on Justin who fortfied his position. On Turn
3, Charles bid successfully to go first and took the ninja/assassin
with his meager resources. Against the odds and by stripping
two of his armies of their troops, he managed to destroy Harald's
second army. With Harald down to his last army, anyone destroying
it would put him out of the game and inheirit all his resources,
which were substantial. Harald again expanded and gathered his
forces. Meanwhile, Lance and AJ advanced against Justin who
used all his diplomatic wiles to split their alliance, and then
tried to ally with Harald to no avail. By now the opportunity
to win the game in the shambles left by Charles and Harald began
to rule the direction of the game. The leaders had to abandon
their plans and seize the day.
On Turn 4, Charles used his paltry resources to fortify his
best army in a hope to weather the storm. Harald, Lance and
AJ all tie bid for turn order. At this point, going last in a
turn followed by going first can win the game. Harald, however,
choose to go first so he could clout Charles. Lance won the toss
to go last, an advantage that he had enjoyed for three of the
four turns. Lance also got the ninja. Harald blasted Charles'
only army with troops and took over the fort in Shinano. Since
Justin couldn't split the Lance-AJ alliance, he grabbed as many
of Harald's provinces as he could to increase his resources and
dropped his armies back to protect them. AJ then killed Charles'
second army and drove into Harald's empire. Lance then finished
off Charles to end the turn. At this point everyone wanted to
kill Harald's last army since they would then inherit enough
provinces to win the game.
On turn 5, AJ made a very high bid and used it to go first.
Lance got the ninja but tied with Justin for swords; Justin
chose to go second, and Lance third in what appeared to be the
last turn of the game. Justin once again tried to split Lance
and AJ. He was also rejected by Harald who refused to ally with
him after Justin had taken so many provinces from him in Turn
4. All the players also bought as much Ronin as they could afford
and deployed them secretly. AJ lead off with an excellent double
attack on Harald's last army but the dice were against him and
Harald was clearly going to survive the onslaught. At this point,
Lance made his only mistake in a flawless game by using the ninja
against AJ's losing army to stop the battle that AJ was losing
anyway. This ruptured the alliance between AJ and Lance; and
without saying anything, AJ, having fallen short in his drive
to be Shogun, left his armies within reach of Justin. To win,
Justin would have to destroy all three of AJ's armies and take
one other province. One, two, three, and all of AJ's armies
were destroyed in hard fought battles; in a very close battle,
the needed last province fell and Justin was Shogun for the second
time.
For info on the game of Shogun / Samurai Swords, review the
clarifications on the BPA Preview website and the following websites:
http://www.gamereport.com/tgr16/samuraiswords.html
(review with some errors) and http://www.gracefulboot.com/board_games/iShogun.html
(rules).
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