Shogun: A review

I played Shogun this Tuesday, and I have to say I enjoyed it.

It's part wargame, part resource management. The board is a map of Japan divided into regions. Each region has an associated card with it, and you hold that card if you control the region. There are ten actions you can take a turn, and you get to take all of them. You can take one of the ten actions in one of the regions you control, by placing the corresponding card by the corresponding action. Herein lies the bulk of the strategy of the game. Which region to harvest rice, which to tax for money, which to build a building in, which to reinforce with troops, etc.

You can also attack and try to gain control of your opponents territories, so in that respect there is direct conflict in the game. That's nice, because often in eurogames what you do has little to no impact on your opponents, and it removes some interaction. "But Tommy," I hear you cry, "that makes this a wargame! I hate wargames! With their combat tables and their excess of dice rolling and they drag on and on and on." All is not lost, my friend. For one, the troop mechanic is not the main focus of the game. Controling territories nets you little points in comparison with developing your territories. Combat is merely a way to supplement your score, rather than define it. If you focus too much on combat, you will lose. Second, and perhaps the most notorious aspect of Shogun, is the battle tower.

The battle tower is a tower you throw your armies in, and they come out the bottom. But the interior of the tower has many nooks and crannies, such that some armies get stuck, and some emerge at the bottom. Any armies that get stuck in the tower you leave there, with the chance of them emerging in a future battle to help out. So, you throw in your armies, and whoever has more pop out the bottom wins. Troops kill each other, and you put the remaining troops back on the battlefield. Simple, elegant. No dice, no tables. Fast and easy.

So, in the end, you net a few victory points for how many territories you control, and many for how many buildings you have in your territories. The game took three players three hours to play through, including teaching everyone, setting up the game, and pausing for breaks. So I would guess the actual game part took two hours.

However, all is not rosy. First of all, I didn't really like the turn order mechanic. At the beginning of each round, a random bonus is chosen for the first, second, and third player. Each bonus is never strictly better than the other. One might be +1 attack, or +1 rice, or +1 gold, etc. You bid on turn order by secretly paying an amount of gold. Problem is, gold is so scarce in the game, you rarely ever want to bid, and are better off just taking whichever position you're dealt. I never really saw a big advantage in taking my actions before another player, but I'm sure it comes up sometimes.

Second of all, this game is very strategy intensive. There are so many things to keep track of each round. Your rice supply, which province would be best to build in, which produces the most gold, which can support more buildings, which province is vulnerable to attack, which of your enemy provinces you can afford to attack, etc. I would not be exaggerating at all if I said it was like playing Risk and two copies of Puerto Rico at the same time. If you're into that kind of thing, great. But if you're one who likes to try to maximize each turn for maximum benifit, you're in for a headache. The game is most enjoyable, I think, if you spend a little bit of time thinking, and a little bit of time just winging it.

All in all, I'd like to play it again with more people. I'd always have the chance of borrowing it, and I think I might take him up on the offer if I can generate interest.