Boardgamecafe.net @ Cheras 22 Sep 2006 - Part 1

Games - Samurai, Railroad Tycoon, Powergrid - Italy, Die Handler

Gaming session starts at 9.00pm with Jeff, Henry and myself. As Christopher and Kirshen were on their way, we did a 'light filler' game of Samurai!

Another game from the German master designer, Reiner Knizia, Samurai is a simple tile-laying game. It plays under 1-hour, and has some interesting surprises.

Basically, players are feudal lords vieing for control of ancient Japan.

The board is a map of Japan, divided into parts. Depending on the number of players, some parts of the board are fitted together to make a larger board to play on.


A fully constructed 4-player Samurai board (not our game)

On the board are Japanese cities, each with one or more of the following figurines:
1. High Helmets (government officials)
2. Buddhas (priests)
3. Rice Fields (peasants)

Figurines in contest

To capture the figurines, the players have the following influence tiles at their disposal:
1. High Helmet tiles
2. Buddha tiles
3. Rice Field tiles, and
4. Samurai tiles

A player's full range of tiles

Players take turns placing one of their tiles onto the board. The tile influences on neighbouring figurines goes according to the following simple rule:
- High Helmet tiles influences the High Helmet figurines.
- Buddha tiles influences the Buddha figurines.
- Rice Field tiles influences the Rice Field figurines.
- Samurai tiles influences ALL figurines.
After a city is totally surrounded by players' tiles, the players add up their influences for each of the figurines in contest. The player with the highest influence for whichever figurine wins that figurine!

Surrounding Edo with influence tiles

The 'surprise' element in the game comes from a few game mechanics:
- A player have only five tiles at any one time and these are kept hidden behind a screen from the other players
- There is a special tile available which lets a player reuse a strong tile on the board
- There are 'ninja' tiles available which lets a player swap the figurines in contest or place additional samurai influences which does not counts towards the one tile limit!
As a result, there is tension in the game where a player can be completely caught out by surprise attacks from the other players.

Secret tiles behind the screen, what deviousness!

The game ends when all figurines are captured or when the fourth ties occurs during a contest of influence. The players then total up the number of figurines they captured. The player who have a majority in one of the figurine types wins, if the number of figurines in his other types is more than everyone else! Confused? No worries, just make sure all your figurines are roughly equal, you'll stand a good chance of winning!

Here I am, looking at the board, planning my moves and treachery. Mostly treachery!

In this particular game at boardgamecafe, I outplayed, outwit and outlast Jeff and Henry, gaining majorities in two figurines and tie in the third! Granted that they did not see it coming from a first timer, but a timely 'ninja' move saw me gain three figurines in one swoop using three tiles. From now on, the 'ninja' tiles in Samurai is my favourite game mechanic!

Me laughing behind my screen, treachery scheme emerges!

As Christopher and Kirshen has arrived, we quickly tie up Samurai and moved to Railroad Tycoon (RRT)!

Kirshen, first time player, trying to look at the operations card in RRT and assessing their implications.

There is a twist in this game in that Christopher and Kirshen are relatively new to RRT but they have played Age of Steam (AOS)! Experienced gamers will know that RRT is a simpler version of AOS with just a few new mechanics. As the game progresses, we found out that Christopher and Kirshen can hold their own in the game!

The early game saw RRT veterans Jeff (purple) and Heng (black) battle over the north-east New York area.

Kirshen (yellow) started south-east to dominate the Charleston area, with an eye on some lucrative operations cards in the area.

Christopher (right) jumped in the east to fulfill some operations card before settling in the mid-west. Due to the size of the board, players often find it more convenient to stand up and do their planning...

Of course, veterans Henry (middle) and Heng (right) find it just as comfortable sitting down. (Notice how the humongous board barely fits onto the table with all the cards and the components...)

In the mid game, Heng found the competition stifling in the east and broke westward through the mountains using the cheapest route available: Washington to Wheeling. Henry (blue)'s monopoly on the northern Toronto line is starting to see some competition but is still in good shape to reach chicago first.

A confluence of players in the west, with Henry, Christoper (red) and Heng connecting to Chicago.

Henry putting all his effort into fulfilling the New York-Chicago-Western Link major line, grabbing it after some snafus and Heng's blocking move. The move also finally puts him back into the contention after a long and difficult investment period.

The final score: Christopher (red) grabs the lead by fulfilling his Tycoon secret objective, followed by Heng (black), Jeff (purple), Kirshen (yellow) and Henry (blue).

Thoughts: This game taught me one thing. I had played the 'hotel' operations card rules wrong with my group! I played it as a permanent bonus for anyone delivering to a city with a hotel. Instead, a player should pick up the 'hotel' operations card first as an action and thereafter gain points for any delivery into the city with the hotel. This introduces some tension into the bidding for first chance to grab the hotel. Christopher owning the hotel in Chicago also manage to squeak out a significant number to points to boost him into the lead. Good play!



*images courtesy of Jeff and also various photo uploads at boardgamegeek*