“In a war-torn feudal Japan, the soldiers are restless. The endless battles, betrayals, and broken promises have the soldiers questioning where their loyalties lie. Meanwhile, the daimyo are strategizing, marshaling their troops, and erecting strongholds to bolster the strength of their armies, all in pursuit of honor and ultimate victory,” describes the fluff of the board game Gunkimono.
Gunkimono is at its heart a tile laying game, generally a genre I enjoy, so this one caught my attention easily.
And then there was the medieval Japanese flavour which has been added to the game, another sure way to grab my personal attention.
“In Gunkimono, (a Japanese word that means “war tales”), players take on the role of these daimyo, plotting their military advances across the countryside,” details the rules. “Each new squad of troops yields victory points, but you may decide to forgo these points and save up for your stronghold instead. All the while, you need to keep an eye on your opponents, so that their forces do not grow too large and expand at your expense.”
What initially intrigued in terms of game play is that there are two types of points in the game: victory points and honor points. You decide, for each of the troops on the tile you just placed, which type of points you want to score.
Having alternate paths to victory always adds a lot to a game.
So in Gunkimono each contiguous group of troops in a single type – those that are connected horizontally and/or vertically to at least one other troop in the group, regardless of level – counts as a formation. This goes for troops printed on the game board itself and troops on army tiles that have been placed in the battlefield.
If you choose to score victory points for a troop, the number you score is equal to the total number of troops in the formation that troop is part of.
You can also opt to focus on chasing honour, also worth points.
The problem with Gunkimono is that honour is not likely to take you to victory. It quickly becomes evident that scoring for troops accumulates more points, more often, and that means a better chance to win.
The components here are nice, the tiles thick enough to last, although the board gets a tad loud visually based on the colours, which will detract for some.
Still tile laying and medieval Japanese theme sold me on the game, and while not near Carcassonne as a tile layer, it’s still a game well worth a look.
Check it out at www.renegadegamestudios.com
Thanks to fellow gamers Jeff Chasse, Trevor Lyons and Adam Daniels for their help in running through this game for review.
For a bonus game review head to yorktonthisweek.com where a review of the game Tank Chess has been posted this week.
