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| First Samurai Skirmish scenario |
Last Monday my eagerly awaited order of the new GMT Games board game, Command & Colors Samurai Battles, arrived and I spent the afternoon putting the stickers on the wooden blocks. Today after rereading the rules I played a solo game with the first of forty scenarios. This proved to be a cracking game, that was neck and neck right to the final turn. The two sides were evenly matched in terms of troops, command cards, dragon cards and honour and fortune tokens. While there is much that will be familiar to players of Command & Colors Ancients and Medieval, there are definitely differences which really add a lot to the period flavour.
An example of this is with a retreating leader, where rather than escaping and fighting another day, the player may choose to have the leader commit seppuku (honourable suicide), thus depriving the opponent of a possible victory banner, and in turn gaining five honour and fortune tokens, while losing a command card. Careful use and management of the honour and fortune tokens is really key to maintaining your army's morale. Retreating units entail the loss of honour and fortune tokens and a lack of honour roll can cause losses to the retreating and closest units. Troops depending on their type can generate honour tokens when rolling dice for ranged fire and/or combat.
At the end of each turn the active player receives a dragon card as well as a replacement command card. The effective use of these dragon cards, including the timing in a turn phase, is something I struggled with in my first game but hopefully greater familiarity with the cards and rules will see some improvement in this area. The rules are only thirty pages and not overly complex but with all the scenarios, dragon cards and honour and fortune tokens there are many, many hours of rewarding and challenging gaming to be had with this board game.
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| End of a close game with a 5-4 result |
Forty scenarios? My! That is a lot. The Dragon cards and Tokens add a lot of depth of play. I am still awaiting my copy.
ReplyDeleteIt sure is twice as many as Command & Colors Medieval. They do it require some adjustment, thought and planning. I’m sure it’ll arrive soon.
DeleteVery interesting, Mike. That's a lot of scenarios. Glad to hear you liked them too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dean, great scenarios and a really interesting game.
DeleteVery, very interesting sir!
ReplyDeleteThanks Michal, it is an interesting period about which I know zip.
DeleteGrrr, been nothing but crickets here in the States. Super bummed because this is one of my favorite periods. Rumor has it they shipped only overseas orders so far. I gotta get my Daimyo on!!!
ReplyDeleteCheers
Kevin
Last time with the release of Command & Colors Medieval, it took ages to arrive down under and we never received any emails about it shipping. It’s a great game Kevin, well worth the wait! I’m tempted to get 15mm figures for this...
Delete...and don’t get me wrong Cyrus, you guys absolutely deserve to be first... once in awhile;) I have a bunch of Samurai painted in 28’s but would need to double it. A very colorful period right up there with Landsknecht armies, but still doable.
DeleteCheers
Kevin
I know, it’s always frustrating when you’re waiting on a new release. Sounds like you’ve got a good start with your 28mm Samurai! Absolutely, my mate Craig is really into this period and wrote the Ronin skirmish rules published by Osprey. If I get figures I’ll probably go 15mm, too many unpainted 28mm armies...
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