I bought this card game on a whim from Amazon for less than $20 for a gift for my husband and have not regretted it one bit! It is quite simple to play and follow, is perfect for 4 players (3-5 players suggested), the artwork is just plain gorgeous and the play time is a comfortable 45-60 minutes!
To begin shuffle your play deck, the contract reward and target cards separately. Then choose three random cards from the target cards and draw three random cards from the contract reward cards. This gives each target its value for either being assassinated or protected. The values are found by adding the numbers, in the ryō*, on the bottom right for the assassins reward and the bottom left denotes both the reward for the protector as well as the additional protection bonus that gets added to the protectors damage count against the assassins.
Taking Contracts:
Next, take the contract coins each player was given and take out the red (assassinate) and blue (protect) contract coins that correspond with the target cards laid out from the step above. As the backs of these coins are random in color and will not give away your choices. At this time you decide whether to assassinate or protect only two of the three targets and place those coins face down in front of you.
Tip- keep the values of the targets in mind when making your contract decision.
For example: the Shogun is worth 9 ryō* (gold) if assassinated however one would need to overcome the the five defense it poses in addition to whatever defense another player may contribute. You have a choice... defend somewhat easily for less gold or go all out for a larger pot, remember the one with the most gold wins!
Drafting Phase:
Next (for the first round) deal each player four cards for their hand and then an additional six cards for the drafting phase. The drafting phase is simple: take one card and pass it around until all of the cards have been chosen. For the second round each player is dealt 2 cards and an additional 8 for drafting (extra cards must be discarded at the end of the drafting phase) and for the third, and final, round no cards are dealt to the players hand instead all 10 cards are drafted.
Tip- Keep your contracts in mind when selecting your draft cards. You have many options aside from simply picking the cards most suited towards your goal.
For example: sabotage your friends! Select the cards you would not like to oppose you in battle and discard them on a target that you do not have a contract with! This way it doesn't hurt you and it forces an opponent to fortify their position giving your true contracts a higher chance of success!
There are a variety of cards aside from assassins, protectors and weapons there are specialists, events and meddlers.
Event cards allow you to draw additional cards which may or may not be advantageous.
Specialists are cards played face down (unless otherwise noted) on the target card. Each, as the name implies, has a special ability. There are bomb makers, poisoners, scouts and spies. Some will "kill" the cards near it others will reveal what opponents contract intentions are to give you an edge.
The playing phase was probably the most confusing part until we gave up and dove in. K.I.S.S. method very much applies here. Each player lays down one card during their turn face down unless it is an event or a specialist card that designates it to be played face up (card types to be explained soon). All specialist, assassin or protector cards are lined up face down on top of the intended target to be played in reverse order after the completion of the playing phase. All weapons cards are to be played on the corresponding side (left- defend, right-kill) and the assassins/ protectors are played on top of the weapon cards adding to their attack/defense values. The playing phase ends when all cards have been played or all players have 'passed' on their turn. Once you have 'passed' you may no longer play cards in this round.
Resolving the Battle:
With the last card played (or all players having passed) the playing phase is over and you can begin to "resolve" the contracts. As I mentioned earlier the cards are played in reverse order so the card at the top of the pile is the placed on the weapon closest to the target card on the corresponding side (again left-save me/ right- die, die, die). You'll note two cards in the upper right one was a specialist card which removed another card from battle and again I'll go into more details about those soon. The winner for each contract is determined by simple math.
For the assassins: add the attack values (denoted on the bottom right) for both the assassins and the weapons below them taking unique card wordings into account. For example: one card may say that it's value is double that of the opponents card in the same slot. Meaning if it is the first card on the protector's side it's defensive value is 2x the first assassin card. For the protectors: add the defensive values the same as the assassins and add the targets personal defensive value to that score.
Compare the two in this case Protectors: 17 Assassins: 6 The player(s) who selected to protect the Shogun split the contract reward rounding up. Resolve the remaining two targets the same way and continue rounds two and three. The Shinobi Clan (player) with the most ryō at the end wins!
I hope you enjoyed this play through even 1/10th as much as I enjoyed playing the game. Good luck fellow ninjas.... live long and prosper!
**Fun Fact!: Ryō was a form of currency in Feudal Era Japan converted from the Chinese equivalent tael a unit of measurement. Local daimyo's would mint the coins each with their own mark so everyone would know where the money came from, and one ryō was equal to 4 koku (an amount of rice). One koku was said to be enough rice to feed one person for one full year roughly 330lbs/ 150 kilos!
No wonder the one with the most ryō wins... based off of one contract alone I won't have to worry about rice for years to come!
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