Love Letter

"A game of risk, deduction and luck"

What's included: 16 playing cards, 13 tokens of "affection", four reference cards, a rule book and a red velvet carrying pouch.

The story goes like this: You are a suitor attempting to woo the princess with your eloquent love letters but in order for them to reach her you must get it into the hands of the person closest to her. Each card character carries a rank in the top right and the higher the value the closer to the princess they are. Each character has it's own special ability or disadvantage so play them wisely! The one who receives the most tokens of affection wins... in our 2 player case 7 is the golden number!

 To begin playing:  Remove the top card and place it to the side face down, then (for 2-players) place the next 3 cards face up on top of it. 

Each player is dealt one card and the first player to begin draws one and plays one face down in front of them. As simple as that.  The player who has most recently dated goes first. <3

The Princess: She is the highest value card as she is your intended recipient, however, she is harder to hold onto than one might think and if you are forced to discard her due to another players card you lose the round.

The reference card: Will give you a list of cards, their abilities, as well as their value and the number per deck.

*This is valuable information as it can give players with certain cards (like the guard, or baron) an edge by doing simple probabilities.

For example: I play the guard and there is one prince in the pile to the side and my opponent just discarded the Countess (which must be discarded if caught with the king or prince) odds are very high that my opponent will either have the prince or king!  

   
Play through: Rounds 1-3
    The Baron 0wn'd me

 The Baron: when played the players compare hands and the player with the lower hand is out of the round.






Round Four: I forgot but sadly lost that hand as well. 

Round Five: The Baron Returns

 

Round Six:
I made it till the last turn... and lost to royalty.
If one player isn't eliminated before the draw pile is exhausted the players compare their final card and the one with the highest value wins... In this case my lowly 2-pt priest lost to the 8-pt Princess.

 Round Seven: Finishing StrongThis hand I lost before I could even play my first card. My opponent made and educated guess by calculating what was on the table and what his card limited him to. Since there is only one of each card remaining aside from the priest and the guard (which the ability restricts guessing) odds were slightly higher that the priest would be my card and indeed it was.

A few thoughts: Personally I really like this game despite my epic failure this match. The game is very inexpensive (~$6 on amazon when I got it), compact, amazingly simple in play and concept, and my favorite part: 15-20 min play time tops!  It's not the most fun I've had playing a game but some nights it's nice to take a break from complicated play procedures, hours of research, or quickly changing rules and play a quick game of wit and chance.

Shinobi Clans - A Ninja Card Game

With the expansion of interactive media and the ease of access, varied playability, and essentially unrestricted time dedication it provides it's no wonder that so many of our younger generations are just plain bored when they hear the words, "Let's play a board game".  Shinobi, and games like it, just may be the key to bringing games (and friends) back to the table. 

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!

Workup Phase:
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! 

 Specialty Cards:

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.

Meddlers are cards that alter the contract values. These are especially useful to mess with opponents!

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.

 

Playing Phase:
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.

Tip- Be careful not to place a weapon too soon into the round as it will tip off your opponents as to your contracted intentions, unless you are attempting to throw them off with a bluff.

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!

TL;DR: You are ninja. Choose your contracts well. Assassinate or protect your target through either strength or cunning and win the ryō! It's immensely fun, the artwork is amazing and since most of the cards are hidden until the resolution phase there's very little time for sore losers to complain before shuffling out the next drafting hand! If you're looking for a fun, simple, cognitive game to play with a few friends I highly recommend Shinobi Clans!
 
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!