"Shogun is a dish best served cold."

Don't believe me? Like any wargame that involves more than 2 players, the sweet art of the final mortal strike often decides the winner. You tease, you play coy, you bluff, and then - with devastating effect - you uncoil and whip your fangs into the jugular of your enemy.

Before i begin with this session report, let's start with a truism i learned many years ago.
Do not play an interactive wargame with quiet, non-confrontational, granola loving, tree humping, koombaya lovin pacifists. Let them indulge their fantasies with Puerto Rico.
I can see the flameboys running towards me now!

The Players
So, let's set the stage. Forget the board. Who are the players?

Steven (purple)- http://boardgamegeek.com/user/grooven
OMG! This guy delivers an incessant and unrelenting verbal pummeling every turn. You sometimes feel like geniunely reaching across the table and forcing him to swallow all 60+ of his bits at the same time - if only for a few merciful seconds of silence. In other words, my kind of player enemy. This was his 2nd Shogun match.

Nuno (yellow) - http://boardgamegeek.com/user/madburner
A long time gamer who can dish it out with the best of them. A smooth talking SOB that will shake your hand, and pick your pocket with the other. His unbelievable talent to make FAR more money than anyone else in EVERY game we play, makes him equal parts annoying and formidable. This was his 2nd Shogun match.

Cyril (red) - not a BGG geek
Another long time gamer who cut his teeth on wargames when most of us thought rattlers were fun. He'll dice it up, but unlike most of us, he won't firmly lodge his foot in his mouth - preferring to assert himself on the battlefield, where it counts. This was his first Shogun match.

Em (blue) - http://boardgamegeek.com/user/alita_4b
A new member to the group who firmly debunks the chick factor by decisively picking her enemies and launching her armies into the fray of battle. She is a focused adversary who carefully calculates the cost of every move, and makes decisions with conviction. This was her first Shogun match.

Me (black) - http://boardgamegeek.com/user/silverbeard
I'm a sheming SOB with a mouth full of crap, powered by enough vitriol to talk my way into trouble before the game even starts. I like to brag about winning the game before the box is even opened. This was my third game of Shogun

The Startup
The province picking ritual on the moon board cannot be underestimated for immediate strategic value. The key things that you should be looking for are:

1. Big money and big rice: you'll be surprised how many of your original provinces you'll end up having by the end of the game. Make sure you get those breadbaskets and gold earners early in the game.

2. DO NOT try to cluster your guys all into one area of the map. Try to cluster around 2 or 3 areas that allows you to own or at least threaten provinces from each region. Buildings give you the most VP, but they will do you no good if you have influence in only 2 regions.

3. DO NOT spread your guys out too thinly. If you cannot support your provinces from neighbours, you may as well kiss them goodbye because you can only have 2 significant musters each season. 2 musters for 2+ provinces = less provinces by season's end. Guaranteed like death and taxes.

4. Look carefully at what the other players are doing, especially around your provinces. Try to pick some of the ones with obvious strategic value; Shinano and Omi can be effectively defended by your bigger armies, but you also threaten 9 and 6 provinces respectively. Provinces with naval routes are more easily defended than most, and you have that amazing Risk-like ability to vault from siberia to alaska in one move.

5. Army placement in the beginning can be tricky because of the luck element involved. Where do you deploy your army of five? Where can you get away with deploying the army of 2? I've noticed that people tend to fall into the cluster tendency, but only if there are no more than 2 people in that region of the map. 3's a crowd it seems, and when faced with the option of adding a province to an area you control, or picking one in the middle of an area heavily influenced by two other players, people always pick the former. I call this the rule of 2 - where each area on the map is generally populated by a mix of two players, seldom more. Guess who you should be allying with? Making friends with your closest neighbour gives you one powerful advantage - you can save the army of 5 and the two of 4 for another, more contentious part of the map.

Let's see how everyone fared after our province selection phase:



Steven: He selected provinces almost exclusively in the yellow and brown regions to the east (Suruga / Kozuke / Hitachi). This was an interesting choice because he had little to no presence elsewhere on the board. This broke rule #2 above. His only choice was to make serious inroads towards the red or purple regions. Having the most buildings in 2 regions seldoms crowns a winner, so he had his work cut out for him.

Cyril: Cyril had a great starting position with a decent group in the red region around Hida and Mikawa. I was solidly entrenched in this area with him. He also had another grouping in the west around Izumo and Hoki. He was sharing this area with Nuno and Em. This was a great starting position because he had great support for both of his groups, and he was within striking distance of all regions on the map. He even had a lonely province in the middle of Steven (Musashi) that looked destined to be repatriated.

Nuno: Nuno selected a wider dispersion of provinces across the top of the map board with armies in Aki, Iwami, Noto, Etchu, Echigo. Like Cyril above, he had a really good presence across all provinces, but it almost seemed that he was spread too thin. Time would tell. Nuno also bagged some really good money producers for himself, which should help him throughout the rest of the game.

Em: Em had a solid concentration of forces in the purple area from Shima to Kii, but she also had a great foothold in the green region with provinces such as Bizen and Sanuki. With great access to reg, green, and yellow regions by boat, only the brown region along the top of the board looked out of reach. Another seemingly solid opening.

Me: My biggest armies were in the breadbasket of japan; Mino, Kaga, Ise, Totomi, Harami. This gave me decent support in the middle of the map, and with access to some of the best rice producers in the game. Winter may be coming, but i wasn't worried. I also had a great enclave in the southwest island with Tosa and Awa-Shikoku. Although i shared the middle with Cyril, i resolved to make a quick alliance with him so that we could protect our assets.

Art thou mine enemy or mine friend?
As much as we dislike politics in real life, it is probably the most important strategic weapon you have. This is a very critical point in the game where alliances are shaken out, old grievances are used to point out one another's frailties, threats are made, overtures of peace are offered. It's fascinating to sit back and watch everything unfold. This brings me back to my earlier truism, but i'll turn it into a Shogun Political Rule of War #1: Never fail to make friends prior to your first year, or you will find yourself surrounded by enemies.

I can't overstate this enough. Games can be won or lost in this fragile period of time before you kick off spring of year one. Make sure you go into the year with at least one of your flanks covered by a friend.

So, how did the alliances form:


Two people of note here are Em and Steven. One for breaking rule #1, and the other for breaking the opposite of rule #1. The interesting correlation, for the sociologists here, is that Steven was a new participant to our games group, and Em was his girlfriend. Unlike Steven, Em is the type that will absorb everything intently the first time, but she'll do so quietly and at her own pace. I expect her to be far more aggressive the next time we play. Steven on the other hand is the new guy with a big mouth, and although extremely well liked by everyone, we all get sadistic pleasure from pounding the new guy into submission. It's a rule of the jungle that persists even to this day on a game board. If he takes the beating well, we'll invite him back for more.

Here are some general rules i like to use when determining my own political arrangements:

1. If you share a region with someone, convince them that an alliance is of mutual benefit, and that you will make better use of your troops at the border where the barbarians await. This is a tough agreement to reject, especially if you use the barbarians outside the empire metaphor effectively.

2. Never make allies with all your neighbours! What is the point in making friends with everyone, and then turtling your way into a hermit-like trance? None! The greatest number of victory points are gathered by having the most of one building type in each region (Castles=3, Temples=2, Theatres=1). The best way to achieve this is either by 1) taking provinces from most of the 5 available regions and building, or 2) taking enemy provinces late in the game with structures already built on them (my personal favourite).

3. Never make the critical error of failing to make any allies. This will be perceived as either foolish or arrogant. Either way - a great player to start my warring campaign against.

4. If you feel uncomfortable with a lasting alliance, then commit to just one year. This brings me to Shogun Political Rule of War #2: Cozy alliances always turn into 'kill the leader' after the victory point scoring in Year 1. What is the point in maintaining an alliance with someone who is clearly in the lead after year one? Unless you think you can make more points elsewhere, something tells me you are already on your own deathmarch. There is also a wonderful mathematical rule you can use when turning against the leader. 1 point taken from the leader is 1 point gained = 2 points on the scoreboard. Taking a province can bring you 2 points closer to the leader, but taking a province with a castle can bring you to as many as 8 points closer, and maybe even the lead.

5. The art of the backstab brings me to my next Shogun Political Rule of War #3: Alliances broken at the last possible moment yield the ripest fruit. This isn't easy to pull off, because an obvious 'gathering' of forces will tip you off every time. However, if you are able to use a province to bluff an attack on your enemy, but instead, turn around and capture an allied province, you can grab some outstanding treasures. For example, massing an enormous force in Kaga to raid into Noto and your enemy can conceal your real intent; Izumo and it's castle and temple. Incidentally, this is the move that won me the game.

6. This isn't Risk. Do not think that a campaign of empire building will win you the game. Provinces are only worth 1 point. Putting all of your resources into battle may look nice on the board, but the lack of castle/temple/theatre building will kill you in the end just as effectively. This brings me to another Shogun Political Rule of War #4: Attacking at the cost of building for 2 year will give you lots of provinces, and all but guarantee your defeat. Anyway, you only have 6 turns to move and attack, so you don't really have the time you'd need for an extermination campaign. That's how i lost my first game of Shogun. If your enemies are smart, they are fortifying and building well behind enemy lines.

Year One
Ok, so what happened? Let's see if our wisdom above holds any truth.

Steven: Steven started off in his usual prickly form, telling people to 'bring the heat', and funny enough, that's exactly what he got. Both Nuno and Cyril made serious advances into his stronghold in the east, and although Em didn't attack, she wasn't taking her eye off the Shima to Izu/Awa-Boso trip either. I decided not to attack him, choosing instead to bolster my border guard in Totomi and letting the others have fun. He made one critical error in judgement right away however. A moment of acute colour blindness must have led him not to attack cyril's army of 2 in musashi. It's amazing how quickly an isolated army of 2 can become an army of 8 with the special muster card. Everyone else decided to use their muster-5 cards on his front as well. Despite that, he managed to hold off most of the attacks, and even take a few provinces as well. Lady luck was smiling on his forces that year. The preservation of a stalemate later in the year allowed him to build 5 or 6 structures.

Cyril: Cyril had a cozy alliance with me, allowing him to concentrate on Steven in the east and Em in the southwest. Although he had about as many provinces as the rest of us after year 1, he built very little and suffered from a paucity of victory points. His attacks seemed sporadic and unsustained, and you never felt that he was intent on expanding. This can be a great strategy if you can support and defend your provinces and build heavily on them, but turtling rarely yields success in this game.

Nuno: Nuno has this amazing unerring ability to gather gold - MORE gold than anyone i've every played with. I really don't know how he does it, but sure enough, he combined a balanced strategy of conquest and building that put him among the victory point leaders. Most of his movement occurred along the northeast seashore into Echigo, Mutsu, and Hitachi. He had a solid cluster of provinces in the far west and in the central region, so his coverage was excellent.

Em: Poor Em. I have never seen such bad luck in the tower. This was her first game, and it seemed like every one of her blue bits were intent on staying in the tower. She lost against overwhelming odds, underwhelming odds, peasant armies, player armies. She probably would have lost to an army of lemmings if they'd bother to gather one. Anyway, these losses had a devastating affect on her plans to expand her armies, and her plans for mass annexations were halted.

Me: I concentrated on making several key alliances - namely with nuno and cyril in the central region. My single border with Steven in totomi was stacked to preserve the stalemate there, and i was in the enviable position of having one enemy on my border - Em. It couldn't get any better with victories in Ise and some neutrals, but a lack of building put me behind on the scoresheet after year one.

The winter was quite easy that year with only a -3, and everyone escaped peasant revolts.

--Year One Score--
Steven- 19
Cyril - 10
Nuno - 19
Em - 14
Me - 16

Year Two

Steven: At this point Steven was loudly proclaiming his mistrust in my tactics, and tried desperately to get everyone to brand me a manipulator and to turn against me. Unfortunately for him i had a compelling counter - "he's trying to take the focus away from the fact that he's in first place". Not only was it true, it also helped everyone to embolden their state of war against him (let's not forget shogun rule of war #2). The battles raged in the northeast, and provinces such as Hitachi changed hands several times with Nuno, but he was able to keep the core of his army intact, and continue building. On his final turn in the fall he surprised several of us by taking Totomi and a theatre from me and Shinano from Cyril.

Cyril: Cyril maintained his alliance with me, allowing him to continue his campaign against Em, and now Nuno in the west. Despite a few successes, he wasn't building enough to really help him gain the VPs he needed to move up in the placings. In the east he allowed Steven to march into the central red region with a few key acquisitions in Musashi, Kai, and Shinano. He managed to build a nice castle and temple in Izumo, but Nuno's capture of Iwami and my army at Kaga gave him moment for pause. In the end, after a combination of my naval attack into Izumo and Nuno's miscalculation, Cyril lost this key province. He had hoped to defend it with 4 armies against Nuno and the alliance he had with me.

Nuno: Nuno kept up his campaign in the northeast with Steven, but after i attacked him in Iyo to claim the island, he opened a new front against me around Noto and Etchu (taking both). The money kept pouring in, and all of us were surprised the peasants had not revolted and burned his crops, but that's nuno - mr. moneybags. He had both Aki and Iwami in the west, but all of his energy was consumed with Steven in the east. I'm not sure this was a good move, because he had castles in Izumo, Iyo and Tosa for the taking, if only he had one turn left. In the end, Steven had put up enough of a fight to hold him back, and any loot he may have won in the east.

Em: Em continued to poke and prod her enemies, but her luck continued to elude her. I believe she made an error by allying with me in Year 2, because i was her only significant neighbour. Allying with me forced her into a more difficult conflict with Steven and Cyril. Omi seemed open most of the game for the taking, but losses in Kii and Harima made it difficult. Izu and Awa-Boso looked ripe for the taking, but Steven managed to increase their defense from naval attack over time.

Me: The more i eyed the castle and temple in Izumo, the more i realized i needed a friend in Cyril. However, in order for me to complete the bluff i had to create a new enemy in Nuno. I massed an army at Kaga, threatening to take nuno out in Etchu and Noto, however, that was just the feint. Although i was planning to chase him off the island from Iyo into aki, Nuno fortified Aki into a stalemate. In the fall of the second year i launched a mighty fleet of warriors into Izumo, and swung that fatal blow which not only destroyed the crown jewel of cyril's rule, but gave me victory. Those 6 points would prove the difference between Steven and I at the end. Cyril protested loudly, but when he saw that i had claimed victory, he couldn't deny the effectiveness of my strategy, however brutal.

The winter was particularly tough that year with a -5. Em and Steven had both lost their rice production in previous seasons with tactical losses, and each of them had to widthstand a massive peasant revolt. Needless to say, Murphy's law can always be successfully invoked in these types of circumstances. Both lost key provinces with buildings to the angry peasants they had forced into starvation.

--Year Two Score--
Steven- 40
Cyril - 33
Nuno - 35
Em - 28
Me - 45

Many rejected my ascendance into victory, claiming that i won by guile and manipulation, and not by combat as honour would decree.

But to them i say simply, and this session report will attest...

History is written by the victor.

Silver

As are session reports (invariably).

Great report! I was really wanting to play Shogun this weekend at game day and now I REALLY want to play it!

Em here -> Fantastic report! Now I can relive the game in detail! I was totally blown away at how much fun Shogun was to play with your group. I have granola-loving, pacifist tendencies, but I loved every minute of Shogun, despite losing miserably. I'd much rather play Shogun (it's now on the top of my list) than Puerto Rico (too dry, dull, and boring for me.. rather eat the cardboard that it's made from).

Thanks for the tips too - you have revealed your secrets! I will be sure to bring a bit more ruthlessness to the next game. It didn't occur to me that I hadn't made alliances in the first year (I was so focused with planning my strategy and getting the rules right), but I will be sure to attend to that matter in the next game.

My Thoughts on Sunday's Game

So, Steven warned me that you are the quiet manipulator, positioning yourself to be as non-threatening as possible while getting everyone else to do your evil bidding. Very true that! Somehow, you managed to get away with very few attacks against you by getting Cyril and Nuno on your side. I think Nuno was using his alliance to quietly generate money and bide his time for an opening. Cyril seemed to be doing well maintaining his territory, expanding into mine, and building theatres, temples, and castles. Steven also did well on his side of the board, covering a large area in the east, but he couldn't shake the constant pressure from Nuno and Cyril.

As an aside, Steven tries to be as inflammatory as possible when playing board games, so it doesn't surprise me that he plays that way with Shogun (watch him do his best to make Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers a heated battle). The problem for him is that he makes such a fuss that everybody turns on him - the louder he gets, the more he's trying to deflect attention from the fact that he is in the lead or in a very good position to overtake the lead.

Self-Analysis

Maybe this is an overall general tactic, but I think my main problem was that I took on 2 battles for almost every season. I would take maybe my largest army and send it to battle into an occupied region, where it'd get savagely reduced. I'd also send a smaller army of 2-3 to an unoccupied region, where it would also get beaten up badly by peasants. I just didn't have any luck on my side, even if the odds were in my favor. As a result, my armies were thinned out over a large area in the middle of the board. Very bad.

In the second year, I made some crucial tactical errors and ended up losing my rice and money producing regions before cashing in on them. I'd like to chalk this up to "newbie error of judgment." There was some general despair on my part in the summer and winter seasons, but I still felt like I had a somewhat active, albeit minor role in the game.

Thoughts on Shogun

My favorite aspect of Shogun is that there is little downtime between player turns since each player commits to a set of actions before the Spring, Summer, or Fall round starts. Each player decides their strategy on a player mat (by placing region cards in an action space, such as attack, collect rice, or muster more armies). When the round starts, the actions are revealed. There is very little analysis paralysis during the round, since most of the decisions are already made - it's just a matter of executing the actions. This game play is particularly good for me because I have been known to suffer from a mild case of analysis paralysis. Sure, it does take time to set up the mat, but everyone is doing it at the same time.

The Tower

What do I think about the tower? To be frank, I had extremely bad luck the entire game with the tower. I lost most of my battles - the ones where my pieces were equal to my opponents and, most disappointedly, the ones where I outnumbered my opponent (or sometimes I won the battle, but had my army reduced to 1-2 pieces). I know, going to battle, there is always that random factor that should be accounted for, but in my case, it was outlandish. However, having said that, I like the tower... a lot. I like my board games to have some element of weighted luck (i.e. not totally random, but based on probability). For me, I should have realized earlier that my luck was bad and accounted for it when going to battle - I know, sounds illogical, doesn't it?

Outstanding session report. The effort you put in really shows.

Also, the game sounds far more combative than I expected. Can't wait to play.

A fun read. Good job!

Great report, hope to play a game this evning!

No, I have to disagree. I've gotten non-confrontational types to play Shogun with me and we loved it. I can play either way (deceitful/honourable) and, sure, the game takes a different tone depending on the types you play with, but we've always had a good time with this game. Sneaky will beat polite everytime, but if everyone plays nice, keeps their alliances, etc, the game still rocks.

We'll agree to disagree then.

My only comment is that playing Shogun without the wargame element is like entering a boxing ring with huge bubblewrapped gloves.

"Sneaky will beat polite everytime, but if everyone plays nice, keeps their alliances, etc, the game still rocks."

You guys must start off by agreeing to not attack one another ?!?! That is removing one of the largest elements in game-play, and in my opinion, it is no longer worth playing. Imagine how you would play the province draft. Instead of trying to strategically consolidate
your forces across a number of regions, you are intentionally trying to spread your armies as widely as you can with no regard to defense, support, or even political alliances. The more i think about it the less playable this variant appears.

If you eliminate the wargame element, then you've eliminated the political element, unless you guys enjoy scheming around which neutrals to take. "hey, you take this neutral and i'll take that one ".

I'm glad you've played both types, but i'm astounded that you would agree to play this game without the wargame element. You may as well play by mail.

Silverbeard