Geoff Gibbs
United Kingdom
Oxford
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This is my first review, so go easy.
Shuuro is, simple put, a chess variant. It follows all the rules of chess, which I won't explain here, with a few exceptions. The first and most obvious exception when you open the box, is that the board is a 12x12 grid instead of 8x8, although there is an 8x8 board on the back allowing you to play chess normally. The second thing you will notice, having remove the board, is that there are 3 dice and 8 plastic blocks in the box, but I'll come back to them later. Finally, you'll realise that there are far too many pieces for a chess set. This is where the first big difference in the rules comes, and it's one that may appeal to wargamers out there, you can decide which pieces you use by spending variable numbers of points from a fund of 800. So a pawn will cost just 10 points, while a queen costs 110. You are also limited by the number of pieces of any one type you can have (so a maximum of 3 queens, I'm afraid). Once you have selected your pieces, it's time to set up the board. Remember the dice and blocks, here's where they come in. The blocks, or plinths as they are called, are placed on the board according to dice rolls, 2 plinths in each 6x6 quarter where the dice rolls specify the used for position in squares across and up. The plinths are simple plastic boxes, with a little stone effect decoration (I feel they could have been a little heavier to stop the moving, but that is a minor quibble). The plinths act as barriers, your pieces can't move through them (with the exception of knights, which may also land on them), this means that you will rarely play on the same board twice. The last big difference is in setting up your pieces, each player places a piece in turn, starting with the king, then the nobles (anything that isn't a pawn), and then the pawns.
So those are the rules, but how does it play? Well, I took a copy to my local gaming club and gave it a go. There were 5 games played in total, with people of very different ability in chess taking part. The first few games, went well and drew a lot of interest from those around us (mainly double-takes as they realised it wasn't chess we were playing) which allowed me to step back and allow a more experienced player to try it out for the last game. I won't embarrass anyone by letting you know the results of the games, but I'll summarise the comments made. As it is a chess variant, it suffers from the problem that you should really play someone with the same level of ability as you. It was clear from the games played what experience people had and of the 5 games only 1 was not a forgone conclusion by the 10th move. With the customisation of your pieces and the plinths, this allows for more variety and each games is different, unlike chess. The more experienced chess player commented that the larger board is quite distracting, the diagonals seeming to go on too far. When asked about the difference the plinths made, the experience player commented that they could be used for a more effective defense, but made little impact on the rest of the game. However, in the one game he played most of the plinths were located around the edge leaving a large open space in the middle.
Overall, I was surprised at how much I liked this game. I'm not a chess fan, and was quite honestly dreading having to review this game, as I didn't think I'd like it. I was wrong. My main issue with chess, which I'd never really realised until now, was that it was so samey, I like variety and Shuuro is just different enough to provide that variety whilst maintaining the fundamentals of chess. What really amazed me was that everyone else who played it liked it too, people with a mix of experience with, and enthusiasm for, chess played it and overall the reaction was good. This will definitely be making an appearance at the club again, and I can't wait to try the 4-player variant in the future.
One last thing to point out is that it has, in my mind, the sign of a good board game: A slightly furry interior to the box.
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My favorite insight from your review:
Quote: My main issue with chess, which I'd never really realised until now, was that it was so samey, I like variety and Shuuro is just different enough to provide that variety whilst maintaining the fundamentals of chess.
Most chess-variant reviews I have read merely describe how the game-play is different from traditional chess, or how the variant expands your game-play options. Your review told me how Shuuro satisfies a different desired experience. It also told me how Shuuro's flexibility could let a player explore what they really want from a game. Maybe this is extrapolating too much from what you wrote, but you certainly made me think seriously about a game I had previously written off as a neat gimmick.
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Mark Chaplin
United Kingdom
Nottingham
Ice-choked tower, Mondavia, Nanglangka.
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Thanks for posting the review, Geoff.
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