Shogun - A Five Second Board Game Review
Shogun started off as my favorite game of all time, now it doesn’t crack my top 30.
I played far too many games of it where one person is dead to win at the halfway mark or even earlier. There is no catchup mechanism. There is no incentive to leave players who are falling behind alone so they can rebuild. In fact the game almost encourages picking apart the carrion because it is so easy to capture. Shogun doesn’t even offer an option for resignation(a feature that is frankly lacking from too many modern multiplayer wargames but I digress).
It may sound like I’m about to offer up my first negative review, but alas, I’m not quite there with Shogun. The central mechanism is far too fascinating, thematic, and strategically rich for me to banish the game to the ranks of the unplayables. I just yearn for a remake, something that does this amazing idea justice. The programmable movement so perfectly captures the treachery of the period, while allowing this complicated game to play fast and easy. Since all the mental heavy lifting is being done simultaneously, you get to experience almost no downtime. Then you get to watch in awe, horror, or excitement as you plans either crumble to dust or place you as shogun by the end. I just wish this system had a cleaner more modern game behind it, but until then I’ll be sticking with the Sengoku Jidai period for my fix.
Editor reviews
Matt Thrower wrote: You ever played Wallenstein? How does it compare in terms of people getting left behind?
I have not, I intend to at some point, but with them being the exact same system I’m not hopeful, I have a hard time envisioning geography changes being enough
Immortals tried to redo it and when I read the rules it seemed clear all of the changes were geared towards fixing my issues, but sour reviews have turned me away for now, I plan to get to that one eventually though
Let me know, if you are interested. I'm sure we'll manage to get 5 people together here.