Shogun

1st Session, 3:00 pm:

Frank will challenge up to Four (4) other Daimyo for the title of Shogun !

WARNING: THIS GAME WILL LAST THROUGH BOTH SESSIONS!
The game might only last three hours, but it is expected to run too long for players to play in a second game.

Shogun is set just previous to the unification of Japan in the 1500s and the players are competing to determine which one is the best "unifier".
Every turn players select different actions for their many provinces. Your actions include "requisitioning" rice and gold, military recruiting, building important structures, army movement and combat. The order in which the actions occur is randomized every turn so sometimes you don't know if you'll have enough money by the time you have an opportunity to buy that nice temple you've had your eye on. There's a lot going on but it's all pretty logical and the game is relatively easy to learn.

The amount of combat you might see varies greatly on your positioning and your strategy. In my last game, one player attacked every turn, while a different player only took over neutral provinces.

Every player plans their actions at the same time so there is minimal down time in the game.

Perhaps the coolest thing about Shogun is the amazing combat tower. If you attack someone, you add your attacking armies to his or her defending armies and drop them all into the combat tower. Some of the armies will remain trapped inside the tower, while others that were already inside will be knocked loose. When the armies exit at the bottom, whoever has the most armies is the winner of the conflict. In the last game I played, one province got swapped back and forth about five times.

Shogun is another of those Euro/Ameritrash hybrids (like Friedrich and Conquest of the Empire) so there is a wargame element. However, the complexity of the wargame element isn't much above Risk so don't let that scare you off.