A Most Dishonorable Victory!!

This is brought you by Ikusa

Aka Samurai Swords aka Shogun.

It is a game where you take command in feudal Japan and wage war for the provinces. It is samurai, so I am naturally inclined to like it.

You control 3 armies that maneuver and divide up the various lands and then go to work. All of your bits I kept in a nice looking tray that comes with a card that lets you plan you koku expenditure in secret before you reveal your plays and carry out the orders. It also gives a nice overview of the turn phases, costs of units and their combat roll.

Combat is handled in a ranged phase, remove casualties, then a melee phase. You can levy units to build up your provincial forces or your roaming armies, build castles, hire ronin to bolsters your forces, or ninja's to assassinate enemy daimyo or act as spies revealing your enemies plans.

It is all a lot of fun and spreads you slightly thing considering how large your empire starts at the beginning of the game. As you lose daimyo's you armies may grow larger, but you are not as flexible.

Today I played a very good game of Ikusa with my pals Alister & Mike. So here is the overview  of the game.

On the 2nd turn I managed to slay one of Mike's daimyo's and eliminate one of his 3 armies. Soon after Alister wiped out one of my armies and I made an ill fate alliance with Mike to not wage war on his lands so long as he doesn't on mine. Before I could recover from the first daimyo loss, Alister destroyed my 2nd force leaving me with only 1 lone army which I proceeded to build up. Meanwhile Mike maneuvered and made a surprise strike on one of Alister's armies and then immediately attacked another managing to take out both, but with heavy casualties.

This left Mike with 2 armies, Alister with 1 fortifying his position in the center of the map and me with 1 moving and reinforcing to have the final battle of the game. We both hired as many ronin as we could muster and I moved my forces in for the attack. Alister's defenses proved too much and I took heavy losses till only my last daimyo remained.

Then Mike's ninja struck!!! Killing my daimyo and winning the game in a most clever but dishonorable way.

And this is why playing board games is great. It felt great to lose. Alister and I were so wrapped up in our battle that we forgot about Mike hiring the ninja. It was a big gamble that relied on 1 of us having only 1 unit left in our armies and getting an 8 or less on a 12-sided die roll. Oh it was exciting and a very satisfying way to end the game.

Plus it always great to spend time with friends, which board games are a great way to do that