Swing your katana!
What is the last Kickstarter game you’ve received? Shogun no Katana 🗡️ is another Kickstarter game that we missed. However we had a chance to join a group order and also heard good things about the game, so we did the only sensible thing - we went all-in! 😂 Now it was finally time to put our decision to the test!
In Shogun no Katana you play as swordsmiths in feudal Japan, crafting katanas and decorating them for different clans - and eventually the Shogun himself! You have 4 rounds to become the artisan with the best reputation! 🏆 If you look at it from far away: you collect contracts, gather resources and then fulfill them - but this game is so much more than a contract-fulfillment game. It is quite a complex game with many interesting systems that add up to a really enjoyable experience! 🥰
The foundation of the game is worker placement. 🧐 There are 4 main areas of the board where you can go to:
1️⃣ Get contracts for swords
2️⃣ Buy resources from the market
3️⃣ Assign family members to the Shogun’ palace for bonuses
4️⃣ Decorate swords in your forge
These have many nuances, so they are not as dull as they sound. ☝️ In some places you get cards that can be used for their immediate bonuses and/or as permanent benefits. Many actions are also interconnected, so you could do some things as a side-action somewhere else. You also have two Monks that act as workers but have location-specific bonus effects if you use them.
There is an important fifth 5️⃣ location for workers: your Forge 🔨 board. This is actually the very heart of the game - a unique sliding puzzle! 🤩 You place workers either on rows or columns and can move all swords there if you have the resources. Depending on what resources you place they will slide either forward or move up/down. So you really need to optimize - too many swords could block each other, but too few and you are wasting actions.
Some Kickstarter greed does shine through unfortunately. There are some small modules and expansions that were removed from the game to be sold separately that we think are actually vital to the game. To find out what those add to the game you will have to stay tuned for a later post though! 😉
