Sekigahara: Unification Of Japan: 3rd Ed

In 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu won a 7 week campaign and founded a Shogun Dynasty that lasted 268 years. He did it by military action, and, most importantly, gaining the loyalty of Daimyo(clan lords) to his side. A few of those clan lords even changed sides during battle! This game simulates that campaign and plays in 3 hours, at most. The rules? The summary fits on one page and, minus examples, the rules are about 6 pages long. Very simple, concise and easy to understand. The game can be taught and a game underway in under 20 min, and, if you want video instructions, fans of the game have posted them on YouTube. The rules are also posted on the publisher's website, GMTgames.com. The core of the game is a hand of cards that represents the loyalty you have to activate troops for movement, combat and turn order, so managing these cards is the key to winning. You may have a large army, but, without the cards to use them, they are worth nothing! You also need to worry about some of your units changing sides in you as there are cards in each player's deck that allows you to challenge the loyalty of a unit that was just played, which can swing a battle against you. The production values on this game are high. The board is top notch,units are represented by wooden blocks(you have to put the stickers on them, takes about 30-40 min), the cards are on high quality card stock, etc. This game is worth every penny in terms of quality, so the price is not outlandish. If you have played mass market games like Statego and Risk and have always felt they are a bit lacking in some ways or you loved the idea but felt the execution is poor, give this one a shot. If you are a tabletop game enthusiast, but are a non-wargamer, also, give this a try(chances are, someone you know has it or someone in Wargame circles does).

Great game but I don't get where people get "simple" from. There are more exceptional rules than I have ever seen in a rulebook but they naturally make sense which eases the task. For example cavalry adds 2 except while besieging castles. Once you get it down it flows smoothly and there are only a couple phases in each round. The card management can feel tragic and the loyalty cards are fun. The limited spaces nudge you into battle often while not feeling totally ready and a lot emerges in the gameplay through planning and bluffing. But buyer beware. I purchased this while the price was low but had to shell out for primer and paint to fix the gold blocks not wanting to go back and forth with the publisher. I received the 2018 4th printing and they spray painted the black ones sitting on top of the gold! Who would do that?! Other than that everything is fine. Hefty board that is functional but the land graphics are a little pale and fuzzy or maybe just trying to look ancient but the text, roads and spaces are crisp and high contrast. The icons can be tricky to locate once occupied. It all grew on me with its thematic consistency. Thick reference sheets. Rulebook appears to be on printer paper but is the best I have ever seen. Clear language and well organized. A lot of historical notes too. I quickly fell in love with this game.

All I can say is I thoroughly enjoy this game. For better reviews, there's Board Game Geek, but to put it simply: it all boils down to good planning, and knowing when to be aggressive. You get a number of cards based on what you control, and those cards allow you to move larger groups of blocks than normal, but they also are how you attack the enemy. If you have cards that match your units, you can play those cards in the attack for impact. Highest impact wins, difference and amount determine losses. Trick is, you play the cards and then they're gone, so once you attack, that army might be useless after they win because you didn't get replacement cards that match. As this is a block game, you never know what you are attacking until you fight, and even then, you only see units revealed as your opponent plays cards in defense. Factor in the severe time limit, one thing this game isn't is boring...especially as your own units might turn on you!

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As someone who loves learning about the Sengoku period and plays a lot of Samurai Warriors, this is such a fun game to play. The rules can be a bit tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's great.

The 'gold' pieces are all different colors and shades, making this hidden information game completely unplayable unless you decide to paint all the pieces over again to make up for GMT's incompetence.

Poor block quality. The planes are not parallel, which makes it very difficult to put blocks on top of each other, as provided in the game.

I got the fourth edition of the game instead of the third like the picture showed. Not mad about it. I’m glad I got the most up to date version. The blocks are a nice quality with no errors in the paint job and everything else looks great. Some people complained about not having the cards you want to play. To me, it’s historically thematic because not all clans in your army are loyal.