Designer: Milan Tasevski (Small Sea Empires, Small Star Empires)

Artist: Milan Tasevski (Small Star Empires)

Publisher: Archona Games (Galactic Warlords: Battle for Dominion, Small Sea Empires, Small Star Empires)

Genre/Mechanisms: abstract strategy, action queue, area majority/ influence

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Small Samurai Empires is already fully-funded. In fact, pledges currently total more almost 3.5x the initial funding goal with less than 2 days to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-high

What It’s About: Recruit samurai armies, conquer provinces, build castles to defend them, and maintain control of the regions in this action programming and area control game set in Japan.

How It Works: “Small Samurai Empires is an action-programming, area-control strategy board game for 2-4 players.

In this game, players play as Daimyo – leaders of the great houses with the purpose of conquering Japan and becoming its most powerful emperor in history. In order to accomplish this, players will recruit samurai armies, move them across provinces to gain majority, harvest resources to enhance certain actions, attack enemy armies to take over provinces, and build castles to fortify their position in a province.

At the end of the game, players will score points for each province they controlled at the end of each era, depending on it’s final value in the last era. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game, becomes the Emperor of Japan!”

Each game is divided into 3 Eras, with each Era divided into 2 rounds, for a total of 6 rounds per game. Every round has a Planning Phase and Resolution Phase, but they’re scored a little differently depending on whether it’s the first or second round of an Era.

In the first round of an Era, players each choose one of their objective cards, place it face-down in front of them, and then simultaneously reveal their objective cards and place them next to the score track. Then, in player order, players take turns placing Order Tokens into empty slots on the main board. Players will wait until the Resolution Phase to reveal and take their Order Token Actions; however, they’ll immediately take the bonus Triggered Action depending on where they placed their token. Triggered Actions include Move one army, Attack, Recruit army, and Harvest, and are similar to the Order Token actions described in the paragraph below.

Once all of the Order Tokens have been placed, the Resolution Phase sees the players resolving their various selected Order Token Actions starting from the bottom order token and moving upwards. These include Recruit Armies (the active player adds an army from their supply to the Capital City province of the region, or to another region in the province where they have a Castle, and may then spend 1 food to place an additional army into the same province); Move Armies (spending 2-3 movement points to move an army 2-3 regions, or multiple armies 1 region each); Move Armies by Sea (spending 2 movement points to move armies at sea); Attack (destroying 1 opponent’s army in a province where the active player has at least 1 army of their own, and may then spend 1 Bushido if they wish to destroy another opponent’s army in the same province); Harvest (gaining 1 Food and/or 1 Bushido for each province they control in the region that produces those resources); and Build Castle (returning 2 armies from a single province to their supply where the active player does not already have a Castle to place a Castle in that region, and placing an army on top of the Castle to mark their control of it; if they player already has a Castle in the region, they may add 1 army from their supply to the province with the Castle).

During the second round of an Era, players will place one less Order Token on the board. Tokens from the first round are not cleared away before the start of the second round, and players may place tokens where they placed tokens in the first round for free; however, if they choose to place their Order Token in a space where an opponent played in the first round, they must also spend 1 Bushido Token to do so. During the Resolution Phase of the second round, Order Tokens actions are evaluated from top to bottom instead of from bottom to top. Additionally, tokens from the first round that were not covered during the second round are also evaluated.

At the end of each Era, players produce a Full Harvest, and each player that controls a territory producing a resource gains that resource. Order tokens are retrieved from the main board. Players gain influence for each province and each Castle they control in a region and 1 point for each province they control with a Shrine symbol. Then each player draws a new objective card, and the next era begins with the player lowest on the point track as first player.

After the third Era’s scoring, players perform final scoring. Players multiply the number of influence points they have in each of the 4 regions by the number of objective cards they have corresponding with that region, then add the totals together, and add those points to their overall total. The player with the most points wins the game.

Comparisons:  The best comparisons are going to be Milan Tasevski’s previous games, Small Star Empires and Small Sea Empires. For other similar experiences, look to smaller games that focus on action programming, area majority, and games that combine the two.

What Should I Pledge?:
$29 Samurai: a copy of Small Samurai Empires with all unlocked stretch goals.
$50 Shogun 2: a copy of Small Samurai Empires with all unlocked stretch goals, and a copy of Small Star Empires (2nd Edition, retail).

Add-Ons:
$9 Wooden Order Tokens

KS Exclusives:
The Wooden Order Tokens.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $50 for the Shogun 2 pledge, $9 for the Wooden Order Tokens, and $12 in shipping for a total of $71. If you just want Small Samurai Empires, then it’s $29 for the Samurai pledge, $9 for the Wooden Order Tokens, and $12 in shipping for a total of $50.

Small Samurai Empires completes its Kickstarter on Friday, December 6th and tentatively ships in August 2020.