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Manufacturer: GMT Games

The Commands & Colors: Samurai Battles game rules allow players to refight important engagements of Medieval Japanese history. The battles included in the scenario booklet focus on the historical deployment of forces and important terrain features in scale with the game system. The scale of the game is flexible and varies from battle to battle. For some scenarios, an infantry unit may represent an entire clan of soldiers, while in other scenarios a unit may represent just a few brave warriors.

Samurai Battles is based on the highly successful Commands & Colors game system and by design it is not overly complex. The Command cards drive movement and creates a "fog of war" and presents players with many interesting challenges and opportunities, while the battle dice resolve combat quickly and efficiently. The Honor & Fortune game mechanic will task players to maintain a balance and in a roundabout way serves to measure an army's discipline, honor, and the fortunes of war. Using Honor & Fortune tokens to play Dragon cards will also add suspense and surprise that can end the rules and instantly change the course of the battle. The battlefield tactics you will need to execute to gain victory, however, conform remarkable well to the strengths and limitations of the various Japanese unit types, their weapons, the battle's terrain, and written history.

Contents:
1 Rule Booklet
1 Scenario Booklet
1 Mounted Battlefield Game Board (12 Hexes & 11 Hexes)
45 Terrain Tiles
30 Honor & Fortune Tokens
18 Victory Banner Counters
60 Samurai Command Cards
40 Dragon Cards
12 Battle Dice (Laser Printed)
2 Unit Refence Sheets
5 Block Label Sheets
316 Blocks (plus spares)


Ages: 14+
Players: 2
Game Length: 60 minutes per battle

Note: This 2nd Printing is identical to the previous printing, except that all known errata have been corrected.

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1 review

My favorite Command & Colors game

Average rating of 5 out of 5 stars

This is my favorite Command & Colors game. - I have always liked the activation system, but in some instances I find that there are too many 'dud' cards you can draw. But in Samurai Battles, the only duds are cards you can setup to be non-duds with some work. - There is a good balance of unit variety. There are not too many subtle variations (like with Ancients) but there are still relevance differences. - The randomness of the dice-based combat is mitigated by the rules in which better trained/equipped untis get to ignore some hits from worse units, not just roll more dice. So, you can plan for favorite matchups and manage the risks more intelligently. - The scenarios I have palyeld so far were all well-balanced, historically grounded, and offered neat asymmetries between the two sides.

January 16, 2024 9:57 PM

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