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An elegantly designed, beautiful to look at, board game on the unification of Japan.
- Designer's Synopsis:
"Sekigahara is a simple block game based on the campaign in 1600 that unified Japan. Hidden information on blocks & cards, but no dice. Cards are not events but rather motivation (suited by clan). Units fight only when a matching card is produced." - (1) The mechanics are really simple. Feels more like the event in question. Doesn’t bog down.
(2) Elegant graphical design. Japanese kanji and symbology; minimalism in blocks, board and cards. Mark Mahaffey has done amazing work.
(3) ‘Randomization’ subordinated to uncertainty. Plays like poker sometimes. You know how strong you’ll be in a hypothetical battle, and your opponent knows how strong he/she will be, so you read each others’ actions to gauge whether you want to initiate it.
(4) Double game being played: (a) units in position, (b) units motivated enough to fight. Most games would be all about (a) and leave (b) to the dice, but here you know in advance the effectiveness of your troops, by looking at your cards. The game is true to history in this regard (the campaign turned on defections & abstentions). Unit combat performance was too essential to the outcome of this campaign to leave to the dice.
(5) The combat system, with hidden forces and sequential deployments, is novel.
Rules and historical notes and designer comments at: http://www.gmtgames.com/sekig/SekiRules-New6.pdf
Need a break? An excellent, informative diversion.
Need a break? An excellent, informative diversion.