Samurai is a 2-4 player game which takes about 45 mins. The board is awesome looking with plexiglass pieces (figures) and fun to play in person. The screenshots below show the online version (play by email) on mabiweb.com as it's easier than taking photos with a camera to explain. Hopefully this gives a quick overview of this classic german board game. In Samurai you try to capture Buddha, High Helmet and Rice Field figures. But the one who captures the most doesn't necessarily win as you try to get a majority of figures. One captures the figures by placing their various tokens to influence the adjacent figures. Whichever player has the most influence on a particular figure captures the enclosed figure(s).

2 players play with Honshu
7 High Helmets, 7 Buddhas and 7 Rice Fields

3 players play with Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku
10 High Helmets, 10 Buddhas and 10 Rice Fields

4 players play with Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido
13 High Helmets, 13 Buddhas and 13 Rice Fields

Everyone starts with 5 tokens and always replenishes their hand back up to 5 tokens after they use their tokens. You can play where everyone chooses them or randomly selects them. The number indicates how much influence that token has on a particular figure when placed adjacent to that figure on the samurai board. In other words, placing a 4 buddha token adjacent to a buddha figure gives that player 4 influence on that buddha figure. However, placing a 3 rice token adjacent to a buddha figure gives that player zero influence on the buddha figure.

Tokens are 2, 3, 4 High Helmets, 2, 3, 4 Buddhas, 2, 3, 4 Rice Fields
1, 1, 2, 2, 3 Samurais which influence any of the 3 figures (like a wild token)
1 Ronin (samurai on a horse)
Token Exchange (one with the 0 on it)
Figure Exchange which allows one to swap to figures on the board
1, 1, 2 Ships which influence any of the 3 figures (like a wild token)

The five figures checked have a small kanji (Samurai) which indicates that you can play as many of these tokens as you wish on your turn in addition to one regular token.

Example Figure Exchange token is used to swap a rice field figure with a buddha figure's locations with each other on the board.

After one uses a figure exchange token it'll show which ones are discarded so you'll know if they've been used.

Example of a Token Exchange token put in the place of an existing 4 High Helmet token on the board and the 4 High Helmet token placed anywhere else on the board.

Example of using 3 tokens or more on a turn. Notice the first two (figure exchange and 1 ship), each have a small kanji 'Samurai' indicating you can use as many of these as you wish on your turn.

Instead of choosing ones starting 5 tokens you can just randomly choose the 5 tokens.

Setup: 2 player board in the Samurai when playing face to face each person takes a turn placing a figure on the board anywhere they wish. In Edo there is a Buddha, Rice Field, and High Helmet. There can never be the same figure in the same city ever. Even when using your figure exchange token. In Kyoto and Akita cities there are two figures. In the online version the board is randomly setup to save massive time.

Red player starts with the following tokens behind their screen and is the first player to take a turn.

Red places their 1 and 2 ships tokens and their 3 buddha token. The 2 ship token influences the buddha figure and rice field figure adjacent to it since it's wild. The 3 buddha token influences the the buddha figure below it and the buddha figure above has a 4 red influence (3 buddha token + 1 ship token). The rice field figure in Akita has a 1 ship influence of red.

Blue player with the following tokens above.

Blue places their 3 samurai token to influence the Buddha and Rice Field with a 3 blue influence. Also the rice field above has a 3 blue influence.

Red encloses the rice field figure on top with a 4 rice field token and captures the rice field figure. Since the 4 red rice field token has 0 (zero) influence on the high helmet figure next to it red decides to play the figure exchange token. See next image below.

Red plays the figure exchange token and swaps the high helmet figure's and rice field figure's locations. Now the 4 red rice field token has a 4 influence on the rice field figure.

Blue places a 4 rice field token now the blue has 7 influence on the rice field figure on the left (4 rice field token + 3 samurai token) and is tied with red each with a 4 influence on the rice field figure on the right of the board.

Red encloses the rice field figure on the right of the board by placing a 2 rice field token and captures it since blue has 4 influence and red has 6 influence (4 rice token + 2 rice token).

So now red (top player) has captured 2 rice field figures and blue has none.

Also on the same turn red place his 1 Ronin token (since it has the small kanji samurai on it) and encloses the buddha and rice field figures. Red captures the buddha figure since it has a 5 influence on it (1 ship token + 3 buddha token + 1 ronin token) compared with blue who has a 3 influence (3 samurai token). Blue captures the rice field figure since it has 7 influence (3 samurai token + 4 rice field token) compared to red who has 2 influence (1 ship token + 1 ronin token).

Red (top player) has 1 buddha and 2 rice field figures currently while blue (bottom player) only has 1 rice field figure.

The game ends immediately if there are 4 tied figures or if the last figure of any type (buddha, rice field, or high helmet) is captured. For instance, if all the buddha figures are captured the game ends immediately after that persons turn is complete.

Most confusing part of the game is end game scoring. However, once you get it, it's quite simple.

Majority = more figures of a type (most buddhas, most rice fields, or most high helmets)
Others = how many other figures not including your majority figures.
Total = number of of all captured figures

A) 2 majorities or 3 majorities win.

B1) If no one has 2 or 3 majorities then check to see who has a majority. If you do have a majority you are eligible to win. If you don't have a majority you can not win unless see E).
B2) Players with majorities count their Others and the one with the most Others wins.

C) If there is still a tie, tied players with the most Total figures win.

D) If there still is a tie with each tied player having the same number of Total figures they share the victory.

E ) If no player has a majority see B) then the one with most Total figures wins see C).

Below are tons of examples of end game scoring so you can 'get it'. Examples include 2, 3 and 4 player games.

1st player (top player)
2nd player (below top player)
3rd player (above bottom player)
4th player (bottom player)

2nd player wins since he has 2 majorities (helmet and buddha).

2nd player wins with 2 majorities (buddha and rice field)

1st player and 4th player are both eligible to win since they're the only players with a majority. Next contingency of winning is how many others the 1st and 4th player have. 1st player has 7 others (4 buddhas + 3 rice fields) and 4th player has 4 others (2 helmets + 2 buddhas). 1st player wins with 7 others.

2nd and 3rd player have a majority and each have 5 others. So next contingency is who has the most in Total figures. 2nd player has 10 total and 3rd player has 9 total so 2nd player wins with 10 total figures.

2nd player wins with 5 others. Notice how 1st player captured the most pieces (10 total), however, the 1st player doesn't win since they don't have a majority in buddha, rice, or helmets. They are tied with 2nd player with 4 helmets but that's NOT a majority.

1st player wins with 6 others (3 buddhas + 3 helmets).

Updated Jun 29, 2006

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