By Adam Roffel
The most famous area control game of all time has to be Risk. Whether you’ve played the regular version or the vastly superior The Lord of the Rings version, the concepts are generally always the same: world domination. Many companies have released area control games over the past decade, and most have been really good. Very few, however, can offer a deep experience that wraps up in around an hour. Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo, however, is one game that does deliver on this.
Earning Achievements Isn’t Just About the Biggest Army
In Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo, players are working to gain seven achievements in order to win the game. The first player to earn their seventh achievement is the victor. Achievements can be earned in a variety of ways. Two can be earned by winning a battle that you instigated. Yet another can be earned for capturing the central castle of Toshi Ranbo. If you are able to hold Toshi Ranbo, you’ll be awarded yet another achievement, although this can be lost if another player takes control.
Combat isn’t the only way to find success, though. Safely make your way to three villages, collecting the corresponding village token, and you’ll earn an achievement. Using all three of your Noble Actions also nets you an achievement, as does completing clan-specific goals, with up to two more achievements available that way. I think you get the point. Achievements are earned through a variety of game elements.
Simplicity Rules the Day
While the game has a lot of ways to earn achievements, the turn-to-turn mechanics are actually quite simple. Players begin their turn by drafting an order card from the central board. The cards align with one of four different colours displayed on the clan boards. Once the card is played in the appropriate column, the entire column is activated. This means future turns become more and more powerful as the game goes on.
What you get on your turn is also pretty straightforward. Some cards allow you to deploy new troops onto the board, while others will let you move troops. Still other cards allow you to build clan-specific buildings. More powerful options are tied to each clan’s tactics cards, which can provide a variety of unique benefits to help turn the tide of battle.
Another use for order cards is to place them facedown at the bottom of player boards as Noble Actions and pay the associated costs. Again, Noble Actions provide powerful benefits, the best of which gives players the opportunity to put heroes onto the board.
Heroes can help swing the momentum in fights and provide unique bonuses to the players who control them. For example, one such hero provides bonuses when the controlling player has fewer troops in a location than an attacker.
A Unique Battle System
Battles. While this might seem like the most important aspect of Gunsen, it’s actually only an equal part of all the other ways achievements can be earned. That said, winning a quick battle or two is an easy way to get two of your seven achievements, so at least some of your time will need to be spent looking for fights you know you can win.
As you play order cards onto your player board, you might provide yourself with a number of symbols that become important during fights. These symbols can add strength, blood, armour, and the ability to re-roll battle dice. When a player moves their troops into a space occupied by another player, a battle takes place during that player’s turn after the current column has finished resolving.
How Battles Are Resolved
First, players set their base values on the included battle tracker. Each troop in the contested space contributes strength. Players then look at their player boards and add any additional strength, blood, and armour symbols. Dice are rolled based on the appropriate symbols found on cards, and any additional strength, blood, and armour are added to the track. Then the battle is resolved.
The goal is to have more strength than your opponent. After everything is set, you’ll compare your blood value to your opponent’s armour value, and vice versa. If the blood value is higher than the armour value, troops may be lost. Those casualties are removed, but the strength they already contributed still counts for the current battle. When all checks are complete, players see who has the most strength, and whoever does wins the battle. The losing player is forced to retreat their troops.
This is a battle system I haven’t seen used in a board game before, and I really enjoyed it. It also provides a ton of choice when players take order cards at the start of their turns. Some cards provide immediate benefits like resources and troops. Others provide benefits only when fighting. If you don’t fight often, those cards are less valuable. Fight often, and you’ll probably wish you had taken more of them. That tension of what cards to take and when is incredibly satisfying, and one of the reasons I enjoy Gunsen so much.
Speed Conquers All, Despite Other Positive Moments
Ultimately, though, it is the quickness of the experience that makes Gunsen so attractive. I love an area control / troops-on-a-map experience, but they are often rules-heavy and can take hours to complete. In all my games of Gunsen so far, regardless of player count, they are always over within an hour and fifteen minutes. That’s impressive and, for once, fairly accurate to what is promised on the box.
I also love that battling other players isn’t the only way to victory. While a few fights are probably necessary in order to win the game, you can get by with only one or two total battles and still taste victory. For players who don’t appreciate such a head-on experience with other players, I can still sell them on this experience because there are so many other ways to earn those achievements.
This is a very clever and well-thought-out experience, and one I’d highly recommend to all types of board game players. If length is important, but you want that highly interactive experience, Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo is a phenomenal experience.
Adam Roffel
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