Board game review of Senjutsu – Battle for Japan: TCG feeling with miniatures

Games in which ancient Japan and its samurai play a leading role have recently become very popular, both analogue and digital. In the video game segment, Sekiro and Ghost of Tsushima have attracted attention. In the board games segment, Rising Sun from CM extension A new analogue representative has entered the race this year with Senjutsu: Battle for Japan. It goes back in time to the Sengoku period known from Sekiro. In terms of gameplay, it also feels a bit like the successful digital title. You can find out how Senjutsu fares in the following review.

The Ashikaga Shogunate has collapsed after centuries of rule, throwing feudal Japan into a brutal civil war. Clans betray each other, daimyos seek to gain power and recognition. As samurai pledged to their clan, it is our job to defeat any enemy that threatens our lord's ambitions. Blood will flow and great warriors will fall in this brutal battle for Japan.

Deck Creation & Simple Basic Rules

Senjutsu: Battle for Japan is a deck-building game that is slightly reminiscent of classic TCGs. Before we start the game, we can cobble together a deck of 243 cards from the 40 ability cards. Depending on which cards we include in our deck, we can let our samurai act more defensively or more offensively. Since creating a deck can be a bit overwhelming at the beginning, so-called trademark decks for the four different samurais are also available at the beginning. With these, you can jump right into the game without having to think too much about building your deck beforehand. The trademark decks are a good thing, especially for spontaneous games. Senjutsu can be played within 15 - 20 minutes. Including the construction of a suitable deck, however, the game can easily take an hour.

The basic principle of Senjutsu is quite simple, as with TCGs. At the start of a round, everyone involved draws a card from their deck. They then choose a card from their hand and place it face down in front of them. Once all players have placed a card in front of them, it is revealed and any costs required to play the card are paid. You can now react to the cards played using so-called immediate replacement cards. Whichever person is furthest behind on the advantage track starts and can discard their played card in order to play an immediate replacement card. This makes sense, for example, if you notice that another person is about to attack and you would rather block it, or if you want to have a better position in terms of initiative.

Initiative determines the course of battle

After all players have decided on their card, the people who have a card with variable initiative can decide on a fixed initiative. The initiative determines when the card is used. If there are cards with the same initiative, the type of card (defense, attack, meditation, core) determines which one is used first.

All cards are then processed one after the other in initiative order. The effects of each individual card are processed from top to bottom. If an attack is played, it is only repelled if the defense card has the same initiative as the attack itself. In addition, the defense card must block the area being attacked or the path to it. The attack also only goes through if an opposing figure is in the grid of the attack card.

If an attack is successful, the attacked character suffers wounds. Each character has a maximum limit of 5 wounds. If this limit is exceeded, they are defeated. In addition to wounds, a character can also be defeated by stun cards. Stun cards block a space in the hand. As soon as the number of stun cards equals or exceeds the hand limit, the character is also defeated. However, unlike wounds, stun cards can be gotten rid of by playing them instead of an ability card. If you do this, you skip this round.

A lot of overview needed

A samurai is also close to defeat as soon as his deck is completely empty. From then on, you have to draw wounds instead of a card from the deck. It can be particularly nasty if you get a bleeding wound. This forces us to discard a card from our deck at the beginning of a round. Not only do we lose valuable abilities, but we also get closer to the end of our deck more quickly.

You also have to keep an eye on the terrain. This blocks attacks and has negative effects if you step on it. However, you can also use it to your advantage by pushing an opposing samurai into the terrain or by positioning yourself in the terrain to be a little more protected. The placement of your own samurai is an important part of the game in Senjutsu. You have to pay attention to how you stand and in which direction you are facing. The right timing is also extremely important. When do I attack, when do I stay back. Here you also have to keep a close eye on the fighting position.

The so-called Kamae tree shows the current fighting position of our samurai. There are a total of three Kamae positions that can influence which cards we can play or what our played ability card triggers. A card can have various abilities, but only one is triggered because we are in the aggressive fighting position.

Solo & Cooperative Campaign

Senjutsu also comes with a solo and a cooperative campaign. The latter is designed for two players. Both campaigns tell their stories in the form of a manga-like comic. The playing field here is made up of cards from the campaign booklet combined with the game material from the standard game, which sometimes results in really nice cards for battle. The deck structure of the opponents and your own samurai is always fixed.

Information about Senjutsu: Battle for Japan

Conclusion

The depth of Senjutsu comes from creating your deck at the beginning of a game and anticipating your opponents. What could the next steps be? How should I position myself? When should I attack? In Senjutsu, you should ideally be one step ahead of your opponent. All of this makes Senjutsu seem very elegant. Like a samurai, you have to wait for the right moment. You dance around your opponent and strike at the right moment. In terms of feeling, it's excellent! However, in my opinion, this only really works well with two players.

With three or even four people, Senjutsu just becomes hectic and less fun. At some point, everyone is huddled together in a group and you try to do a little harm to everyone. The feeling that you are playing an elegant, good game still comes across, but you are not really enthusiastic after the game. There is just too much going on and you have to adapt to too many people at the same time. Ultimately, it just wasn't as much fun as the exciting 1-on-1 duels.

Solo Senjutsu didn't convince me either. There are lots of detailed rules for the AI ​​opponents, but ultimately you're just playing against yourself. While your own turns are over quickly, the turns of an AI opponent seem to take twice as long. You have to decide for yourself how the AI ​​behaves towards you, because it mainly has preferences. In the end, the AI ​​should always be played in a way that "makes it worse for your own character." This leads to you picking up the rule book to somehow look for a solution to the current situation, only to end up not finding one and thinking about how you would play the opposing character yourself. That's just not fun.

In general, the Senjutsu instructions are simply not well structured. There is a clear table of contents that helps you to quickly browse through the book, but when you read it for the first time, you simply don't understand much of the rules. This is because the instructions seem to be all jumbled together. For example, the sequence of moves is described twice in the instructions. Once in detail, once in brief. In between, numerous other detailed rules are explained. This is just confusing and throws you off completely.

But even if there is a lot to complain about here, Senjutsu is not a bad game. It is particularly charming when played by two players and is convincing. It is also fun to abuse the battlefields from the campaign for your two-person combat duels. These are designed to be very varied. People who are looking for a quick game for two players that offers a lot of room to experiment and complements the TCG feeling with great miniatures should definitely take a look at Senjutsu.

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