Shogun is a resource management game with a feudal Japanese war game theme.
In many respects, this is a new edition of Wallenstein.
It is played in two rounds representing years, divided into four seasons. The first three seasons are divided into ten actions, and the fourth season is a scoring round.
The game requires that players submit their ten orders -- which provinces execute which actions -- knowing the order of only the first five actions. Also, four events are known, but not which will apply for the season. And bidding for turn order then occurs, so players don't even know that yet. This leads to a high level a strategic thinking in which players attempt to account for the things they don't know yet as best they can.
Two battle actions occur during a season, and battles are fought by tossing cubes of the two opponents into a tower, and seeing which has the most come out for the win. Some cubes end up getting stuck in the tower, ready for the next battle. This novel mechanic means that battles are fairly predictable, but surprise losses means that the next battle gives the loser an advantage.
The game has a high production value, with thick card board tokens, wooden cubes, wooden markers, small cards, and a mostly pre-assembled tower made of thick card board and clear plastic.
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