Samurai by Reiner Knizia

Get this one on sale. Try it.. don't like it.. continue to play it.. then think its great! Still... only great if its on sale.

This is a perfect implementation of the boardgame with the same name. I LOVE IT! Learning the rules takes a few minutes, mastering the game takes, probably, a few months or years. There is 2, 3 and 4 player modes, against AI and against online players.

Cool game. Not that easy :]

Classic Knizia! This is a simple abstract strategy game with a good variety of AI opponents. Most achievements are tied to beating the various personalities. With your limited assortment of placeable tiles, you are tasked with surrounding and capturing caste tokens, hoping to collect the most of each of the three types by the end of the game. Some of your tiles are caste-specific, some (like the eponymous Samurai) are wild, some are (wild) ships that must occupy sea spaces, and some are special actions that let you move or reuse pieces for a surprise attack. Aciton tiles and wilds can also have a special kanji on them that lets you play an additional tile in the same turn. I always find it hard to compare Knizia's games to other, more familiar games, but I'd say Samurai plays like a cross between the area control of Go and the suit-matching concept in Root.

I have absolutely no idea why the physical release of this game is not getting a rerelease as... Samurai. There's a new retheme with some lame cherry blossom festival thingie... all I want is the original game with some nice artwork that doesn't cost a fortune!!!! Ahem, Anyway, if you just want to play the darn game against some AI players this is exactly what you want. Tutorial is helpful and short. The game is basically like a modified version of Go, and also very similar to RK's other games like Yellow and Yangtze (also on Steam and INSANELY cheaper than the physical release), and Through the Desert. If you like classic RK games this is one of his best and on Steam the price is right. Get it. It's infinitely cheaper than the physical board game as of the time I write this.

Fun game, now I don’t need to play board games alone :D