Senjutsu: Battle for Japan Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Senjutsu: Battle for Japan, a dueling/skirmish game published by Lucky Duck Games. Senjutsu: Battle for Japan has players facing off an an ancient samurai duel.

The Master and Student faced off from across the icy field. The student lunged first and his katana devastatingly slashed some bamboo that was nearby. Meanwhile, the Master side-stepped and blocked an attack that wasn’t coming, unless that rock decided now was its time to strike.

But it wasn’t time, so it stayed inanimate as rocks typically do.

Their eyes narrowed at each other as the wind blew some blossoms off the cherry tree. Who would make the next move?

Senjutsu: Battle for Japan is a 1-4 player game where players battle as various samurai against each other or as a solo-player campaign.

This will just be a brief explanation of the major rules since there are a lot of exceptions that come up throughout play. Before beginning players can either customize their deck of cards or use pre-generated decks. Players will set their tokens on the advantage track and set the kame tracker on the neutral space. Players start with a hand of cards that includes a character-specific core and weapon card.

At the start of a turn, each player draws a card to their hand and then selects a card they want to play and places it face down. Once all the players have selected a card, each player pays their card’s required costs starting with mandatory costs and then any optional costs. Then, starting with the bottom of the advantage tracker, players can opt to use an instant replacement card (also paying any mandatory costs, if any).

Players with variable initiative cards can pick the speed they want it to activate at (these cards are usually defensive cards). Cards are