Shogun

Set up Shogun by placing the double-sided board in the center of the table. Separate all cards by type, including province cards, event cards, action cards, and special cards. Prepare the plastic tray with war chests, buildings, neutral armies, and revolt markers. Each player selects a color, takes their personal player board, matching daimyo card, a set of army cubes, tall and short disks, and starting war chests determined by player count. Players acquire initial provinces through a drafting process using province cards and placing cubes. Finally, prepare the battle tower by dropping specified cubes from each player and neutral armies, removing fallen cubes, and the game is ready to begin.

The objective of Shogun is to become the most powerful daimyo in 16th-century Japan by controlling provinces and constructing valuable buildings. Players must skillfully manage military campaigns, defend their territories against rival daimyos and peasant revolts, and strategically allocate resources to maximize their victory points across a two-year conflict.

Each of the two years consists of four normal action rounds (Spring, Summer, Autumn) and one winter round. The game flow per round includes laying out action and special cards, a secret planning phase where players bid war chests and place cards on their player boards to determine action order and locations, determining events, setting turn order through bidding, and executing the ten actions in sequence. Combat and movement are resolved using the battle tower, where attacking and defending cubes are dropped to determine casualties.

Scoring occurs at the end of each winter round. First, players score victory points for every province they control. Second, players score regional bonuses based on the quantity of castles, temples, and theaters they have built across five distinct geographic regions. Ties in regional building counts are resolved by awarding one less point to all tied players.

The game concludes at the end of the second year's winter scoring phase. The player who has accumulated the highest total of victory points is declared the Shogun and winner of the game. In the event of a tie, the player holding the most remaining war chests claims victory.