Gunsen: The Battle For Toshi Ranbo - Board Game Review
Transcript
Welcome to Allies or Enemies. I'm Jess.
And I am Sean. And today we are talking about Gunson, the battle for Tashi Rambo. And our copy was provided, but the thoughts are all our own. This is a two to six player game designed by Ben Rosset and Matthew Ali set in the world of Legend of the Five Rings. In this game, you'll play as one of seven different asymmetric samurai factions where you'll be building your engine, battling, and racing towards achievements. Let's take a look at how it plays. You start the game with a player board, a bunch of cards specific to your clan, as well as two random tactics, a couple of buildings, a few hero standies, some resources, a bunch of troops on your playerboard, and a few more on your fort. On your turn, you will first choose an order card from the row and then add it to the matching column on your playerboard, activating all of the cards and actions in that column. These will do things like strengthen your abilities in battle, gain more troops, get various resources, build buildings, buy tactics cards, and then usually move your troops at least once or more if you spend resources. And if those troops move into a space with enemy troops, you will also battle. This will mean rolling
dice and adding icons that you've gathered to defeat or even remove enemy troops. The point of all of this is to be the first to complete seven achievements, which you will gain by winning battles, collecting village tokens, controlling shrines, and Tshi Rambo, filling noble action spots, building buildings, gaining tactics, and finishing clan specific goals. The first to complete seven achievements is the winner and the greatest clan of all. So, my first thoughts when I heard about this game, well, my first thought was Tshi Rambo sounds like a great place to get some power converters. But then my next thought as soon as I looked into what the game was, was this seems a lot like what I assumed Scythe was before I played Scythe. Yeah, I think when a lot of people first see five side, they think it's going to be very combat focused because it's a hexore. There are a bunch of miniatures, but the focus is resource management, and that's not a knock on Scythe at all. I really like Scythe, but this game, the focus is on combat and area control, although both games share racing towards these different achievements.
Yeah. And this isn't just combat either. This is a whole mix of stuff. But if you're looking at both boards and thinking, "Oh, there's like a row of achievements and two of them are combat. This is basically going to be side." It's not. This is a very different game. But it just it feels like we got to do that little bit of comparison. But we'll stop talking about side now cuz let's talk about Gunson. And this is this was a surprising game actually in quite a few ways. One of those ways is the speed of this game.
Yeah, it plays very quickly. First of all, turns themselves are quite quick because you're just drafting a card, doing everything in that column, but everything's quite quick. You're just grabbing a whole bunch of resources or a bunch of people and then often moving once or twice. And we found that most of our games tend to end after like seven to eight turns, which is pretty quick, although it doesn't feel like too fast.
No, it doesn't feel too fast. And I think part of how this game kind of gets you like right into the action as well is that three of those four rows have you moving and usually you're going to move multiple times as well because they have one free move and then they have another move that's going to be one of those resources and it certainly isn't too stingy with those resources. So you end up just kind of getting right into each other's faces and the board's pretty small already. Like this is really a knife fight in a phone booth. And then they make it even smaller cuz you can warp to these watchtowers. And that doesn't cost that much to warp to those.
Yeah. And it's quite nice cuz the map itself isn't huge, but those watchtowers definitely help cuz it means you're not like just stuck on your side of the board. So if there are like four players playing, you're not constantly just having to fight your neighbor because you can easily warp right to the other side of the board and start fighting somebody else completely. And then let's not just talk about fighting because this isn't the only thing in this game. There are a bunch of different ways to get achievements. So you are also you're adding those tactic cards which are going to mostly add all the time powers for whatever it is you're doing. You are having those buildings and everyone's got a different building that is going to help get you something else. And you've also just got that engine that you're building with the cards that you're tucking on the top of your board and that is going to make it play pretty different every time. Yeah, it definitely does because your choice of what you're doing is going to be dictated by the market row of cards and what you can add and also just like what everybody else is doing. So, I do like that so many of the achievements aren't just focused on combat. So, you could very much have a player who is building their buildings, getting their tactic cards, and doing a bunch of the other non-combative things and kind of building up.
Yeah. But those cards sometimes I have felt a little bit like, "Oh, I really need to get more recruiting because that one can be a little bit tricky where if you just don't get any of those for like the first three turns, you don't have any dudes on the map." That makes life a little hard. But at the same time, you can build up on some of those other things, especially with the resources. And an interesting thing with this is, so there's one row that gets you wood and coins. Usually in games, you're going to get resources that don't help you pay for whatever is in that column. That's just a thing that most folks do when they're making a game. But here, you get the wooden coins. You can immediately spend those just to build your buildings and get your uh your tactics. And that can really build stuff for the future. So, if you can't get people right out of the gate, if you can't build up your army, you can kind of make it so well, once I get my army, things are really going to be tough for everyone else.
Yeah. And I was surprised by how much of an engine it does feel like you're building in such a short period of time cuz it's the engine of making those columns stronger. But then most of the things that you build will also give you an engine. Like the building that you're putting out, your tactics, all of that stuff contributes in a pretty like short gameplay. I like the combat in this game and it's pretty simple. Whenever there's a fight, both players are going to roll dice. There are three things the dice can show. Armor, swords, and blood. Swords are really important. It's how you win. Whoever has the most swords wins the combat. Blood gets rid of your opponent's pieces, and armor protects you from blood. So, the defender always rolls first. And everybody starts with an ability of being able to roll three dice and then pick two. You will be able to upgrade this throughout the game as well. So you might be able to have a roll or extra dice and then the attacker is going to roll and then you compare the results.
Yeah. And there's even though it is pretty simple because it's just that that dice roll, how many dice do I keep? Great. I'm going to move down these three tracks. There's a lot of thinking in that, especially as the defender, because it's kind of a am I gonna be able to beat you? Am I gonna have enough swords? Because there's a base to that as well. However many people you have in that region is going to automatically give you one sword per person. Then do I have a hero? That's going to give me more swords. Do I have blue cards or other cards that give me swords? That's going to give me more swords. And then you're going to roll those dice and think about, okay, is this going to be enough that I can win? And if it's not, maybe I just want to get rid of your people. Maybe I just take you out with me. So, okay, fine. You won the battle, but you got nobody left. So, how much did you really win? And I really like that in this game that you can lose a battle, still keep all your people and take out really knock them back a ways because they've lost three or four people.
Yeah. You know, it is interesting because you obviously also don't want them to win because that is one of the achievements. So ideally they don't, but if they're going to anyway, at least you can make it hurt. And we've had a lot of battles where there's just been nobody left at the end.
Mhm. Yeah, that definitely can happen. And it's interesting too with the cards cuz you've got everyone's got a goal card that is going to have to deal that is going to deal with battle. And some of those achievements can even happen if you lose battles. So for some of the factions, you really don't mind losing some of those battles.
Yeah. And one of the things we've learned is how valuable it can be to build up your combat engine. And being able to have those modifiers in combat can help a lot.
Yeah, it can. And also those heroes, too. And it's cool how every faction has its own different heroes. And those do play quite a bit different. So, there are seven different factions in this game. And they all have quite a few different things, but they don't play wildly differently. So, don't expect this to be like a route where you're doing completely different things. But each one of those factions has one special building that really does something different. Like one has get a coin every round or get a soldier every round. They they all really do something interesting. Then they all are going to have different tactic cards. Each one of them has three heroes. Two of those heroes are generally going to be fighty heroes. One's going to do something else. That's not always true, though. Then they also have different special order cards that you're going to put into those columns and those are going to make a big difference as well.
And they all have different goals. And so there are quite a few things and we have definitely found that those play differently.
Yeah, they do. And I like having the mix. And we find that generally they might be pointing you to go down a certain direction. And it's probably good if you lean into that because you're going to get these bonuses that will help you through the tactic cards or being able to accomplish goals more easily, but you don't necessarily have to follow that path.
Yeah, you you don't it is generally good cuz there are things like the Lion Faction, which we found is kind of strong, but none of these feel overly strong. And I think even when they're strong, there's kind of downsides to it as well. So, the Lion Faction has a a building that's going to get you a soldier at the end of every round. And they also have an ability where you get a soldier for every soldier that you kill in battle, which obviously those both sound really strong, but you only have 15 possible soldiers. Once those are out, those are doing nothing for you. And I think all of the buildings are kind of like that where there's kind of a plus and a minus. And I haven't found that any of these are so so unbalanced. But you are right that you can just do different things cuz you can always just building your two buildings, putting out your three tactics, that's two of your achievements right there than just standing on a couple different places. That's going to be more achievements. So you can totally do this in other ways, but it is fun that you can lean into that and you can play quite a bit differently with each faction.
Gunson the battle for Tashi Rambo is a game for two to six players and we've played this at two to four and it works at all those player counts but I will say that this is a better game at those slightly higher player counts. So four I think worked the best for us.
Yeah, I think it's best at four players because there are more players involved. There's a lot more fighting. There's a lot more chaos and because a core part of this game is area control, it's just a lot more interesting when there are more people involved. And to be able to hold on to Tashi Rambo with three other opponents becomes quite a big challenge.
Yeah, it does. And that's the only achievement that you can lose. Yeah.
Is and you'll you'll keep the one for having ever taken it. But when you first take Tshi Rambo, you actually have two achievements. one for having ever taken it and one for currently having it and you're going to lose that currently having it all the time. Also getting those shrines, it's more fun when you when you're fighting a lot of people to get those shrines. At two players though, you do only have two shrines, so you got to be able to hold on to both of them. It's not like you've got to hold on to two out of those three. You also have a much more squished playing area. And I I like what they did with the board here because the four player board is bigger, has more stuff on it, but the two and three player board doesn't feel necessarily smaller because they use that extra space as a card row. And I think that's really clever, too. But you do still fight a lot, but there is a bit more uh kind of competition in the market at two players because you know what the other person wants and you're going to do more blocking them for it.
Yeah, we definitely had a game where I really needed troops and you kept taking the only recruit card in the market and I was a bit unlucky that the recruit card wasn't showing up. So, it can be a positive or a negative that you have more control over the market. And I think it's interesting because you really have to keep your opponent in check. It's only up to you. So if you wanted to avoid combat, maybe not go for Tshi Robo, you're opening that up to your opponent and there's nobody else to hold them back.
Yeah, you just got to fight each other and fight each other and fight each other. At four players, you that kind of balances out. Although you can become a target, but that's usually if you're leading. So then you kind of deserve to don't be so good early in the game. We have not played this at five and six, but I imagine even at five and six, this isn't going to take too long because those those turns are so snappy because it's still probably going to end after seven or eight rounds. I think this game's always going to stay mostly under that twoish hour mark, which is nice for a game of this scope and with this much going on. I think where the components really shine in this game is with the little things. I love that every faction has its own little mini box where you've got everything nicely placed. It makes it really like shockingly quick to set up this game. They are all the same sculpt and they are all made of plastic, all those little samuris. And I know that is definitely going to be a negative for some folks, but the positive on that is that they they look pretty cool. And five of those little samurai guys fit really nicely into those hex's. And so I like the scale of all of this isn't so much because you can comfortably fit four people playing this game at a normalized table.
Yeah. Which is nice cuz we sometimes have found with these kind of games that you almost need like side tables for all of the player pieces. So I do think the the sizing of everything works. I also like the artwork. I think the board looks really nice and the art for the different heroes looks cool. And I think in terms of graphic design and just gameplay, everything's been really clear because there are different powers for the buildings and for the heroes and for the tactics, everything is just written out in a way that we haven't had any issues so far.
Yeah, we haven't. I'm sure that there are some times where this tactic with this building and this thing maybe gets slightly confusing. I can imagine that happening, but it hasn't happened to us yet in any of our games. Everything's been pretty clear. And those icons, like on the main cards that you're putting into your columns, that's super clear, super easy to see immediately. You only have a few different resources that that you're managing. Those are all very different and they all make sense for the stuff that they're doing. And it's just those boxes. I love those little boxes. They're so pretty. They look so nice when you put them in. And they do they use some of the nicer card art again on the back of those boxes so that gets showcased a little bit more. And the art they've really done a good job on the art.
So who is this game for? And I think there's a pretty obvious answer to that, but I think there's also a bit of a surprising answer. So obviously this game is going to be for people who like fighting games. If you like fighting games, if you like asymmetric games, if you like area control games, this does all that stuff. It does it in a in a way that, you know, is borrowing a bit from a bunch of different games, but putting it together in a way that I haven't necessarily seen before and in a way that's really quick and fairly simple. But I think there is also a bit of a surprise audience and I was surprised that you like this game as much as you do.
Yeah, cuz I typically am not a big fan of area control games, but I think for this game, it's not just fighting. There are other things that you're doing in terms of the buildings and the tactics and all the other achievements. And you're building an engine. And I really like the satisfaction of being able to build an engine that works. And I like that the combat doesn't feel as harsh because maybe you're able to at least get rid of some of their guys and also you're just generally able to rebuild quite quickly that it often doesn't feel like a devastating blow.
Yeah. Yeah. It's not a game where, oh, it took me so long to get these resources and now you've destroyed it and I'm done for. It's okay, I lost that stuff, but next turn I can pretty easily get five new guys right now. I could warp those across the map to a watchtowwer. I can maybe even move those again and just attack you right away next turn. And maybe you lost some guys in the last battle. So, I really don't feel that bad about it. And there are a lot of other avenues you can take to get those achievements. I don't think you could win a game without ever fighting. And I don't think this is a game for you if you want to try and win a game without ever fighting. This is a game you got samuris on a map. They're all holding swords. Those guys want to get into some scraps. So, let them. But you can definitely do other things and you are still going to be rewarded for making some clever choices and for building that engine.
And this game did work better than I expected at two players, even though it probably works best at four or more. And also, if you don't know anything about Legend of the Five Rings or have any idea what Guns in the Battle for Tashi Rambo means, then you're much like me. I don't think you're missing out on anything. I don't think any of that knowledge is necessary. I don't have any of that knowledge at all. And I still felt like these are interesting factions and this was still a very cool game. And that is it. Have you played Guns in the Battle for Tashi Rambo? What did you think? think and are there other quick playing games that have this kind of scope that you've really enjoyed?
Thank you so much for watching. As usual, please like, subscribe, and hopefully we'll see you next time for another game.