Milton Bradley’s Shogun: The game with many names

Milton Bradley’s Shogun: The game with many names

A few years back, I purchased a used copy of Shogun, the Milton Bradley version from the 1980s. It was recommended to me by a friend who had said that the game was way better than Axis and Allies, another Milton Bradley game from that era that I also owned. At the time, Axis and Allies had been the longest and most complicated game I had played (this was in my early stages of the hobby), and when I saw a pretty decent used copy of Shogun a few days after the recommendation, I snatched it up right away. And then it sat on my bookcase for years …

That is, until last weekend. I finally rallied 4 other players to tackle this game with me, and we set the date to play. We all looked up the rules online so that we would be ready for combat on game day. Of the 5 of us, there were two of us who hadn’t played it before, one of them being me. We all laughed that for such an old game, many of us still had a version of this Milton Bradley gem. The game, originally called Shogun, changed into Samurai Swords during a re-release in 1995, and was renamed Ikusa during the 2011 re-release under a different company.

The previous owner of this game took good care of it! Everything was neatly sorted into ziploc bags and all is in pretty good shape. Plus, swords! Also, the most important items in the rulebook was highlighted, which came in handy during game time.
The previous owner of this game took good care of it. Everything was sorted into ziploc bags and was in pretty good shape. Plus, swords! The most important items in the rulebook was highlighted, which came in handy during game time.

The rules online for Ikusa is a 32-page PDF. Yep, 32 pages! And in our research in learning how to play the game, we realized that there aren’t many video tutorials online on game play since the game is pretty ancient by board-game standards. The rulebook is easy to follow though; there’s just so much information! Also, the box is massive! It doesn’t fit in a bookcase as it’ll stick out awkwardly. Thus my copy sits on top of the bookcase, along with the Axis and Allies box, since they don’t match all the other box sizes.

The previous owner of this copy took good care of this game. All the pieces, which there are seriously a million of, were all separated in ziploc bags. There were a few broken pieces but that’s expected for a game this old. The game takes place in feudal Japan where 2-5 players try to take control of provinces by fighting other players. The person who controls 35 provinces wins the game. All players start with the same number of provinces, which are randomly handed out. We then take time to place our troops two at a time on these provinces.

Each player is in charge of 3 daimyos, or generals, and those daimyos take charge and fight other armies for control.  All players receive the same number of troops: 36 ashigaru spearmen, 9 ashigaru gunners, 9 samurai swordsmen, 9 samurai bowmen and 6 flag bearers. Each of the military units has a combat value, and your armies, which are headed by the daimyos, can only hold 15 units on the army card. Each square on the army card shows what type of unit can be placed there.

Here are my red unit pieces. One of my flag bearers had broken in half, but that's expected for such an older game with small plastic pieces.
Here are my red unit pieces. One of my flag bearers had broken in half, but that’s expected for such an older game with small plastic pieces. You can see my sword sitting proudly in the holder.

The game is played in rounds, which is broken up into nine actions.

  1. Plan.
  2. Determine turn order.
  3. Build.
  4. Levy units.
  5. Hire ronin.
  6. Hire ninja.
  7. Wage War (A. Move daimyos armies. B. Declare battles. C. Conduct combat. D. Final movement).
  8. Remove ronin.
  9. Collect koku.

During the planning stage, player use their koku (income) to bid on what they want to do for the round. This is done behind the player shield and is revealed simultaneously when everybody is ready. There are five spots to divide your koku — turn order, building, levying units, hiring ronin and hiring ninjas. Use up all your koku each round as they don’t carry over.

The person who bid the most in the turn-order spot gets to pick when he or she wants to go. If there is a tie, they can resolve it among themselves or it can be random. The rest of the folks who didn’t bid will also get a random turn order.  The neat thematic thing about this version of the game is having swords to determine turn order. People have lamented that future versions of this game got all lame because they removed the swords and just use cardboard turn markers. Swords are definitely way more awesome! And my version still has the little styrofoam stands that hold up the swords. A great thematic detail!

 

Here's what it looks like being your player shield. You secretly allocate you koku and everybody then reveals. It also gives a guide to each unit's combat value plus the action sequences for a round.
Here’s what is behind your player shield. You secretly allocate your koku, and everybody then reveals. It also has a guide to each unit’s combat value and the round’s action sequences.

In order to build, a player must allocate 2 koku, and this allows building of a castle or a fortress, which is basically upgrading a castle. The castle or fortress adds temporary defense units for the province it’s in. A castle or fortress can never be destroyed; it just moves ownership to the person controlling the province.

The next step is levying units. For every koku you place in the bin, you can either levy 1 samurai bowman, 2 samurai swordsmen, 2 ashigaro gunners, or 3 ashigaru spearmen. There is a 1-unit-per-province limit when playing them on the board or your army board.

A player can also hire ronin, which can do sneak attacks on the enemy. For each koku, a player can hire 2 or more ronin and deploy them secretly in one or more provinces. The ronin are effective because of the element of surprise and their high combat value of 5. When you hire a ronin, take the province card you want him to sit in and place it facedown in front of you. That card stays facedown until you prepare to attack or defend. The drawback of a ronin is that they cannot move or fight themselves; they must be with an army or provincial force. At the end of the round, in Step 8, ronin are removed.

Step is 6 is hiring the ninja — who doesn’t love a ninja? Well, I guess if you’re his target … There’s only one ninja in the game, and the person who bids the most koku receives the ninja. If there’s a tie with the koku, nobody receives the ninja. The ninja can be used to spy on an opponent’s allocation of koku before a round or to try an assassination attempt on an opponent’s daimyo. To attempt an assassination, you have to roll an 8 or less. If you roll a 9 or more, your attempt fails. And then the intended victim can strike back! If the intended victim rolls a 9 or more, he or she can choose to assassinate a daimyo from the ninja-hirer. If an 8 or less is rolled, the attempt fails.

This is what the board looked like when we first randomly handed out provinces and placed our starting troops on the board.
This is what the board looked like at the beginning when we randomly handed out provinces and placed our starting troops. There were three provinces left, which was up for grabs in war.

And now it gets to the good part: waging war. This step has four phases. The first phase is moving your daimyos’ armies. As daimyos win more battles, their experience level goes up, which then allows them to move that many spaces. The next phase is declaring battles. You can only attack an enemy in an adjacent province. You show this by placing a battle marker on the border. When you declare battles from a province with an army and provincial force, the army or provincial force can attack alone, or each troop can attack an adjacent or empty province separately. You show this by placing battle markers for each troop.

The next phase is combat. Your handy-dandy player shield breaks down the combat sequence and the combat points for each unit. The sequence goes like this: bowmen, gunners, remove casualties, daimyos, swordsmen and ronin, spearmen, remove casualties. You can repeat the sequence until the attacker calls off battle. A player scores a hit whenever the player rolls a combat value or less for that unit. Each player who suffers casualties can choose which unit to remove. If you’re battling with an army, the daimyo is the last casualty to be removed. If your last daimyo is eliminated, you are out of the game and the player who killed your last daimyo instantly owns all your units and provinces.

The last phase of war is final movement. The attacking player can move army or provincial forces into an adjacent empty or friendly province. If you conquer an enemy’s province or an empty province, take that province card from your enemy’s hand or from the pile on the table and add it to your hand. At this point, you can also remove battle markers from the board. The next steps are removing ronin and collecting koku. To calculate income, you count up the provinces you control and divide by 3, rounding down. No player can collect less than 3 koku. To win the game, a player must gain control of 35 provinces. There are 68 provinces on the board, which are randomly assigned to players at the beginning of the game.

And this is what the game looked like about 3.5 hours in. The board looks less crowded but it's only because armies have picked up units and have been placed on the army card instead.
And this is what the game looked like about 3.5 hours in. The board looks less crowded but it’s only because armies have picked up units and have been placed on the army card instead.

Our game lasted just a little over 5 hours. The first person was eliminated a little before the 4 hour mark. I was next to go, at the 4.5 hour mark. There were 3 players left, but it was really between 2 superpowers coming toward each other from opposite sides of the board, with the third guy unable to make progress from the middle. I originally had been gaining strength by fortifying from the east but then made a mistake by being aggressive too early and moving along the sea line to Kii. I was hoping to attack my nearest enemy from opposite sides but one of my daimyos got killed there, and then it was downhill from there. The first guy to get eliminated kept saying how much he wasn’t a fan of dice games, to which another guy — who eventually came in second — said yes, there is dice rolling but there is strategy in fortifying your troops to give you the best odds.

There are more rules and items that I didn’t bring up in this post because I just wanted to highlight the basic gist of the game. There is a lot of strategy involved in planning moves, moving your armies and guessing what other players are going to do next — like with most other area-control games. But I totally enjoyed Shogun’s theme, plus the swords are an awesome touch.  I would love it play it again, now knowing better strategy of when to fortify and when to attack.

Shogun was one of five games in the Gamemaster series that Milton Bradley released in the 1980s. My friends were also talking about Fortress of America, too, which some of them own a copy. Maybe we’ll tackle that next. Who has played this version of Shogun before and what was your experience like?

16 Replies to “Milton Bradley’s Shogun: The game with many names”

  1. How does this version compare to others?
    Is this version worth getting over one of the newer versions?
    Don’t they use some cube tower?

    1. Hi there! Both Shoguns are great, but the one with the dice tower is a completely different game. This old Shogun is now called Ikuza. Happy gaming!

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  3. I just googled Shogun to find an example to show someone on Facebook, because we were discussing old games we still own. I knew it had gone through a couple of name changes, so I wasn’t sure I’d find an original picture.
    I appreciate your entire post about it. I got my copy brand new for Christmas when I was in high school, maybe 1988, I guess? My group were also fans of Axis and Allies and Fortress America.
    When we’re in the mood and have the time, this one’s a great alternative to Risk.
    And now, as a starting game designer, I’m think I’m going to start following your blog.

    1. Your comments warm my heart! Thank you for reading, and I suspect that there’s a large number of gamers for whom this game taps into a very specific period of childhood as this entry is consistently a most-read post! I also have a copy of that old Axis & Allies and have played it often, but I have yet to play Fortress America. Some of my buddies have it, so I should send that up higher on my to-play list. What type of games are you starting to design?

      1. Those MB games do have a special place in my burgeoning boardgaming life. I played Fortress America again just a couple of years ago, while watching the original Red Dawn in the background. Wolverines!
        I’m starting with smaller, less complicated, party-type games, I suppose. But also I am working on a couple of games with educational purpose (specifically math practice that is more fun that Flash Cards). I’m hoping the website will be live by next week, and I’ll share it with you if you’d like to have a look.

        1. wow watching red dawn and playing fortress America… that’s a way to bring back the good ole days, might have to do that myself

          1. Hope you get a chance to! Everyone is really nostalgic about these games from this series.

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  5. I played Samurai Swords back in the 20th Century and got his copy when my friend who owned it died. I liked it enough that after all these years I’d like to get some other gamer friends to play it. Closest other game I can think of to it was Castle Risk, which I didn’t like nearly as much. I like multi-player games with both strategic and tactical aspects, and I think this one balances them nicely without having so many pieces that it becomes too slow and unwieldy. However, my recollection was that if you had 5 players, chances are that one of them would be seriously screwed in initial position.

    Now that I have the literal eyes of a 66-year-old, I think I’ll appreciate the size of the pieces. I hope to find out soon.

    1. I’ve had that experience, too, with 5P! Hope you get it on table soon, and thanks for sharing your memories of the game.

  6. Hey . great review. Sadly all my games are located back home in Australia and i now working in Bahrain. Cost of Transporting them to this country is more than the cost of buying a version online and paying shipping.

    Having said that, which version would you recommend i buy. I own the original Shogun , but i know it was updated a few times and names changed.

    I like all the original components , especially the swords as you mention

    Thanks

    1. Hi there! I’ve only played the original Shogun, so I’m not sure I can recommend which version is best. But there seem to be a lot of copies of my version out there in the wild, and I have greatly enjoyed playing my copy.

  7. Hmmm I have been playing Shogun since 1986 before the first Shogun Total War….since Shogun Total War was a blatant rip off of the Milton Bradley Board Game Shogun.

    The REAL Shogun, designed by Michael Gray, was first released in 1986 by Milton Bradley as part of their Gamemaster series.

    Shogun: Total War was announced in early 1999, developed by The Creative Assembly under Electronic Arts. Development was led by Michael Simpson, a former microchip designer who had joined the company three years prior. (Who probably played the MB Board Game Version of Shogun and got his ideas from it)

    Shogun Total War was basically the video game version of the board game and for the life of me I don’t know how CA did not get sued for it. It had the same map and regions also the whole Army representation of one piece on the board representing the whole army stack was in the board game…you had one piece on the board and you had a separate board that had all the unit pieces in your army on it. I think CA should give credit where credit is due and acknowledge the real roots of Shogun Total War. But it still does not change that I Love it and I Love ALL the Total War games that came because of their real roots and inspiration in the MB Shogun Board Game.

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