KrisHall: Senji Impressions

It seems as if a lot of negotiation games are economic in theme.  Settlers of Catan, Traders of Genoa, Chinatown, and Wheedle all are based on business and barter themes.

But multi-player wargames often have a negotiation aspect to them, and it is to this category that Senji aspires.  Senji (designed by Bruno Cathala and Serge Laget, and released last month by Asmodee Editions) is another game of competing warlords in Japan’s samurai era.  But Senji places the emphasis on negotiation rather than just combat, and has mechanisms designed to facilitate this facet of the game.

Each player gets a hand of diplomacy cards that are useless to him—except as a method of bartering with other players.  Each turn begins with a diplomacy phase in which players negotiate with each other for these cards.  To keep these bargaining sessions from becoming too long, the game comes with a four-minute timer.

Diplomacy cards come in three types: hostage cards, military support cards, and trade cards.  Hostage cards from other players can be used to score victory points, and the hostages can be killed to generate a victory point penalty if the appropriate enemy player attacks you.  Military support cards from other players are useful in combat, and can increase the chances of a player inflicting casualties on the enemy.  Trade cards are useful for collecting Hanafuda cards, a separate deck of cards that are collected in sets to generate victory points. 

The diplomacy cards themselves can be collected for victory points; turn in a set of cards from every other player and you can score ten points.

The other mechanics of the game are simple so as not to distract too much from the diplomacy at the heart of the game.  Each turn each player will place an order token face-down in each of his provinces.  These tokens can either generate troop reinforcements, order troops to move and attack, or create Hanafuda cards in the province.

The player with the highest victory point total each turn is said to “host the Emperor.” The player hosting the Emperor gets to decide the order in which provinces are resolved.  This can be quite important.  If you plan on attacking someone, it helps to get your troops into the victim’s province before they can raise reinforcements.

Last week the Appalachian Gamers played a four-player session of Senji, and the reaction was positive.  Dave (who won the game) combined a card-collection strategy with a moderate amount of military aggressiveness.  I tried a turtle strategy of building up my forces, collecting hostages, and then generating Handfuda cards, and I managed to come in a close second. 

We all agreed that a six-player game would be even more dramatic, and suspected that the game might need five or six players to really shine.  I hope to play a six-player session soon.

Comments: