Honor of the Samurai

About this board game

Honor of the Samurai is a card game for 3–6 players, with play lasting about 60 minutes. Set during Japan’s Sengoku era, it recreates the struggle among feudal lords to establish a strong and legitimate Shogun.

Each player represents a family of Samurai and the Daimyo they serve. Through a combination of honorable weddings, weapons, cultural sponsorship, and military power, players seek to increase their family’s honor while attacking their rivals.

• Play as one Samurai family and its Daimyo.
• Use weddings, weapons, cultural sponsorship, and military power.
• Increase your family’s honor while attacking opposing families.
• Race to a previously agreed honor total.

The central contest is both political and personal: every family is working toward the same ultimate prize, but only one can reach the required honor first. The race creates a direct struggle among the Daimyos as they attempt to install themselves as Shogun.

Victory in Honor of the Samurai goes to the first player whose family reaches the previously stipulated amount of honor. That player becomes the new Shogun, bringing the Sengoku-era contest to an end.

Originally released in 1996, Honor of the Samurai focuses on the pursuit of honor, rivalry between Samurai families, and the ambition of Daimyos seeking legitimacy and power. Its setting and goal place every player in the heart of a contest to decide who will rule.