Ninja Taisen

About this board game

Ninja Taisen is a two-player, 20-minute dice-driven abstract game of tactical movement, hidden? No—open information, and colorful fighter clashes along an eleven-step line.

Each player commands an identical set of ten fighters: three fighters in each of three colors, valued from 1 to 3, plus a tri-colored boss valued at 4. The fighters begin in small stacks of varying sizes during a random setup, creating a different battlefield arrangement for every game.

On your turn, roll the three colored dice and make up to three moves. Each die lets you move a fighter of its color. When a fighter has others stacked on top of it, moving that fighter carries the rest of the stack along, making the order and positioning of your forces crucial.

• Open information: Both players can assess the battlefield and available stacks.
• Color-based combat: Encounters use a rock-paper-scissors relationship between colors.
• Value-based clashes: When colors do not decide the fight, the higher number wins.
• Stack battles: Fights between opposing piles continue until one pile is depleted.

If a moving fighter or stack meets an enemy, the top fighters of both stacks fight first. A boss that wins has its power reduced by the enemy’s power for the rest of that fight. When fighters draw, both retreat one step toward their own village, potentially triggering further fights during the same turn.

Victory comes by defeating all opposing fighters or by reaching the end of the line and clearing the opponent’s fighters from their village. With its random setup, rolling decisions, and direct combat system, Ninja Taisen turns every move into a contest of timing, color, and numerical strength.