RAN

About this board game

RAN is a 2–4 player historical wargame with an approximately 240-minute play time, covering seven battles from Japan’s Sengoku Jidai, or Age of Warring States. It is the 12th volume in the Great Battles of History series and the series’ second game focused on samurai warfare.

The game portrays the highly personal style of warfare developed by Japanese samurai. Formal battles provided the setting for individual feats of courage, bravery, and devotion, while political and tactical victory remained the ultimate goal. The arrival of Portuguese arquebuses also marks this period as the Dawn of Modern Warfare, even as Japanese battles retained their swirling, non-linear character.

Seven scenarios present a wide range of historical situations, armies, and terrain:

• Mimase Toge: The Takeda attempt to return to their castle while the larger Hojo force seeks to ambush them.
• Mimigawa: The Otomi retreat from a siege before attacking the Shimazu relief force.
• Nagakute: Tokugawa and Ikeda clash across mountains and rice paddies.
• Nunobeyama and Oktanawate: The Amako face the Mori, while the Ryuzoji confront the Shimazu.
• Suriagehara: Date Masamune holds against an initially effective attack, with reserves playing a key role.
• Tennoji: A full-map battle involving more than 250,000 men and numerous arriving reinforcements.

All battles use one-half of a map except Tennoji. The box includes five countersheets, two back-printed battle maps, battle and scenario rulebooks, five charts and tables cards, two record sheets, and a ten-sided die. In RAN, the title chosen by filmmaker Kurosawa for his samurai version of King Lear roughly means “Chaos.”