Battle for Rokugan

Battle for Rokugan has been done a disservice by the easy comments. Some people called it an A Game of Thrones retheme, and plenty of players understandably stayed away, as though a setting could explain an entire game. It cannot. This is a very good area-control game with fighting, betrayal, and a faint echo of History of the World while still feeling like its own thing.

At its centre, players are competing for control of the map and its regions. Play moves through successive claims: you look for room to spread, work out where you must hold on, and decide which territory is worth making into somebody else’s next headache.

And it will become a headache. The interaction is not decorative; the conflicts have teeth, your choices put pressure on other players, and betrayal is part of the job rather than an occasional bit of theatre. You will pin someone in, force a choice between defence and attack, then wonder why they are looking at you like that. Because you hit them. Properly.

It also honours the spirit of its IP rather than using it as wallpaper. We came away thoroughly impressed, even if the glum Crab took the win. Battle for Rokugan is an unfairly overlooked, properly combative area-control game that deserves to step out of A Game of Thrones’ shadow.