Review of the board game Rising Sun.
Review of the board game Rising Sun.
People got lost. Weakness and decadence persist now in the lands of Nippon, where society was once strong and determined. The forgotten deities, Kami, have returned and will force the world to change if necessary.
“In the early spring of the great New Year, the Kami gathered their holy clans with one effort: to restore the lands of Nippon and return them to their honorable, spiritual tradition.
However, due to its proud tradition, each clan is bound by a unique vision of this great return and must wage a strong diplomatic war in eight provinces.
Alliances must be made, betrayal is inevitable, honorable ups and downs. It is necessary to navigate political mandates and wage a devastating war, each gaining expertise and cunning negotiations. "
As the shogun of the Kami clan, you will lead one of these ancient clans into battle and victory.
Read the full review of the Rising Sun board games below.
- For 3 to 5 players. Playback time from 90 to 120 minutes
- Unique combat system: Eric m. Lang has developed completely ...
- Fantasy art: a work of art by the legendary Adrian Smith Will ...
A brief overview of the rising sun
The Rising Sun is a huge game to control the area from the mind of Eric Lang, the same guy who brought us Blood Rage .
It is a fantasy imaginative, loosely based on Japanese folklore. Keep this in mind while reading the rest of the article. Here the keywords are fantasy and loose .
We'll get to that in a minute.
In Rising Sun, players take on the role of shoguns (Japanese generals) leading one of the old Kamis (gods) clans against their rivals.
It is basically a free quarrel between the gods.
The gods are weird, so it’s not just a slugfest. The honor of the clan plays an important role in conquest and you may think that losing a battle can be more beneficial than winning.
The rising sun is much more than it appears on the surface, so let’s take a look.
Variations and extensions
Rising Sun: Dynasty Invasion
Dynasty Invasion adds two completely new offensive factions. Even these factions did not come empty-handed. They come with their gods, whom they worship exclusively for new factions, but they also have their own special abilities and powers.
- New clans, more players - Moon Clan and Sun Clan offer ...
- Seven lucky gods - new clans offer a new acting experience ...
- Extremely detailed plastic miniatures - clans of the new moon and sun, ...
Rising sun: Kami unbound
In Kami Unbound, Kami themselves are upgraded. Everyone has their own mini and takes a physical manifestation on the board. They are also much stronger and give new bonuses and abilities when they perform on the board.
- Kami has come to life - kami from the central game of the rising sun are ...
- Provincial authorities - now physically manifested Kami not only ...
- Kits for the new season - players can add a set of cards for the mountain season ...
Rising sun: a pack of monsters
4 new monsters have been added to the monster pack that can be recruited by your clan. Each is accompanied by appropriate maps for his employment and appropriate miniatures . They all look amazing and I think I really like Jenmen who has a really cool demonic mini tree that allows you to steal resources from opponents.
- Monster Miniatures - 4 new monsters represent ...
- New abilities - monster offers impressive, new abilities ...
Unpacking the rising sun
As with all CMON board games, you get a box full of wonderful mini.
The rising sun has a lot of minis and some pretty neat ones. The minis are also unique to each faction. They all work the same, but it’s kind of cool to have different minis for each character group.
Components:
- 1 main board (map of Japan)
- 7 God's tiles
- 30 Coins
- 5 Clan screens
- 10 colored clan tokens
- 5 clan alliance tokens
- 30 Bush (Samurai) figures (6 per clan)
- 15 Shinto (monk) figures (3 per clan)
- 5 figures Daimyo (Warlord) (1 per clan)
- 8 Monster figures
- 20 fork tokens (4 per clan)
- 9 political mandate cards
- 24 war tokens
- 8 numbered war tokens
- 5 double-sided reference plates
- 1 Rules
In addition to the usual units, you will also find suitable monsters / ones that you can sometimes recruit during the game. They will not be used in every game, but they will be more valuable and useful than conventional units. There are a total of 8 of them that come with the basic game and look absolutely amazing. They’re probably the coolest looks CMON has ever made, so if you’re a fan of minis, this box definitely delivers merchandise.
The Rising Sun is also equipped with a variety of colored bases to make it easier to see who’s who on the board, and if you’re not a fan of mini painting, it’s fine because they all still look fantastic, even unpainted.
The artwork and colors of the panel, along with all the components, are top notch. It’s probably one of the nicest games I’ve ever seen when I was completely put on the table.
Kickstarter accessories
If you somehow manage to track down any of the additional Kickstarter goodies, you’ll find them pretty funny. There is even a giant turtle with a castle on its back. That’s cool, but completely unnecessary, and I think you had to bet your firstborn on Kickstarter to get it at all.
The basic game is extremely well crafted and full of bright, colorful components that look amazing.
How to play the rising sun
The rising sun has many possibilities. My favorite part of the game is the discussion going on behind the table. As I mentioned, Rising Sun has a lot more to it than it seems at first glance. There are political intrigues, betrayal, economics, summoning demons, worshiping deities and much more.
I will try to break it down to show you how it is played. It’s a pretty complicated game with a lot of moving parts, so this is just going to be a basic breakdown of the order of things.
Reverse order
The game is divided into 4 seasons: Spring, Summer Collection , Autumn, and the last one is the last scoring round, Winter.
Each season is then divided into a thousand different parts and each of these parts has subdivisions, and the subdivisions are overseen by a committee of people, which meets every Tuesday in the elections to the subcommittee….
No ... it's not really that bad, but it can be very scary when you first see it.
- Tea ceremony phase
- Political phase
- Turning the mandate
- Kami Turn
- The war phase
Tea ceremony phase
Okay, once everything is placed on board and all the cards and tiles are placed where they need to be, it’s time for the tea ceremony. In the tea ceremony phase, all the players get together and make connections. Players will need to see together who wants to join the alliance.
Alliances are temporary and last only one season. At the beginning of each season, the old unions are invalid and new ones can be concluded. You can only have a relationship with one other player. That means in games with weird players , there will always be a weird player who will go alone.
Connections
Alliances offer more bonuses and protections.
During the political phase, you can play multiple mandates to award bonuses if you are in an alliance.
If you manage to have units in the same area as a member of your union, there is nothing wrong. The territory goes only to the one who has the greatest power and no one loses any unit.
It's much better to be in an alliance, but ... just for a little while. You will also want to negotiate with a player who works well with your goals. If both goals have conflicting goals, joining the alliance is probably a bad idea.
The only way to get out of a relationship is to issue a card. When you play a betrayal, leave the relationship immediately and lose the honor. But hey, now you are free to attack and rob your ex-comrade.
Political phase
The political phase is when the meat of planning takes place in the rising sun. Players take turns playing cards from the Mandate deck or will deal with Kami cards.
During the course, you will draw 4 credentials and choose 1 of them. There are 5 options when using the Mandate card:
- They hire
- Train
- Harvest
- Marshal
- Betrayal
Each of these will allow you to perform basic actions on the board, such as recruiting new units, raising money, obtaining a season ticket and its effects, or moving around the board.
There is a tracker on the board that tells you when you will break the Mandate turn with the Kami turn.
Kami Turn
Kami are gods and they have their own song. Everyone has a different set of abilities. At the beginning of the game, 4 of the 7 Kami cards are selected for the game and you will be able to send followers to their shrines to worship them.
During the Kami turn, the player with the most believers will be able to perform an action on the Kami card and earn a bonus.
For example, if a player has the most Amaterasu fans during a Kami turn, he will be able to jump to the top of the Honor track, even if he started at the very bottom of the track.
These bonuses can quickly change the status of players throughout the game.
Respect
You may have noticed a fashion runway on the top left of the panel. This represents and records the honor of your faction. Honor is very important in the game and is ultimately responsible for most tiebreaker scenarios. You can gain honor by performing honorable deeds / special abilities, but you can lose it with a vile jerk. By betraying the alliance, you will surely lose some honor.
The war phase
After the political phase and maneuvering across the board, there will certainly be some contentious points. If there are 2 players with units at the location and they are not in the alliance, a fight will follow.
I really like the combat system. When I first looked at the Rising Sun, I imagined a huge roll-off cube , much like Risk . NOTHING IS SO .
Large-scale battles can happen, but that’s not really the purpose of the game. The purpose is to gain winning points. The flow of units on the map and who controls which territory will be very fluid. There is no real chatter in Australia ”and combine all your units into a stifling point. In Rising Sun, this just doesn’t happen nor does it make sense.
Instead, in-game combat uses a hidden bidding system in which players place their coins on 4 different campaigns on their game board.
Players can choose to submit bids for any of the 4 campaigns.
1. Seppuku: Seppuku (ritual suicide) is exactly what it sounds like. All your units are killed instantly and you gain 1 winning point for each unit killed.
2. Take Hostage: If you win this offer, you can take a hostage and steal your opponent's mini unit. In addition to stealing the unit, you will also steal the winning point from the other player. This one unit is often the difference between victory and defeat.
3. Ronin Hire: Ronin are basically wandering mercenaries. If you win this offer, you will be able to hire Ronin to jump into the fight, equal to the number of Ronin chips they have. After the fight, the chips are not used up and are returned to the player's stock. This move can greatly increase your strength, especially if you have all already killed in the offer for Seppuku.
* Save the fight * After the first three offers, the fight is actually resolved. In the battle, the player with greater force wins after a ritual suicide and Ronin. Lost page units are deleted immediately. But something still needs to be done before the fight is over ...
4. Imperial Poets: The Last Offer is all about fame. Doesn’t it make sense to sacrifice if there is no one to tell the tale?
The offer of imperial poets perpetuates the battle in song and poetry. The player who wins this offer will receive 1 winning point for each unit that dies. Sometimes it’s better to have a field of bodies and a really good story than to actually win.
There is a philosophical observation about this war somewhere out there ...
When the battle is officially over over the winner, he will receive a corresponding colored war token, which is the same color as the province in which the battle took place.
End of season
At the end of the season, everything is shuffled and new cards are placed. They also return hostages caught in battle to their players. A few more things happen, but you’ve basically set the board for the next round. Rinse and repeat.
End of the game
The game ends after the winter season.
Now is the time to add up the final bonuses. Last season, there are maps that allow you to build “Winter Upgrades”. In fact, they are the end points of the game that can now be added up.
Then come the war tokens. After each successful battle, you will receive a war token of the same color of the landscape in which you fought. The chips themselves are worth 1-3 winning points (depending on the number on the chip), and a cumulative bonus is also available. If you get a kit of all colors, you will receive a huge 30-point bonus.
Your first game of the rising sun
Choose a random clan or one that matches your favorite color.
Each clan has a different clan ability, so make sure you don’t forget that.
Money is king!
Money is everything in this game. It is used to purchase turned-on season tickets and is used in all battles. If you waste it early, know that you will be in trouble later when everyone else is loaded with moles.
They (Big Demon Minis) are really cool, but they’re not trying to bankrupt them (unless you really want them). I’ve found that I go for them whenever I get a chance, simply because they look cool. They were helpful, only they weren’t helpful to forget into oblivion.
Advantages disadvantages
Advantages:
- Great artwork and components
- Amazing topic
- Sparks great table conversations
Rising Sun is produced by CMON, which is probably one of the best manufacturers of sophisticated mini gaming boards on the market. They usually boast beautiful thumbnails and really improve a lot of their games. I don’t think I’ve seen a game where I would half rate a mini. When you buy CMON, you know you’re going to get some really cool stuff in the box. They also usually have a pretty hefty price tag with which you can add those beautiful pieces of plastic. If you’re a cheap gamer, you may want to wait for a big sale to happen before you take a copy.
The theme is really great. I love the idea of Japanese folklore and mythology coming to life, and it looks very impressive when set. It’s not as intimidating as I thought the game should be learned and has a very impressive presence on the table with outstanding artwork.
Weaknesses:
- Incorrect ??
CMON hasn’t really taken any point of precision when it comes to Rising Sun. Many names and names with different Japanese words are thrown. Note that the game is only loosely based on Japanese folklore / myths and this is a fantasy version. He never claimed it was anything other than a fun backdrop for a sweet board game.
However ...
They got a lot of credit for their research department. When they were designing the game, they apparently did most of their research on Wikipedia. As an English teacher, I tell my students that Wikipedia is a great starting resource, but always check their resources.
A joke that went too far
CMON found the joke of a few friends in New Zealand. The entry was for Kotahi , who claimed to be a hairy, monkey-like creature that would fly into a rage. He is also known as "Manawa Bradford".
Kotahi is a Maori word and Manawa Bradford was the man at the back of the fake Wikipedia. It’s kind of funny until someone takes that for granted. Kotahi eventually became a long-term target in the Rising Sun Kickstarter campaign and was a very cool mini monkey to add if they pawned his left kidney and family dog.
CMON came to terms with the joke and somehow ran with it and sent a copy of the game to Bradford and friends. They still found it sticky that they added a character from a fake Wiki entry to their game and didn’t realize it was a fake. Personally, I think it looked bad on the part of CMON, but this is a board game and not a master’s thesis, so who am I to judge? I leave it to you.
TL; DR
Rising Sun is an incredibly wonderful game for 3-5 players.
Players compete for winning points by completing goals and conquering areas of the board and sticking to the turn.
At first glance, the game looks like a fashion version of Risk. The rising sun, however, is much more than that. Goals aren't all easy, like "Kill your opponents and take their stuff."
There is a complex system of points and several ways to get them. Sometimes losing a fight and dying all of them create more points than actually winning the battle.
Rising Sun also has a built-in alliance system that forces players to align with each other. It works pretty well and doesn’t feel tilted or forced.
Overall, this is an amazing game with big boxes that will see a lot of many shows. The only downside is the usual difficulty in finding players players to show up for the night of the game.
conclusion
I really like the rising sun. The game is fun and I really love the complexity of the fight. It almost doesn’t even feel like a fight. It is a political dance of intrigue in which players bluff, counter, and try to defeat opponents. It really is amazing.
The only thing that really bothers me is the theme of the game. That’s fine, that’s a fantasy, but I find them hit. It really seems to me that CMON and Eric Lang just grabbed every Japanese word they found and threw it into the game. I understand that they opted for a certain aesthetic, but it’s huge. And it bothers me.
This is just my personal opinion of the game. I just think they hit you in the head with it several times.
It took me a while to get all the units and terms straight when I read the policy, and I ended up coming up with nicknames for everyone anyway.
Other than that, the game is beautiful. I like combat mechanics because it’s much more than just putting units against each other. Each action may have a different Strategy and the meaning of it. The interactions between players and alliances are great.
It just seems to me like the theme could be literally anything and the game would be the same. What they have given also does not stand up to control. Why did the Kami fight with each other when they were angry at the old emperor and the shogun? Why do I play as a Shogun instead of Kami?
I know I’m as nervous as an amateur actor asking me, “What’s my motivation?” But such little things are important to me. And CMON is a great board game company, so ... with a lot of power comes a lot of responsibility.
- For 3 to 5 players. Playback time from 90 to 120 minutes
- Unique combat system: Eric m. Lang has developed completely ...
- Fantasy art: a work of art by the legendary Adrian Smith Will ...
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