This is an overall awesome and very straightforward board. I have to say I haven't played a new board in awhile that I enjoyed this much. We played a 2 vs 2 team match and it was perfect size for the occasion!
Really enjoyed the board. Interesting balance of places to attack. Stagnation brought on some very interesting and amusing by-play among players. Smack talking enhanced the game. Nice that it's not easy for one player to start steamrolling & just run away with it.
What Gimli said ..mostly, except I make a distinction between Poor and Bad. Bad is this side of evil. Gimli thinks the board needs a complete overhaul, but I wonder that it could be fixed by simply altering the defensive nature of the citadels and the capital to "standard".
It is odd for me to give my first sub 5 star review here, especially considering this resembles one of my top 5 boards on warfish. Initially, it seems fine. It looks nice, has some interesting dynamics. But gameplay wise, it needs more continents, such as in the right side (geographically north).
The reason this game is a terrible gaming experience is due to the single territory bonuses. Any time you have single territory continents that also give a defense bonus all you get (from experienced players) is placing in castles, attack 1 territory with 1 guy in it to get a card, repeat. You end up with 5 players with 70 units guarding their +2 waiting for someone to be an idiot and go on a suicidal rampage against a castle, then you sweep in. Anytime there are single territory bonuses with no unit cap and a defense bonus, you get stagnant, boring and brutally long gamse. Needs a complete overhaul.
I had played a few earlier on and it wasn't an issue. Then I got into 2 games with more experienced players and it has been really boring. Hopefully everyone will agree to terminate, because it will not end.
maybe i dont understand the way the country lays out. holding the eastern half of the board nets you nothing, while two islands get you a bonus made no sense to me.
I haven't played the board much, but there is something about it that I like. I seen the graphics come a long way from the original, which was awesome to see and now the board looks great! Gameplay is quite interesting and fun (even though for some reason I think it shouldn't be :p). Seems like a good board to throw a bunch of players in for just a big bash to see if you can get a good foot hold and take the game. Nicely done!
This is definitely a long haul of a board where it's quite possible to succeed using either a conquer-and-hold strategy against the island bonuses or through an amoeba-like spread on Honshu. Neither path offers hope for quick victory, which is probably for the best. The games I've been in on this board have been largely free of "stack and hold" stalemates, so it's apparently doing something right.