Gunkimono Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Setting Up the Game
  • Prepare the Game Board
  • Distribute Player Pieces
  • Build the Army Stacks
  • Deal Starting Tiles
  • Choose Start Player
• How to Play
  • 1. Place Army Tile
  • 2. Score Points
  • 3. Assess Strongholds
  • 4. Refill Your Hand
• End of the Game
• Gameplay Reference
• Credits

Game Components

• 25 Small Army Tiles (1 troop each): infantry, samurai, cavalry, spearman, archer
• 60 Large Army Tiles (2 troops each)
• 15 War Banner Tiles: dragon, crane, lotus
• 10 Strongholds
• 5 Daimyo Figures
• 5 Daimyo Tiles
• 1 Game Board, with a Victory Point Track, a Battlefield Area, Stronghold Spaces, and an Honor Track
• 25 Honor Markers
• 1 Start Player Sword
• 1 End-of-Game Tile
• 1 Cover Tile

Setting Up the Game

Prepare the Game Board

1. Place the game board in the middle of the play area.

2. Separate the war banner tiles by type, into 3 stacks (dragon, crane, lotus). Shuffle each stack.

3. At the top of the honor track, there are 3 possible ending rows, corresponding to player count. Identify the correct ending row for this game, then place 1 lotus tile face down on each space in that row.

4. Then, place 1 crane tile face down on top of each lotus tile.

5. Finally, place 1 dragon tile face down on top of each crane tile. There should now be 5 stacks of 3 war banner tiles each (from top to bottom: dragon > crane > lotus).

   Exception! In a 2-player game, do not use the lotus tiles. (Put them back in the box.) Each stack of war banner tiles will only have dragon and crane tiles.

Distribute Player Pieces

6. Each player chooses a color and takes the matching daimyo tile, placing it in front of them with the "100" side face down.
7. Place all players' daimyo figures on the "0" space of the victory point track.
8. On each of the 5 bottom spaces of the honor track (i.e., just below the arrows), place 1 honor marker of each player color.
9. Along the left side of the honor track, there are "stronghold spaces," corresponding to player counts. Identify the 2 spaces that are marked for the current player count, and place 1 stronghold of each player color on those spaces.

Build the Army Stacks

10. Shuffle the large army tiles and place them in several face-down stacks. The number of tiles to use is determined by the current player count:
    • 4 or 5 players — use all 60 large army tiles
    • 3 players — remove 10 tiles at random
    • 2 players — remove 20 tiles at random
11. Take the top 5 large army tiles from the stacks (without revealing them) and shuffle them together with the end-of-game tile. This is called the "end-game stack." Put the cover tile on top of this stack and set the stack off to the side; you won't need it until near the end of the game.
12. Draw 3 large army tiles and place them in a face-up row next to the stacks.

Example A: A fully-prepared 4-player setup, showing the game board, war banner stacks, army stacks, honor markers, and strongholds all in position.

Deal Starting Tiles

13. Each player is dealt 3 large army tiles from the stack, face down, as their starting "hand." They may look at these tiles but should not reveal them to anyone else.
14. Each player is given 5 small army tiles (1 of each type of troop) and places them face up in front of them as their "reserve." Return any remaining small army tiles to the box.

Choose Start Player

15. The player who has most recently been to Japan will be the start player and takes the start player sword. (If no one has been to Japan, determine the start player randomly.)

How to Play

Players take turns in clockwise order, beginning with the start player identified during setup. This sequence continues until the end of the game occurs (see End of the Game).

Each player turn has 4 steps:

1. Place Army Tile
2. Score Points
3. Assess Strongholds
4. Refill Your Hand

1. Place Army Tile

Choose any large army tile from your hand or small army tile from your reserve and place it face up within the battlefield area of the game board. Keep in mind the 3 placement rules:

Troop Duplication Rule

You may NOT place an army tile so that a troop on the tile covers the same type of face-up troop directly below it.

Example B: Renee wants to place this archer/cavalry tile. She cannot place the tile so that the cavalry covers another cavalry. She can, however, rotate it so that the archer covers cavalry and the cavalry covers samurai.

Level Difference Rule

You may place an army tile so that it covers army tiles that have been placed earlier. If the tile you place is a large army tile, you must place it so that both troops on the tile are at the same level. You cannot place a tile so that its 2 troops are at different levels.

Example C: Santos cannot place this spearman/archer tile where he most wants to, because it would be covering troops of different levels. If he moves it over slightly, however, he can place it legally so that it covers 2 troops of the same level.

Extra Support Rule

If there is a level difference where you wish to place your large army tile, you may first place a small army tile from your reserve, face down, as extra support. You must then place your large army tile so that half of it covers the face-down small army tile. (Because the extra support is face down, the troop duplication rule does not apply.)

Example D: Indira could not ordinarily place this samurai/cavalry tile here, because of the difference in level. But if she first places 1 of her small army tiles face down on the archer below, as extra support, the level difference no longer exists and she can then place the samurai/cavalry tile on top. (She can even use her small samurai tile as extra support if she wants, because it is placed face down, so the troop duplication rule doesn't apply.)

You may place no more than 1 small army tile per turn. This means that you may not place multiple small army tiles as extra support in a single turn. This also means that you may not place a small army tile as extra support and then place another small army tile on top of it.

2. Score Points

Score points for the troops on the army tile that you placed this turn. There are 2 types of points in the game: victory points and honor points. You decide, for each of the troops on the tile you just placed, which type of points you want to score.

Scoring Victory Points

Each contiguous group of troops of a single type — those that are connected horizontally and/or vertically to at least 1 other troop in the group, regardless of level — counts as a formation. This goes for troops printed on the game board itself and troops on army tiles that have been placed in the battlefield.

If you choose to score victory points for a troop, the number you score is equal to the total number of troops in the formation that troop is part of. (If that troop is by itself, you score 1 victory point, as the formation has only that single troop.)

Move your daimyo figure forward on the victory point track accordingly. If you reach 100 points, flip the daimyo tile in front of you so that it is "100" side up, then reset your daimyo figure at "0" on the victory point track.

Example E: Clayton decides to score victory points for both troops on his archer/cavalry tile. He scores 3 victory points for the archer, since it is part of a formation of 3 archers, and 2 victory points for the cavalry, since it is part of a formation of 2 cavalry. Clayton advances his daimyo figure 5 spaces total on the victory point track.

Scoring Honor Points

Each troop (except those printed on the game board itself) has 1 or 2 stronghold symbols.

If you choose to score honor points for a troop, the number you score is equal to the number of stronghold symbols on that single troop.

Note: Only the stronghold symbols on the troop you are scoring count as honor points — not any other stronghold symbols in the same formation! Formations only have significance when scoring victory points.

Identify the column in the honor track that matches the troop type you are scoring, and advance your honor marker in that column 1 space for each honor point scored.

You may never score both types of points for the same troop in a single turn. However, you may score different types of points for the 2 troops on the same large army tile.

Example F: Renee decides to score honor points for both troops on her spearman/infantry tile. She scores 1 honor point for the spearman (which has 1 stronghold symbol) and 2 honor points for the infantry (which has 2 stronghold symbols). On the honor track, she advances 1 space in the spearman column and 2 spaces in the infantry column.

Example G: Santos just placed an archer/samurai tile. The archer is now part of a large formation of 5 archers, but the samurai is by itself. So he decides to score victory points for the archers (5 points) and honor points for the samurai (2 points).

Building Strongholds

Once all 5 of your honor markers have reached or exceeded the row with your lowest remaining stronghold, you immediately build that stronghold on the battlefield.

Place your stronghold on a troop of your choice on the battlefield. The only restriction is that you may not place it in a formation that already contains the stronghold of an opponent. The formation where you have placed your stronghold is now under your control.

You may only build 1 stronghold per turn. If you have reached or exceeded both rows with your strongholds on the same turn, build 1 stronghold now, then build the other after scoring points on your next turn.

Note: In the unlikely case that there are already strongholds in all existing formations, you cannot build your stronghold yet. You must try again on your next turn, after scoring points.

Example H: Indira must build her stronghold somewhere on the battlefield. She cannot place it on the large samurai formation, since that is controlled by Santos. She decides to place her stronghold on a troop in the spearman formation. She now controls that formation.

Formations with strongholds have 4 special rules:

1. You may NOT place an army tile on the troop where the stronghold stands.
2. No one, not even the stronghold's owner, may score victory points for placing a troop that joins this formation. However, any player may still score honor points for placing a troop that joins this formation.
3. You may place an army tile in such a way that you reduce the size of the formation that another player controls, or even divide it into several separate, smaller formations. Only the formation where their stronghold stands remains under their control.
4. You may NOT place an army tile if it would cause 2 formations, controlled by separate players, to link up and become a single formation.

Claiming War Banner Tiles

As soon as 1 of your honor markers reaches or passes a space with a stack of war banner tiles, you claim the topmost tile from the stack and put it face down in front of you. At the end of the game, you will score the victory points printed on the tile. Until then, you may view it at any time, but must keep it hidden from your opponents.

• Dragon tiles are worth 11–15 victory points
• Crane tiles are worth 6–10 victory points
• Lotus tiles are worth 1–5 victory points

After claiming the war banner tile, remove that honor marker from the game. From now on, you cannot score honor points for the corresponding type of troop (since you do not have an honor marker in that column anymore), so you must choose victory points instead.

Example I: On the honor track, Clayton is only 2 spaces away from the stack of war banner tiles in the cavalry column, racing against Santos and Renee to claim the dragon tile from that stack. Unfortunately, Clayton doesn't have any large army tiles with cavalry on them. Instead, he places the small cavalry tile from his reserve, scoring 2 honor points and claiming the dragon tile from the cavalry column.

3. Assess Strongholds

Note: If you have not yet built a stronghold, skip this step.

You now score victory points for each stronghold you have built so far, including any stronghold you built this turn. You score these points whether or not the army tile you placed this turn added to your stronghold's formation.

For each stronghold you have built, score 1 victory point for each troop in that stronghold's formation. (This includes the troop with your stronghold on it.) Advance your daimyo figure on the victory point track accordingly.

Example J: Earlier this turn, Renee built her second stronghold. During this step of her turn, she now scores 7 victory points for her strongholds: 4 points for the samurai formation and 3 points for the archer formation.

4. Refill Your Hand

If you placed a large army tile on your turn, draw a new large army tile to refill your hand back up to 3 tiles again. Choose a tile from either the face-up row or the face-down stack. If you chose a tile from the face-up row, immediately reveal another tile from the stack and add it to the face-up row. (The face-up row should always have 3 tiles.)

If you placed a small army tile face up on your turn, do not draw a new large army tile, since you still have 3 large army tiles in your hand. Your small army tiles are never replaced; you have only 5 to use throughout the entire game.

End of the Game

As soon as a player has drawn the last large army tile from the main stacks, bring the end-game stack into play and remove the cover tile, returning it to the box. Continue play using this stack.

Once the end-of-game tile is drawn — when a player draws it from the face-down stack or reveals it to add to the face-up row — the end of the game has been triggered. Play continues until the last player in turn order (i.e., to the right of the start player) has finished their turn. If the last player in turn order draws the end-of-game tile, the game ends immediately.

All players now reveal their war banner tiles and add these victory points to their scores, moving their daimyo figures accordingly. The player with the most victory points wins! In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most total troops in their owned formations wins.

Example K: During the game, Indira reached 95 on the victory point track. She now reveals the 4 war banner tiles she claimed. She has a dragon tile (12 points), a crane tile (7 points), another crane tile (6 points), and a lotus tile (5 points). Her final score is 125 points.

Gameplay Reference

Turn Sequence

1. Place Army Tile
2. Score Points
3. Assess Strongholds
4. Refill Your Hand

Placement Rules

• Troop Duplication: May not place an army tile so that a troop covers another troop of the same type.
• Level Difference: May not place a large army tile so that its 2 troops are at different levels.
• Extra Support: May place a small army tile, face down, as extra support beneath where you place your large army tile.

Strongholds

• Built when all 5 of your honor markers have reached that row in the honor track.
• Place on any unclaimed troop formation in the battlefield.
• Every turn, score victory points for every troop in the stronghold's formation.

Score Victory Points...

• by placing army tiles to create large troop formations
• by building strongholds on large troop formations, and enlarging those formations
• by claiming war banner tiles at the top of the honor track

Credits

• Game Designer: Jeffrey D. Allers
• Developer: Daniel Fremgen
• Illustrator: George Sellas
• Graphic Designer: Melanie Graham
• Editor: Dustin Schwartz
• Production Artist: Michelle Garrett

— Renegade Game Studios —

• President & Publisher: Scott Gaeta
• Controller: Robyn Gaeta
• Director of Operations: Leisha Cummins
• Director of Sales & Marketing: Sara Erickson
• Creative Director: Anita Osburn
• Senior Producer: Dan Bojanowski
• Marketing Coordinator: Steph Hodge
• Customer Service: Jenni Kingma

— Special Thanks —

The designer would like to thank Suzanne Allers, Bernd Eisenstein, Thorsten Gimmler, Hartmut Kommerell, Günter Cornett, André Bronswijk, and Michael Schmitt.

Renegade Game Studios would like to thank Dan King (the Game Boy Geek), Milena Guberinic, Heartland fans, and Bugs Bunny.

© 2018 Renegade Game Studios. All Rights Reserved.