Sekigahara: The Unification of Japan FAQ
122 questions players ask · Updated Nov 9, 2026 · Full rulebook
Victory and Control
- If the enemy occupies your capital, do you lose the game?
- Does a besieged castle still give victory points to its defender?
- Who controls a castle?
- Who controls the castle and the location while a siege is going on?
- Who controls a resource location, and when does control change?
- Are the capitals resource locations, and who controls them at the start?
- Is an empty recruitment location treated as a castle or as a resource?
- Which capital gives me the leadership movement bonus?
Components and Cards
Setup and Weekly Cycle
- What if the setup picture and the setup symbols on the blocks disagree?
- How many blocks start at Aizu?
- Is there a reinforcement step in week 1?
- Must I discard half my hand at the reinforcement step, and how does it round?
- Can I decline to bid a card for turn order?
- Does the turn order winner choose who goes first for each turn separately?
- Is turn-order initiative the same as battle initiative?
- Can the rest of a stack move after a reinforcement block is placed in it?
- Do I refill my hand after spending cards on a bid or on movement?
Movement
- Do I have to show a leader block to claim the leadership movement bonus?
- Does the leader have to move with the stack to give the leadership bonus?
- Which castles and capitals give the leadership bonus?
- Do a leader, a castle and a capital together give more than +1 movement?
- Can I split a stack, or fork it partway through its move?
- Is the large-stack movement penalty based on the starting stack or on the group that moves together?
- Does each split-off group need its own force march card?
- Does the highway bonus survive splitting, or leaving the highway?
- Can a road segment be used twice in one movement phase, or by two stacks?
- Can a moving stack pass through a location holding my own blocks?
- Do I buy movement with cards every turn or once a week?
- Can I muster and also move a stack on minimal movement?
- Must a moving stack stop at a location holding only an enemy disk?
- Can I pass through a location where a siege is going on?
- Can a force-marched stack move into combat?
- Can a forced march take a stack from Edo to Ueda in one move?
- Can I activate the same location twice in a turn to send two stacks out?
- Does starting or continuing a siege cost a movement action?
Mustering
- How many times can I muster, and how many blocks?
- Can I muster blocks of several daimyo to different locations in one turn?
- Can I muster into an enemy recruitment location I have captured?
- Can I muster into an empty recruitment location of mine where I have no blocks?
- Can I muster into a combat, or start a combat by mustering?
- Can I muster into my recruitment location while an enemy block sits there?
- Can I muster blocks into a castle where my blocks are besieged?
- Can I muster into a castle location where only a disk is left?
- Can mustered blocks create an overrun?
- Can mustered blocks move on the turn they arrive?
- Do I discard cards to muster, and are mustered blocks deployed automatically?
- Are mustered blocks shown to the opponent?
- Where exactly do mustered blocks go relative to the daimyo mon on the map?
Overruns
- How big a force is needed for an overrun, and is it mandatory?
- Can blocks that control a castle be overrun?
- Do I draw replacement cards for blocks lost in an overrun?
- Are blocks lost in an overrun revealed, and do they come back?
- Can a retreat cause an overrun, even on the other player's turn?
- Can one block moving into a location with four times as many enemy blocks start an overrun?
Battles and Impact
- Who wins a battle that ends tied on Impact?
- Who has the initiative after a deployment?
- Do I have to deploy blocks or play cards in a battle?
- Is the active player always the attacker?
- Can the defender retreat before combat or choose to lose fewer blocks?
- Who chooses the order when there are several combats in one phase?
- Must combat be declared wherever opposing blocks share a location?
- How does the Impact bonus work?
- Does Impact reset between battles, and is there a cap?
- Can Impact be drawn from undeployed blocks?
- Are blocks revealed when combat starts?
- When can a leader be deployed without a card?
- Can Ishida or the Ii block be deployed with any card?
Special Attacks and Double Cards
- Can Ishida or Ii be part of a double-card deployment?
- Does the second block of a double card get the matching-daimyo bonus?
- What is needed for a cavalry or gun Special Attack?
- How much Impact does a Special Attack score?
- Does a gun bonus count cavalry, or vice versa?
- Does the first cavalry or gun block get its own +2?
- Do cavalry and gun Special Attacks work in a siege?
Loyalty Challenges
- Is a leader deployed without a card immune to Loyalty Challenge?
- How does a Loyalty Challenge work and what refutes it?
- What card refutes a Loyalty Challenge against the Ii or Ishida block?
- Does a block that defects add Impact and execute its special attack?
- What happens when a double card fails a Loyalty Challenge?
- Can Loyalty Challenges be played in a siege or after passing, and are they replaced?
- Does a Loyalty Challenge always succeed if the deployer has no matching card?
Losses, Retreats and Replenishment
- How many blocks does each side lose in a battle?
- Which blocks do I choose as losses?
- When and how many cards do I draw after combat?
- Who draws cards after a siege?
- Where does a losing attacker retreat?
- Where does a losing defender retreat?
- Can retreating blocks go into a castle, and how many?
- Can an attacker retreat into a castle it holds only through a disk?
- What if my retreating force enters a location with a besieged castle or enemy blocks?
- Is a retreating force stuck between enemy groups forced back where it came from?
- How far does a retreat go?
- Can I retreat into a castle before the battle is fully resolved?
- Do blocks that defected count as losses for their original owner?
Sieges and Castles
- Who decides whether a fight at a castle is a siege or a field battle?
- If I move into a castle the enemy holds, does the siege start at once?
- If another block enters a location where my blocks are besieged, do we fight a battle?
- Must the besieger play cards or deploy blocks each turn?
- Does a siege continue from turn to turn without being redeclared?
- How much Impact does it take to hurt a siege defender?
- Can the winner besiege right away after the loser retreats into the castle?
- Can besieged blocks come out and attack during their own turn?
- Can besieged survivors retreat out of the castle after a siege?
- Can the besieger use Loyalty Challenges or leaders in a siege?
- After winning a field battle at a castle with a disk, is the disk captured or sieged right away?
- If a side leaves its castle ungarrisoned, who owns it?
- Why can I keep only two blocks inside a castle?
Special Rules: Mori, Disks, Ii and Ishida
- Does the card discarded to bring in a Mori block also pay for movement?
- Must the discarded card show a Mori mon?
- How do the Mori blocks enter the game?
- Does Tokugawa entering Osaka with only the Toyotomi disk there bring the Mori out?
- What happens to Mori blocks that lose a battle?
- Where do the Toyotomi and Sanada disks start, and what are they for?
- How is a disk removed?
- What happens when only the Toyotomi disk is left in Osaka?
- Does Sanada's disk give any Impact in battle?
- How is the Ii block (Red Devils) deployed?
- Is Ishida a wildcard that gives a bonus?