Shogun FAQ
90 questions players ask · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · Full rulebook
Overview and Setup
- What rules differ between Shogun and Wallenstein?
- Are there diplomacy or negotiation rules in Shogun?
- Is the starting battle tower load random, and where do the cubes that fall out go?
- How many war chests does each player get with five players?
- What is the difference between the sun side and the moon side of the board?
- In a 3-player game on the moon side, is Shimosa left out, and does the predetermined starting setup apply?
- Are cubes that fall into the tray during the initial tower load removed before the first battle?
- If you run out of your own color cubes, can you use another player's color?
- How many starting army groups does each player get in each player count?
- Are the provinces with highlighted borders used in a 3-player game?
- When playing the sun side of the board, which province cards do you remove?
Turn Order and Bidding
- Do war chest cards come back after you use them to bid for turn order, and can the same card be bid again?
- How does turn-order bidding rank chest bids against province-card bids?
- How is a tie in the turn-order bid resolved?
- Do you pay the chests you bid for turn order if you do not win the bid?
- Does the highest turn-order bidder get to choose any turn position?
- Is turn-order bidding done before or during the planning phase?
- If you do not have enough cards to fill all 11 bid spaces, which spaces stay empty?
Planning and Actions
- Must you carry out a planned action if you are still able to?
- Must you place a card on every action space, or can you leave some empty?
- Can you skip an action you do not want by covering its space with a War Chest card?
- If you cannot pay for or supply part of an action, can you do the rest of it?
- Is the move in Deploy / Move 1 Army optional, and does an impossible move change whether you pay and deploy?
- If you cannot take one action, such as a castle where you already have one, do you skip the rest of the round?
- Are the face-down action cards revealed one at a time, and do actions resolve in order 1 to 10?
- When are province cards revealed for an action: all at once, or when that action's turn comes?
- Do you place all your action cards face down before the round starts, or one at a time?
- Can you look at your own face-down planned action cards after planning is complete?
- If you hold more province cards than action spaces, do the extra provinces get no action this turn?
- If you lose a province whose card is placed on an action, what happens to that action?
- If you lose a province before its planned rice or tax action is carried out, do you still collect that rice or tax?
- If an opponent takes a province and you retake it in the same round, can you still use its planned action or rice?
- Can you use cubes from the tower to supply armies when your own supply is empty?
- Is there a time limit for the planning phase?
Moves and Attacks
- Must a Battle / Move action move at least one army when it is possible?
- How many armies must stay behind when you attack, and can you attack with all of them?
- Can one move order carry an army through an intermediate province to a third province?
- Can you pick an attack action but only move armies into a neighbouring province you already control?
- Can you attack from a province with only one army to get the +1 attack bonus?
- Can one Battle / Move action split your armies into several adjacent provinces?
- What is the difference between Battle / Move A and Battle / Move B?
Events and Special Cards
- Does the event's minimum of six chests apply when the province card shows fewer chests?
- Does the minimum-chests event still pay if you lose the Collect Taxes province before that action resolves?
- When an event and a special card both change the same action, which applies first?
- Do special action cards still give their bonus if you do not take the action they modify?
- How long does the +1 Army with Attack or +1 Army with Defense special card last?
- Do defense bonuses (the +1 Army with Defense card, the castle event) apply to farmer revolts?
- Is the season's event card revealed before or after planning and bidding?
- Are the four event cards known in advance, or is each season's event chosen at random?
- Are the event cards reshuffled into the deck between years?
- Are the special cards reshuffled each season?
- How many special cards are laid out with three or four players?
- If an event makes a neutral province attack draw extra farmers, is that two farmers in addition to the usual one or instead of it?
Battle Results
- If only farmers come out of the tower for the defender, does the defender win?
- What happens to a province when a battle ends in a tie, or with no cubes left on either side?
- When you win a battle, do the buildings and revolt markers in the province stay with you?
- When a battle includes farmers, do the farmer cubes count as the winner's casualties before its own armies?
- After a battle, do green farmer cubes go back to supply or stay in the tray?
- Do cubes already in the tray join the tower drop of the next battle?
- If a cube is knocked out of the tray after a battle has been counted, does that change the result?
- After a battle, how many of the winner's armies are lost, and where do the survivors go?
- Can you end a battle with more armies in the conquered province than you moved in?
- Does a battle count the cubes thrown into the tower, or only the ones that come out?
Farmers and Revolts
- When is the revolt marker placed after you collect taxes or rice?
- If a revolt breaks out after you collect taxes or rice, do you keep the goods even if you lose the province?
- Does collecting taxes or rice from a province with no revolt marker cause a revolt?
- Does taking a neutral province add a revolt marker?
- How many farmers defend when you attack a neutral province?
- How many farmers join a revolt battle?
- Do farmers fight for the defender when the province has revolt markers, and when it has none?
- What happens to a province when you lose a revolt battle?
- How are revolt markers removed from a province?
- Does the theater event remove a revolt marker only when the theater is built in that round?
- In a revolt, do I count the new revolt marker when adding farmers?
- After a suppressed revolt, how many revolt markers does the province have?
Winter Round
Scoring and Game End
- Can a province hold two buildings of the same type?
- Do castles, temples or theaters give any defensive or combat bonus besides scoring?
- Is the majority bonus for buildings awarded separately in each region?
- How are ties handled in the most-buildings scoring?
- In winter scoring, is each province worth plus one or minus one victory point?
- How is a tie in the final score broken?
- Do year-two victory points add to the year-one points for the final result?