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Company of Origin:
Klear Games
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows 95 and up, 128 MB Ram, 500 MHz PIII Processor.
Mac OS 8.6 and Up,128 Mb Ram, 233 MHz G3 Processor.
Test System:
Windows XP Professional, 600 MHz AMD Athlon, 384MB
RAM, GeForce 3, SoundBlaster Live! Value, 52X CD-ROM.
Graphics and Sound:
Reiner Knizia's Samurai is a game designed,
developed and published by Klear Games. Samurai
recently took the Technical Award at the 2003
Independent Games Festival (IGF) hosted by the Game
Developers Conference (GDC), and it is not hard to see
why.
This Strategy Board Game is full of rich color and
soothing Japanese-style music. The music allows your
mind to focus on the task at hand and it doesn't make
you feel rushed, while the sprite based graphics and
2D above-the-board view allows you to quickly glimpse
at aspects of the board and decide what you need to
do.
Gameplay: 
Reiner Knizia's Samurai places you in Feudal
Japan as an aspiring Sovereign. You goal is to win
over castes from cities on the field, and to do this
you must assert your power.
In each turn you are given 5 tiles. There are 20
different tiles, which include Buddhas, Helmets and
Rice, all ranging from values of 2 to 4. These three
types are your main objects in winning over the
different classes. Buddha tiles assert influence on
Clergy castes, Helmet tiles work on Nobles and the
Rice influences the Peasant class.
To win pledges from a caste, you must place tiles
around a city in such a way that it gives you the most
influence over that city's caste(s). Once the city has
been blocked off, in other words no more tiles can be
placed directly next to that city, each of the castes
in that city give a pledge to the player who has the
most influence on that caste. For instance, a city
might have a Clergy caste and a Noble caste. If a
player has more Clergy influence around that city than
any other, he or she is awarded a Clergy Pledge,
whereas another player could win the Noble Pledge in
the same manner.
Though these three types are your main forms of
influence, they are not all you have. You are also
given access to several other types that can increase
your influence on all castes as well as tiles that
allow you to switch already placed tiles.
Once all of the cities have been blocked off,
Samurai determines who the winner is by looking
at who has won over the most castes. If a player has
taken two of the three, then he or she is declared the
winner, else Samurai looks at other aspects of
your gaming style (like your total number of pledges
or overall balance) to decide the winner.
Difficulty:
Reiner Knizia's Samurai has four different
difficulty settings. The first, and lowest is Novice,
where the player goes up against one computer
opponent. The only apparent difference between Novice
and the second level, Intermediate, is that in the
latter, there are two computer opponents.
The Advanced and Expert settings add a new dynamic to
play, because these levels allow you to choose the 5
tiles that will comprise your first hand. After
choosing your opening tiles, the game allows you to
choose the City Configuration by placing the caste
symbols in the cities of your choosing.
The differences between the Advanced and Expert levels
are small, but just enough to make the game that much
more of a challenge. The first difference in the
Expert level is that you are pitted against three
other players, all of who are controlled by the
computer. The second difference comes when you are
allowed to decide the City Configuration, and the number
of each caste to place on the board increases.
Game Mechanics:
Reiner Knizia's Samurai uses a simple drag and
drop method that allows you to focus more on what your
next move will be rather than how exactly to implement
the particular move.
Samurai also allows you to play in a
Multi-player mode. In this mode, you are given the
option of going online, using a LAN connection or
simply having several people play on the same
computer.
With its relaxing music and quick game play, I can see
this game being something you find on people's work
computer for those long Monday mornings.
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