Gunsen: How to Play

Goal

Be the first player to earn 7 Achievements. The moment you get your 7th Achievement, you win.

Achievements come from:

• Winning a battle as the attacker (twice possible)
• Gaining control of Toshi Ranbo
• Completing up to 2 different Clan Goals
• Controlling 2 Shrines at the same time
• Building both of your Buildings
• Using all 3 Noble Actions
• Having 3 Village Tokens
• Buying 3 Tactics
• Maintaining control of Toshi Ranbo

Achievements are generally permanent once earned. The exception is the Toshi Ranbo Maintain Control Achievement, which is lost if you no longer have troops there.

Your Turn

Every turn follows these steps:

1. Choose an Order Card

1. Place the Order Card

1. Activate a Column OR take a Noble Action

1. Resolve Battle if one was triggered

1. End your turn

1. Choose an Order Card

Choose 1 face-up Order Card from the Order Card row.

Pay its resource cost, if any.

The card shows which resources/actions it will provide when activated.

2. Place the Order Card

You have two choices:

Activate a Column

Place the Order Card face-up at the top of the matching colored column on your Clan Board.

Take a Noble Action

Place the Order Card face-down on an available Noble Action spot and pay its Influence cost.

3A. Activate a Column

If you placed your Order Card in a column, activate that column from top to bottom.

This means you activate:

• The Order Card you just placed
• Older Order Cards already in that column
• The printed actions on your Clan Board

You may ignore individual effects if you don't want to use them.

Your columns generally let you:

• Recruit — Add troops to your Fort or buildings you control.
• Gain Influence — Gain Influence and movement.
• Armory — Gain Koku and movement, plus improve your battle abilities.
• Expand — Gain Wood, movement, build Buildings, and buy Tactics.

Important: Order Cards remain in their columns for the rest of the game. Every time you activate that column, you activate those cards again.

Movement

Each movement lets you move an army to an adjacent territory.

• An army is one or more of your troops in a territory.
• Normally, you can have a maximum of 5 troops in one territory.
• You can split or combine armies.
• You can buy additional movement using the resource shown by the active column.
• You may use the same army multiple times during your turn.

Moving into an opponent's territory triggers a Battle and ends all remaining movement for the turn.

Buildings

When activating Expand, you may build your Clan Buildings if you can pay their costs.

You can build in:

• A territory containing your army
• A territory adjacent to your army
• A territory adjacent to your Fort

The territory cannot contain enemy troops, a token, or another tile.

Building both of your Buildings earns an Achievement.

Tactics

When activating Expand, you may buy Tactics by paying their costs.

You can have a maximum of 3 Tactics.

Buying your third Tactic earns an Achievement.

3B. Noble Actions

Instead of activating a column, you can spend Influence to perform an available Noble Action.

The three Noble Actions are:

• 1 Influence: Take another Order Card, place it in any column, and activate that column.
• 2 Influence: Recruit one of your Clan Heroes, then activate any column.
• 3 Influence: Gain one of your Clan's Special Orders and activate its column.

Each Noble Action can only be used once per game.

Using all 3 Noble Actions earns an Achievement.

Heroes

When recruited, place a Hero with your Fort or an army.

Heroes:

• Must always be with an army or at your Fort.
• Move with an army; they cannot move independently.
• Do not count toward the 5-troop territory limit.
• Cannot be permanently lost.

Heroes provide special abilities, particularly during battles.

4. Battles

A Battle occurs when you move an army into a territory containing an opponent's army.

First: Finish resolving the active column. Then fight the battle.

Battle Basics

Each side calculates its initial Strength, Blood, and Armor.

Then:

1. The Defender rolls first.

1. Roll as many dice as your available dice icons allow, up to 6.

1. Use any Reroll abilities.

1. Keep the number of dice allowed by your Keep icons.

1. Add the results to your battle totals.

1. The Attacker does the same.

1. Blood kills enemy troops; Armor prevents kills.

1. Compare total Strength.

Battle Result

If the Attacker has higher Strength and at least 1 troop survives:

• Attacker wins.
• Attacker takes control of the territory.
• Attacker earns a Battle Achievement.
• Defender retreats.

If the Defender has higher Strength:

• Defender wins.
• Attacker retreats.
• Defender does not earn a Battle Achievement.

If there is a tie:

• Attacker gets nothing.
• Defender retreats.

If the winner has troops remaining and the loser has a Village Token, the winner steals one of the loser's Village Tokens and gains its resource.

Toshi Ranbo

The first player entering Toshi Ranbo must have an army with at least 5 Strength.

Entering it:

• Ends your movement.
• Gives you control of Toshi Ranbo.
• Gives you the Expand upgrade.
• Earns the Gain Control of Toshi Ranbo Achievement.
• Gives you the Maintain Control of Toshi Ranbo Achievement.

You lose the Maintain Control Achievement if you ever have no troops in Toshi Ranbo.

End of Turn

Resolve end-of-turn effects:

• Claim Village Tokens if you still control their territories.
• Claim Shrine upgrades if you control their territories.
• Resolve Toshi Ranbo effects.
• If you have fewer than 3 troops on the main board, refill your Fort until you have 3.
• Refill the Order Card row to 5 cards.

Then the next player takes their turn.

The Big Picture

On your turn, think:

Take an Order → Put it in a column → Activate that column → Move/Recruit/Build/Buy things → Fight if necessary → Claim territory rewards → Refill cards.

Your main objective isn't simply to conquer the map. You're racing to complete 7 Achievements. Build toward several of them simultaneously while using your Order Cards to make your columns stronger and stronger.