Since this is my first game I’m open to suggestions regarding possible starting combos, Koi
Koi has selected Recruit.
Clans, in player order starting with Lotus and finishing with Koi, please post to the thread your Recruit choice.
Recruit allows the clans to bring pieces onto the board.
Each player may Summon 1 Bushi or Shinto onto the board. (All your Daimyo are already in play, and no one has any dead monsters.)
Bushi must go into the province where your fortresses are located, and all clans only have one of those right now. Dragonfly’s clan ability allows their forces to be summoned to any province.
Shinto can be summoned onto the map and act like regular Bushi if there. However, they are most commonly summoned to the off-map shrines to the Kami to worship them.
Since Koi selected the Mandate, they and their Ally Lotus may summon an extra figure each.
Clans, feel free to discuss, threaten, etc. or post your Recruit orders. I’ll keep up with the map updates, and am happy to answer any rules questions, or speak to general strategies in a neutral and public way.
One Bushi to Amaterasu, one Shinto to Nagato.
Bushi to Kyoto
I kind of want to place a Shinto, but I suspect that it would just be over-ridden by one of these high honor clans. So one Bushi to Hokkaido.
Easy choice here, as last in honor I doubt I’ll see much benefit in Kami now so one Bushi to Kyushu
Bonsai, I’m holding your move as Fox declares before you, but I’ll put it straight through once we get that move.
Also, Dragonfly, just to make sure you know-- your clan power means that you can summon your figures anywhere, not just at a Fortress. Do you still want your Bushi at Hokkaido?
Shinto to Hachiman, please.
Thank you for double checking with me. I wasn’t reading the map well; for some reason I thought “oh we have a ton of players so there is someone in every province, and so there is no point in placing just one figure out there in someone else’s province.” But that’s not true, there are two open and empty provinces. So I will place the Bushi in … Shikoku. If that’s ok at this point.
If I reacted too late to this and it would be causing other players too much trouble that’s fine, I can also stick with my original move and I suspect it will work out the same. Thanks again for checking with me.
The intent was for this to be a learning and ‘play out loud’ game, so I would prefer to moderate with a light hand and allow simple takebacks.
Also, no one else can recruit anywhere other than their one Fortress (or to a Shrine) so your decision can’t have changed their mind anyway. I’ll change it unless others are strongly opposed.
I’ll put a bushi in my stronghold, and a shinto on the Tsukuyomi shrine.
Koi Recruit ended. The struggle for the Kami has begun-- will anyone else Recruit before the first Kami phase, or are we settled, celestially speaking?
Now Mandate choice to Lotus, and their special Clan ability kicks in. While they get a secret selection of four Mandate tiles like anyone else, they play their Mandates face down, and declare it to be any of they five they wish. Thus, they always get the Mandate they want, and burn a Mandate they don’t want someone else to play. For example, Lotus could decide that we are done with Recruiting this Season by burning that Mandate as another one, or give us a chance to have three.
I’m sending Lotus their choices, but while they are deciding, the rest of you could make pitches to Lotus now. You can freely exchange Coin and Ronin except during the war, and you can always make promises too…
My bad-- didn’t get the notification that Lotus had selected in the PM.
Lotus has selected Train. Unlike other mandates, Lotus actually goes first in this one, to buy exactly what they want.
Please respond in the thread in play order for which goody you’d like. If you select one of the monsters, you will need to specify its destination. Komainu, since it counts as a Shinto, can be summoned into a Kami shrine; others will go to a Fortess. Dragonfly can Summon a Monster anywhere.
Earth Dragon
Lotus pays 2 coin (discount 1 for mandate selection) for the board-altering Earth Dragon, who appears in play in Nagato.
I’ll buy a Komainu and place it on Hachiman. I notice that I’m pretty high up on the honor track so this feels like a good move ™.
One request for everyone - can we tag the next player so that person gets a notification that they’re up going forward? @Kevin_Perry can you update the table with the user names so that it’s easy to map the factions to players?
@RothdaTheTruculent is up next
Oof, this is a tough choice. There’s so many good upgrades out there. I think the smart choice would be to get Honesty, as that’s a solid 6 VP over the course of the game, which seems like a good return for just a single move. But then again, the Oni of Skulls is so very sexy, and wouldn’t it be great to have him flying around on my team? But am I really honorless enough to commit to an Oni strategy, and be the very scummiest clan out there? Yes!
One Oni of Skulls please. He should start his life of pillaging in Oshu.
@Mike_Cathcart is up next.