Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Why have more people not yet heard of this great abstract strategy board game - Kamisado?! Fun, not just a brain-bender.
[A] One game takes about 10-18 minutes. Usually people play best 2-of-3.
[B] Base game rules are very simple.
[C] Elegant, clever concept.
[D] Visually appealing, albeit a bit busy.
HOW PLAYED:
A chess board has 64 squares, divided among two colors (white-ish and black-ish). Kamisado has 64 squares divided among eight colors, eight colors strategically located that look randomly located.
Both Kamisado players have eight pieces called "towers". One player gets the white towers, the other player gets the black towers. However...
...each white tower has a colored top. No two white towers have the same color for their tops. Crucially these top colors match the eight square colors! (Same situation for black towers, of course.)
Players alternate turns. Each turn is the movement of one the player's own towers.
Towers move forward only; never sideways nor backwards. Towers move only in straight lines, like a queen in chess (along columns or diagonals). Towers can move one or more squares per move, but towers can never jump any other piece.
THE TRICK: If White's tower lands on a green square, then for Black's turn Black must move the black tower that has the green top!! (Same restriction for White's turn, of course.)
THE GOAL: Simply advance any of your towers to your opponent's back row (empty) squares. Like getting a "king" in checkers.
The designer of this game, Peter John Burley, had a deep understanding of what he was doing when he designed this game. Leave the pieces in the box and study the board, lots of good reasoning went into it.
The type of strategy in this game is a fun kind for the human mind. At gatherings I find people prefer Kamisado over other great games such as Quoridor, Khet, Twixt, and Quarto.
How has such a great game remained mostly a secret unknown?
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KamisadoKamisado is a game of pure skill and strategy! There are no dice, cards or any other chance element. It's just you against your opponent! The aim in each round is to be the first to get an octagonal 'dragon tower' to the opposite side of the board, by moving the towers in straight lines, either forwards or diagonally forwards. It sounds easy doesn't it, but the twist is that you can only move a tower if its color matches the color of the square that your opponent last moved to. Also, you will find that the routes you want to use are blocked by enemy towers (and sometimes your own!). As the game unfolds, your towers will be promoted to 'Sumos', and will have the ability to push your opponents pieces backwards, earning you extra turns. The situations continue to become more complex and challenging, until one player accumulates the required winning total and can be declared a 'Kamisado Grand Master' - until the next game!
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