presentation

Onitama

The game of Warrior art

Onitama is a game of moving and defeating pawns for two players, on a 5x5 board. Your pawns are one Onmyo Master and four pupils. The Master pawn of each player begins on the respective player’s side of the board on the Temple case, the pupils to the left and right of the Master on the base line.

Two randomly drawn cards out of 16 movement cards are placed openly before each player, one card is set to the right of the board, between players. The color marking of this card determines the starting player. The active player selects one of his two cards and moves one of his pawns as indicated; if you end the movement on a case with an opposing pawn, this pawn is removed. To defeat a pawn, you must end your movement on its case, you cannot defeat a pawn in passing. Other pawns and temple cases do not block movement; you cannot move your pawn on a case holding another of your pawns. The card that you used is placed on the left/other side of the board and turned towards the other player, and you take the card to the right of the board. If you can do a move, you must do it, even if it has negative consequences for you. If you cannot move, you must switch cards as if you had done a move.

If you defeat the opposing Master pawn, you win using the Path of Stone / Weg des Steins; if you Master arrives at the opposing temple case, you win using the Path of the Tide / Weg der Strömung.

Elegant, with simple rules for lots of in-game depth, a game that plays quickly and very different in each game due to the movement cards - an attractive, felicitous addition to the range of abstract games for two players.

Players: 2

Age: 10+

Time: 20+

Designer: Shimpei Sat

Artist: Jens Wiese, Mariusz Szmerdt, Lucy Liu

Price: ca. 25 Euro

Publisher: Pegasus Spiele 2017

Web: www.pegasus.de

Genre: Move and defeat pawns

Users: With friends

Special: 2 players

Version: de

Rules: de en es fr jp

In-game text: no

Comments:

First edition Conception / Japon Brand 2014

Very attractive components

Sort duration

Lots of in-game depth despite simple rules

Variation due to varying movement cards in every game

Compares to:

All abstract games for two, using pawn movement/defeat

Other editions:

Arcane Wonders (en), Conception (jp), Igiari (fr) Maldito (es)

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0