Sengoku. Ancient
How it Plays
Tenka: All Under Heaven is a tableau-building card game with
central elements of set collection and interaction. You can find our review of the first edition here. Game play in this second edition is
essentially the same, although there are a few minor revisions and additions.
 |
| The play mat and stability track. |
The game is no longer designated for 2-4 players, but rather
3-4. A further change is that when the
draw pile is exhausted and chaos occurs, all players must discard a card of their choice from their court, instead of one Province if only over a certain limit. Yet another
small rule change, which has a fairly big impact, is that players now draw one
card at the beginning of their turn, plus
an additional card for each Province in their court. From this supply, they keep one and discard
the rest, unless they have a majority of Priests, in which case they are
allowed to retain two cards during the draw phase.
The revised edition also includes a few new cards. There are five extra purple cards which, like
others in the suit, grant special rules-breaking abilities when placed in court
or pitched. And completely original to
the second edition are three Regalia cards, one each for the suits Priest,
Lord, and Knight. These cannot be
pitched like their sister cards, but have two powerful effects. First, they count as two of the type in their
respective categories when determining majorities. Second, they provide for a third win condition
if you can collect all three in your court – which proves to be a challenging
accomplishment.
 |
| A player's court. |
Facelift? Or New and Improved?
Victory Point Games should start a reality TV show titled “Extreme
Game Makeover.” This is not to review the
publisher, but to make a contextual point.
The former Little Game Company That
CouldSM has indeed done - making tremendous strides in
production quality with their recent line of Gold Banner Games.
The most glaring issue with Tenka: All Under Heaven was it’s
plain unattractiveness. Now that may
seem an unfair criticism, given VPG’s production philosophy – emphasize accessible games with good mechanics at affordable prices over component quality. But unfortunately, the flimsy and undersized
cards with no graphics hid an otherwise clever and tense game. When your design is all about the cards, well
then your production better be all about the cards, too. So does the second edition address
aesthetics? Oh, dear, yes! The change is so profound, I cannot even
think of an appropriate analogy to do it justice.
The cards are poker-sized with rounded corners. They’re one step down in thickness from an
average deck, but still stiff. The
graphics are fantastic. All of the card
artwork mimics the watercolor style that the period is famous for. It is both detailed and minimalist, colorful
and subdued. The game’s mechanics are
still abstract and don’t really make you feel like a medieval Japanese
warlord. However, the illustrations
evoke the period very well and give the game lots of flavor. It’s worth getting the game just to stare at
the art – which, I might add, verifies my suspicions (noted in my first review)
regarding the depictions of samurai
and daimyos with bald heads, receding
hairlines and thinning ponytails.
 |
| The 4 regular suits. Note the male pattern baldness endemic to art of the period... |
The other components are several grades better, too. The game mat and player courts (new to the
second edition) are sturdy and graced with the same artwork. There are six player mats to choose from –
for only a four player game. There is a 5-player variant by throwing in
all 25 of the purple cards. I’ve not
been able to try that, but would imagine it’d be an angst-ridden, chaotic, cutthroat
fight over scarce resources! Anyway, also
included is a nice, resin pagoda
piece for tracking the Province win condition.
Both of these elements show that VPG is improving in the chrome
department – pretty, sometimes over-produced, and often unnecessary, bits and pieces which nonetheless enhance game play. Chrome is almost never a bad thing!
The Regalia cards are an interesting addition. It does provide another win condition, but it
is very challenging to implement. First
of all, it’s unlikely that you’ll luck out and draw all three of them. So you’ll have to take one or two by force –
either through battle or special ability from a purple card. It is tempting to play these for their double
category value. As soon as you do,
however, they become an attractive target for your opponents. You’ll most likely need a knight-heavy
strategy to succeed.
Dropping the 2-player designation is a good move because, as
I noted in the first review, the game loses all of its tension and suspense with just a
pair of combatants. Once a player nudges
ahead for an advantage, there’s very little his opponent can do to stop him. Instead, the title shines as a 3- and
4-player contest to take advantage of shifting alliances, which the unique
battle mechanic creates in allowing other players around the table to join combat by throwing in one Knight for either the attacker or defender as they see fit. This makes fighting anxious, although it is
still a math exercise in the end.
 |
| Capture and place all 3 of these and win! Sounds easy, right? |
The rule that revises the number of cards players draw to
begin their turns may sound minor, but it has a big impact on play. The change is that instead of just one card, you
now take one plus a number equal to the Provinces in your court. This has three effects. One, it gives added incentive to place
Province cards in your court. One strategy
to achieve victory is to hoard these Provinces in hand, hoping to protect them
from spoils until you can lay them all down together. Now playing them early piecemeal can boost card
acquisition.
Second, drawing more cards each turn exhausts the deck
faster, which is compounded exponentially as all players participate. This speeds the game up since each time the
deck is reshuffled, the target number of Provinces required for victory
decreases. Even if one player can’t
maneuver successfully to achieve victory, you’ll only go through the deck a
maximum of five times and then the game ends automatically.
The third impact of this rule change is even bigger in that
it helps to offset the dominant Priests-Lords strategy I mentioned in my first
review. While there are a few ways to
win, that tactic proved much stronger in the first edition. In a nutshell, gaining a majority in Priests
increases your card drawing power and a majority of Lords grants you an extra
action each turn. With the two of those
combined, you could easily establish more Knights with which to protect your
growing Provinces and conquer others.
The main deterrent to that stratagem was in the other two players allying
against the one employing it. In this
new edition, the ability to search for and collect the card that you really need
through the use of multiple Provinces helps to even the field. Having said that, if you can still achieve a
majority in Priests and Lords, then you’re in a strong position.
The extra purple cards add some more variety. While some are better than others and they
are generally dependent upon luck of the draw, they’re fun abilities. There is the chance to chain some together
and/or create combos, but typically they’re more isolated capabilities. Some give a one-time benefit when
discarded. Others grant ongoing
advantages when placed in your court – but can be vulnerable targets if you’re
not careful. Some give optional powers for
doing either. The new cards are neat,
but not critical to the revision.
 |
| Special powers purple-suited cards. |
Tenka: All Under Heaven 2nd Edition addresses two of the three main issues to the original version. And it stops pretending it could work as a 2-player game. With a tenfold increase in production quality and a hundredfold increase in graphics design, Tenka 2nd Edition is a smart, quick, tactical, tense, and now beautiful title, especially suitable for three players. Plus it's a good value at its price point. Simply put, for such a light and accessible design, it packs a lot more game play than it has a right to, at first appearance.
Pros:
Simple rule changes create even more tension
Addresses dominant strategy problem
Great 3-player option
Artwork and graphics design are incredible
Still packs a lot for such a light game
Cons:
Battles could still be more dynamic
Cards are not as thick as some would like
Cards are not as thick as some would like
iSlaytheDragon would
like to thank Victory Point Games for providing a review copy of Tenka: All
Under Heaven, 2nd Edition.
-------------------------------------------
Enjoy this review? Stay up to date on our latest news, reviews, and guides by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Google+.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We'd love to hear your thoughts! Please leave a comment to add your voice to the discussion