Onitama

What is it

Onitama is a strategy board game for two players created in 2014 by Japanese game designer Shimpei Sato and launched by Arcane Wonders. In Germany, the game was launched by Pegasus Games in 2017. It is thematically based on the different fighting styles of Japanese martial arts. The game had a digital release in 2018. Read More

The setup

The game is played on a 5x5 board. Each player receives five pieces, one master piece placed in the middle square of the back row, known as the Shrine, and four pieces flanking the master, known as pupils. Sixteen movement cards dictate the movement of the pieces during the game. Five of the 16 movement cards are utilized per game.

Game Play

There are two separate methods to win a game:

The first method, known as the Way of the Stone, requires the player to capture the opponents master piece.

The second method, known as the Way of the Stream, requires the player to move their master piece into the opponent's Shrine.

Players shuffle the 16 movement cards and then give two movement cards to each player and one movement card is placed on the side of the board for a total of 5 movement cards in play.
Each piece can be captured, and captures other pieces, the same way which is based on the movement provided by the movement cards.
After one player moves they must replace the movement card at the side with the used movement card, allowing both players rotating access to all 5 movement cards in play.

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