English manual

Kunitori!

Credits:
Game design: Gin’ichiro Suzuki and Yukio Kawamura
Assistant design: Yoshinori YanagidaDeveloppers: Atsuo Yoshizawa (Arclight) , Tomohide Iijima (Arclight) and Naoki Kubouchi (Arclight)
Assistant developpers: Takatoyo Katoh (Hobby Station), Youhei
Morizono, Jun-ichi Itoh and Yosito Furuta
Art direction: Kazuna Shizukuishi (Arclight)
Graphic design: Jun-ichi Narusawa (Media desk N)
Translation: Simon Lundstrom

0. Game overview

This game consists of this rule book and 270 cards.
* 150 Action cards–8 Generals–58 Troops–84 Politics* 50 Victory point cards* 70 Treasure cards

Draw
deck

Player 3’s territory

1. Components

TrashareaTroops Troops Troops Generals
Draw
deck

Player 2’s territory

Warrior Feudal Lord Card Game Kunitori! is a deckbuilding card game for 2–6 players (3–5 recommended). Players play a ”nameless lord”, buy cards such as”Cavallery”, ”Fortress” and ”Gold”, gradually ﬁlling his
deck of cards. As the game nears its end, players cantake command of his generals and troops, and go tobattle against the other players. This battle heavily inﬂuences the game. The players who has the most victory
points in his possession once the game ends, is declared
the winner.
Aim to be the greatest of all feudal lords!

Set-up example

Victory
pointsTreasure

Card pool
Victory
pointsPolitics Politics Politics Politics

Victory
pointsPolitics Politics Politics Politics

Treasure

Treasure

Draw
deck
Politics Politics Politics Politics

2. Preparations

Players sit around the game table. In the middle of thetable, all available cards are placed; this is called thecard pool. Beside this there is the trash area, wherecards that have been removed from the game are kept.
Keep these two separate.
Each player should have a territory in front of him,
enough table space to play his cards. Each territory
consists of the army area, where cards are played, theplayer’s personal draw deck and discard pile.
* First, sort out the Generals, shufﬂe them and make aface up draw pile in the card pool.
* Secondly, sort out the 7 different Troops cards, 12Politics cards, 3 Victory Point cards, and 3 Treasurecards and make a face up draw pile of each card type, inthe card pool. Please refer to the ﬁgure.
Each player now takes 6 ”Copper” cards, and 2 ”Village” cards, shufﬂes them thoroughly, and places themin a face down stack before him – his draw deck. Hethen draws the top 4 cards and keeps in his hand. Decide starting player in any suitable fashion.
Players take turns, with the starting player taking theﬁrst turn. Each turn consists of the following four phases (described in detail later in the rules):Troops Troops Troops Troops

Player 4’s territory

Warrior feudal lord card game Kunitori!

Player 1’s territory
DiscardpileDrawdeck

3. Flow of the game

Army area

The game is played in turns, each player ﬁnishing histurn before the next player takes his. The starting player takes the ﬁrst turn. Each turn consists of four phasesthat must be performed in the following order:
1: Action phase
2: Battle phase
3: Buy phase
4: Redraw phase
Phase details are explained later in the rules. Whena player has ﬁnished all four phases, play goes to theplayer to the left, and this continues until the game end
conditions are met.

4. The cards

32Action cards

6411510178

1234108611Action card: Troops (red frame)

There are three types of action cards: Generals,Troops and Politics.
Action cards are played during the action phase ofa player’s turn. To play one action card requires theplayer to pay 1 ”action”. Each player starts his action
phase with 1 action, which means that each turn, he will
be able to play at least 1 action card.
When a player plays an action card, he follows the instructions on the card. If there are several, they should
be taken in order from top to bottom.
For example, if the card gives him ”+2 actions”, it means the player will be able to, during this action phase,play another 2 action cards. Actions are consumed assoon as an action card is played, and all unused actions
disappear once the action phase ends. They do not carryover to the next turn.
1. Card name
2. Buy cost The amount of money required to buy thiscard from the card pool.
3. Victory points
4. +cards This icon displays how many cards the player must draw from his deck when this card is played.
5. +money This icon displays how much money theplayer gains when this card is played. The money isused to buy cards from the card pool during the buy
phase in the same turn.
6. +actions This icon displays how many extra actions
the player gains when this card is played.
7. +buys This icon displays how many extra cards theplayer may buy this the turn this card is played.
8. Attack The amount of offensive power the player
gets when attacking or defending during the combat
phase.
9. Defence The amount of defensive power the player
gets when attacking or defending during the combat
phase.
10. Card category
11. Flavor text Something the card characters say orare. Just for your entertainment.

Action card: General (full picture)

There are roughly three types of cards in the game:
Action cards, Victory Point cards (VP cards) andTreasure cards.

1
3Art credits:
CARNELIAN
Akiho Miina
Adumi Tohru
ko~chaKinoshita Ichi
Kusaka Souji
NishidaTanaka Toshihisa Tokumi Yuiko
Minase Rin
Hayase Akira
Fujii Rino
Miyashita Miki
Yamadori Ofu
Cover illustration: CARNELIAN

1041196Action card: politics (blue frame)2Victory point cards

123Treasure cards

41235. Phase details

The phases are in details as follows:

Treasure card (yellow frame)

Treasure cards are cards that you use when buying
cards from the card pool. During the buy phase, theturn player may play any number of treasure cards fromhis hand; he then gains the equivalent amount of money. Unlike action cards, treasure cards do not require
actions to play, and the player can play as many as hewants, from his hand. However, like action cards, they
still cost money to buy from the card pool.
A ”Copper” treasure card will give +1 money, a ”Silver”
treasure card will give +2 money, and a ”Gold” treasurecard will give +3 money. This money is used to buy acard (or several, if allowed) from the card pool. Anyunused money disappears once the buy phase ends.
They do not carry over to the next turn.
1. Card name
2. Buy cost The amount of money required to buy thiscard from the card pool.
3. +money This icon displays how much money theplayer gains when this card is played. The money isused to buy cards from the card pool during the buy
phase in the same turn.
4. Flavour text Something the card characters say orare. Just for your entertainment.

Victory Point card (green frame)

Victory point cards are what decided the winner at theend of the game. However, they have no effect during
the game, and they cannot be played. Please note that
not only Victory Point cards can yield Victory Points.
Some other cards do as well.
1. Card name
2. Buy cost The amount of money required to buy thiscard from the card pool.
3. Victory Points
4. Flavour text Something the card characters say orare. Just for your entertainment.

4Action phase

During this phase, the player plays action card(s) fromhis hand. It costs 1 ”action” to play 1 action card. At
the start of the action phase, the turn player receives 1action, which means he will be able to play at least one
action card from his hand. If the player has gained moreactions from card effects, he can use these to play moreaction cards. He is not forced to use all actions even if
he can, but any unused actions are lost once the action
phase ends – they do not carry over to the next turn.
To play an action card, the player places it in his territory, and follows the instructions on the cards. If there
are several, they are taken in order from top to bottom.
If the card effect includes +cards, the player must
immediately draw that number of cards from his deck.
The cards that he draws this way may be used during
the same turn if possible.
Any +action effects stack; these actions do not need
to be used immediately, but may be used to play furtheraction cards at any time during the action phase. Any+buy and +money are also stacked; however, they
are used during the buy phase (like actions, they do notcarry over to the next turn).
Action cards that have been played are not discarded
immediately. Instead, they remain open in the playarea until the redraw phase, at which time they are all
discarded together.
The action phase ends when a player chooses to– most often because he runs out of actions or actioncards.

Battle phase

If the player played a General or ”The young general”,
the player may now declare battle against the otherplayers. If he wins the battle, he gains the appropriate
victory point card from the card pool – meaning hetakes it from the card pool and places it on his discard
pile. Battles are described in detail later in the rules.
About ”gaining” cards:
A card that is ”gained” is placed on your discard pile.
It does not go to your hand, unless speciﬁed so.

Buy phase

During this phase, the player buys cards from the pool.
Bought cards are, unless stated otherwise, placed on theplayer’s discard pile. It does not go the player’s hand.
Buying a card costs 1 ”buy” and the appropriate
amount of money. At the start of the buy phase, the turnplayer gets 1 ”buy”, so provided he has enough money,
he will always be able to buy at least one card eachturn. Effects from action cards may have increased theplayer’s number of buys, but if the player buys several
cards he must still have played enough treasure to pay
for all bought cards together.
During the buy phase, the player may play any number of treasure cards from his hand, to increase hisamount of money this turn. The treasure cards are put
in his play area (territory). Unlike action cards, it does
not cost any actions to play treasure cards. Please notethat treasure cards are not consumed in the buy process – they are not put out of the game or returned tothe card pool. They simply indicate the maximum total
cost for card(s) that the player may buy this turn.
The buy phase ends when the player chooses to– most often because he runs out of buys or money.

Redraw phase

First in the Redraw phase, the player discards all cards
that he played this turn, except the cards he may andwants to deploy, see below.
Next, he discards all cards that remain in his hand.
Last, he draws 4 cards from his draw deck.
If the draw deck runs out, he draws as many cards as
he can, then shufﬂes his discard pile, makes a new draw
deck out of it, and then draws the next.
Generally about the reshufﬂing the deck:
Please note that the discard pile is not reshufﬂed toform a new draw deck just because the draw deck isempty. A new draw deck is created if the draw deck isempty when the player is instructed to draw a card,and not earlier.

6. Deploying cards

Certain action cards are ”deployable”. They carry the”deployable” symbol – a little black banner on thediamond-shaped attack/defence icon. A player who has
played cards with this symbol may choose to let themstay in his territory instead of discarding them during
the redraw phase. This is called to ”deploy” the card.
Cards that are deployed at the start of a player’s action phase, are treated just as if they the player playedthem from his hand. The timing of a deployed card isafter the player has received 1 action at the beginning of
the action phase, but before he plays any further action
cards. Please note that deployed cards aren’t played forfree – the 1 action cost to play them is not nulliﬁed.
If the player has several deployed cards, he chooses
in which order he plays them.
For example, if a player has ”Magniﬁcent castle”
deployed, his 1 action that he gets at the start of his action phase is immediately consumed, and he receives +1
card, +1 action and +1 buy. He draws one card from hisdraw deck, and has 1 action left to play any action cards
from his hand.

7. Battle

Battles are held after the action phase and are perfomed
according to the following method.

Declaring battle

A player can only declare battle if he has played any
General or ”The young general” in this turn.
At this point, all of the generals and the troops in his
territory take part in the battle (politics do not).
First, the player must decide which general(s) will
attack which player(s). It’s possible to attack one player
with several generals and also to attack several playerswith one general.
If the turn player attacks several players with different
generals, he must decide which troops run with which
general. It’s possible to attack with only a general, but
it’s not possible to attack with only troops.
If the player attacks several players, the battles are
performed in clockwise order around the table.

Defending

The defending player may now choose between Ambush
or Reinforcements.
If he chooses Ambush, he may reveal any number ofcards from his hand. All revealed cards that have either
attack or defence value are placed in his territory andremain there until the battle ends. Also, each card’s attack and/or defence value is during this battle increased
by 1.
If he chooses Reinforcements, he reveals the top two
cards from his draw deck. All revealed cards that have
either attack or defence value are placed in his territory
and remain there until the battle ends.

Battle result

The total attack value of the attacking force iscompared to the total attack and defence valueof the defending force. The player with the highest
value wins the battle. If the values are the same, nothing
happens.
The victor receives his prize according to the tablebelow. Please note that taking his prize is mandatory fora winning attacker, but a winning defender may choose
not to gain his prize.
After the battle, the defender returns the card(s) herevealed prior to the battle: ambush cards are returned
to his hand, and reinforcements are returned – in anyorder – onto the top of his draw deck.
If the attacker won
with 1–3 points: Attacker gains a Village
with 6–7 points: Attacker gains a Town
with 7+ points: Attacker gains a Land
If the defender won
with 1 point: Defender may gain a Village
with 2 points: Defender may gain a Town
with 3+ points: Defender may gain a Land

Example of battle

Hideyoshi has played ”The young general” during hisaction phase and declares battle agains Ieyasu.
Hideyoshi has one ”The young general” (attack 1) andthree ”Light gunners” (attack 3) in his territory, Ieyasu
has one ”Magniﬁcent castle” (defence 3) and one ”Lightarcher” (attack 1).
Ieyasu declares ”ambush” and plays two ”Fortress”(attack 2) from his hand and puts in his territory. As
this was an ambush, Fortress counts as defence 3.
Hideyoshi’s total attack value is 10. Ieyasu’s combined
attack and defence value is also 10. Thus it’s a draw, andnothing happens.
Ieyasu retakes his two ”Fortress” to his hand and thebattle is over.

8. Example of play

Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu are playing. It’s
Nobunaga’s turn.
Nobunaga has 2 ”copper”, 1 ”light archers” and 1”trade harbour” in his hand. He also has 1 ”cavallery”
deployed in his territory.
The action phase starts, and Nobunaga gets 1 action.
It’s immediately used to play his ”cavallery” that was
already deployed since earlier. ”Cavallery” gives +2
actions, so now Nobunaga has 2 actions. He uses one ofthem to play ”light archer”.
”Light archer” gives +2 actions, so now Nobunaga
has 3 actions. Nobunaga continues with playing ”tradeharbour”. This card gives him +3 cards, +1 buy. He immediately draws the top three cards from his draw deck,and they turn out to be 2 ”copper” and 1 ”gold”.
Nobunaga has 2 actions left, but no action cards left
so he ends the action phase.
Next is the battle phase. But Nobunaga doesn’t haveany general in his territory, so he can’t declare battle– there is none to lead his troops.
Next is the buy phase. Nobunaga gets 1 buy, whichadds to the buy he got from ”trade harbour”, so he has atotal of 2 buys. He plays his 4 ”copper” and his 1 ”gold”,
which results in a total of 7 money.
He uses 1 buy and 6 money to buy one ”light gunners”
from the card pool and he places it on his discard pile.
He has 1 buy and 1 money left, but he doesn’t want to
use those, so he ends the buy phase.
Next is the redraw phase. Of the cards Nobunaga
played, ”light archer” and ”cavallery” are deployable,
so he leaves those in his territory but discards the rest
– 4 ”copper”, 1 ”gold” and 1 ”trade harbour”. He doesn’t
have any cards left in his hand, else he would have discarded those too.
Then he draws 4 cards from his draw deck. His turn isover, and now it’s Hideyoshi’s turn.

9. Game end and victory

When one of the victory card piles are empty, the game
will continue until the player to the right of the current
turn player has had another turn. Then the game ends.
Once the game has ended, all players count the victory
points from all the cards in their possession. The player
with the most points wins. In the case of a tie, the onethat was farthest away from the starting player wins.
The winner is declared the greatest of all daimyo!

10. Deck strategy

At the start of the game, all players have the same deck,but once the game starts, the deck layout will change
depending on strategy. There are many possible strategies; here we describe a few of them.

Military focus deck

Buy ﬁrst: ”Silver”, ”Land survey”
Focus on increasing your ﬁnances with ”silver”, and buy”spear troopers” from the start. Once your ﬁnances areenough, get young generals, buy generals like mad, andstart battling!

Stable market deck

Buy ﬁrst: ”Market”, ”Developping new technology”
Buy Market in your ﬁrst turn, and start exchanging your”villages” and ”coppers” into action cards or troops.
This strategy will gradually gain you a stable deck withpowerful action cards.

Draw deck

Buy ﬁrst: ”Heavy tax”
This is a strategy to let the VP penalty that heavy tax
gives you be reverted by the cards you draw. For thisstrategy, +action cards and light archers are the key tovictory, you need to make a balance of those three.

Start dash developpment deck

Buy ﬁrst: ”Technology developpment”
The new tech cards can always be bought the ﬁrst turn.
Keep getting them, and aim for expensive action cards
from early on. If you trash new tech to get Quality Tea
Ware, then trash that to get ahold of a Magniﬁcent
Castle early on, you can grab the initiative pretty quick.