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One of the best board game conversions I have ever seen, Reiner Knizia's Samurai is a superb PC version of Samurai, a great abstract board game by Reiner Knizia released simultaneously in Germany and the United States by Hans im Glück and Rio Grande Games. Set in feudal Japan, up to four players (cast as prominent warlords) vie to gain allegiance of three main groups: nobles, priests, and peasants. From the official site: "[you] must court the allegiance of these social groups one city at a time by promising military protection, offering favors or resources to specific castes or sending merchant ships to encourage trade in the region. During gameplay, these resources are represented by tiles that you must place on the map in spaces adjacent to the cities and villages that contain representatives of the social caste[s]. Once sufficient influence has been exerted on the cities, you, or your opponents may be awarded a pledge of loyalty from the population. The game concludes when there are no more pledges of loyalty to win. At that time, the population gathers into their castes and declares their support for you or your opponents. Only through careful currying of the greatest and most balanced favor can you achieve a sovereign declaration, and through such, win the game!" Similar to most other games by Reiner Knizia, Samurai is turn- and hex-based. Like his other games, Samurai features finely-tuned balancing and elegant game mechanics. With an array of tokens and tiles including the Samurai, Ronin, boats, and specials that allow players to replace a scoring tile or swap two tokens, Samurai is akin to a multi-dimensional Japanese game of Go: areas of influence arise as tokens are placed and areas are conquered. Unlike most board games in which you only need enough victory points to win, the challenging "majority rule" in Samurai radically changes the nature of the game, especially in a four-player game. Although not as complex as Euphrates & Tigris, Samurai is still a very challenging and interesting game. This outstanding PC version from Klear Games offers excellent AI of varying difficulty levels, excellent graphics, intuitive interface, and a very comprehensive multiplayer support including hotseat, LAN, and Internet. If you love abstract board games like chess or elegant tabletop wargames that focus more on the mechanics than on realism, you will love this excellent conversion of a board game classic that belongs in every strategy gamer's collection. Two thumbs up, and a well-deserved entry into our Hall of Belated Fame. Reviewed by: Underdogs | 
Reiner Knizia's Samurai 
