How to Play Rising Sun (+ Expansions) & Review

Posted on May 14, 2018 by Jesta ThaRogue

Rising Sun is an action selection, set collection and area control game.

Title: Rising Sun

Year Published: 2018

Designer: Eric M. Lang

Publisher: CMON Limited

Players: 3-6

Game Time: ~120 Minutes

Set-up Time: ~10 minutes

Ages: 14+

Theme: Feudal Japan

Mechanisms: Area Control, Set Collection, Action Selection, Variable Player Powers

How to win: Score the most points after 4 seasons.

Game Description

Rising Sun is a game about honour, negotiation, and warfare in a feudal Japan where the ancient gods (Kami) have returned to rebuild the empire.
Tackle negotiations, alliances, and war. Capture hostages and commit seppuku. The game features an honour track, which rises and falls based on your actions.

How to Play Rising Sun (+ Expansions)

Round-Up

The next in the series to the Viking-themed Blood Rage, so this is quite pretty huh?

All the bright colours and cool minis and extras look great on the table and people flock from around the room to take a look and pick stuff up.

It’s also very functional with each ‘enhanced’ piece from the Kickstarter making the game look better. The flags that signify a war a nice, if a little fragile, and are much better than the tokens in the retail version.

I mentioned in my Ups & Downs Video that the Kickstarter stuff isn’t necessary and only the cool Strongholds and extra clan are the bits I would miss. (Although I would miss them A LOT!)

On to the game…

Action Selection

So the main reason I backed this game is for the action selection part that’s combined with the alliances. I LOVED the idea that you and your ally get a bonus from each other’s actions. One aspect I didn’t expect to like is that ‘Wars; with your ally will resolve without death… Which is nice 🙂

The Honour track is a nice idea. Having it break ties in ALL situations is really powerful so there is a focus on who is honourable throughout the game. Ties happen quite a bit in a variety of circumstances so having this advantage overall, or at least most of the competition is quite handy.

I’m partially a fan of the actual ‘area control’ part. I mean, dudes on a map aren’t my thing but moving around trying to manoeuvre yourself into a position to win during the war phase is fun. Movement is freely available but is restrictive enough that you treasure each movement you have.

Combat is OK, blind bidding… Whatever, it’s ‘semi-deterministic’ I guess and requires a lot of thought.

The Monsters are great but you can win without them, I wouldn’t want to try it though, they’re too fun!

The Monster expansion isn’t required…

The Kami expansion is, it’s great. Controlling the Kami gives you an extra bonus that is really powerful but in order to keep that bonus, you need to keep control of the Kami which could go at any minute.

The Dynasty Invasion box is OK, I’m not a massive fan of the additional setup but having extra clans is good.

Rating

A very nice game that’s very nice to look at.

I give it a 7/10

Rising Sun Ups & Downs

Ups and Downs is a series where I look at the individual points of a board game and give the bits Like an up and the bits I don’t like a down. Check out the Ups and Downs of Rising Sun here:

Rising Sun First Impressions March 2018

If you like pretty-looking set collection games then have I got the game for you!

Rising Sun combines minis, plastic, action selection, partnerships, betrayal and some of the nicest components in a game together for the ultimate goal of claiming several small cardboard tokens…

Base Game First Impressions

Kami Unbound First Impressions

Dynasty Invasion First Impressions

Monster Pack First Impressions

Daimyo Box First Impressions

The Rising sun video contains my thoughts on the game and the expansion videos detail was in the box and what it brings to the table… and if it’s worth it.