Rising Sun – For Honour, Glory, and Victory Points

In Rising Sun, 3-5 (or 6 with the Dynasty Invasion Expansion players will be trying to accumulate the most victory points after 3 rounds. The game uses several interesting mechanisms to create a unique puzzle, one where above-board negotiations and handshake agreements can make all the difference.

Each round (“season”) starts with a tea ceremony phase, where players can freely form alliances with one another. However, alliances can only exist between two players – no giant conglomerates allowed.

Then, we enter the political phase, where most of the game takes place. Turns are taken using “political mandates”. There are 5 political mandates in the game: recruit (put more dudes on the map), marshal (move them around), harvest (gain rewards for controlling regions), train (buy powerups and monsters), and betray (more on this later). These are represented as tiles, which are shuffled into a stack, and on a players’ turn that player will draw 4 of those tiles, choose one to play, and place the other 3 at the top of the stack. Then, each player takes their turn doing the chosen mandate. Whoever chooses the mandate, and their ally, get a boost to their mandate, for example being allowed to recruit more warriors than the others. Players will not always get to do what they want, so flexibility is key. Returning unused mandates to the top also gives you a tactical edge, as you can try to predict what comes next.

Betrayal is a game changing move, allowing you to replace other players warriors with your own. However, it comes with the disadvantage of breaking your alliance if you are in one, and putting a massive target on your back.

After 7 mandates are played, we enter the war phase. And this is where I think the game shines. At the start of each round, tiles representing each region are drawn randomly to indicate which regions are being contested that round and the order the battles take place in.

Combat uses a blind bidding system. Players will have accumulated money throughout the political phase, which they use for combat. Combat works like this: first, players announce how many coins they have. They then secretly allocate as many (or as few) coins as they’d like to several war actions. Then, players simultaneously reveal their bids. Whoever bid the most for each action does that particular action. Once that is all done, players count up their strength totals, with the highest strength total winning. Losers kill all their characters, and the winner claims the battle tile for that region.

This blind bidding is brilliant, and simulates the uncertainty and fog of war. The actions players are bidding on are: honourably committing suicide to gain victory points, hiring Ronin, kidnapping an enemy unit, and writing a glorious poem that grants victory points for especially deadly battles.

These abilities can turn the tide of battle, making bidding a tense affair. Players will be into a battle of wits, trying to figure out their opponents’ tactics and how to respond. It excellently creates some uncertainty in the game that doesn’t feel too random, while providing players a lot of room to think tactically.

But…

It gets even better.

While the losers of the battle pay the money spent in the bidding back to the bank, the winner gives the money they spent to the losers of the battle. This adds another tactical layer to the game – it may be worth intentionally losing in one region to get funds for future battles. In fact, it might even be worth marshalling your warriors into random regions with early combat just to get some money for more important fights.

Navigating this intense maze of bluffing, double-bluffing, and mind-games is incredibly fun with the right group. Each game of Rising Sun develops its own narrative. It feels immensely satisfying to bluff your opponent into wasting a ton of coins while you bid nothing at all, and it is crushing to be on the opposite end. Pulling off a victory with minimal coin use makes you feel like a tactical genius. And these battles of wits forge rivalries between players, which affect future tea ceremonies. These high stake opportunities make negotiating and bargaining between players another strong pillar for Rising Sun to stand on – once you get used to how battle works.

It is very common for players to tie in strength, but this is intended. All ties are broken by an honour system, where certain actions like Seppuku grant honour while others like betrayal cause you to lose honour. While dishonourable actions may be powerful, this system gives you even more to think about before being too sneaky and mean.

Much like the other two games in the Eric Lang Dudes-On-A-Map Trilogy, Rising Sun is extremely well presented, with exquisitely sculpted minis, a gorgeous game board and clear iconography. The miniatures are also great for being your first paint project – they were for me! Even though the details may be challenging, the size of the minis make painting them forgiving, and very gratifying.

The only issue with Rising Sun is its theme. While I love the Japanese theme dripping from the game’s pieces, some mechanics, like Seppuku, trivialise and marginalise very important parts of Japan’s culture and history. It turns a questionable act with extreme significance into a little “ha-hey! I’ll just get a few points here”, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. While not extremely egregious, it’s safe to say that the game’s theme was not very well researched. You could argue that its set in a fictional, fantastical feudal facsimile of Japan, but some parts of the game’s theme still rub me the wrong way.

With that caveat in mind, Rising Sun has plenty to offer. The mandate system is interesting, but the stars of the show are the alliance system and combat auctions. They force players to work with uncertainty, encouraging above-board negotiations, strategising, and mind-gaming. The first few plays may be rough, but once you get a handle on what’s happening, Rising Sun will blossom. For a group that loves backstabbing, sly negotiations, and mind-games, this is perfect. However, it will probably fall flat in a passive group.

I love playing mind games with my friends. I love trying to be diplomatic with them too. Rising Sun does both very well.

If you like games heavy on conflict, diplomacy, and the occasional stab in the back, definitely give Rising Sun a try – just be prepared to make some enemies along the way!