Naishi
Naishi Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game and Key Concepts
In Naishi, you will develop your province by obtaining new structures and influential characters in order to grow your prestige. However, the Shogun's law is strict and forbids you from reorganising your cards. Also, seize crucial opportunities by sending your emissaries to the imperial court in order to place your cards as efficiently as possible and thus control the most prestigious land in all of Japan.
You have a Hand and a Line made of 5 cards each. Both of these represent your territory. You can never freely reorganise your cards, neither in your Hand nor in your Line.
Developing your territory allows you to replace cards from your territory with cards from the River, arranging these cards in the same relative position in your Hand or Line.
You will also have the opportunity to send your Emissaries to the Imperial Court, which will grant you additional actions.
At the end of the game, the cards in your Hand will be revealed and placed under those of your Line, in the correct positions.
Your territory will therefore represent a grid of 2 x 5 cards.
Add the total points gained from each card and the player with the most points wins!
Components
- 16 mountain cards (set up cards)
- 34 development cards comprised of:
- 19 Character cards (with or without a fort icon)
- 15 Province cards
- 1 Imperial Court board
- 4 Emissary tokens
- 1 First Player card
- 4 Player Aids
- 1 Scorepad
Each development card shows, at the bottom, its end-of-game conditions and scoring points, and the number of copies of that card in the deck. The First Player card is recto-verso: one side shows a white flower, the other a black tomoe.
Set Up
- Randomly determine a first player. He or she will claim the emissary tokens with the white flower.
- He or she takes the First Player card. If you play a second game, give this card to the other player and flip it to the opposite side; the one showing a black tomoe.
- Place the Imperial Court on the side, perpendicular between the 2 players.
- Shuffle the Development cards and form 5 draw piles of 6 cards face down. Then, reveal the first card for each pile. This zone is the River and will allow players to develop their territory during the game. Give 2 of the remaining 4 Development cards to each player.
- Each player adds 3 mountain cards to their Hand and places 5 mountain cards in a line, face up, on their side of the River. This area will represent a player's Line.
- Each player keeps one Development card (from the 2 picked up in step 4) in their Hand and gives the other to their opponent.
- Each player now shuffles the 5 cards in their Hand. From now on, you cannot freely rearrange your Hand!
- Keep a space next to the River for a discard pile. Cards are discarded face up, but the discard pile cannot be examined during the game.
Definition of adjacent cards: Cards in your territory that are perpendicularly connected are considered to be adjacent. Diagonals do not count.
Do not forget that cards are placed in a grid at the end of the game (2 x 5), the leftmost card in your Hand will therefore be adjacent to the leftmost card in your Line.
Game Round
On your turn, you must carry out ONE of the following actions:
- Develop your territory; if you choose this action, you may also carry out an additional action before or after your obligatory development action (see Additional Actions).
- Impose an imperial decree;
- Recall your emissaries;
- Declare the end of the game.
Developing Your Territory
This action allows players to gain new cards from the River to add to their territory.
- Choose one card from your Hand OR your Line and discard it.
- Take the corresponding card from the River, IN THE SAME POSITION as the one you just discarded, and place the new card in the empty space in your Hand or Line.
- Reveal the next card from the draw pile in the River.
Example: Cindy wishes to gain the sentinel from the River to add it to her Line. She starts by discarding her mountain which is card in 4th position (from left to right) in her Line, then takes the sentinel and places it in that position. She could have instead chosen to add it to her hand, but in order to do so, she would have had to discard her naishi (pink), also situated in 4th position in her Hand. Once the action is completed, she reveals the next card in the draw pile in 4th position in the River, which will therefore be available to the next player.
Additional Actions
Before or after developing your territory, you can carry out one additional action by sending one of your Emissary tokens to a free space on the Imperial Court board.
You can never move an Emissary token that is already on the board to a different location. If there are no free spaces for one of the additional actions, you cannot do it.
You can only carry out an additional action if you have an available Emissary token.
When you carry out an additional action
Place one of your available Emissary tokens on a free spot on the Imperial Court board, and immediately carry out the corresponding action.
- Discard 1 card from the top of 2 different draw piles in the River and immediately reveal the top cards in each draw pile. Only reveal cards once both have been discarded.
- Switch the position of 2 cards. You may choose to switch:
- 2 cards from the River (impossible to switch with an empty draw pile) or
- 2 cards from your Line or
- 2 cards from your Hand or
- 1 card from your Hand with 1 card in the same position from your Line
Imposing an Imperial Decree
This unique action is a favor given by the emperor to one player only.
Place one of your available Emissary tokens on the Imperial Decree space on the Imperial Court. This token is now locked into this spot until the end of the game. This action will therefore be unavailable to any player for the rest of the game.
Then, the player must choose between:
- Exchanging a card from both players' Hand in the same position;
- Exchanging a card from both players' Line in the same position.
Recall Your Emissaries
Recall one or both of your Emissary tokens from the Imperial Court.
You can only carry out this action if you have Emissary tokens to recall from the Imperial Court.
Reminder: A token placed on the Imperial Decree space may never be recalled!
Declare the End of the Game
(If the end of game has not already been declared)
May only be carried out if one of the draw piles in the River is depleted. If you believe that you have a better territory than your opponent, you may declare the end of the game. You will therefore carry out no other action on your turn.
Your opponent must then play a final turn, and you both move on to final scoring.
End of the Game
The game can end in one of two ways:
- When 2 draw piles from the River are empty. If this happens during the first player's turn, the other player must play a final turn before moving on to final scoring. If this happens on the turn of the player without the first player card, move on to final scoring.
- When a player declares the end of the game. (see Declare the End of the Game above).
Final Scoring
Before final scoring, each player places the 5 cards from their Hand under the 5 cards from their Line, in the same position. The leftmost card from your Hand under the leftmost card from your Line and so on.
Each player will therefore have a grid of 2 x 5 cards. It's at this moment that the Ninja must choose which character he decides to copy (see Ninja, under Card Types).
Count up all the points gained from your cards, one color at a time.
The player with the most points wins the game!
In case of a tie, the player with the most different colors in their territory wins. If there is still a tie... play again!
Example of scoring: Mountain = 5, banner = 3, advisor = 3 + 4 (naishi), rice fields = 20, fort = 12, sentinel = 3 + 4 (fort), naishi = 8. Total = 62 points.
Card Types
Mountain (white) Count the number of mountains in your territory. If you have 1, score 5 points. If you have 2 or more, lose 5 points.
Naishi (pink) Each naishi scores points if she is placed in the central column of your territory. In your Line she is worth 12 points. In your Hand she is worth 8 points.
Advisor (purple) Each Advisor scores points depending on his position. Whether he is in your Hand or in your Line, he will score 2 points in positions 1 and 5; 4 points in positions 2 and 4; and 3 points in the 3rd position. In any case, he also gives 4 bonus points per adjacent Naishi.
Monk (orange) Each monk in your Hand scores 5 points. In any case, score 2 bonus points for every adjacent torii.
Rice field (yellow) Each group of rice fields scores points according to their size. 2 adjacent cards are worth 10 points, 3 adjacent cards are worth 20 points, and 4 or more rice fields are worth 30 points.
Banner (light blue) Count the number of banners in your Line. If you have 1, score 3 points. If you have 2, score 8 points.
Horseman (deep blue) Each horseman in your Hand is worth 3 points. He also scores 10 bonus points if a banner is in the same position in your Line.
Fort (brown) Count up the total number of forts in the corners in your territory. You score 6 points per fort on these extremities.
Sentinel (green) The sentinel scores 3 points only if she isn't adjacent to another sentinel. In any case, she scores 4 bonus points per adjacent fort.
Torii (red) Count up the total number of torii in your territory. If you have 1, you lose 5 points. If you have 2, score 0 points. If you have 3 or more, score 30 points.
Ronin (turquoise) Each ronin scores points according to the number of different cards (Character or Province) present in your territory. 8 different types score 8 points, 9 different types score 15 points, and 10 different types score 45 points.
Ninja (black) At the end of the game, each ninja must copy a character card present in your territory. He then becomes that character card and copies its color and its scoring conditions.
Attention: The ninja does not count as a card type when scoring the ronin!
Credits
Authors: Mathieu Bieri et Alex Fortineau. Illustrator: Marine Losekoot. Development: Benjamin Léva. Art direction: Thierry « Thiex » Mercier. Translation: Mathieu Bieri, Nicole Simms and Shawn Smith.
To all our test subjects at the «protos» evenings: Thank you!
Made and printed in the EU.