Welcome to Onitama!

Hey there! I’m here to tell you all about Onitama, a super cool strategy game designed for two players. The main objective of the game is to achieve one of the victory conditions and outsmart your opponent.

So, how do you win? Well, you’ve got two options. First, you can take your opponent’s master out of the game. That’s right, remove them from the board and claim victory! Or, if that’s not your style, you can instead try to take control of your opponent’s temple. Either way, you’ll secure a sweet victory.

Setting Up the Game

Okay, let’s get started! To set up the game, you need a game mat. Place it on the table between you and your opponent, making sure each of you faces one of the temple squares. Next, choose your color and grab your pieces.

Ready? Now, put your master piece into the temple square. This is where all the action happens! The other four pawns go on the two squares right next to your master. Got it? Great!

Now that we have the movement cards ready, let’s shuffle them and give each player two cards. Place the cards face-up in front of you. Next, reveal one more movement card, and the color of the symbol in the bottom corner will determine who goes first. Keep in mind that the rest of the movement cards won’t be used in this game.

Let the Game Begin

Alright, it’s time to start the game. The first player takes their turn, which consists of two parts. In the first part, you’ll move and attack on the board. Then, in the second part, you’ll have the opportunity to exchange cards with your opponent.

I’m going to explain to you how to move and attack in this game. It’s pretty simple, so don’t worry.

First, let’s talk about moving. You have two movement cards to choose from. Each card shows you how to move one of your pieces. You can choose to move your master or any of the pawns.

On the card, you’ll see a black square that represents where your piece is on the board right now. The gray squares show you where you can move your piece. Just remember, you can’t move your piece off the board or into a square that another one of your pieces is already on. But you can move through pieces and temple arches.

Now let’s move on to attacking. It’s really simple too. If you land on a square that has an opponent’s piece on it, you capture it! You can take their piece out of the game.

Once I’ve used a movement card, I need to exchange cards. I take the card I just used and flip it around, putting it on the left side of the board facing my opponent. Then I take the card that’s facing me on the right side of the mat and add it to my hand for the next round.

Even if I couldn’t move in the current round and had to pass, I still have to choose one of my cards to exchange.

Once the exchange is done, it’s my opponent’s turn to play.

WINNING

In Onitama, there are two ways to win. I can either capture my opponent’s master piece, or I can move my master piece into the opponent’s temple arch.

END OF GAME

The game ends as soon as a player successfully accomplishes one of the win conditions. That player becomes the winner.