Classic Ninjas

Ninjas!  Objective: Protect Your Dojo and conquer land for your Sensei.  Defeat your opponent's Dojo by occupying it, or have the most land when the first player’s cards run out.

SETUP:  Shuffle the Ninja Water and Ninja Land hexagons altogether.  Place the top hexagon of the pile on the table starting in the middle, followed by one next to it. 












In a clockwise pattern continue to place the hexagons adjacent to each other in a circular pattern.







 



 Continue until all water and land hexagons have been placed.







Roll the dice to see who goes first.  The person with the high roll places their Dojo hexagon first.  The Dojos must be placed on the perimeter of the body of hexagons.  Each Dojo must touch two hexagons- land and/or water.   



 



The second person to place a Dojo must place theirs at least three hexagons away from the first persons.




Have each team place 5 ninjas on their respective Dojos, and shuffle the playing cards.  Now the player who placed their Dojo last gets to begin their turn first.

 Playing the Game:
Your turn will involve moving your ninjas, attacking opposing ninjas, and summoning more ninjas.

Moving your ninjas:
Roll one ninja dice to find out how many ninja moves you have.  You may move one ninja, or multiple ninjas, but only up to the sum of the ninja moves you have.  Ninja moves must be fulfilled.  Moving a ninja to an adjacent hexagon = 1 move, with the exception of forest hexagons (as displayed to the right)  The forest allows ninjas to move swiftly and does not count as a move, unless you want it to.




 In this picture, the yellow ninja clan has 3 ninja moves.  They utilize the forest to reach the mountains near the opponent's dojo.






In this picture, the yellow ninja clan has 5 ninja moves.  One ninja moves to the mountains near the opponent's dojo, and the other moves to the mountains over the water. 



You man want to consider other land types as you chose where to move your ninjas:

 
Water hexagons can be used strategically to block enemies and save your precious cards.  Only one ninja is allowed for each water hexagon.  A friendly ninja, however, may pass through if not remaining there at the end of the move sequence.  Ninjas may travel over water hexagons because Ninjas are very light on their feet.  No battles may take place on water hexagons except from projectiles from an adjacent plains hexagon (see plains Hexagons).  Water hexagons do not count as land when tallying up at the end of the game. 
Bumping: If you intend to pass through an enemy occupied water territory, you must remove the opponent through bumping only.  With each player rolling a single die, the player with the high roll is allowed to ‘bump’ the opponent to the adjacent hexagon of the victor’s choosing.  If bumped into enemy territory, subsequent bumping may be needed until only 1 ninja is on each water territory.  Subsequent battles will take place in the battle phase of the turn.  If the hexagon is next to the edge, the victor may bump the opponent off the edge into oblivion.  Moving to bump costs one turn, like any movement.  You may attempt to bump an enemy ninja from a Water Hexigon as many times as you have Ninja Moves remaining. 

Attack from an adjacent plains hexagon

Plains Hexagons:  For each ninja that you have in a plains hexagon in a given turn, you may throw one projectile of your choice into any adjacent hexagon (throwing stars, knives, daggars, arrows, poison darts etc).  To do so, follow the rules for battle as if one ninja was attacking another one ninja (one card each).  The advantage of the plains hexagon is that, if you have the low card in the battle, you do not die, as you are a distance away.  Take heart though- if you have the low card, you obviously didn’t miss, because you are a Ninja.  Rather, your worthy opponent deflected  your projectile.  If plains hexagons are connected in a network, projectiles may be fired into any hexagon adjacent to the series of plains hexagons, unless an opponent impedes the way by occupying one of the plains hexagons.


Mountain Hexagons:  Ninjas live in the mountains, so you may summon them from the mountain hexagons where they live.  To summon Ninjas from any mountain hexagon, you must have at least one ninja on that hexagon.  



  Battling:
 Once your movement is complete, you are ready to battle your foe.  In order to battle you must occupy the same territory as your opponent, unless you are in a connected plains hexagon.  If multiple battles are to take place, the attacker may chose whichever order to do them in. 

To battle: 
Defender:  Select cards according to the number of ninjas your clan has in that hexagon.  Arrange your cards face down and side by side in the way you want them, preferably in an order that would confuse your foe.  Once your opponent lays a card next to one of yours, flip it over.  If your opponent’s card is higher, get rid of one of your ninjas, and if yours is higher get rid of one of theirs.  If you run out of the cards that you had selected for the battle and still have ninjas and opponents present, draw more cards – one for each of your remaining ninjas.  Arrange the cards side by side and repeat the battle procedures until either you are completely defeated in that hexagon, or your opponent is.   At the end of the battle, used cards must be discarded, and any unused cards may be shuffled back in your pile.

Conserve cards by playing one at a time

Attacker:  Select the amount of cards as you have Ninjas, or Select 1 card at a time.  If you select 1 card at a time, continue to play the cards until you either defeat your enemy completely, or have lost all of your ninjas in that territory.  

or, use the advantage of your numbers to play the high card

If you select the amount of cards as you have Ninjas, choose whichever card from your hand that you wish to attack first with (usually the high card), and lay it down- face up- by the card of your opponents that you wish to attack.  If your card is higher, then you have brought honor to your Dojo by defeating your foe.  Proceed by removing one ninja of the team with the low card.  In the case of a tie, both ninjas remain- locked in mortal combat.  If you expend the cards that you had initially drawn for the battle but still have foes in the hexagon, then draw one card for each ninja that you have left in the hexagon.  Continue to fight until either all of your ninjas or all of your opponent’s ninjas are defeated in that hexagon.  You must discard any unused cards in your hand, and all cards used in the battle must be discarded.



In the picture to the left, the attacking yellow ninja has delt a fateful blow...to himself.  His little body will be removed from the hexagon, and the battle is over.

Summoning more ninjas (reinforcements):

Summoning takes place at the end of your turn and may happen at your dojo (occupied or unoccupied), or any friendly occupied Mountain hexagon.  To get more ninjas, announce that you “need more ninjas” and proceed to draw and look at one card at a time, up to 5 cards from your deck.  Place the cards face up on the table before you.  In the picture to the left, the yellow ninjas occupy a mountain hex, and will be summoning using 5 cards.

For every card that you drew, you may roll one die (ex: if you pull 5 cards, you may roll 5 dice).  For every dice that has a number of any of the cards that you had selected (Ace=1), you get a ninja.  If a die matches two cards, you get two ninjas (and so on).

If you don't get a match, you get no ninjas.

 

Multiple Location Summoning:  You may summon ninjas in multiple locations.  Simply designate which dice will be for each hexagon you wish to summon ninjas on, and roll.  If any of your dice match any of your card’s numbers, in that location, you get a ninja.

only the Ace, two, three, four, five, and six cards are matchable by the dice.  Anything higher is a loss.  All cards used for summoning must be discarded).    

Additional Rules:
Here are some additional rules that you can try to spice the game up a little.  Feel free to make your own ‘house rules,’ and share them with us!
  
Joker cards:  Whenever you draw a joker, either in battle or summoning, automatically place one additional ninja in a hex you currently occupy.   If in battle, place the new ninja, and replace the joker with another card in the deck as your battle card.


Dojo Defense:  For every ninja occupying a Dojo, you may fire one projectile into any of the two adjacent hexagons.  Follow the rules for battles. 

Defense Advantage:  If during battle there is a tie in the cards, the Attacker loses.  

Fists of Fury (Attack Advantage):  If one ninja is fighting 5 or more ninjas, the one ninja may draw two cards to chose the higher of the two, while discarding both cards after each attack.  Once the opponents are reduced to 4 or fewer ninjas, normal rules apply. 

Dojo Ralley:  At the end of each turn, place one more ninja at your Dojo. 

Ace in the Face:  If defending against a projectile with an Ace, you not only deflect it away from you, but back at the ninja who threw it, defeating them.  

Ninjas Blitz:  Each play gets one turn per game when you can bypass the movement roll, and take 6 moves automatically.  You cannot use the blitz on your first turn.