Rumble Nation

• Designer: 与儀新一 (Shinichi Yogi)
• Publisher: Hobby Japan / Asmodee USA
• Players: 2-4
• Ages: 10+
• Time: 20-40 minutes

Rumble Nation was a highly anticipated SPIEL 2019 game for me; I had been introduced to the original release (then called Tenka Meidou) by James Nathan; but, of course, like all of the great JP games of his that I have played, it was essentially out-of-print and quite unavailable by the time that I learned about it!

The rights to the game have been acquired by Hobby Japan, and the game is being released to a wider audience. It has had rave reviews from most gamers, and it certainly merits its “award-winning” status; it is the 2018 Tokyo Game Market Awards Grand Prize winner.

The game itself is simple – I will baldly paraphrase James Nathan’s text here:

Rumble Nation is an area-majority game.  The board shows a map of Japan divided into 11 areas.  During setup, tokens with numbers 2 through 12 are randomly assigned to the 11 areas. Each of these areas will be worth an amount of points equal to the value it has been assigned, and half-points will be available for 2nd place in 3 and 4 player games.

To offset the inherent value-gulf between the 2 and the 12, the areas are resolved at the end of the game in ascending order, and the player with the most meeples in an area is able to add 2 reinforcement meeples to each adjacent area which has not yet been resolved and which has at least 1 of their meeples.

Meeples are initially placed out by the roll of 3 dice.  You may reroll once – but it must be all 3 dice if you choose to reroll.  The dice are then split into a pair and a single: the sum of the pair determines which location you will place meeples in and the single determines how many meeples (half the die value rounded up).

Alternatively, from a thin deck of cards, a number of cards equal to the player count plus 1 is dealt face up at the start of the game. In lieu of rolling the dice, a player can once per game use their turn to acquire and use one of the cards. These will be actions such as moving meeples to an adjacent territory or replacing an opponent’s cube with one of your own.

The game play will end, and the scoring resolutions will begin, once each player has placed all of their meeples onto the board.  The first player to run out of meeples takes the highest tie-break marker (Sword chip) and also triggers a rule that the cards may no longer be used.  Each subsequent player takes the next highest available tie-break marker as they exhaust their meeple supply. Afterwards, the ascending majority resolutions I discussed earlier occur, and the player with the most points wins.

This new 2025 version has the same basic rules, but it also includes a new advanced module – the Daimyos. If you play with this version, each player gets 2 fewer meeples but gets a Daimyo in their color.   N+1 Daimyo cards are displayed and, in reverse turn order, each player chooses one Daimyo card and puts it in front of them.  This Daimyo card can be used once each game in lieu of the usual action options, and the special ability of said card is resolved.  During the game, the Daimyo counts as a single unit when Deployed, but it will count as 2 units in the War Phase.  

My thoughts on the game

There is a surprising depth of strategy here. There are so many things going on given the simple action choices you have on each turn. Keeping track of your armies and the board situation is paramount. I personally don’t like to place 3 cubes out on early turns as I feel that it commits my pieces earlier than I want and gives me much less flexibility in the latter stages of the game; especially so if I run out of cubes and am forced to watch my opponents breakdown my position with their own cubes.

It also takes a few games to learn how the cascading nature of the endgame scoring is going to work out. Being able to add two cubes to a neighboring area really makes the lower numbered regions as valuable as the higher regions. Of course, you have to look ahead and try to foresee who will win the different regions and where they will place their bonus cubes. It can be a devastating strategy to use an early win to trigger multiple wins down the chain that will eventually end with a victory in a high scoring region; but this is not without risk as a single hiccup along the way can disrupt the entire cascade.

The special actions on the cards can be quite strong, but there is a lot of strategy trying to figure out when is the best time to try to use them; and of course, if you wait too long, someone else might beat you to the card that you want!

The new Daimyo module adds an additional twist to the strategy on two different levels.  First, having a unit that is worth 2 in battle can be a very strong (and surprising) move.  Second, each of the Daimyo cards has a unique ability that can definitely swing momentum in your favor.  It’s probably best to try to shape your overall strategy around the ability of your chosen Daimyo card.  As much as I like the cards, I must say that I do not care for the choice of font on them – the text is really hard to read.

On the whole, this is a delightful 30 minute game that gives me as many tough decisions as a longer, more complex game. I am extremely glad that I have a copy of this in my collection, and it’s also great to know that other gamers now have a chance to get a copy for themselves as well.

Thoughts from the Opinionated Gamers (from the previous review)

Lorna: I’ve only played a few times so far but I admire the design. The mechanisms are clean and simple but the game provides interesting decisions at many points. Which die to use for what, reroll? Management of how many soldiers to use is also key, when to use your one and only card action. It’s good. Rating may improve after a few more plays.

Dan B.: I’ve played the earlier edition (without the Daimyos) a few times. It’s a good game of its type, and I’m willing to play it more, but it hasn’t grabbed me so far.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

I love it! Dale
I like it. Lorna
Neutral. Dan B.
Not for me…