Reiner Knizia's Samurai places you in Feudal Japan as an aspiring Sovereign. You goal is to win over castes from cities on the field, and to do this you must assert your power.
In each turn you are given 5 tiles. There are 20 different tiles, which include Buddhas, Helmets and Rice, all ranging from values of 2 to 4. These three types are your main objects in winning over the different classes. Buddha tiles assert influence on Clergy castes, Helmet tiles work on Nobles and the Rice influences the Peasant class.
To win pledges from a caste, you must place tiles around a city in such a way that it gives you the most influence over that city's caste(s). Once the city has been blocked off, in other words no more tiles can be placed directly next to that city, each of the castes in that city give a pledge to the player who has the most influence on that caste. For instance, a city might have a Clergy caste and a Noble caste. If a player has more Clergy influence around that city than any other, he or she is awarded a Clergy Pledge, whereas another player could win the Noble Pledge in the same manner.
Though these three types are your main forms of influence, they are not all you have. You are also given access to several other types that can increase your influence on all castes as well as tiles that allow you to switch already placed tiles.
Once all of the cities have been blocked off, Samurai determines who the winner is by looking at who has won over the most castes. If a player has taken two of the three, then he or she is declared the winner, else Samurai looks at other aspects of your gaming style (like your total number of pledges or overall balance) to decide the winner.
