Japan's traditional hunt game: one swordsman against sixteen soldiers.
One lone swordsman stands at the centre of the board. Sixteen soldiers close in from every side.
Musashi vs 16 Samurai brings Juroku Musashi (十六武蔵), a traditional Japanese board game played by children for generations, to your phone — with a lacquer-and-gold board, Sengoku clan crests and a computer opponent that will not go easy on you.
■ ONE AGAINST SIXTEEN
Musashi is fast and deadly, but alone. Step between two soldiers in a straight line and both fall. The Sixteen cannot hurt him at all — they can only crowd in, step by step, until he has nowhere left to move. Two sides, two completely different games.
■ THREE OPPONENTS, BOTH SIDES
Play the computer at Ashigaru (足軽), Samurai (侍) or Shogun (将軍) level, as either Musashi or the Sixteen. Hunt for gaps on one side; build an unbroken wall on the other.
■ PLAY A FRIEND
Pass the phone and play head to head on one device.
■ LEARN IN FIVE MINUTES
A five-step training — the board, moving, the strike, the encirclement, the count — has you make a real move at every step. The full rules are one tap away during a game.
■ HELP WHEN YOU WANT IT
Take a move back with UNDO, ask for a HINT to see the suggested move and which soldiers are in danger, and turn on legal-move markers.
■ MARCH UNDER A CLAN CREST
Choose the crest your Sixteen carry into battle — Takeda, Sanada, Date and more. Three rare crests unlock only by beating the Shogun.
■ A JAPANESE ATMOSPHERE
Shakuhachi-and-taiko music, a sword-cut when Musashi strikes, and optional kanji accents with furigana readings.
■ NO ADS, NO ACCOUNT, NO TRACKING
Pay once and the whole game is yours. Works fully offline. Your settings and record stay on your device.
HOW TO WIN
• The Sixteen win when Musashi cannot move.
• Musashi wins by taking ten soldiers, if the same position comes round a third time, or by surviving 200 moves.
Juroku Musashi belongs to the worldwide family of hunt games, alongside Fox and Geese and Bagh-Chal. Its triangular "mountain" is its own twist: trapping Musashi up there — setchin-zume — is the game's most famous finish. In 2020 researchers solved the game by computer: with perfect play the Sixteen moving first always win. Finding that path is another matter.
Will you be the swordsman — or the sixteen?