Onitama

A perfect information symmetrical battle: move your pieces using shared movement pattern cards.

GAME INFO

Onitama is a two-player, perfect information abstract game with a random starting set-up. On a 5×5 board, both players start with five pawns on their side, with the main pawn in the middle.

Each player has two open cards that each display a possible move for any of their pieces. There is a fifth card that cannot be used by either player. On a player’s turn, they choose one of their cards, move one of their pieces according to the chosen card, then replace the card they used with the fifth card. The other player then chooses one of their cards, moves accordingly, and exchanges that card with this fifth card — which is, of course, the card the first player just used.

Moving onto one of the opponent’s pawns removes that pawn from the game. Taking the opponent’s main pawn, or moving your main pawn into your opponent’s main pawn’s starting space, wins you the game.

Players

2 Players

Game Length

Complexity

Lightweight

Mechanics

Abstract, Area Control, Hand/Card Management