Rising Sun (Board Game) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Koi (red) - the clan that can use Coins as Ronin

The order of the five clans are: Koi - Lotus - Turtle - Dragonfly - Bonsai. The Starting Honor Ranks of each are: 1 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 7. The 2, 6, and 8 are used for the clans found in the expansion and in the Kickstarter exclusive content. Kickstarter was the crowd-funding platform used to fund "Rising Sun."

Answer: Their Strongholds can move and provide Force

Each player has the same boring Stronghold tokens except the Turtle Clan, which has Strongholds on the backs of giant turtles. They can move between Provinces just like any other Figure, and contribute Force, unlike all other Strongholds.

The incorrect answers for this question were simplified versions of the special abilities of the expansion clans: the Sun Clan, Moon Clan, and Fox Clan.

Answer: Whoever is higher on the Honor track

Players cannot occupy the same spot on the Honor Track; when a player moves up or down, they trade places with the player immediately beside them. Ties are settled using the Honor Track in both the Political Phase, the War Phase, and at the end of the game when looking at Victory Points.

The only time the Honor Track is not used to break a tie is if the two players with the most Victory Points at the end of the game also happen to be in an alliance. Then the victory is shared.

Answer: You get the additional benefit of your Ally's Mandates

During the Political Phase, a player will chose a Mandate (action), and then every player will take that action. Each Mandate has a secondary action that is only available to the player who chose the Mandate, and that player's Ally.

Answer: Ronin tokens

During the Tea Ceremony and Political Phase, players are allowed to exchange Ronin tokens and Coins to sweeten deals, but no deals are binding. Once the War Phase starts, players are no longer allowed exchange Coins or Ronin.

Answer: By sending the most Shinto to a Kami's Shrine

Each player has one Daimyo (leader), six Bushi (warriors), and three Shinto (priests). When a Shinto is recruited, its controller can chose to immediately move it from the board to one of the four Kami Shrines. Three times during each Season, the Kami Shrines will be evaluated, with the player with the most Shinto on a given Shrine receiving that Kami's boon.

Answer: Marshall (move Figures to adjacent Provinces)

During a Recruit action, players place one figure in each Stronghold, so getting more Strongholds on the board is important. A strong first move of the game is to play a Marshall Mandate just to place a new Stronghold before a Recruit Mandate is played. Players have to pay 3 Coins to build a Stronghold.

Answer: In any Province

Each player starts with one Stronghold in their starting Province. There are no restrictions when purchasing and placing a new Stronghold during the Marshall Mandate. Players could place a new Stronghold in a Province on the other side of the board, where they have no presence, or they could place one in a Province where they already have one, doubling or tripling up, which would let them bring a lot of Force into a single Province with one Recruit Mandate.

Answer: Replace two opponent Figures with your own

The Betray Mandate lets the player replace two opponent Figures with their own, but it has to target two different opponents. The Figures replaced have to be of a matching type: Bushi, Shinto, or Monster. Daimyo are immune to Betrayal. The Betray Mandate is the only one that no other player performs any action on.

Answer: No

Playing the Betray Mandate when in an alliance will break the Alliance and cause the player to lose Honor. If the player never was in an alliance, then no Honor is lost, but they still replace opponent figures.

Answer: It counts as a Shinto

Each player has only three Shinto, so gaining control of a particular Kami Shrine can be difficult, especially for players with lower Honor (they lose ties). By being a fourth Shinto, Komainu can be used to lock down a specific Kami, or make it easier to get the boons of two Kami.

Answer: Lower Honor

Every Figure in "Rising Sun" counts as one Force unless otherwise specified. The Oni of Skulls counts as three Force when it is in a Province where its controller has the lowest Honor. Whenever the Oni of Spite moves into a new Province, it will steal Victory Points from any player with Force there who has higher Honor than the Oni's controller.

Answer: Imperial Poets

The first advantage is Seppuku, which lets a player remove all their Figures in the Province and gain both Victory Points and Honor. Next is Take Hostage, which lets a player remove an opponent's Figure, gaining a Victory Point. Then comes Hire Ronin, which lets a player add Force equal to their Ronin tokens.

The Battle Outcome is won by the player now with the most Force in the Province. They take the War Province token, and the Figures for all other players are removed. Lastly, the player who won Imperial Poets gets one Victory Point for each Figure killed in the Battle.

It's normal for a loser of the Battle to get more Victory Points than the winner.

Answer: Winners give Coins to the losers

During a Battle, each participating player secretly bids Coins on the four War Advantages. After a Battle is concluded, the losers return their bids to the common pile, but the winner passes along any spent Coins to the losers, split as evenly as possible with ties decided by the winner.

This should ensure that the losers will have a better chance of winning in subsequent Battles of the Season.

Answer: Nothing

Strongholds cannot be destroyed, so they can always be used to Recruit new Figures in the next Season. This makes the Turtle Clan's Strongholds, which provide Force, particularly good. There was a Monster, Daikaiju, that was exclusively available to crowd-funding backers on Kickstarter. It's special ability was to destroy Strongholds when it entered a Province.

Answer: False

After a player has successfully taken a hostage, they get an extra Coin from the common pile at the beginning of the next Season, not from the Figure's owner. The hostage taker does steal a Victory Point from the owner, though.

Answer: False

It might seem unintuitive that the 5-Force Dragon can be taken hostage, but it's a viable play. When using the Water Dragon in a Battle, it's important to protect it from being taken hostage by bidding on the Take Hostages Advantage. The only Figures immune to hostage taking are Daimyo.

Answer: Yes

If a player has Force in a Province at the beginning of a Battle, they are participants for the whole thing. It's possible for a player to lose all their Figures in the first two War Advantages, but still win the Battle by winning the Hire Ronin Advantage, and to gain Victory Points from the Imperial Poets Advantage.

Answer: No

No Battle takes place, meaning no Victory Points can be gained from the Seppuku, Take Hostage, or Imperial Poets War Advantages. The War Province token is given to the player with more Force in the Province.

Answer: Having different War Province tokens

Each War Province token will grant 1, 2, or 3 Victory Points depending on which season it was acquired in. Then there are the bonuses for getting tokens for different Provinces. Players with 3 or 4 different tokens will get 10 points; 5 or 6 tokens will get 20 points, and 7-8 (the maximum) will get 30 points. This encourages players to move around and conquer different provinces each Season instead of focusing on the same Province multiple times.

There are also Winter Upgrade cards that can provide bonus points for different conditions when purchased.