For the Emperor.

For the Emperor is another tiny-box game from Allplay, part of their line of games in their smallest packages with a list price of $9. It’s a dueling/capture-the-flag game that adds the twist of limiting the number of cards players can play to each flag – but those numbers aren’t assigned to the flags at the start of the game, only appearing as the game progresses. It’s a very good idea that the game doesn’t fully execute.

Players in For the Emperor fight to control seven battlefields between them, with those battlefields all the same when the game begins. Each player has a deck of nine warrior cards, numbered 1 through 9, each with a unique power, with a hand size of three during the game. There are also banners, separate from the battlefield flags, numbered 1 through 4, that will help determine when flags are full. On your turn, you play one card to any flag that isn’t ‘full,’ then use its power if you so desire. After that, you check all flags to see if any of them has a number of warriors equal to the highest numbered banner that isn’t already on a battlefield. You’ll place banners on battlefields (flags) in descending order until you don’t have any more matches, which starts to clamp down on where you can place your cards – once a battlefield is full, meaning it has as many cards as the number on its banner, you can’t place there unless someone uses a power to pull a card back. You also can never have more than three battlefields with three or more cards.

The result of those rules is that your choices narrow quickly, making the game seem to speed up as it progresses. The beginning is a little slow, almost amorphous, because you’re just putting cards down without a ton of information to guide you – nothing’s restricted, you only have three random cards in your hand, your opponent doesn’t have many cards down either, so you both sort of throw stuff out there to maybe set up a better endgame situation given the cards you happened to draw. That makes the endgame more exciting because you’ll be resolving flags more quickly, but also means your moves later in the game are more obvious. There will usually be one clear, optimal move, as some flags will be out of reach even if they’re not resolved.

When all battlefields are full, you compare the strengths of the cards on each side, also counting any tokens you added as a result of card powers. Higher total strength wins the flag; whoever controls the majority of flags wins the game. My plays were all very close, and the game does truly play in less than 15 minutes.

The art is from the Japanese artist Sai Beppu, who’s also illustrated some other great Allplay games, as well as some other games that originated in Japan (Trio/Nana, No Loose Ends) or have Japanese themes. It’s probably the game’s strongest attribute, as the cards go beyond the usual Edo-inspired style of most Japanese-themed games, with more whimsical, cartoonish (in a good way!) drawings of the various warrior characters.

I filed a review to Paste for another capture-the-flag game, 2024’s Space Lion, that will run this week or next, and while they’re very different games in complexity and components, at the end of the day they’re both fundamentally like Air Land and Sea, which is itself a kicked-up version of Battle Line. You’re playing cards of varying powers to the flags between you, trying to control a majority of them or some other combination to win the game. I’m very interested in games that follow that template and add something new to it, but they have to flesh out that vision in the game play. For the Emperor does give that new twist, but the way it’s implemented here, it ends up feeling rote.

I’ll get to it soon, but of the Allplay Tiny Box series, my favorite so far is Soda Jerk, which truly lives up to its name – you win by being mean.