Flippin' Ninjas

Your ninjas are so good that you have lost track of them yourself.

Stealth, memory, bluffing and strategy in a small box. The job is to capture your opponent's Daimyo before they capture yours, and the joke driving the entire design is that your ninjas are so accomplished at concealment that even you do not know where they are. Peter Ridgeway designed it for Catalyst Game Labs.

Alongside the ninjas you command samurai, Sohei warrior monks, komainu and dragons. Every piece moves on a square grid and captures other pieces of equal or lesser power, so it plays rather like chess with an unreliable memory — you are keeping track of what you think you have and where it is, while trying to work out the same about the other side of the board. Fifteen to thirty minutes.

Please note: This is a two-player game.

Perfect for: People who enjoy abstracts but find complete information a little tame.

2 players | 15–30 minutes | Age 8+