The plastic game board represents an ancient Japanese warlord's home, with the sides of the box bottom representing the walls around the home. There are grooves in the board for sliding bamboo screens to fit into. White plays Lord Kira's forces, who set up 9 samurai figures in the home. Black plays the attacking Ako Ronin, represented by 8 samurai figures that are set up outside the home. The White player is attempting to sneak Lord Kira out of the house before the Black player can find him and kill him. Each samurai figure has a secret strength value printed beneath the block that they stand on. These values range from 0 to 5, with the Black pieces having stronger values overall. One of the white figures is also secretly designated as Lord Kira, the object of the attack. During each turn, you can move all of your samurai figures 1 or 2 spaces. The samurai may also be used to slide an adjacent bamboo screen once during his move. When an enemy samurai enters a space with an opponent’s samurai, the players each roll a die and add the result to their samurai's strength value. The player with the lower total is the loser and that figure is removed from the map board. Tie rolls result in both pieces being removed.