Gunsen Gameplay: Crab vs Scorpion | Road to 300 ELO — Episode 1

Episode 1 of Road to 300 ELO, and I'm starting from the very bottom: an ELO of 1, no wins yet after roughly ten games. Today it's a live 1v1 on Board Game Arena — I draw the Crab clan (random selection) against a Scorpion opponent from Hong Kong sitting at ELO 106. What follows ends up being my very first Gunsen victory, decided by a late push into Toshi Ranbo. ▶ THE SERIES Road to 300 ELO is my attempt to climb from a beginner ELO all the way to 300 on Board Game Arena, exploring Gunsen's different clans and player counts along the way. It's part Gunsen gameplay series, part strategy laboratory — and honest about the mistakes I make on the way up. ▶ WHAT HAPPENS IN THIS EPISODE Movement engine: I drop a double-influence card into my recruitment column to fuel moves and grab territory. It becomes the backbone of most of my turns. The Crab kit felt underwhelming to me early on — my cards mostly let me roll and keep dice, while the Scorpion's tactics (choosing a die face) and mobility (tea house, watchtowers) looked stronger. That's my impression in the moment, not a verdict. Hida O-Ushi pays off: the hero that doubles swords when attacking outnumbered turns a 3-troop attack into 6 swords vs 4, letting me win the fight and complete an objective in the same turn. Multi-objective turns matter: a bit like Scythe, one good turn can complete several objectives at once — a village, a clan objective, a temple. I'm genuinely not sure I played it well. I think my opponent's repeated attacks helped me, and he couldn't reach Toshi Ranbo in time to block the finish. ▶ GUNSEN IN SHORT Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo is an asymmetric area-control board game set in Rokugan, the world of Legend of the Five Rings (L5R), also known for the board game Champions of Rokugan. The seven Great Clans race to complete objectives — winning battles, controlling temples and villages, seizing Toshi Ranbo, and clan-specific goals. The first to complete enough of them wins. Combat in this Gunsen battle is resolved with dice: swords decide the winner, blood deals damage, armor cancels it. ▶ THIS MATCHUP Crab vs Scorpion on the small (2–3 player) board. The Crab leans defensive; the opposing Scorpion hero, Bayushi Kashiko, could kill a troop and recruit in the same tile, which made those attacks awkward to answer. ▶ LINKS Playlist — Road to 300 ELO: Gunsen : La bataille de Toshi Ranbo — Obje... Gunsen on Board Game Arena: https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?... CHAPTERS: 00:00 The Road to 300 ELO challenge (ELO 1, no wins yet) 00:31 Today's opponent: a live 1v1 vs Hong Kong (ELO 106) 01:15 Random draw: the Crab clan 01:38 Rules recap: Toshi Ranbo's race to objectives 04:26 The Crab toolkit: objectives, tactics, buildings, heroes 07:51 Game on vs the Scorpion clan 12:57 First fights for the central village 17:17 Heroes enter: Bayushi Kashiko vs Hida O-Ushi 21:16 The multi-objective turn: 3-3 28:14 Climbing to 5 points (villages + temples) 34:07 Into Toshi Ranbo: the winning move 35:34 First win: recap and what's next #Gunsen #BoardGameArena #GunsenGameplay #CrabClan #StrategyGames