The Distant Sound of Thunder – Rumble Nation Review

That’s the sound of a medieval nation in the throes of civil war.

Also the sound of dice hitting the table!

Both sound ominous.

Rumble Nation is a dice-chucking area control game where players are attempting to take over as many provinces as possible in medieval Japan.

It was designed by Yogi Shinichi (与儀新一) with artwork by Toru Kageyama, Yogi Shinichi (与儀新一), and ヤマモトマサアキ（Yamamoto Masaaki).

It was published in 2017 by Hobby Japan.

And it is awesome for what it is.

The mechanics of the game are simple and it will take all of 20-25 minutes to play, even though there are tactical depths to the game, depending on your dice rolls.

That’s because the layout of the map is different each time, making many of your decisions depend on the makeup.

It’s not that Japan changes shape.

It’s not a Transformer or anything (RIP Peter Cullen).

No, each game, the provinces are seeded with a number from 2-12.

That’s the order they score in (ascending), which becomes very important.

Lots of other important stuff in there too.

For example, how the heck do you get your guys out on the map?

That’s easy.

You roll three dice, pair two of them to pick a province and the third die tells you how many soldiers are being deployed.

Given the laws of probability, that could mean that the middle number provinces get fought over a lot, but not necessarily.

It also means that fighting over provinces 2 and 12 (along with numbers close to them) can be a bit problematic.

That’s where your “twice a game” moves come in.

Each player will choose a Daimyo card, who will be represented on the board by the big soldier meeple.

In addition, once per game, you can use the Daimyo’s special power.

Sorin, for example, will let you remove two opponent soldiers, one from two adjacent provinces to where your Daimyo figure is.

This will let you potentially place soldiers in otherwise hard to reach provinces.

The other once-per-game move you can make is to use one of the Tactics cards that are in play.

These will give you a one-time ability to deploy or move soldiers around, or also potentially replace other players’ soldiers with yours.

Otherwise it’s just straight “roll the dice, maybe reroll all of them once, and then choose where your guy(s) are going.”

Is that hella random?

Yes!

(Is that how my fellow kids use “hella?”)

The first tactical trick for dealing with your dice rolls is to try and spread out as much as your dice will let you, while also trying to run out of soldiers before everybody else does.

As long as you’re not concentrating all in a couple of provinces.

The reason for that is the tie-breakers.

The first person to run out of soldiers takes the highest-swords piece, and then as others run out, they take the next highest, until everybody runs out.

That’s when consideration of what you’ve done throughout the game happens, and the scoring system becomes quite intricate.

As I mentioned, you score the lowest-numbered province first and then move upward, no matter where in Japan the number is.

First place gets the token and that many points (so 2 points in this case) while the second place player gets half (rounded down).

Where the scoring gets really neat though is in the reinforcement of adjacent provinces.

The winner of the province gets to place two white soldiers (representing the populace of this province? I’m not sure) into each adjacent province where they already have at least one soldier.

This will add to their ability to maybe take over that province too, but there are a lot of adjacent provinces for some.

Others who win their provinces might also be reinforcing.

Unless you’re isolated, of course, or all of the adjacent provinces are a lower number than yours.

(It’s not show in the picture above, but province 5 doesn’t link to 12. The only one it linked to was 3)

Tie-breakers for strength are the order that the player emptied their soldier pool, so there is none of that “total up the points and divide” stuff from other area control games.

There is always an outright winner.

Do you try to get all of the high numbered provinces full of soldiers during the game?

You still might not win if you’re losing all of the other provinces.

That’s the glory of this game.

Nothing is set in stone.

In mechanics, it seems like there’s really nothing to this game.

A bunch of dice rolls, a couple of “extra” moves, and then score.

So why is the game so fascinating?

The playtime definitely helps.

This is one of the few games where the playtime listed on BGG is actually accurate, if not overestimating how fast the game is.

Yes, it’s random as hell, though you do have some decisions in how you divide your dice, how fast you deplete your troops and into what provinces (unless you roll three of the same number, of course).

Between the tactics, Daimyo abilities, and the reinforcing after scoring, though, it’s not all just dice rolls.

It’s still too random and chaotic for some of my friends, but I love that.

Especially when the game is short enough that getting screwed by Fate isn’t too painful.

You just come back next time.

It’s 20 minutes!

It’s not a world-breaker of a game, but I do keep finding myself wanting to play it if it’s on offer.

It’s a perfect little filler because it has a bit of hidden depth that doesn’t really make itself obvious.

It’s also a beautiful production, at least this version of it.

The map, the meeples look like cute little samurai (who will tear your guts out with their swords), even the scoring tiles, are all high quality.

It’s just a pleasant game that taxes you, but not too much.

When to use the Daimyo action and the Tactic is also crucial because, as I said, you can only do each one once, but also once somebody distributes their last soldier, nobody can use either one.

Not to mention that if somebody uses a Tactic, that one is no longer available to anyone else.

So there are interesting decisions in this one.

Enough to overcome the randomness?

Probably not for some people (like at least one of my game group).

But for me, this one really stands out as a quick, but not too simple, game to satisfy that area control urge.

It doesn’t overstay its welcome.

(This review was written after 3 plays)