Kendo Board Game History and a Hex Board

Kendo looks like a typical hex-based battle game but the pieces move on the board's intersections, where fixed movement distances and sudden captures make every route matter.

The theme may borrow from samurai imagery, but Kendo's appeal is its clean abstract strategy. It works best with two players, although the board also supports three and four.

A long path from Ravensburger to Kendo

Ravensburger began in 1883 as Otto Maier Spieleverlag in Ravensburg, Germany. Like many publishers of that era, the company started with educational materials and books before becoming widely known for puzzles, children's books, and games.

Its board game catalog grew through titles such as Fang den Hut in 1927, the classic Memory Game introduced during the 1950s, Scotland Yard in 1983, and The Amazing Labyrinth in 1986. The familiar blue triangle Ravensburger logo first appeared in 1974. Today, Ravensburger is also connected with ThinkFun and Brio, and its Disney Lorcana trading card game has become a major recent success.

The board game “Kendo” entered that history through a license rather than an in-house design. The game first appeared in 1976 as Queen Bee, designed by Ken Budden and developed by Seven Towns, the company also associated with Rubik's Cube. Condor Toys, also called Condor Playvalue, produced an early edition.

The game was also publishedf by Clipper in the Netherlands, while Swedish publisher Joker called it Bikupan, meaning "beehive." Ravensburger licensed the game for Germany as Kaiser Konig Edelmann, or "Emperor, King, and Nobleman." It was also licensed to a publisher in Thessaloniki, Greece.

After more than a decade in the Ravensburger catalog, the game returned with an Asian-themed presentation. The first edition titled Kendo was produced in 1989. Historical editions, images, and player notes are collected on the Kendo entry at BoardGameGeek.

The board is played on points, not hexagons

At first glance, Kendo's board appears to be a tight field of hexagons. However, players do not occupy those hexagonal spaces. Instead, pieces stand on the vertices, or intersections, where three paths meet at 120-degree angles.

That difference changes how the board feels. A piece can turn during its move, so it may travel around an opponent rather than simply heading in one straight line. Still, its movement allowance is exact, and it cannot visit the same intersection twice during one turn.

Each player begins with eight pieces: One Prince, Three Samurai, and Four Fighters (Soldiers).

The Prince is the piece that must reach the central palace. Yet it is also vulnerable, so the stronger and faster-moving pieces must create safe routes without leaving their own Prince open to attack.

How movement, strikes, and victory work

Players take turns moving one piece, and each must move according to this table:

A moving piece may travel in any direction and may change direction partway through its move. However, it cannot move through or finish on the same intersection twice during that turn. Since no piece can choose a shorter move, position matters as much as speed.

Kendo calls captures "strikes." To strike an opposing piece, end your move on its intersection. The struck piece leaves the game, using displacement capture much like chess.

Any piece can strike any opposing piece, including a Prince. If a player's Prince is struck, that player is eliminated. This makes the race to the center tense: sending the Prince forward too soon may offer an opponent an easy target.

To win, simply move your Prince into the Palace.

Multiplayer games make the board tighter

Kendo supports two, three, or four players, though the two-player game gives each side the most room to build plans. With only one opponent, players can read threats, guard routes, and set up strikes with fewer outside interruptions.

A three-player game starts with two players positioned near one another. Because of that, early direct conflict is much more likely. Four players crowd the board even faster, and a piece may have fewer legal routes because other pieces fill the intersections it needs.

The rules prohibit striking an opponent's piece on any player's first move in the three- and four-player games. Starting pieces sit close together in those setups, so the restriction prevents an immediate opening capture.

The rules also require a player to move a piece on every turn, but they do not spell out what happens if no legal move exists. The game assumes that a complete blockage will not occur.

Add scores when playing a series

Kendo can end when a Prince reaches the palace, or players can choose to score a series of games. When a Prince enters the central palace, every player counts the pieces still on the board.

The player who reaches the palace gets the five-point bonus in addition to the value of their remaining pieces. The rules leave the number of games in a series to the players' agreement.

This option rewards more than a quick dash to the center. Keeping Fighters and Samurai alive can matter across several games, which may change the risks players are willing to take.

The Samurai theme is “pasted on”

Kendo's original tagline calls it "the Samurai's favorite game." The game does not really have any connection to Samurai or to the actual martial art of kendo.

Kendo martial arts competition is a one-on-one contest. The board game, by contrast, allows multiple pieces to maneuver and strike on a field. The Japanese references are a theme placed over an abstract positional game.

That does not hurt the design. Reviewer Cal Daniels described Kendo as an excellent strategy game with a strong following in Germany, praising its combination of simple rules and meaningful depth. A player can grasp the move counts quickly, then spend many turns working out whether a route is safe.

A portable Kendo edition and new promotion crowns

NewVenture Games is preparing a portable Peg Pastimes version of Kendo, designed for easy storage and travel. The Kendo game page has current product details, while the NewVenture Games how-to-play video playlist includes more game demonstrations.

The release also introduces small plastic crowns for promoted pieces. Promotion has long created a practical problem in peg games such as Jarmo, Tobit, Tab, and draughts. Some games flip a piece to show its new status, while others stack pieces, as in checkers or dama.

These crowns offer another clear way to show that a piece has changed status. Future Peg Pastimes games may use them alongside other new accessories and ideas.

Kendo rewards careful routes

Kendo's distinctive rule is easy to remember: play on the intersections, and move each piece its exact number. Yet those limits create a board where a single occupied point can close a route, expose a Prince, or set up a strike.

The 1989 Kendo theme may be pasted onto an older design, but the abstract game underneath remains sharp. Every move has a distance, and every distance has consequences.