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D&D Theory: Dungeons & Dragons Over The Years: Part II Of III

We continue where we left off in part I of our article series where I talk about past editions of Dungeons & Dragons and why you may consider playing them even today. In today’s article, I will cover my take on 1st edition BECMI (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master & Immortal) rules and 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons.

Enjoy the article!

1st edition BECMI D&D Rules

I will say here and now that to me BECMI was and still is a revelation, hands down one of the best systems with the best style and theme for D&D in existance. That said, its really part of the B/X line of games and I kind of see it as an expanded part of the same thing.

In our first article, we talked about 1st edition Basic & Expert, a rule system that was intentionally easy to learn and run, designed for new players, but there was a wrinkle in the plan. Despite its design goal of being an introduction to D&D and an entry point to Advanced D&D rules, the B/X system took on a life of its own. Not only because it gained its own following but because despite any effort to make it new player friendly, the game was obscenely difficult to be successful in as players with some of the toughest challenges and heavy-handed death rules to exist in any version of D&D (0 HP = Dead).

The game was ultimately adopted by a community that went from newbies trying to learn the game to seasoned gamers who preferred Basic & Expert to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and didn’t want to switch. Instead what they wanted were more robust rules sub-systems that offered more coverage within the framework (B/X) they were accustomed to.

There were other reasons for B/X to be continued and expanded on which related to legal matters in TSR that involved the franchise name, who controls it, and who collects royalties on the D&D name, but we are not here for a history lesson, rather we are here to talk about the game itself.

With this growing community of Basic/Expert rules players wanting something more robust, but unwilling to switch to the AD&D game space, TSR started producing more advanced rules for the B/X system, in a sense creating advanced Basic/Expert D&D. TSR in the 80’s was a confusing time.

Between 1977 to 1944 there were quite a few different versions of the 1st edition Basic game and this makes going back today trying to figuire out what’s what kind of confusing as it was back then. To be clear, BECMI is based on the 1st edition Mentzer Basic edition of the game released in 1983. Depicted here is the 1991 release known as “The Black Box” which is not the same thing as one example.

There was a total of 3 additional supplements that expanded the game starting with the Companion set, then moving to the Master and Immortal sets. Each new set added new rules complexity as well as addressed the required adjustment needed for previous sets to accommodate higher-level play (longer character progressions). By the time they finished releasing these 3 new supplementary rule sets, the maximum level for characters was a whopping 36th level!

All five sets (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master & Immortal) were later released in a single-volume book called The Dungeons & Dragons Cyclopedia and this earned the system which was seen as separate from both B/X and AD&D the name BECMI.

The Rules Cyclopedia is the final and most complete version of the BECMI system and I think few would argue that there is any reason beyond nostalgic collection to chase after the 5 box set volumes if you wish to play BECMI. It’s all here and it’s all you need and more.

BECMI was in a lot of ways very similar to the 1st edition B/X rules but unlike B/X it was actually a much closer match to AD&D itself in terms of rules coverage. It was a bit of both but it was modular which meant that unlike AD&D it was designed specifically so that you could use some or all of the companion rules, picking and choosing the mechanics that you liked or were relevant to your campaign and excluding those that weren’t.

While there were several very notable subsystems that were added to the basic and expert rules, BECMI ran and played very much like the standard B/X system.

The Companion Set added rules for elements like unarmed combat, the creation and management of strongholds (Dominion Rules) which coincided with the increased levels of character classes possible, capping off at 25th level. This of course meant that spell-casting characters had access to higher-level spells which are also included in the companion set, as well as all the amenities needed to accommodate higher-level play (hit points, saving throws, etc..)

One important addition of the companion set was the addition of new sub-classes which for the 5th edition crowd should sound familiar. You might think 5e invented this concept, but the truth is that sub-classes is actually a 1st edition D&D concept, arriving with the companion set.

Clerics that reached 9th level could choose to become a Druid sub-class which came with its own benefits including new spell lists for the Druid class.

This wasn’t the only new sub-class option included as each class after reaching 9th level had some sub-class options, though when the companion came out it was only the druid that was identifiable as a fully-fledged sub-class.

Finally, the companion set gave us mass combat which worked with the dominion rules and the henchmen, hirelings & follower rules of the base sets. It also expanded a great deal the types of adventures that were created for the system, notably some of my all-time favorites like Test of the Warlords which made full use of the companion set rules.

The Companion Set was supported by the Companion Module series which kicked off with Test of the Warlords showing off its kindom management and mass combat rules. It was a great adventure that really was a self contained campaign set in the remote region of Norwarld in the Mystara setting. For modern games this was the Pathfinder Kingmaker of its time.

The Master set was perhaps the most important addition to the increasingly more complex format that became BECMI. Aside from more growth for all classes, capping out at 36th level, the master rules brought quite a few new optional and expanded rules that in many ways made this a more advanced game than advanced D&D.

Weapon Mastery was probably the most widely appreciated element of the Master rules, though equally the most complex set of rules. It created what is even to this day one of the most robust melee and ranged combat systems for warrior classes available for D&D, in a sense fixing all of the complaints about the power levels of late game fighter and melee classes in general. It allowed characters to acquire unique fighting styles and moves, improve the damage with the weapons they used and allow them to be quite competitive with classes like the Magic-User and Cleric on the power scale.

Additionally, we got rules for Siege Equipment and running sieges, a natural extension of the mass combat and dominion management rules found in the companion set and much appreciated for those of us that didn’t shy away from the expansive kingdom management content available for the game by this time.

The Master box set was probobly one of the least frequently used sets simply because really high level play was quite rare. That said, I think BECMI had a really great approach to high level play and it was quite viable, just not often done.

There was lots of good stuff in the Master rules, in fact, of all the things added to the basic/expert rules, this was it was the Master rules that really filled in the finishing touches on gaps typically found in D&D games. Things we often ran across like players wanting to raise armies, build castles and conquer lands that just weren’t in any other D&D system at the time.

The final set, The Immortal rules in essence did two things. It explained where gods come from and it defined the concept of ascending to a higher plane of existence as a player, aka, becoming a god yourself.

It was an interesting read but to be honest I have never met anyone who played a D&D campaign so long that they achieved 36th level let alone having a need for rules on how to become a god. It’s a cool concept but really lacked purpose in your typical D&D campaign.

There were very few immortal level modules made to support this level of play and I don’t know anyone who ever actually ran or played in them, but actually they were really well done. In particular The Immortal Storm was very clever.

One cool thing in the Immortal set was descriptions of various immortal gods and this lore I always found to be quite useful for inspiration. From Orcus to Demogorgon, the Immortals book gave you some really great lore for your fantasy campaign.

The final book, The Rules Cyclopedia was mostly known to be a consolidation of the rules found in the BECMI sets, but under closer inspection, there are quite a few things that were unique to this book not found in the other companions.

Several sub-classes were added including the Mystic, a sort of Monk as well as variations on the fighter like Paladins and Rangers. At the time I don’t think anyone really considered these missing elements of the game as AD&D was fully compatible with BECMI so if you wanted to play a Ranger for example you could just use the one in AD&D as written. Still it was nice to have all the classes available in BECMI consolidated in one book.

The book also included a lot of corrections and frankly, it was much appreciated as there were quite a few quality issues and conflicting rules in the original BECMI companion books which are corrected here. Most notably the Rules Cyclopedia gave explanations and maps for The Known World, officially named Mystara at this point further solidifying BECMI’s rule system as a foundation for the setting. This was later further expanded on by the Mystara Gazetteers, a book series that dove into the details of the setting, notably including several new classes and character options for players with each book.

While the compilation of BECMI rules into a single book was the point of the Rules Cyclopedia, the best thing to come out of it really was the establishment of Mystara as a full setting that would later see unmatched support in the D&D Gazetteers that followed.

The Rules Cyclopedia to me is a foundation book for D&D in general as many of the rules sub-systems like Mass Combat, Sieges, Dominion Rules, and Weapon Mastery system are completely system agnostic. As such, there is a lot in this book that can be used with any D&D system, past and present and despite the age of these rules, they are still the most applicable and thorough rules on these subjects, far more expansive, detailed, and usable at the table than any others that came before or since. The Rules Cyclopedia is only second to the 1st edition AD&D DMG as far as D&D resource books go in my opinion.

Collectively what made BECMI a premier version of D&D was how well it covered every aspect of D&D play. No matter what your players wanted to do, this system had your back with clever mechanics, clear rules and though quirky at times, great system-agnostic sub-systems that have really stood the test of time. Like AD&D, taken as a whole it’s quite robust but unlike AD&D, it is a very modular system so you can start out with Basic rules and simply add supplements as your campaign matures and you have new requirements.

Why Play It Today?

I’m biased, but I have to say it, why wouldn’t you play it today? BECMI to me, no matter what aspect of D&D play you look at is one of the most effective. flexible and straight-to-the-point D&D systems available today. It eases you into the game one step at a time, and grows in both complexity and depth as you proceed into higher tiers of play, while remaining very easy to balance and extremely playable even at really high levels.

If you are like me and you want to run a D&D campaign as a lifestyle game, one that goes on for years and years, most D&D systems really can’t do that well while keeping character progression as a constant in the game. In particular in modern systems, but even AD&D, once you reach a certain level, usually around 6-10+, the game becomes unwieldy. Characters become too powerful and trying to create balanced gameplay becomes impossible. With BECMI your characters can be 25th level and they can still die at the hands of a Goblin horde, the game never ceases to be dangerous or challenging.

Now I will grant you 36th level is kind of overkill, I can’t even imagine how long of a campaign you would need to run to reach such heights, but the sweet spot, unlike most D&D games, isn’t between 1 to 9th levels. This system continues to be extremely useful while remaining challenging even at the highest tiers of play. I have personally run campaigns for BECMI that reached as high as 25th level and the game remained every bit as good as it was at 1st level.

The thing however I find most people enjoy about the game is that it is so universally applicable and adaptable as a fantasy adventure platform for RPG’s. While at its core is a setting, Mystara, the troupes found in this system are extremely flexible and modular. It really doesn’t take much effort to come to conclusions on how one might adapt this system to other settings and because it is compatible with 1st and 2nd edition AD&D as written, by association you have most of the major D&D settings compatibility built in.

This has been my system of choice for D&D fantasy adventure for decades, its harshness and focus on resource management as well as its presentation is a great foundation for Dungeons & Dragons. I have played all of the D&D systems pretty extensively and I enjoyed those games, but whenever I think about running D&D, this is the one system that really speaks to me. To me this is real D&D.

Now the question isn’t why would I play the game, the question is why would you. I think the best sales pitch for this game is that its universally agnostic and modular. You can take this system as a DM and mold it in any way you want, including adding rules from other D&D systems, and without changing a word use those systems without issue. In a sense, BECMI is universally compatible with all D&D editions that came after it with perhaps the only exception being 4e.

Hands down the best version of D&D in my opinion… period.. no discussion.

2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Just like 1st edition AD&D, 2nd edition AD&D was reprinted in collectors edition a few years back.

2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons had some pretty big shoes to fill after the explosive success of 1st edition, but it also had to contend with some of the fallout of the satanic panic and the many complaints from the player base about the inconsistency and quirkiness of the 1st edition AD&D rules. It was a game born out of the need for correcting the past.

1st edition AD&D was really complex and 2nd edition AD&D really entered the scene with an attitude that while it would be backward compatible, which I think it very much was, it was also going to be considerably easier. TSR I think wanted the game to be a bit less Advanced and perhaps this was because they wanted to consolidate the two forms of D&D that existed at the time BECMI and AD&D under one roof. It would also be the first edition of the game that would be created without Gary Gygax’s influence for better or for worse.

With that as a framework 2nd edition AD&D I think was very successful in what it wanted to achieve but not particularly successful as a product. A lot of the issue with this version of the game had to do with the declining quality control at TSR which was starting to flounder as a company. By the end of the 2nd edition run, TSR was basically bankrupt. I would argue however it was not the fault of the game system so much as the company running it.

2nd edition AD&D also had a starter box for new players, arguably the quality control on this thing was pretty terrible. Unlike all the starter sets that came before that are still admired today and considered “classic”, this is a relic no one bought then, nor is it a collectors thing today. It was just really terrible.

AD&D 2nd edition had three core elements that actually made it an evolutionary step up from its successor.

For one, it was considerably easier to run. The rules were more digestible, easier to understand and far more consistent. It was still a system that relied heavily on adjudication with rules still having that “up to interpretation” style of writing more often than I think it should have but it was still a very broad system with great coverage and far fewer restrictions. Unlike 1st edition you really could run 2nd edition AD&D RAW, there were many rules and many moving parts as such you would not typically use the system in its entirety but thankfully the system made a clear distinction between rules that were core rules and those that were optional. This modularity was an important feature of the game.

In fact, it’s modularity that really defined 2e AD&D, a concept of the system that would be regrettably abandoned in future editions to the detriment of the game. At this point, D&D had established itself as a game that could be run in a wide range of styles with a really wide range of player preferences, so having a huge chunk of the rules be optional was a really great aspect of the game that allowed all of these styles to live harmoniously under one system. Less fuel for table arguments, it was understood that the DM would decide which optional rules to or not to use.

The great thing about 2e was that it used blue boxes to identify optional rules and it used the space to explain why you might want to use the optional rule and how it could affect the game. This was extremely useful and made the system feel really well constructed.

The second thing that made 2nd edition really great was the “Complete X” book collection which brought in a concept called Kits that allowed for really far-reaching character customization. These books were largely theme-based class option books and there was one book for each class which made 2nd edition AD&D a game system with a much bigger broader character creation element than we had ever seen before with a bigger focus on the narrative of the character rather than strictly mechanics, even though it was actually quite mechanical nonetheless.

These kits not only gave you many examples of the unique handling of different classes but gave you the tools you needed as a DM to create your own custom kits to serve whatever setting or story you were working on. Now I will say these kits often had poor balance, there were clear winners and losers here, but D&D at this point was still very much an “up to the DM” focused game so it was natural for DM’s to see any mechanics in these books as “here is a cool idea, use it if you like it, change it if you don’t”.

The Complete Handbooks were in my opinion one of the greatest things to happen to D&D as it allowed players to create really unique backstory elements and align them with their mechanical characters. You could be an investigator, bounty hunter or smuggler rather than just the very plain Thief. These books also included really specific narrative constructs, for example in the Complete Thieves handbook thieves guilds were explained in great detail as well as really detailed rules for how to use thief skills and much more.

This principle continued in other rules expansion books like the Tome of Magic, Player Options: Skills & Powers and Player Options: Combat & Tactics. These books were actually poorly received which should have been a warning sign to future editions as much of what would become 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons were based on these books.

Personally, I always liked these books, in the same way I like the Complete X collection, they were inspirational and optional rules that with a bit of DM intervention formed some great core mechanics that allowed the creation of many unique styles of play.

While all of the options books had clear balance issues and suffered from quality control problems, with some DM intervention they offered increadible expansion to the game for those players who wanted more mechanical gears to pull on.

The final thing that made 2e AD&D really quite special was the fact that the game for the first time in the history of D&D considered magic-users and magic, in general, an intrinsic part of the game. It was clear from previous editions that Gary Gygax did not like Magic-Users or magic in his game and it really showed in how he treated them. With 2e AD&D, TSR made magic & magic-users fun, versatile and diverse. You could play specialist mages like Necromancers and Enchanters, the spell system and spells themselves had far broader effects with a lot of narrative flare and perhaps most importantly you had more diversity in spell-casting classes.

Magic was further supported by the Complete of Books which included specialization books like the Complete Necromancer. This was an amazing level of detail that would set a new standard for how players viewed and what could be done with their magic-user class.

I have always felt that 2e AD&D was a clear and much-needed fix for 1st edition AD&D. Today, without question if I was going to run AD&D in any form, it would be 2nd edition. In fact, I would argue that objectively, even though I prefer B/X and BECMI, 2e AD&D was the best of the TSR versions of D&D. It’s a very robust, very modular and very flexible system. It got a pretty bad wrap largely because of terrible mismanagement of TSR and probably could have been a much better system if quality control was a bit more stringent but it was the last system that we would see that was actually backward compatible with classic D&D content and so for many, it is the final version of true and real D&D.

The D&D franchise would be purchased by Wizards of the Coast after 2nd edition and through this act, the classic era of D&D was over.

Why Play It Today?

For me personally 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons is a great system because it’s quite easy to run, has fairly clear rules while retaining that classic D&D feel. Now like all the classic versions of D&D that came out of TSR it is a mechanically flawed system, there is no disputing that, but its philosophy, its concept, its spirit as a D&D game is beyond reproach. It is D&D as it was meant to played, as it was designed to be experienced.

To me everything that followed starting with 3rd edition was an improvement on how D&D works mechanically, but in those mechanical evolutions a hole was punctured in the spirit of the game and it would turn out to be a major over correction where mechanics became favored over philosophy and concepts of the game missing the point of the many expanded concept introduced in 2nd edition AD&D. The soul of D&D would soon be diminished and by 4th edition D&D totally abandoned.

I say this here because 2nd edition was probobly the best game mechanically that TSR came up with, meaning, it had the cleanest gameplay, it was the best mechanical version of D&D that still retained the spirit of the game.

For modern gamers this is the edition I would actually recommend if your curious about what people mean by “Classic D&D”. Sure you will find some of the mechanics a bit quirky but it will be familiar, it will make sense, you will know how to play intrinsicly if you have played modern versions of the game. Mechanically its all here, even as flawed as it may appear to you (because it actually is flawed), but you will get to experience the classic nature of the game, that gritty D&D spirit that really doesn’t exist in modern editions of the game.

Board Game Reviews

Washington’s War by GMT games 2010

Designer: Mark Herman

In recent days I have played quite a bit of Mark Herman’s classic Washington’s War yet despite the game being number 15 on my top 20 games chart I did back in February 2022 and No. 6 in my Top 10 War Games I did in 2020, I’m yet to do a proper review on it. It’s a long past due oversight that I really wanted to correct and so here we go!

Mark Herman is a brilliant designer, a statement I make without hesitation and he made a big splash as the founder of the influence struggle and historical CDG war game genres in a single game called We The People in 1993. This led to a number of what are now considered classic historical war games in their own right that used these mechanics like Twilight Struggle, For The People, Empire of the Sun and Paths of Glory just to name a few. It was, to say the least, a pivotal moment in game design history that lead to the release of Washington’s War which is for all intense and purposes the 2nd edition of We The People.

It would not be an overstatement to point out that while We The People sparked an evolution in the historical war game category, breathing life into two different genres of historical war games it remains wildly underrated. Washington’s War, its follow-up, is really no different, in my mind it is one of the most criminally underrated games in all of board- gaming sitting in a shockingly disgraceful 730 on BBG as of this writing.

I will be the first to admit that We The People lacked the visual appeal of a mainstream game, it certainly does look the part of a complicated historical war game. This likely contributed to its shockingly underrated status.

Washington’s War is a game about the American founding father’s struggle to create a new nation out of 13 fledgling colonies as they opposed the British Empire in what has got to be one of the most fascinating pieces of history there is. The Revolutionary war is chock full of extraordinarily interesting personalities, political struggles that make The Game of Thrones look like child’s play and some of the most vicious military engagements in all of American history. Washington’s War manages to squeeze all of that history into a game that is easy to teach and learn while remaining streamlined to precision.

I love the influence struggle and CDG category of historical war games, my collection is full of them, but Washington’s War is the only game in my collection that I feel comfortable in pulling out with just about anyone. Whether you are a Eurogamer, casual dabbler, or a serious historical war game fan, you will fall in love with this games incredible back-and-forth tension. It is not just a great historical war game for historical war gamers, it is just good gaming period by any measure.

Twilight Struggle is a mainstream hit coming out of the historical war game universe, but it’s really odd to me. It’s a complex CDG based on the Cold War that has a fairly steep learning curve. It wouldn’t even be in my top 3 CDG influence struggle games I would recommend as an entry point into the genre.

Now I have played my hand a little here, clearly, I’m a fan but given the accolades it has already received on my site over the last few years, I don’t think it should come as a surprise to my more frequent readers. The devil is in the details however and while I would describe this game as a good time in a box, I think it’s fair to say I owe more of an explanation to this review, so let’s dig into the revolutionary war!

Overview

Final Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star(4.2 out 5) Great Game!

Washington’s War is an asymmetrical influence struggle CDG (Card Driven Game) war game. That is a mouthful, but given that We the People, the 1st edition of Washington’s War effectively created this style of game, it’s perhaps reasonable to explain what it actually is even if we have already watched this genre evolve over the years in so many other games.

In Influence Struggle CDG’s like Washington’s War, players take turns playing cards which they use to execute actions on a point-to-point map. In our case the map of the eastern United States where the revolutionary war takes place. One of the key elements here is control of different areas via influence tokens called Political Influence in Washington’s War which represents the political control the Americans or British have in an area in any of the 13 colonies.

The object of the game is to have sufficient political influence markers in each of the colonies to control them and essentially whichever player controls the most colonies by the end of the game will win the game. Technically the US needs to control 7 colonies while the British only needs to control 6 of them to win.

The catch is that there are also generals and armies on the board who can take these areas by force, so part of the game is also using actions to move armies around and engage in battles to force your influence onto the board.

The different cards also have event effects, special actions players can take when playing a card. These events represent different actual or hypothetical events from revolutionary war history. There are also several unique conditions and phases in the game like Winter Attrition for example that represents the harshness of the winters and the complexity of keeping standing armies in the field in this era. These various unique conditions create the challenges players must contend with as the war progresses.

Suffices to say that description is probably insufficient to really get a feel for the game, but I think what is most important to understand is that this game like all influence struggle CDG’s is about board control, timing, and about the back and forth tension between players as they vie for power on the point to point map. Since We The People, we have seen many games in this genre that leverage this mechanic, most famously Twilight Struggle. Washington’s War however takes a much more rules-light and less restrictive approach to this style of play.

The war plays out on a point-to-point map like many influence struggle games, but Washington’s War definitively falls into the “War” category of games where some influence struggle games have a more debatable status in that regard. In Twilight Struggle for example you do not move armies about the board and engage in battles.

Most notably, players share a deck and cards don’t have as many multiple uses as many games in this genre do where a card is both an event and an “ops value”. Instead, cards either are events or are actual ops cards (1, 2, and 3 ops). This makes the decision matrix for Washington’s War much simpler, in fact, in the influence struggle genre, it actually makes Washington’s War one of the lightest and most approachable games in the genre.

More importantly perhaps is the fact that Washington’s War has few exception-based rules, which is very commonly seen in historical war games and is by far the primary reason in creating a division between mainstream and historical war games. Historical war gamers love their “historicity” (made-up word, I know). What it means is that historical war gamers have a far higher tolerance for heavy rules implementations and rules exceptions as long as those rules breathe historical simulation into the game and this road can go quite deep in many historical war games. Washington’s War, while it certainly is historical, does this more with core rules rather than exception-based rules. What this boils down to is that though Washington’s War has not really become a mainstream game, there actually is no reason for it not to be. This, like any other board game, has straightforward rules that anyone can learn and is actually a lot simpler than many if not most Euro games mainstream gaming communities readily play.

That leaves the question, what is it about Washington’s War that has prevented it from crossing over to mainstream gamers as Twilight Struggle did? Is there a problem?

Components

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_star

Pros: GMT is a great publisher that never has never disappointed me and in Washington’s War they once again nailed it.

Cons: Looks deceptively like a complex war game which it most certainly is not, hardly a complaint but my explain why it’s not as mainstream as it deserves to be.

As a courtesy to the reader, I will make this brief, this is a GMT production which means that by default all components are top-notch quality. From the gorgeous and sturdy gameboard to the thick card stock and counters, everything is made to last with a wonderfully clear presentation.

It’s fair to remind readers that GMT is a historical war game publisher and while the component quality is definitively top-notch, rarely do we see miniatures in GMT games. This is largely a courtesy to keep costs down and the result of game pieces in historical war games having information on them relevant to gameplay as is the case with the cut-outs in Washington’s War. This is not a flaw, but a feature.

The rulebook is super clean and precise, the game includes a playbook that is so good you can almost learn how to play the game without reading the rulebook and just following along with the playbook. Finally, the game has the best reference cards I have ever seen in a game, so well thought out that once you play one turn of the game you aren’t likely ever going to have to reference the rulebook again as the reference sheets have everything you need to play the game on them.

Short and sweet, the components of the game are pitch-perfect. Nothing is overcooked, it’s just right, no complaints from this reviewer.

Theme

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star

Pros: Washington’s War has just the right amount of nuance to breathe life into the fascinating history of the revolutionary war without overwhelming you with rules “chrome”.

Cons: Veteran historical war gamers looking for a deep and/or complex revolutionary war simulation may not find what they are looking for here.

When it comes to the historical war game themes, it’s always a matter of taste on how much simulation, replication and historical accuracy a person wants in their game. I’m of the opinion that a good historical war game will allow you to play inside a historical period, but keep the scripted elements of the game to an absolute minimum. I don’t want to replicate history or follow along some historical path forced on me by the mechanics of the game, I want to be put in a position to make the same decisions the commanders and leaders of the time had to make and ultimately find my own path to victory in a sort of alternate history of the subject matter.

In this vein, Washington’s War is ideal because while the game has all of the elements of the revolutionary war including the important personalities, events, locations and abstracted conditions of the period, how the game plays out is not going to reflect the actual history of the revolutionary war. From the very first action to the last, you are going to inevitably change history.

Despite this a-historical execution, the game still captures the period perfectly from the asymmetrical sides and unique conditions they had to contend with to the interesting political events and personalities involved all making an appearance in the game. What changes are elements like when the French join the war if ever, or when if ever the declaration of independence is signed. Does Washington get captured during the war? Does the continental congress get dispersed? Do the British win or lose the south, can they use their dominance of the sea to win the war? All of these aspects of history are thrown off their axis in some form or another, many historical events may or may not ever take place and much of what does and doesn’t happen in your version of the revolutionary war history will depend on card draw, dice and most important decisions you make as a player.

I found the game to be extremely thematic, hitting the high points of the revolutionary war in particular in the way the Americans struggle to have a military that can face the British, the difficulties of the Americans to bring the French into the fight and the tough challenges of trying to control a country that was really quite divided on the subject of independence. Washington’s War feels like a game on the revolutionary war in every regard, yet doesn’t impose the history on you for posterity. It allows the a-historical outcomes unapologetically and as far as I’m concerned, this is exactly what I want out of any historical war game.

I found that every game of Washington’s War played out wildly different while always maintaining these struggles that were part of the history of the period. More importantly, however, these struggles are imbued into the mechanics so they feel natural rather than scripted, nor are they infused with a lot of exceptions to force the subject. Certainly, you are going to make some of the historical decisions as did the founding fathers because they make sense, but often I found myself in what-if moments, the execution of which is exciting and tense and triggers discussions with your opponent about the history of the game.

One of the ways Washington’s War really comes to life as a historical game is the uncertainty of the conflict. There are never any breakthrough moments in the war, there is a lot of attrition, a sort of push and pull where no matter where you push and win, it always results in you having to pull back somewhere else. This creates great tension in the game, really giving you that sensation of being an underdog as the American, while making you feel powerful as the British. Yet despite this, the game has incredible balance, even within the constraints of the asymmetrical feel each side has and despite Americans being the underdogs and the British being big and powerful, the game never gives the impression that either side has a leg up in the final outcome of the game (war). It is a war that either side can win and strategy plays the predominant part in that outcome, which feels both historically accurate and makes for a great gaming experience.

Finally and I mean this as a complement and not a negative comment, the game doesn’t overdo the history. Mark Herman designs very often are so regimented when it comes to history and while in many games like Empire of the Sun which is the driver for the game and ultimately what brings you to the table, Washington’s War relies far more on the strategic play to pull you in. Historical it certainly is, but this is a streamlined machine that introduces the history in subtle ways, while it remains far more a game than a simulation throughout. There are almost no exception-based rules in the game that try to force historical elements on you, which is not often the case with historical games and certainly not Herman’s designs. Mark takes a light-touch approach in Washington’s War and strangely it’s this distancing from exceptions that makes the game feel more historical and thematic, as it all just becomes more accessible.

General Washington for example is represented as a strong commander for the Americans and comes with a special ability allowing him to avoid some winter attrition penalties. This is a very subtle special power and it’s easy to remember because Washington is a unique commander, the game is named after him after all. It’s one of the very few exception-based rules and it kind of just makes sense and is logical enough to be easy to remember.

I really love this approach and I’m reminded of the fact that while I love games like France 1944 and Empire of the Sun, two other Mark Herman designs, I often wish I could play lighter versions of those games that still capture the same historical principles and strategic elements without being so complex and filled with exceptions. Washington’s War really nails this streamlined, more direct approach and I think the result is a far more enjoyable and notably more accessible game which ultimately lets the theme actually flow a lot better. You could almost say that there are fewer interruptions to the enjoyment of the history of the game thanks to a lighter rules approach.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Empire of the Sun and wouldn’t change a thing about it, but there are countless “if this then that” exception rules that make even playing the game correctly a real struggle sometimes. Washington’s War is a straight-to-the-point type of game that avoids the more common “chrome” direction most historical war games take.

If there are any flaws in the theme and mind you this requires one to get very nit-picky is that the CDG mechanic uses the one deck approach. This means both players draw from the same deck and that British and American events when drawn by the opposite player ultimately get discarded for 1 ops actions as they cannot be used for the event. There are a lot of really cool events in the game that simply never see the light of day in any given game as a result simply because of who drew them and while there is a mechanic in place where opponents can pick up discarded event cards, it typically doesn’t happen as players usually plan out their entire turn based on the cards they do draw. I personally prefer CDG’s where each asymmetrical faction gets its own deck as seen in countless games like Twilight Struggle, Empire of the Sun and Paths of Glory for example. The result of such a setup is that you are always drawing cards relevant to you, and more events hit the table which brings into the game more of the history and ultimately the theme of the game.

I would put this complaint in the minor quibble category based on personal preference rather than an actual issue with the game. It’s just a me thing.

As a whole, I think Washington’s War nails the theme beautifully in this game. It’s just the right amount of rules to get the theme across, there is a lot of attention to detail in the history even though all the various conditions and unique elements of the period are handled very subtly. I’m sure there are games on the revolutionary war that are far more detailed and make better historical simulations, but I think Washington’s War was aiming to be more high-level and abstracted and in approaching the design in this way, it has made this historical game a lot more approachable and easier to get to the table. I don’t think it really sacrifices anything critical with this approach and while I could understand that more serious historical gamers might be looking for more chrome, as a guy who plays in both casual and serious fields, I found this game highly thematic and fun.

Gameplay

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star christmas_star

Pros: As a fan of CDG influence struggle games, I’m like a moth to a flame here, I adore this genre and this game.  It’s a fantastic introduction to the genre, perfect for newcomers.

Cons: Washington’s War is based on the We The People formula which while great and revolutionary (pun intended) is a bit dated compared to how the genre has evolved. 

As simple of a mechanic Washington’s War is, there is tremendous weight in the strategic gameplay of the game, in fact, I would argue that the complexity of the game is quite high when you consider the deployable strategies possible here.

It’s a bit like chess where you can learn the rules easy enough, but becoming a good chess player is a considerably more robust topic.

For one Washington’s War is a very tight game, it’s really about very subtle motions where placing a token in one place rather than another can have a profound impact on the outcome of the game. That is not to say it’s sensitive to mistakes, but rather that each action really matters. You rarely make irrelevant decisions, every move and counter move is important and the whole thing just feels like it has weight behind it, adding to the tension and attrition.

In any given round for example as the British player, you may have the ops cards necessary to move a couple of units, place a couple of tokens and perhaps play an event. That is not a lot of activity in the big scheme of things, but because the game is relatively short and exactly when the game will end dynamic, these decisions can be quite critical and impactful. In fact any round after the 4th round requires you to be vigilant because the game can end quite abruptly so you need to make sure at the end of each round you are in a winning position.

The game doesn’t have this 3-4 rounds from now I will be in a position to win approach to strategy. You need to effectively be winning at the end of every round of play.

Rounds can end because there are cards in the deck that if drawn must be played which define when the game will end and this starts after the 4th round. The tension this brings to the game is awesome.

Generally, the game is about playing cards and taking actions, so the sequence of play is quite simple and like most influence struggle games it’s about having the most pieces on the board you can muster in the right places. You need to control a certain amount of colonies to win and control of a colony is defined by how many political control markers you have in each colony.

The difficulty of this is that each colony has a varied number of spaces that can be controlled, some like Virginia have more than half a dozen, while others like Rhode Island have a single space that defines control of the colony. This means that while more is clearly better, where you put your influence is equally vital. There is a trade-off between controlling a colony with a lot of tokens, which can make it more difficult to take away from you, and colonies that have a small number of control points which are more volatile and more likely to trade hands during the game.

Adding to the mix of this go-like game of point-to-point area control are the armies of each side and the generals that lead them. These armies move about the board forcing their will onto territories and the only method to control their ability to project power by your opponent is with their own armies.

This is where the “war” element of the game comes to fruition and again it’s handled in a simple and elegant manner. The factors that go into the effectiveness of an army are easy to calculate, there is ways to surprise opponents with cards and the dynamic factor of the dice makes outcomes calculable but not reliable. More than that, losses are generally minimal, battles can be won and lost, but armies are not easily dispersed so winning a battle does not mean you sort of breakthrough and dominate an area, but rather just push your opponent back in what really is a war of attrition.

The armies and their commanders on the board have a considerable impact on this influence struggle game, making it definitively a war game.

There is also difficulty in moving armies and this is very asymmetrical and historical. The British have larger and more powerful armies, but they require a higher OPS card to move them, so you are likely going to move them less often. Meanwhile, the Americans have smaller, generally weaker armies that require lower ops cards to move, meaning you are likely able to move them more often. America’s military agility is further supported through two special rules, their ability to intercept and retreat, allowing them to intervene and avoid British attacks.

This game of cat and mouse creates a tense and very thinky mini game where each player is thinking less about outright crushing the opposing military, as this is highly unlikely to happen, and more about trying to position their military in the most optimal points on the map to exert power and control, adding to the influence struggle theme rather than overwhelming it.

Finally, there are a few other elements in the game that I like to refer to as “historical conditions” that create challenges for the players to overcome.

Winter attrition already mentioned, creates a real headache for the American player who is constantly having to contend with their armies dispersing between rounds. There is the struggle to get the French into the game which is pretty vital for the Americans as it brings into play the ability to blockade ports and a much-needed French command with French armies.

For the British the struggle and often the frustration is really dealing with the reality that with the right hand of cards you could really bring the fight to the American’s but the high maintenance commanders can only be moved with higher ops cards, typically 3 ops which means that you really have to plan way ahead and around their stubborn refusal to cooperate with your plans. You are simply never going to have the cards to do exactly what you want and your circumstances continually get worse as the war progresses. Ideally, you want to win this game as early as possible as the British because it gets tougher and tougher as time goes on.

The event cards are a mechanical layer here and while I would say the impact of these cards varies from “meh” to “holy shit”, generally their inclusion is more about infusing the game with theme than it is about strategy. They certainly can play a significant role in the plan of a particular round when drawn, but usually, you are trying to squeeze the events into your strategy rather than building a strategy around the cards if that makes sense. In fact, generally speaking, that is usually how all of the cards in the deck are used. You have a strategic plan and you are trying to use whatever you draw to make that happen, rarely if ever does your hand dictate your plan.

The event cards in the game have varied effects and their usefulness usually depends on the developing situation on the board, sometimes they can have a big game-changing impact, and sometimes they are worth more as a 1 ops action than actually using them.

What can I really say about the gameplay in Washington’s War other than that it’s absolutely fabulous? It’s just such a great tense game, with easy-to-understand mechanics, and lots of great history full of surprises, twists, and turns. It’s just a really fantastic gaming experience, nailed down to a 2-3 hour 2-player game that just works in every way. It’s game design brilliance.

I have no complaints about this game at all but know that my love for CDG-driven influence struggle games likely makes me a bit biased here. I love this genre of games and Washington’s War is one of the most approachable and satisfying takes on this genre out there. It certainly does not replace my love for Imperial Struggle, which I consider the current ranking champion in this genre, but this one is so much easier to teach and learn. I think it’s the best way to introduce new players to the genre.

Longevity and Replayability

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_starchristmas_star 

Pros: The game is very dynamic offering endless replayability, you aren’t ever going to play two games that resolve the same.

Cons: The simplicity of the design is a benefit for the purposes of introductions, however all but the most casual of gamers are going to graduate from this one rather quickly.

Washington’s War has a static start and that might give the impression that there is a limited number of plays built in that once you expire them you will have seen everything there is to see.

This is categorically false and I say that from having played this game at least a dozen times at this point. The dynamics of this game are a combination of decisions and strategies implemented, cards drawn and dice rolled. There is just no way two games will ever repeat or even appear similar to each other. Despite the static start, this game is a dynamic rollercoaster, whereas a player you will find yourself trying to unravel countless puzzles this game presents.

There is a lot of replayability here and there is no doubt in my mind that like many games in this genre including the famed Twilight Struggle, this is a game you can play over and over again and always make new discoveries.

Now in terms of longevity, for me personally, after a dozen plays while I’m always ready to go for it again, I find that anytime I have taught someone Washington’s War, my urge is to take the next step with them into more involved and complex CDG influence struggle games.

This game is light and as a veteran gamer, I enjoy complex games and it’s what I want to be playing. Washington’s War for me is a great way to introduce new players to the wonderful world of historical war games and in particular to the CDG influence struggle games, but it is not the final frontier and I want to graduate new players to more robust games. I feel the longevity of this game for most historical war game fans is going to be limited to using it as an introduction to historical war games, game. I would be surprised if two veteran historical war gamers would find the game enough of a challenge long-term.

There are many influence struggle CDG war games like Washington’s War, all of them benefit from the road paved by the evolution of the genre since We The People initially set the standard. It’s perhaps no surprise that as time has gone on, deeper and heavier variants have come out. Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul is a great next step after Washington’s War before moving on to even more robust games like Imperial Struggle.

That said, I do think more mainstream and casual gamers would find this game very satisfying long term. I hope that doesn’t come off as elitist and rude, but the term “complexity” means something completely different in the world of popular mainstream gaming and historical war gaming. As a historical war game, this one is feather-light, but I think compared to most modern-day board games, it would be generally considered a medium, perhaps even heavy weighted game on the complexity scale. The rulebook is 23 pages, practically a pamphlet for modern historical war games but quite heavy if this were say a Euro.

Conclusion

Among historical war gaming geeks like me and fans of Mark Herman’s work, Washington’s War is by many considered his masterpiece, his Mona Lisa. I would personally argue that this honor goes to Empire of the Sun, but certainly, Washington’s War is one of his stone-cold classics, there is no denying it.

Washington’s War is easy to learn and teach, it’s nuances offer a much deeper level of strategy than the mechanics suggest and it does a wonderful job of capturing the theme of the Revolutionary War without being a hard simulation. All of these things combined make Washington’s War an amazing gaming experience and an excellent addition to any fan of the CDG & Influence Struggle genre of games.

I would also make an argument for this game to get more mainstream attention, it certainly has all the hallmarks that have made other CDG’s like Twilight Struggle such smash hits and really I find it surprising that Washington’s War lives in general obscurity. I will say it again for posterity, this is not just a great historical war game, this is just a really great game period and you should not let the stigma of historical war games frighten you from trying it. Any fan of Twilight Struggle will find themselves quite at home in Washington’s War, in fact, I would argue this is a far better and much easier entry point into the genre than Twilight Struggle is.

If there is anything to complain about when it comes to Washington’s War, I’ve certainly missed it. It fires on all cylinders as far as I’m concerned, I give it my highest recommendation for pretty much anyone looking for a great, tense 2-player game, historical or otherwise.

Best of List, Board Game Reviews

On The Table: July 2022

You would think after the big superboard gaming weekend we had earlier in the month I would have run out of games to talk about, but I’m on summer holiday and the gaming continues.

Root (Digital Board Game Adaptation)

During our big gaming weekend earlier this month, I was exposed to a very curious little game called Root which piqued my interest both as a board game fan and as an amateur board game designer.

This highly asymmetrical war game about cute little woodland creatures fighting in a forest has some incredible dynamics which results in tremendous replayability and diversity. It seems like it’s one of those games where you really need to do many repeated plays to really explore it and fully understand it, not something that typically happens with any board game in my gaming group. We really rarely go back to the same game over and over again, generally being a lot more diverse in particular given the sizeable gaming collections some of us have.

Luckily there is a digital adaptation of Root available on steam and other apps which is perfect for some great solo gaming.

I played the digital version of root about 20 times already, doing so obsessively in succession as I tried to really delve into the games unique nuances and Root did not disappoint. As I suspected the more you play, the more unique elements and strategies you discover in this quirky little game.

The game has great tutorials that really walk you through the rules, so if you have no knowledge of the board game at all, the digital adaptation will not only teach you how to play this digital version, but how to play the board game version as well. It’s a great aid for a game that is a bit of a chore to learn to play.

The digital version of the game is a direct translation, has AI bots of various skills, and comes with a few expansions allowing you to explore it even deeper with more factions. The developers have done a great job replicating the cartoon art of the board game and the interface is really easy to use, allowing you to really focus on the nitty-gritty details of gameplay.

Highly recommend this adaptation if you are curious about Root but don’t have the group available that wants to repeatedly play this one with you. There is a small online community as well so there are plenty of opportunities to play with other players too.

War Room

Getting an opportunity to play War Room, my all-time favorite game is a real treat. I did a preview and review of War Room if you want more details on this epic, global-scale event game. This week we got it to the table and as always this game blew me away!

In short, what I can say about every game of War Room is that despite having a grotesque playing time, on average exceeding 12 hours, this is a highly interactive, deeply strategic, mechanically easy to learn but impossible to master game that to me is not only an achievement in game design but one of the ultimate board gaming experiences.

It is everything I love about big epic board gaming in a box as it addresses every issue I usually find with long, event-style games. Most of the activities in the game are done simultaneously and or in groups as the game is not only team-based but features hidden order movement. The combat is engaging and very dramatic so even if the nation you are running is not involved you’re drawn to it as it’s no less exciting to watch it unfold. Every move and round in the game, has far reaching and big impact on the results of the game that creates dynamic outcomes and narratives you are unlikely ever going to see repeated.

This is a game that tells stories that you will remember long after the game is put away with everyone expertly pointing out what “they should have done” or what strategy they will try next time. You’re going to be thinking about this one long after the game is over.

There are countless possible strategies as well, this is a World War II game that gives you the opportunity to re-imagine the history of the war and approach it with your own revision of this pivotal and tragic moment story without burying you in unnecessarily detailed and overly complex historical realities typically found in historical war games. It certainly will have a lot of familiarity for Axis and Allies players, but this game has an elegance that far surpasses its predecessor. It is simply put, just an amazing gaming experience.

I adore this game but I would caution anyone considering picking it up that you really do have to understand what your getting yourself into and the information on the box is a bit inaccurate in this regard. For one it suggests that the game is for 2 to 6 players and this is true, but while there are 2 and 3 player scenarios, what you are certain to want to do with the game is play the global war scenario which cannot be played by 2 or 3 players reasonably. There is just too much going on in this game for one player to run multiple major nations. Then again while the global scenario can be played by up to 6 players, if you do, one player is going to get stuck playing Italy which while an important nation in the war, plays in a fairly isolated part of the map and is really part of the German strategy.

The game also says that it plays 1 hour for each player which is complete nonsense. If you can finish a game of War Room in under 12 hours with any amount of players you are playing a very fast-moving game of War Room.

The ideal conditions for the game is 5 players (Japan, Germany, US, Britain and Soviets with the US player running China and German player running Italy). You also want to make sure you have a full day, or even better is to have two half days to play the game. You are going to need a ton of space and you want to setup timers where each team can have time alone with the gameboard to play, typically 10-15 minutes per planning phase is enough.

The point here is that this is an expensive game that requires real event planning and a good-sized group of 5, players preferably but no less than 4. That is what it takes to play War Room and I would avoid it if you don’t think you will have the gaming group and conditions to meet those requirements. You don’t want a 250-dollar game collecting dust on your shelf, especially one that will torture you as this one will because this game begs to be played.

My friends and I manage about 1 game a year and while I would love to play it more often, I consider it a big win to be able to pull that off. It was an amazing day!

Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory is a classic in the historical war gaming communities and is the foundation game for card-driven mechanics.

I have an online buddy that comes out of the woods periodically and challenges me to a game of Paths of Glory, which I always graciously accept because I absolutely adore this game. In stark contrast to War Room however, this is an intimate and very historically accurate war game that endeavors to not only teach, but gives you an incredible sense of a global conflict.

Paths of Glory is about the whole of World War I and I did a review on it last year. It’s an incredible but very long and very detailed game that is not particularly easy to learn and certainly impossible to master. It requires tremendous patience and dedication to learn to play it well, but it has made a believer out of me.

This is a card-driven game so it’s a nice fit for me personally as I love all things card-driven, in fact, looking at my top 20 board games of all time no less than 7 games use similar mechanics. Paths of Glory is unique however in a number of ways in terms of historical war games. For one, it’s a point-to-point rather than a hex and counter game, which creates a unique dynamic as you have this really strong sense of supply lines and complications of the terrain. It sort of forces you to deal with the real historical issues of the day without forcing it on you via mechanics, so it has this great “re-write World War I” feel, but you still get a lot of historical outcomes anyway.

More than that this is a game with so much diversity and dynamics that no two games ever turn out the same and it’s amazing to see how wildly different the outcomes can be even the same strategies are deployed.

I have always been a huge fan of this one, but I caution my readers that this is firmly in the historical, chit game category and Paths of Glory does not apologize for that. The rules are complex, full of exceptions and there are a lot of moving parts. It’s for seasoned historical gamers only and I would not recommend this as an entry point if this is your first go at the genre. It’s best to have someone teach you this one if possible but veteran historical war gamers will be on comfortable footing here, Paths of Glory is an established classic that’s based on some of the historical war gaming most foundational mechanics.

Best of List, Gaming Articles

4x Science-Fiction Civilization Building Games: Part I

At the start of this summer, I wanted to have a writing project for the blog, something unique to work on when those rainy days come or when I’m up late with a cold beer after the family has gone to bed.  It’s something of a tradition for me and has produced articles such as my Battletech Guide series (Part I, Part II & Part III) and my Star Wars: X-Wing guide (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV & Part V) for example.  

This year’s summer project is to evaluate and write a comparison article on Science-Fiction 4x civilization-building games, a topic that is something of a passion of mine.  I have always been a big fan of monster games in general as far back as I can remember, getting my start with classics like Advanced Civilization, Axis & Allies and Shogun back in the 80’s.  My love for SF 4x games however comes from the world of PC games with classics like Master of Orion and Galactic Civilization series of games.  

For years Twilight Imperium has been the ruling king of the hill of this genre in board game form, it has floated around in my top 10 best games of all time since I started it nearly 10 years ago and remains the mecca of this genre in my opinion.  Equally, for the same amount of years I have searched for alternatives for Twilight Imperium if for no other reason than the simple fact that Twilight Imperium is a real pain to get to the table despite its many positive elements.  Simply put, it’s a very long, very heavy and conceptually complex game to get into.  It demands a bit more than most gamers are willing to give and so I have searched for alternatives that might bring the 4x experience to the table more often with a wider range of players.

My hope was that if I explored this genre in detail, I might find some 4x games that might be a bit more approachable.  Going into this project I have no expectations that any of the games I will try will replace Twilight Imperium for me as my ruling favorite, but I am hoping to find some new 4x games to explore.

My research has shown that there are quite a few potentially great SF 4x games in the board game world and it’s my intention to go deep with this article series and do some detailed assessment of what I believe are the most popular of these games that will hopefully act as both a buying guide for those looking to get into the games and a sort of review for each individual game.

The List & Why

There are quite a few games that could go on this list, in fact, arguably to be a proper assessment of the whole genre I think a list of 10-15 would be needed but I wanted to narrow it down to the most widely popular games and I wanted to have some games that hardened veterans of the genre would also approve of which is to say, games that might be more obscure to general mass markets but the experts within consider staples of the genre.  This I felt was important because the goal here is to expose you, the reader to something new and interesting and battle-tested, not necessarily a comparison of the most known games.  

Twilight Imperium 4th Edition

The ultimate 4x science-fiction epic, it is considered by many to be the king of the 4x genre.

Twilight Imperium was a very obvious choice, it is considered a hallmark of the genre, ask any fan of SF 4x civilization building to make a list for you, and this one will always be on it.   It is widely accepted as one of the best in the genre, arguably the one by which all other games will be judged so it had to be on this list.

Eclipse:  Second Dawn For The Galaxy

Many argue that Eclipse is the Twilight Imperium killer, a more refined, faster playing 4x game.

Eclipse is perhaps the second most widely known and accepted game in the genre and actually has even broader mass market appeal.  More importantly, it’s considered the most natural competitor to Twilight Imperium by the gaming community even if the publisher makes no such claims.  It is also highly disputed by Twilight Imperium fans as a contender, some argue for it’s shorter play time while others insist it comes up short.  I love a good controversy, so it had to go on the list as well.

Star Trek: Ascendancy

A relative newcomer by 4x standards, but this 2016 release has made a splash with 4x and Star Trek fans alike often compared to Eclipse.

A very popular franchise but a less commonly listed game, Star Trek: Ascendancy is a full-fledged 4x game that has had quite a bit of buzz among 4x fans and has seen a number of reprints since its 2016 release which means people are still playing & buying it. One really interesting element of Ascendancy is that many argue its a better, albeit less refined Eclipse and there is a lot of debate about its quality that seems to have created a sort of Ascendancy vs. Eclipse grudge match.  From that, it was an easy decision to include it.

Exodus: Proxima Centauri

While my first experience with this one was less then stellar, it’s a community favorite and many argue that it is a far more competitive and varied game in direct competition with Twilight Imperium and Eclipse.

I was very hesitant to add this one to my list mainly because I own it, I have played it once and neither my gaming crew or I thought much of it.  Despite this among 4x circles, it’s considered a staple and standard for the genre and it’s been compared to Eclipse and Twilight Imperium in countless reviews, many feeling this is the superior game.  While I have my doubts, the evidence is in its success.   It has also not only remained in print but has received a 2nd edition and been nominated for some prestigious awards including the 2013 UK Games expo for Best Boardgame of the year.  It’s clearly a competitor, it had to go on the list.

Stellaris Infinite Legacy

Based on one of the most popular 4x games in modern times, this new kid on the block is making a lot of bold claims about being an evolution in the genre and we are going to give it, its shot to prove it in this competition.

The final game on the list comes from Academy Games which attempts to create a board game version of one of the most popular modern 4x PC game franchises in existence, the fan favorite and beloved Stellaris.  I know very little about this one but I felt strongly that if someone is going to try to re-create a board game version of one of the best 4x PC games on the market today, it needed to be on the list.  

That’s your list, 5 games.  I’m committed to play each game a minimum of one time, though it’s likely I will have a couple of plays of each game before this article is complete and I have the advantage of having played some of these games already before I even start.  I have no idea how long it will actually take me to complete this article series, but I’m hopeful that it will make for some fun gaming and writing.

How they will be judged

I think it’s important to establish some method or standard for how all the games will be judged to ensure not only that the competition is fair, but that there is at least a general understanding of what the expectations for a 4x game are.  Each game will be rated from 1 to 5 on each of the following categories.

Is it a true 4x game

The first category simply ensures that the game meets its advertised goal which is to be a 4x game.  4x is a reference to the four key elements of a science-fiction civilization-building game.  

Exploration

Does the game have a fun/interesting exploration mechanic, after all this is a game about building a civilization in space and exploration has to be a part of that.

Expand

This is a bit of a tricky one as the word is intended to have multiple meanings.  It’s a reference to the civilization-building component of the game and covers anything that helps to build your civilization from a fledging single planet to a mass empire.  Science research, fleet and base building, economic engine growth and really anything else to do with the construction and forward progress of your civilization.

Exploit

Similar to expanding in a way, exploiting is about making sure that the galaxy itself is the source of the struggle in the game and that it breeds player competition for resources to ensure players are forced out of their comfort zone of their homeworld.  Exploitation is about the economics of the game and the road to confrontation and the final and arguably most exciting element of the 4x genre, war (Exterminate).

Exterminate

In the end, the exploration, expansion and exploitation of the galaxy should put the players into conflict with each other and lead to the expected eventual outcome which is war.  All good 4x games are in the end in some shape or form war games.

The Extras

While the 4x civilization-building genre is very specific, many of these games include concepts like politics, diplomacy, trade, espionage and other elements often associated, but not directly mentioned as part of the 4x mantra.  These extras should count and hence they get their own category in the evaluation.

Competitive & Fun

This second category is a bit more opinion driven, it’s about a general judgment and comparison of how competitive and fun the game is.  Does it hit those joy centers with its mechanics, do players walk away satisfied, is the game balanced and fair and of course naturally how does it fair in general as a gaming experience.

The Event Status & Presentation

Civilization-building games should be an event, a robust, full-fledged game that everyone is excited about and builds a foundation for a great gaming event.  This combines its visual appeal and presentation, its replayability and its status as a game around which an event can be played.  4x games shouldn’t just be board games, they need to generate a much higher level of excitement beyond just a simple game night, they should feel epic in size and scope.  This category is a measurement and discussion of its status as an event game and includes its presentation.

Deliver On The Promise

This one is important mainly because I don’t think a game should be judged solely on the expectations and desires of players, but on what the game actually promises.  Whether it’s by advertisement on the box or website, we use that information to determine how well it delivers what it promised.  Does the game do what it said it would?  That is the question we are answering and rating here.

Strengths vs. Weakness

This is the only category that will not be scored so much as listed.  I will attempt to outline each game’s strengths and weaknesses and help guide players to the game that is right for their group.  

Comparison Ranking

Finally is the comparison ranking.  This category will not be included with each game, but rather be an article in its own right where I compare and contrast all of the games and come to a conclusion about where they ultimately rank in this competition.  It will be a definitive, top 5 of the best from this list of SF 4x civilization-building games.

Conclusion

Ok so that is the setup for this article series, we have our game list and we have our established method of judgment.  I’m uncertain exactly what order these articles will appear or even what approach I will take beyond these simple goals but the plan is first to play all of the games so that I have a strong basis for assessment.  I expect this series will go well beyond the summer to complete, but keep an eye out for it in the near future.

Board Game Reviews, Gaming Articles

BOARD GAMING SUPER WEEKEND 2022 EDITION!

The sacred annual event known as Hassela weekend in my gaming circle is a staple of my gaming group’s gaming life.  We look forward to it all year long, the holy event is a 4-day gaming excursion where my buddies and I hide away in a small remote Swedish town and do nothing but drink beer, BBQ and play board games. It is sacred, it is glorious and it is a board gaming super weekend.

This year’s event was overflowing with amazing gaming, so much so that I kick-started this article only an hour after I came home still buzzing from the countless mini experiences of playing classics and new gems alike.

Get ready for the list, because it’s quite meaty, in no particular order.

The Pillars of The Earth by KOSMOS 2006

Designer: Michael Rieneck, Stefan Stadler

The Pillars of the Earth is among the first board games I bought and introduced to my new Swedish friends when I first moved to Sweden. In fact, it’s among the first reviews I did for this blog (The Pillars Of The Earth Review). My first gaming group was a mixture of gamers and non-gamers, it would be a couple of years before our gaming crew really formed, so I needed an easy-to-learn and teach game that non-gamers could get their head around while being interesting and fun for board gamers like me in the group. This one came highly recommended but wasn’t the usual recommendations I had heard for introducing people to gaming like Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride. Nothing against those two, but I always felt like while they are introduction games, they aren’t that interesting for more seasoned gamers.  

The Pillars of The Earth is a very pretty game, with a theme based on a book that gives it a sort of regal and intelligent presence and it was very easy to learn and teach so no one is going to get overwhelmed. It was quite perfect as an introductory game and even to this day when someone comes to me wanting to take their first venture into board gaming, I find it to be a great choice.

This is a really pretty game with a lot of color and thought put into aesthetics, so despite the rather odd theme of being about 12th-century architects building a cathedral, it has a lot of personality.

That however is not why it’s still in my collection years later and why it found its way to our Hassela weekend. Despite its simplicity, this is a very elegant Euro that really stands out and will challenge veteran gamers.

It’s a simple worker placement and resource management game on the surface, which is to say, the standard formula in which players place workers on limited spots, get resources and use those resources to score points.  Nothing too fancy…

The twist is that in addition to managing the resources needed to score points you have money that is used in a pre-round auction of sorts where you draw “worker” tokens out of a bag and if your color comes up you have to pay the current cost of putting your worker on the board or pass your chance to put down a worker until the end of the round. This means that having more money gives you a better chance of getting your workers on the board first, which is a huge advantage, and being broke is equally really, really bad.  It is in this mini-management element of the game a lot of the planning magic happens.

It’s a struggle between doing what you want, doing what you can and doing what you need to do while competing for the best spots on the board and finding victory points wherever you can. It’s a pretty tight game, so every inch you claim counts. Additionally, the method of scoring points is all about having the best craftsmen cards that convert resources into points, but getting those also costs money and there is a very limited supply of craftsmen available in any given game.

The whole thing boils down to a thinky resource management puzzle, not so difficult that you don’t understand what and how to do it, but always challenging to do it well.

The Pillars of the Earth is a stone-cold classic in my opinion, it’s a straight-to-the-point Euro that uses well-established worker placement mechanics but does so in a unique way that even nearly 20 years later it still holds up in veteran gaming groups in addition to being a very serviceable introductory to board games-game.

It’s still in print and available today, this is a real gem and comes highly recommended if you are looking for a good gateway game that carries over to more serious gaming tables.

Root By Leder Games 2018

Designer: Cole Wehrle 

Root has been on my must-play list since its rise in popularity over the last couple of years, I’m certainly a late comer to the experience, but someone brought it so I was excited to finally have go.  Root already has over a dozen expansions, it has been converted to a digital game and clawed its way to the 28th spot on boardgamegeek.com.  Impressive resume for a game about cute woodland creature cartoons fighting in a forest.

Despite its endearing art and theme, Root turned out to be a pretty complex gamer’s game with what I can only describe as extreme dynamics and asymmetry.  Each player in the game takes control of one of four or more available factions (depending on expansions) in what can best be described as a sort of quasi-war mini-series. Each faction not only plays wildly different but has entirely different game mechanics and methods of scoring points.  Some factions don’t even have units on the map, some have entire armies, while others are essentially solo adventurers who wander around the map causing trouble.

It’s a pretty crazy setup, so nutty it’s difficult to fully express but I suppose the best way to describe it is that every player is effectively playing an entirely different game (quite literally).    Each faction has unique rules for the game and while there is a lot of interaction in the game between players, which is great, this extreme asymmetry can be a bit confusing when you are learning to play the game.

It’s probably not a great idea to do what my group did which was play a 5 player game with expansions on our first go (or at least my first go).  That likely complicated the matter unnecessarily.

When we played it took us quite a bit of time to get the game going and even though I found my faction to be quite straightforward (I played a Vagabond, essentially a solo adventurer), I didn’t have a bloody clue how anyone else worked or what the hell they were doing until the late game when it all abruptly ended.  It felt a bit anti-climactic and I was a little disappointed, but I don’t think it illustrated a flaw in the game, just the unexpected reality that despite being about adorable little forest creatures, this game is a fairly robust and serious gamer’s game.  I don’t think describing it as a war game is unfair, though perhaps not 100% accurate for every faction, yet despite its cuteness aesthetically the game was quite brutal.

This game’s adorable theme is in stark contrast to its rather harsh, take that gameplay.

It’s difficult for me to form an opinion on a game this diverse after only one pretty wobbly play.  What I can say is that I was immediately sold on the theme, concept, and mechanics and definitely excited for another go, so the game certainly didn’t turn me off.   For me this was the surprise discovery of the weekend, to be honest despite a kind of lackluster first go, I really liked it quite a bit and I was hoping that we would get a second play during the weekend but we never got to it.

All the buzz on this one is warranted I think, looking forward to taking another crack at it again in the near future.  

Hansa Teutonica by Pegasus Spiele 2020

Designer: Andreas Steding

Originally released in 2009, this is something of an old-school Euro classic with a pretty impressive list of prestigious game awards.  We played the re-printed 2020 big box release which I think is largely unchanged from the original but comes with several expansions packaged together. 

Our game took place on the German map and going into this one I didn’t really know what to expect, I had never even heard of it and at a glance, it looked like a rather boring Euro cube pusher.  I was not terribly excited, my relationship with cube-pushing euro-classics is a bit of a mixed bag.

I swear I have nothing against a good Euro cube pusher, but I find for every 3 or 4 I play, I find one I like and the rest are meh… so I tend to be a bit skeptical.

Fortunately, Hansa Tuetonica turned out to be a delightfully simple, yet very thinky and clever game with tons of player interaction and wonderfully streamlined mechanics.  Everyone at the table took to it right away, there was none of this “now that I know the rules, I will be able to do much better next time” kind of talk after the game, it was crystal clear what you needed to do to win from turn one, the challenge was figuring out how to do it well.

This was a game about building trade routes and controlling buildings by placing down control cubes. The tricky part is that if someone placed a cube into a route you want to control, while you can kick them out, it costs you an extra cube to do so and gives them 2 cube placements elsewhere on the board for free.  So the game is all about players trying to get under each other’s feet to get the free rewards and then use those rewards to outpace each other.  Each player also has their own gameboard and you can upgrade various properties of your little business to improve the sort of actions you can take which opens up various advantages as well as scoring you additional points.

It’s really a victory point race as you might expect from a Euro, but highly interactive and cutthroat and there is a kind of sense of urgency with everything as the board fills up over time and your options start to slim down as the game progresses.  The game had really good tension and unlike so many of these old-school Euro games, you didn’t feel isolated from the other players, quite to the contrary, it all felt very crowded.

Really enjoyed this one a hell of a lot more than I thought I would when it came out of the box, another of a long line of pleasant surprises this weekend.  I think it’s difficult to offer a comparison for this one, I suppose you could say in a way it’s a worker placement game but that would be a real stretch of the term.  I do think like The Pillars Of The Earth, this is a good example of a game that is going to be very newbie friendly while having plenty of steam for the more seasoned gamer.   Really nice find!

Dune Imperium by Dire Wolf (2020)

Designer: Paul Dennen

I never did a full review of Dune Imperium and I probably should have, but it did appear in the number 9 spot of my Top 20 Best Games of All Time list  I did earlier this year so that should tell you a little something about how I feel about this one.


To make it short and sweet, this is hands down among the best games that came out in 2020 and remains one of my favorites to put on the table. It was no surprise to me that this one found its way to the Hassela super weekend rotation, I’m fairly certain most of my crew enjoys this one as well.

We played Dune with the new expansion (Rise of Ix), which has not received particularly high marks and was rumored to be very poor so I was mildly concerned about adding it into the mix.  Boy are those reviews wrong!

Dune Imperium – Rise of Ix was a fantastic expansion that vastly improves the game, in particular in the variety of viable strategies for winning.  Without the expansion, the method of winning is pretty strict, you must get lots of influence with the different factions and you must win a few victory point-based battles, else your chances of winning a game of Dune Imperium are slim to none generally reduced to a lucky intrigue card draw.  

I played a lot of Dune, it’s a fantastic game and I’m always weary of expansions for games I already think are amazing. A game that was nearly perfect already gets better with Rise of Ix, its a must-own for any fan of the game.

With the Rise of Ix the game opens up a great deal proven by my own victory which I achieved without ever winning a single battle.  The combination of interstellar shipping, technologies, new faction cards, dreadnoughts and various micro additions, there are a lot more ways to score points so the game is just a lot less linear.  Perhaps repeated plays might reveal some flaws, but from where I was sitting, the game not only felt even tighter but there are more ways to make a comeback.  Our game ended with 3 players achieving 10 points and the 4th sitting on 9 at the end of the game and the tie-breaker was a technology card I picked up earlier in the game.  One of the most exciting and closes games of Dune Imperium I have played yet.

The expansion does complicate the game ever so slightly but really one play without the expansion should be all the education one needs before adding it in, it’s really not that substantial rules-wise.

If you haven’t played Dune Imperium yet, this is a combination of worker placement and deck builder no serious connoisseur can live without, it’s a must-play game in my opinion, without question among the best games in my collection.

Imperial Struggle by GMT Games (2020)


Designers: Ananda Gupta, Jason Mathews

On the first day of the Hassela, a buddy and I were the first arrivals and we had a chance to play a couple of two-player games, so I did not hesitate to bring what I consider to be THE best two-player game in my collection.

I have hummed the praises of Imperial Struggle in my Review earlier this year, a game that received 4.4 out of 5 stars and landed in the number 3 spot on my Top 20 Best Games of all Time list this year.  

To put it plainly, I adore this game, it’s incredibly challenging, deep and thematic while being reasonably short for a two-player historical board game affair.  It doesn’t hurt that the influence struggle card-driven mechanic is one of my favorite mechanics in board games and I have collected quite a few in that category for comparison and this one remains my favorite among them (List includes Washintgons War, Ceaser: Rome vs. Gaul & Twilight Struggle…. So far).

This can however be a pretty frustrating and unforgiving game, it is not for the faint of heart.  A couple of bad decisions can quickly break your momentum and lead to ruin, in particular if you’re facing a clever opponent who knows how to leverage errors in judgment.  I have played about a dozen games of Imperial Struggle at this point and it really doesn’t get any easier over time either.  This is due in part that the game has a lot of dynamic elements that can really alter what strategies will be effective and these dynamics really push you to constantly think globally.

I could probably write several blog posts about my theories and ideas for strategies which are probably all terrible, but that is really the beauty of a game like this is that you never really stop thinking about it and trying to figure it out.

I would not recommend this as a first venture into the influence struggle card-driven genre unless you are a board game veteran, there are lighter games like Twilight Struggle and Washingtons war that make for much better starting points, but to me this is the final word in the genre, the standard by which all others are to be judged.

Love it!

Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy by Lautapelit (2020)

Designer: Touko Tahkokallio

Eclipse was a smash hit with the entire gaming crew in Hassela and really the highlight of the weekend, we actually ended up playing it twice with everyone nodding in approval.  I picked this game up as this summer I took it upon myself to write an article about 4x science-fiction civilization-building games and Eclipse was a natural contender for such an analysis along with games like Twilight Imperium.

I played the original Eclipse and it triggered two articles I did back in 2015 called Top 5 Games That Were Almost Great and my Top 5 Popular Games You Can Skip.  Suffices to say I saw a lot of potential in the game but it had a few flaws that just made the game pretty stale after repeated plays.  I think at the time I was probably a bit more sensitive about the sales pitch as well which suggested that this was a faster, lighter Twilight Imperium which really is just objectively false advertising.  It was for all intense and purposes a cube-pushing Euro disguised as a Twilight Imperium wanna-be.

I will be the first to admit I may have been a bit elitist and harsh in my assessment of the original Eclipse and while I still don’t think Eclipse is even in the same class as Twilight Imperium as a game, at least with Second Dawn the game delivered on the promise of a proper fully fleshed out 4x science-fiction civilization building game that can be played in a reasonable amount of time.

The game has been streamlined generously, on our second game when everyone knew the rules and we just setup and played, we finished a very tense and very exciting game in a little over 3 hours which is at least half the time it would take to play Twilight Imperium if I’m being generous (probably more like 1/3rd of the time).

More than that though the game just had a rhythm that worked.  Turns were fast, there was always some action on the board each round, the game felt tight and uncertain and you really had to take some gambles in response to other players’ activities.  There is a lot of tension in this game, you can’t sit on your butt and just build-up, you have to act; the game feels, because it is, extremely short.  It was just a really fun and exciting game.

There is a lot more I want to say about this game, but I’m saving that juice for the big 4x article I’m working on, so for now I will just say that all the accolades this game has received over the last couple of years is well deserved, this is a really great 4x formula that delivers on the promise of a shorter yet very robust 4x empire building game. I don’t really remember the old game enough to specifically point out which changes made the difference here, but clearly, the game is a lot more streamlined that is for sure. Loved it, can’t wait to play it more!

Nidavellir by Grrre Games (2020)

Designer: Serge Laget

A curious little game about recruiting dwarves destined to fight a big dragon, though in practice it’s about creating a point-scoring engine driven by a competitive blind auction for point-scoring cards.  I honestly thought I would like it a lot less than I ultimately did as the rules were being explained to me, but the game is very short and quite clever, it was a nice distraction and worked well with 3-players which was our player count at the moment it hit the table.

Very nicely published for a game this simple with great components and pretty art.  I think this would make for a really good family game with kids, this is a concept anyone can pick up instantly and it demands a bit of math which is a good way to sneak in some education for the youngsters.

At a table full of veteran gamers it was quite well received, maybe a bit too robust to be called a filler, as it required some explanation with some of the specialty hero cards, but once you know the game I would be surprised if it took 3-4 players more than 30-45 minutes to play.

I liked it, if you’re looking for a light family game this is a really nice pick.

Star Wars Jabba’s Palace Love Letter & Lovecraft Letter

Designers: (Star Wars): Justin Kemppainen & Todd Michlitsch

Designers: (Lovecraft):  Vincent Dutrait, Kouji Ogata

We played not one but two different themed versions of Love Letter, both of which I found to be fun takes on an established classic.  Love Letter is a sort of take-that player elimination game where you attempt to knock out the players with various card effects to be the last man standing.  It’s a very simple game with a bit of deduction strategy and psychology playing into it.

The Star Wars Love Letter featured two different factions which played off each other a bit and included some special mission cards that created alternative winning conditions.


The Lovecraft one used an insane mechanic that worked similarly to factions (sane and insane) and had some alternative winning conditions to the standard love letter rules.

All and all both of these games were really fun just like the original Love Letter is.  Each had a unique thematic take on the concept, but ultimately these were just additional layers on a game that just works really well.  

I’m not a huge Lovecraft fan and I am a massive Star Wars fan, but if I had to choose between the two-themed versions I actually thought the sanity mechanic in Lovecraft letter worked a bit better.

Love Letter is a really great game and there are so many different themes for it, so you pretty much just pick a theme that speaks to you and buy that version.  There really isn’t much more to say about it, I have always really liked this game and having some fun themes like Star Wars and Lovecraft adds a bit of flavor.

I’ve never met a person that doesn’t like Love Letter, the only real downside to the game is that you really want at least 4 players, it loses a lot of its tension with 2 or 3 players.  No gamers collection is complete without Love Letter in it.

Smartphone Inc by Cosmodrome Games (2018)

Designer: Ivan Lashin

This little sleeper hit I think is one of the most underrated games on boardgamegeek.com, sitting in the 399 spot it’s practically criminal.  This is without question one of the most unique Euro’s I have played in years, it never disappoints.  Actually, I would argue if you are looking to become a board game designer, this is a must-play game because it proves that game designers are still coming up with original ideas despite the tens of thousands of games released each year.

In Smartphone you are running a mobile phone company, producing and selling phones on a global scale.  It’s a simple combination action selection and area control game with an economic twist, but the real brilliance of the game is how you define your actions.  Players have two, two-sided game boards which they must secretly layer over each other to determine what sorts of actions they will take during the execution phase of the game.  The rules here are simple, but this a brain teaser that will have you tearing your hair out and it’s absolutely brilliant.

I adore this game, don’t let the hipster on the cover distract you, this is a polished gem that exemplifies great game design.  It has a fantastic, albeit simple aesthetic which some might find a bit pedestrian but the level of streamlined play here is a real achievement in my opinion.

Don’t miss out on this one, games this original don’t come every day, this is a must-play, it will make you a believer! 

Tsuro by Calliope Games (2005)

Designer: Tom McMurchie

This one made an appearance last year and really my opinion on it has not changed in anyway so for posterity I just copied the same thing I wrote about it last year!

I’m not a huge abstract gamer, looking at my shelf I can count the number of games I have in this genre on one hand minus a few fingers, but every once in a while a game comes along that I find irresistible (I’m looking at you THE DUKE).

Tsuro however was not one of those games and though I really didn’t see anything particularly wrong with it as it was clever, simple and quick, exactly what you want an abstract game to be, it’s not the kind of game that floats my boat. It’s not an issue with the game, but rather just my general gaming preferences, in fact, I would argue that if you like abstract games, this would probably hit the spot just right. From what little I know of the genre, this game seems to have that puzzle element I think abstract gamers are looking for. When we played it I’m not joking when I say the game took about 10 minutes to complete multiple times, it was a very quick game.

Undaunted by Osprey Games (2019)

Designer: Trevor Benjamin & David Thompson

I liked this game quite a bit when I first played it a couple of years ago, but I haven’t seen it hit the table again until now and I have to wonder why not?  This two-player part tactical war game, part deck-building card game is elegant, pretty and fun.  It has great tension, a push-your-luck element, lots of little clever tricks you can pull and alternative strategies you can deploy.  All that wrapped up in a game that can’t possibly take more than 30 minutes a match to play once you know the rules.

There are different scenarios for the game and arguably some are a bit more lopsided than others but from what I have seen of the game, there aren’t any obvious flaws.

We played the Normandy variant which is the original game but today there is already an expansion for it (North Africa) and another on the way (Stalingrad).  I doubt that will be the end of it, this one has picked up something of a following and it’s no surprise to me, this is a really fun two-player game that borders on filler speed and simplicity while having a bit of meat on the bones.

I really loved this one, I definitely would like to see it hit the table more often, in fact, this weekend’s experience had me seriously considering adding it to my collection because while the theme is war, it runs like a fun two-player family game, something I can see myself playing with my daughter.

This is good old fashion fun gaming.

The King Is Dead by Osprey Games (2020)

Designer: Benoit Billion

Originally released in 2015, I picked up the 2nd edition of the game and packed it with me for the weekend, I thought it could act as a little filler and distraction as we knew going into the gaming weekend that we would be at 2 and 3-player counts for a part of the weekend and this was a strong recommendation as a 3 player game.  

This one has a bit of a Condottiere vibe which is one of my all-time favorite trick-taking card games, though The King Is Dead leans a bit less on card play mechanics and a bit more on being an area control game.  As a general premise however this is a game of strategic maneuvering, the whole thing is basically a brain-teasing puzzle where you are trying to arrange control cubes to favor your own position with limited card play.

It’s a really quick and straightforward game but like Condottiere it relies a lot on the psychology of the players and trying to predict what people will do while thinking several moves ahead.  It’s very clean and fun, and easy to understand.  I like it quite a bit but Condottiere is in no danger of being replaced in this kind of funny sub-genre of games.

A fun little distraction, not sure it’s a full recommendation because honestly if I was going to recommend a game of this type I think I would argue for Condottiere over this one.

Star Trek Fleet Captains by Wizkids (2011)

Designer: Mike Elliott, Bryan Kinsella, Ethan Pasternack

I’m a huge Trekkie, always have been, always will be so Star Trek Fleet Captains is a game very close to my heart.  I did a review for Star Trek Fleet Captains back in 2015 and I have not changed my mind about this one in the slightest.

This IS Star Trek in a box and very much like War of The Rings or Star Wars Rebellion, this is a game all about the theme which it nails with perfection.  

While the game can be played with 3 or 4 players using the expansions (Romulans & Dominion) both of which I have, ideally this is a 2 player game which is how we played it this weekend.  It’s a game that is part adventure game, part ship-to-ship battles and part sort of a bit of everything else.  You fly around with your little Star Trek ships, you play cards to add crew and equipment onto your ships, you have encounters and eventually, you scrape phasers and shields against your opponent.  It’s all very … Star Trekie.

A big part of the appeal in Star Trek Fleet Captains is that they went to extreme lengths to include the most iconic elements of the tv shows and movies into the game via various mechanics.  Every time you pick up a card, if you’re a Trekkie like me, you immediately connect the card to an episode of Star Trek be it the original or the next generation.  The cards themselves are all still photos from the shows and movies, which normally I would complain about but in this setting that actually works really well.

I’m not sure I would describe the game mechanics as “good”, in fact, arguably they could probably use some work and the components for this game given its price are pretty flimsy, but I know of no other game that embodies the Star Trek experience like Star Trek Fleet Captains.  It’s a nostalgia-fueled trip into one of my favorite tv series of all time and I love that about playing this game.

This one has been out of print for quite a while and the re-sell value on it is a bit extreme likely putting you back 250-300 dollars to get the game and all three expansions.  My recommendation is that you only do it if you are a crazed fan like me, this is nothing to dabble into unless you love Star Trek madly!  If you do, however, this is the single best Star Trek game ever made, hands down!

Conclusion

What can you possibly complain about after a 4 day board gaming weekend with your best buds, limitless beer and top-notch BBQ? It was an amazing weekend filled with awesome gaming, I can’t wait until next year.

That said to me there were a couple of omissions that require a minor complaint.

This year Game of Thrones the board game did not make an appearance and it was sorely missed. Some of my favorite memories of these big board gaming weekends is playing a massive 5 or 6-player Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, we spent the majority of the weekend in a 4 player group and there just was no opportunity to get it to the table. It was really too bad.

I also felt the absence of The Sheriff of Nottingham. This game has appeared in the Hassela super weekend several times and it’s always a hilarious blast. When my friends get this game on the table the ridiculousness of our outrageous humor has no boundaries and I’m usually laughing until my face hurts.

Well that is it for this year super board gaming event, see you next year!