Warband: Against the
Darkness
Designer: Micah
Fuller
Artist: Robert Altbauer, Joe Shawcrosst
Publisher: Dyskami Publishing Company
Year: 2015
Player Count: 2-5
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 60 mins
Mechanics: Area
control, Set Collection, Action Points
While working in the back room of my employment stacking
product from one area to another, I often listen to pod cast on my iphone to
help pass the time. And since I am addicted to the hobby I usually tend to listen to board game pod
cast and regularly listen to the Secret Cabal. It was through the Secret
Cabal's recommendation that I came upon Warband: against the darkness. The game
seemed to have a interesting theme that I have never encountered before and the
Secret Cabal hinted that it had layers of hidden strategy that lead to some
analysis paralysis. So far everything
sounds like it should be a game right up my alley. But do I enjoy this game or
is this another flop from the Cult of the New?
Gameplay
The theme of Warband is one of the most unique themes I have
come across.. As a player you take on the role of an fantasy race that has
joined together with the other races of the lands out of desperation to defeat
the armies of the Darkness. According to the theme, you must work with the
other races to defeat the foul Darkness but only one of the races will be seen
as the true heroes of the Warband and will win all the prestige. In truth, this
is competitive game where you must use your opponents resources and yours to
the best of your ability to claim cards for victory points with some slight
area control. In all, it was the theme that first attracted me to the game and
I am quite fond of the theme. I just wish that the theme could have been better implemented into the game. Truthfully,
nothing of the theme is present in the game as it is a standard euro game where
you try to amass the correct number of cubes on the board in order to claim one
of the three cards on the other side of the game board. There are some other
elements to the game, but this is really the core concept.
The game will last a certain number of rounds depending on
player count and each player will receive an race to play. Each race has a
special ability that generally affect one of the four main actions you can
take. Each player will also receive a small board that has each of the four
actions along with the four levels each action has. Players will begin the game
at level one development for each action and will place a cube on each other
level of all four actions. You will place one cube on the territory side of the
game board in one of the five areas depicted on the map depending on your place
within player turn order. Add three gold to the seven cubes you have remaining
and players are ready to lead the epic Warband of the free races to victory.
Now the main game board is divided into two different sides.
On one side you have a map depicting this fantasy world made out of five separate realms each with the usual
contrived, generic fantasy name. In the center of the map are four spaces for
cards that will represent the platoons of the Darkness's army. Each space is
adjacent to two of the five regions and only three of these spaces will ever
have a enemy card. Now these regions are important since each will award points
for area majority at the end of the game and Intel cards that you receive while
playing the game will also grant points for having cubes in these regions.
The other side of the game board is a representation of the
military structure of this multi-cultural warband. The Warband is made out of
three rows that represent the basic military structure of an army; the bottom
row is the normal units, the middle is the heavy forces, and the top is the
honor guard. There are also three columns among the first two rows: infantry,
cavalry, and archers. During the game you will place your cubes on these space
to represent that you have units of that said type in the warband. Players will
also be able to promote their troops to the next level. For example, a infantry
can move up the column to the heavy infantry which can be moved up the column
to the honor guard. Each until can also move across the row to become a
different unit. So said infantry in before mentioned example can instead become
a basic archer. This side of the board is the most important as you must have
the right amount of units in the right platoons in order to fight against the
Darkness on the other side of the board.
A round in the game is a breeze as you can only do four things
according to player order with one player taking their full turn before another
player can act. First, a player is required to upgrade one of their tracks on
their player board. The board is divided into four row which each corresponds
to one of the four action can take. There are four columns on your player board
so each action have four different levels ranging from novice where you start
and ending at level four which is considered to be elite. At the beginning of
your turn you will take a cube off one of the levels unlocking that level and
add the cube to your army reserves. This represents the experience your race
gains from battle and each level will slightly improve the said action. For
example, with the tax action you can take two gold but if you upgrade to the
second level you can take three gold, than five gold with the next level and
finally eight gold at the max level. Since the longest game with two players
will only be eight round, you will note that you will not be able to unlock
every level on your player board.
After your upgrade you will take three actions which can be
any of the four actions on your player board and you can take the same action
multiple times. The first action is the tax action which will allow you to take
gold from the general supply. The Scout action will let you place your cubes
onto the territory map depending on your level and how much gold you spend.
This is an important action as scouts will protect your from losing units when
you go to battle and will be worth victory points depending on the Intel cards
you get. The Recruit actions allows you to add a certain number of cubes to the
warband or to move cubes on the warband to different platoons. Whoever controls
each platoons will place a meeple in the captain boxes to show that they lead
that particular platoon of the warband. The last action and the most important
action is the battle action which is the primary way to get victory points in
the game and is essential to get points
through other methods as well.
When you take the battle (fight) action you will have to go
through a step by step process to determine if you win the battle. You will
need to look as the three enemy cards on the territory map to see if you have
the required strength to defeat the legion of Darkness. This sound truly
terrifying doesn't' it. Each card will have a number of victory points and the
symbol for a type of unit. The VP number will determine how much of the unit
shown on the card is needed to defeat this particular platoon. You must make
sure that you have the required strength to defeat the combined enemy cards.
Than you have to pay a coin to each captain in the warband except yours in
order to motivate them for battle. If you cannot pay for all the captains than
you cannot take this action
. It is important to note that upgrading this action allows
you to reduce unit requirements and pay less captains when you take the action.
The player will than choose a enemy card to defeat and will send a certain
number of units from their reserve to the medica where they will loss points as
the end of the game if they don't spend the gold cost to recruit them back. The
warband will also suffer casualties depending on what is shown on the chosen
card and there is a list to determine which player loses units form the
warband. If you lose an unit in this way you will get to draw a redress card
which you can play later for some small effect. Note that scouts in one of the
two regions adjacent to the chosen enemy card will provide protections for the
current player.
The player who
initiated the battle will also get to draw two Intel cards and keep one.
These cards will show an region on the
map and will give a point value for scouts that you have in that region and
will be scored at the end of the game. A secondary strategy to get points is to
initiate battles to get these cards and than flock scouts to that region. The
captain of the honor guard will be able to upgrade a unit to the highest
platoon and make a war hero. Players will get points for every war hero they
have at the end of the game. The two remaining enemy cards that were not chosen
will each pillage and get a gold coin placed on them. A new enemy card will be
placed on the board the player will add the defeated enemy card he chose to his
player board where he will score it's VP value at the end o the game. Note that
this is a quick run through of the fight action and is a broad overview so
don't be upset if I missed a few minor details
This is the core concept of the game. On your turn you
perform an upgrade removing a cube from your board and than you will take three
actions. You are trying to manage the warband so you can initiate fights but
not put other players in a position to battle as well. You want to place scouts
on the territory map to protect your units in battle and to control the area so
you will receive points at the end of the game. You also want scouts in areas
matching your cards so you can score additional points. At the end of the game
you will score points for the following:
Point value for enemy cards you defeated in battle
2 points for each war hero you have
1 point for each captain you have in the warband
Convert 3 gold for 1 vp for each scout and war hero you have
Points for each territory depend on area control of scouts
Each intel card will make a scout worth a vp in matching
territory
Lose 2 vp for each unit that remains in the medica
Conclusion
First let me say that the components for the game are
standard for the industry and there is really nothing negative that I can say
for the physical portions of the game. The game list for $49.99 and I would say
that you are not getting anything of value for that price. I would not
recommend anyone to buy this game at full price as you are really not getting all
that much in the box. My main issue with the game component wise would be the
lack of theme on the bits themselves. The enemy cards which are suppose to
represent the forces of Darkness have no artwork on them and are nothing but
numbers with iconography. When you look at the enemy cards you don't really
feel like you are fighting some horrible enemy that was so powerful it force
all the player races to combine strength in order to survive. The artwork for
the races you can play is typical and could be found in any role playing
manual. The map on the board is also bland, more effort could have been put
into the map. The map is basically a board split into five areas with some
basic terrain printed in each realm. The rulebook is well written and is average.
I don't like the size of the rule book as it is the same size of the box and I
much prefer the standard size you usually find in most games. Overall,
components of the game are good but I find the art to be missing some thematic
elements.
But the game play you ask, how is the game play? Well the
game play is where the game falls short for me. Don't get me wrong, the theme
for this game is so interesting and so unique. I only wish that the theme had
been applied to a better game. The theme is lacking as you are really just
positioning cubes on an mini pyramid in order to claim one of three cards on
this tacked on territory map. The game was just missing any really engaging
elements. I had been lead to believe that this game had some really engaging
choices but I'm sorry to say there really isn't that much to this game. It is
quite a shame as this game has potential; it just didn't go deep enough.
I love
the concept of upgrading your race but in the end of the day it doesn't really
lead to much replay or strategy. Your main focus will be on the fight action
which you need to claim cards in order
to get vp and the fight action is needed to get intel cards so your scouts will
be worth more points at end game. But you need to focus on scouts to protect
your troops from battle and you need gold to do all this. You see there really
isn't that much development during game
play as you need everything and nothing will win you the game on it's own.
There are no true paths to victory; it is all one big mess. In all, I found
this to be a boring game that wasn't engaging for me or my group. Warband
doesn’t bring anything new to the table and all it's mechanics can be found in
better games. I'm not saying this is a horrible game and I can see some people
loving it. For me though, this just fell short and I already have too many
games that fit this category of medium pasted on euro games. I just don't
really need another one.
Final Scores:
Theme: 4/5
Components: 3/5
Game play: 2/5
Complexity: 2/5
Overall: 44/100
Sincerely yours,
The Board Game Ripper
