Designer: Jason
Maxwell
Artist: George Patsouras and Julia Semionova
Publisher: 8th Summit
Year: 2012
Players Count: 1-4
Ages: 13 +
Playing Time: 90
minutes
Mechanics:
Storytelling, Co-Op, Dice pool, Area movement
Agents of Smersh is an interesting title that has sat on my
shelf unplayed for a couple of years now as I completely forgot I owned it. In
fact, I was surprised to rediscover that I actually have a copy signed by the
designer of the game. I blame the Cult of the New which has its slimy tentacles
wrapped around me--I hardly have the time to revisit older games in my
collection. If it wasn't for the interest by one of the members of my gaming
group, I might have passed over this game yet again. Luckily for Smersh, it
happened to catch the eye of my gaming group who kept asking to play it over
and over. Unfortunately, I also seemed to have a group that was simply too
large for the game so we would end up playing something else. Finally, last
week, I only had a four player group so we sat down to play the long-awaited
Agents of Smersh.
Now Agents of Smersh is similar to one of my all-time
favorite games: Tales of the Arabian Nights. Both games are story telling games
that are more like the old Choose Your Own Adventures than an actual
board game. Both games use a large book of encounters as their primary mechanic
and part of the joy of the games is to see what random trouble finds your
character. It is inevitable than that the two games will be compared and most
people will ask how they stack up to one another. I will do my best to compare
and contrast the two games as I give you the Ripper's opinion on Agents of
Smersh.
How It Plays:
Agents of Smersh is a story telling game set in an alternate
history where Smersh, an acronym for a Russian counter intelligence agency, has
gone independent under the leadership of Dr. Lobo and is attempting your
standard evil genius/spy plots to take as much power as possible. Players will
be working together as secret agents for the UN to stop the nefarious plans of
Smersh before it's too late.
Each player will
receive a player board that contains all the stats of their characters, and the
game comes with five different characters all based on old 70's spy
stereotypes. On your board each character has five basic skills that will be
used to form your dice pool when you attempt a test and each character has
skills at different levels. You mark your current level with white cubes and
skills can increase over the course of the game. On the other side of your
player board will be another track which is your Will stat and these points can
be used throughout the game to help manage your dice pool when making test. You
also have some starting information for your character and each character has
some special ability listed that breaks the normal rules of the game. On the
bottom of your player board is the starting location for your character and
this is where you will place your character's cardboard cut out at the
beginning of the game.
The game comes with an standard game board depicting the
world and is similar to pandemic in look as the board is a collection of cities
represented by circles connected to one another by lines that are means of
travel. Most of the cities have smaller circles printed inside the city circle
that shows an air plane depicting that the city has an airport. There is also a
rail line in Russia that the character can travel on as well. There is a
smaller board made of card stock that will be placed next to the game board
that shows Dr. Lobo and a pawn on a track will mark the location of the good
doctor. Each level on the Dr. Lobo track will show a number and type of Intel
that is needed for the players to win. If this track ever reaches the last
space, the players will be defeated as an whole.
There are also another four card stock mats that represent
the Henchman working for Dr. Lobo and each henchman is a cliché found within a
James Bond movie. These mats give background info for the henchman and show the
various test needed to defeat them at three different levels of experience. In
order to win the game, the players will have to defeat these henchman a certain
number of times which is kept track on the Location Track on the bottom of the
main game board. If the players are able to defeat a certain number of henchman
as shown on the track than they will trigger the game end. During the game,
players will be attempting to move to locations that have cardboard markers
known as intel and will add said intel to the Intel pool which is also located
on the bottom of the game board. When a intel token is placed in the pool it is
placed face down and only certain events in the game will allow players to look
at the tokens. When the end game is triggered, the players will reveal all the
intel in the pool and hopefully they will have the correct number and type of
tokens to match Dr. Lobo's current location. If they are missing any number of
the tokens shown, than the players have lost the game. Note that the players
can also win the game automatically if they can defeat all four henchman
meaning they have fought and won a battle against all four henchmen at each of
their three levels. I have yet to see a game end by the second condition but it
is possible in theory.
Agents of Smersh comes with a deck of status cards like
Tales of the Arabian Nights and these status cards represent the various
conditions your character can gain ranging from alien abductions to shoe
phones. Whenever your character is given a status by game play you will take
the corresponding card from the deck which contains all the rules needed for
the newly gain status. There is also a deck of top secret cards that act as
treasures in Arabian Nights, theses cards contain useful items that can help
your spy on his mission to defeat the good doctor. There are also small decks
for each continent on the board and these decks are used to help choose your
adventure within the book of encounters. Another deck of fate cards are also
used to help decide your encounter number and this deck is used to determined
all random elements within the game. Lastly there is a deck of villain cards
which are used at events at the end of a player's turn and have movement values
for the Dr. Lobo track if the players fail an mission.
A player's turn in Agents of Smersh is relatively simple and
is extremely similar in style to Tales of the Arabian Nights. First, a player
will perform a movement phases in which they will choose one of three actions
for their character to take. A player may choose to rest in which they will be
able to remove injuries from their character but will skip the rest of their
turn to do so. Second, a player may
decide to take a movement action which will allow their to move up to the
standard of two spaces on the world map. You can spend resolve at this point to
move an additional space and must stop your motion if you enter an ocean space.
Finally, you may select to travel by airplane in which you may move from a city
you started the turn on to another city with an open airport. This action takes
your entire movement and is limited in the latter game as Dr. Lobo shuts down
an airport nearly every turn.
After movement, a player enter into their encounter phase
where they will see what crazy adventure their characters will embark on this
turn. Encounters are depended on the type of token that is on the space where
the character ends their movement. If there is a green location token than the
player will flip the token to see which henchmen they have discovered and will
attempt to defeat the henchmen according to their level on their game mat. If
there is a yellow Intel token the player will have to make a choice of what to
do with the token. One option is to discard the token and bring out a henchman
location token randomly to the board or they may instead claim the Intel token
adding it face down to the Intel Pool on the main game board. For the former
option, discarding Intel is the only way to bring out the henchmen who you need
to defeat a certain number o time to trigger game end. The latter option
however is crucial to winning the game as you need a certain type and number of
Intel based on Dr. Lobo's track in order to defeat him when the end game is
triggered. The catch is that Intel in the pool is usually always face down so
you never know what you have meaning the more Intel you gain will increase your
chance of victory. After the Intel token is resolved or if there was no token
to begin with, you will draw a card from the deck matching the continent you
are on to start your encounter.
Encounters are the heart of the game in Agents of Smersh and
there are over 1600 encounters to experienced within the book provided. When
having an encounter, a player will first draw a card from the deck matching
their location. This card will provide the first number needed to determine
your encounter and will have a small description of what you will be facing
such as "A Daring Infiltration".
The card will also tell the player which reaction group to choose from
which will give a list of possible reactions a character can respond with to
the encounter. The chosen reaction will give a second number to be used to
determine the encounter. Than the
player will draw a card a Fate card and use the random number (base on whether
there was intel) on the card to determine the final third number. You combine
all three numbers together to give you an encounter and than someone else will
find the encounter in the book and read it to you. Each encounter will have a
paragraph describing the scene and will usually ask you to test one of your
skills.
Skills are tested by rolling a number of dice determined by
the players skill and modified by the challenge in the encounter paragraph.
There is a yellow dice that will always be rolled which has one success on it
making it extremely weak. A player will always roll dice equal to their skill
modified by the encounter, so if you have deception 3 you would need to draw
two more dice from the dice bag. The dice bag in the game always has five
additional dice with each dice being slightly better than the one before it.
After you determine your skill level you will draw dice from the bag until you
have the correct number of dice. A player will than roll their dice and see how
many successes they have. The encounter paragraph will tell you how many
successes a player needs to complete the encounter. If successful, a player
will receive a skill bonus or some other type of reward such as a Status card.
If you fail an encounter you will receive a negative effect as well as having
to draw a villain card and adding it to Dr. Lobo's board which will move his
marker making it more difficult to win the game.
After an encounter, a player will draw a villain card
ignoring the Dr. Lobo advancement side and apply the other side which will
place Intel on the board. Airports will also be closed at this point based on
the card and will remain closed for the rest of the game limiting how fast
players can move in the latter portions of the game. I should also note that
there are advanced skills that players can earn which are just keywords that
you will automatically succeed at encounters which have them listed in their
descriptions. Players will keep taking turns until either Dr. Lobo reaches the
last space on his track which spells defeat or until enough henchmen have been
defeated to trigger game end which will than be depended on the Intel gathered
to determine if the players have won. Note that I have given a basic overview
of the game and have not mentioned every single rule that might come into play.
Sub Ratings
Theme: 3/3
Agents of Smersh is all about theme and everything in the
box leaks with theme. This is primary a storytelling game so it is extremely
hard to not feel the theme as the player next to you reads an encounter
where you are trying to infiltrate an
underground base to stop the plans of the nefarious Dr. Lobo. The status cards
are filled with iconic spy gear from Hollywood and it feels awesome to have a
gadget such as the shoe phone. Overall, you do feel like you are playing the
role of a spy as you rush around the world investigating Intel and trying to
discover the location of the doctor's henchmen so you can defeat them and spoil
their dastardly plans. For theme, there
is really noting missing from this game.
Components: 2/3
The game components are nice, nothing extraordinary. The
board is of good quality and all of the card board pieces in the board are of
nice, standard card stock. The encounters book is impressive and on the same
scale as the book found in Tales of Arabian Nights. The cards above average
with an nice finished on them you get a lot of cards within the game. You get a
nice amount of junk for what you are paying although I wish he mats for Dr.
Lobo and his henchmen have been a little heavier in the cardstock. Overall, the
game has standard components for the industry and you are getting your moneys
worth.
Game play; 2/3
Imagine if you took Tales of Arabian Nights and added a
little bit more game into the box. This is essentially what Agents of Smersh is
which adds a little bit more game elements to the story telling system. You
have all the basics that can be found in Arabian Nights only add a end game
system which you decide when you trigger as well as a race against the game
represented by the Dr. Lobo track. The fact that you could still lose if you
don't have the right Intel at games end is an interesting notion that some may
not like as you are really relying on blind luck to win the game. Since Intel
is rarely flipped during the game, you never really know if you have what you
need to defeat the good doctor. So when you decide to defeat the last henchmen
needed to end the game, you might be taking a gamble hoping you have the right
tokens. This didn't really bother me but I can see how some people may not like
this element. The skill system with the dice bag is really the best thing about
the game play. I love this system of skill resolution and wish more games used
this mechanic. It is extremely fun and tense to pull the dice out of the bag
and hoping you roll the right amount of success. You will feel true panic if
you happen to draw what you know are worse success ratio dice out of the bag
for a huge challenge. I should also note here that is possible for your character
to die if you fail certain encounters during the game.
Complexity: 1/3
There really is no complexity in the game as you are moving
from one location to the next reading a passage from the book every turn. The
only complexity would be for players who have never played a story telling game
like this one. It really is a stream line system of Tales of Arabian Nights
with a easier to grasp encounter system. It should only take a couple of turns
before players have the rules down.
Fun Factor: 2/3
This is where I have a hard time rating this game as it is a
blast to play. However that may just be because I love this style of story
telling games. Now, the theme does nothing for me really as I am not that big a
fan of the secret agent genre. I actually enjoy the Arabian Night theme more
than I do this one. I think this is a fun game and would say it is as much fun
as any other game in my collection. For some members of my group this would be
a 3/3 as they love the theme. If you don't mind telling stories instead of
serious gaming, then you will have fun with this game. If you don't mind a lot
of chance in your game, then you will have fun with this game. If you find
yourself roleplaying in all the board games you play, you'll have fun with this
game.
Final Score
Agents of Smersh is a fine game to add to anyone's
collection, although there is something that makes it just not as good as Tales
of Arabian Nights. Since Tales of Arabian Nights is the more famous of these
two games, it is inevitable that the two would be in direct comparison. For me
Tales of Arabian Nights is the better game. I for one love the theme more than
Smersh and feel more excited to be traveling in the Arabian legends of old than
hunting a evil doctor's henchmen. Agents of Smersh is more stream line that
Arabian Nights and it adds a bit more game to the box. While this is fine, I
enjoy the more free form nature of Arabian Nights and I rarely like stream
lined mechanics. For me, Agents of Smersh falls short of over throwing Arabian
Nights but it is different enough that both can be in my collection.
I really do enjoy Agents of Smersh, and it is hard not to
like a game of this nature. I love storytelling games for one, so this game is
one that will stay in my collection just because of what it is. While it does
have more game elements, it still promotes story over game play; don't expect
to find much strategy inside the box. You play a game like this for the
experience, not for the win. If you don't mind this, then the blind luck in some
of the mechanics shouldn't bother you and just remember you are playing to have
an experience. The game is a blast and the theme does come through in an
spectacular way. The characters you can play are all different from one another
and as the game goes on you do develop in different ways depending on the
encounters you have. The only complaint I have is that the game length can be
dragged on by a player who doesn't want to end the game. If someone doesn’t
want to end the game and refuses to go after henchmen than the game will drag
on as they become a hindrance to game play rather than a team mate. This is the
only thing that really irritates me.
Agents of Smersh is a great storytelling game and it has its
place in the collection of anyone who likes this style of game play. If you
want to spend the evening having a memorable experience than I cannot recommend
this game enough. The skill system used is one of the most unique I have seen
and more games should use this system to resolve challenges. The components are
standards and you get your money's worth in the box. Overall this is a really
good game and will be staying the Ripper's collection.
Overall:
5/7
Good. A game that I
enjoy playing although there are some things that I have a problem with such as
length or just a mechanic in general. I will probably play this game when it is
suggested although there is a chance that I might veto the game for something
else. This is a game that I will add to my collection but it could leave with
the passing of some time.
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