This a sweet easy to play and learn little game. Not too hard to learn but complex enough to keep your interest. I played last Christmas with my 3 nephews and we had a blast. Hostilities and alliances flowed as easy as the beer we guzzled as the intensity increased. Hour, upon hour, upon hour.....passed til finally Will pushed through at all odds and won the game. We all rejoiced in his victory because the game finally ended. Not because we were bored with the game but because non of us wanted to walk away and continue play the next day. We were totally committed to see how it would end not matter how late the hour. A game well worth your money.
To me, it doesn't sound like the 'melee' phase is necessarily unrealistic. You could interpret it as rolling to see whether (for example) the archers managed to stay at long range, or whether the infantry managed to get close to them.
They should have added leaders/heroes like St. Joan of Arc, King Richard the Lion Hearted etc... But any body can add miniatures to the game. I'll add rolling 3 dice at the start of each players turn. If they roll 3 - sixes then it means a plague struck the Empire-Kingdom and that player can't move/attack or recruit that turn. That makes it more realistic - plague weakened Byzantine Empire.
Excellent review, really enjoyed your point of view. My son and I will likely pick this up as he is a Risk fan. I'm hoping the rules are more streamlined than old Risk and don't drag to 3 hours.
@@piotrpan7862 it's by far our favorite version of Risk. The only real problem is if a player is winning it's kind of easy for the rest to go after them and stretch the game out too long. Of course that could happen in many games like this. The only other downside is it's only good with 4 players we find.
Wow, I thought it was just going to be a reworking of Castle Risk. I am glad I am wrong. It looks like a Gamemaster Series game with some Euro play mechanics.
Have not tried this edition of Risk yet, I wish places like Walmart would carry at least 4-5 different editions of the game on the shelf, but oh well!! I made my own version, took a few things from axis allies and added them to Risk and it seems to work alright
I agree with Falkdr. This reminds me a great deal of Warlords of Europe which is similar to Shogun/Samurai Swords/Ikusa.I just purchased this and I am trying it out. So far it seems very nice.Thank you for the excellent review
@marcowargamer, how do you find it in comparison to Qartermaster General - which one is more fun and suitable for 10 years old who is interested in history and conflicts but has yet to play a real strategy game?
could you do a game play video, none exist so far and I would like to see this play out. I play axis and allies but hard to find time or ppl to play with. looking for something easy to jump into that's not boring or too over the top for casual groups
Even IF the game is pretty BLAH!... the playing mini's and the map might be worth the money. In the past, I've found the RiSK mini's to fit into alignment with other boards and they lend perfectly to new game design, when you need units. I love the different colors as well. I have collected "Samurai Swords" and have around four sets of mini's which are quite versatile. The maps are good as well. See... even if the game fails to stimulate... you just create something else t hat does.
Question about 2-3 player Mercenary Variant game. 1.) After you win a territory with a mercenary units, do you keep them? 2.) If you do keep them than do you occupy that conquered territory with both your units plus the mercenary units 3.) If you don't keep them, then where do you return them to?
What happens if you're left with siege vs horsemen. How is the battle out come ? Rule book has no info on how the war gets played out. I pay 10gold coins for siege machine and a footman worth 1 silver, kills it. Game is not balance someone explain to me
Yup, it sucks to lose those pieces but that's what the rules say, all pieces count as single units when having to lose them (all are equal in that way).
Yahya Al Talby ...Watch the hasboro official instructional video on youtube...from what I understood in that video, the seige units are specifically to break through the castles...in that case you roll as defense to keep your castle...if you have a castle in a kingdom, you don't need any other units protecting the castle unless your opponent attacks your base (that has a castle) with his, or her seige unit.....if they do not have a seige unit then your caslte is safe
Yahya Al Talby ...to answer your question, based on what I typed earlier, I don't think seige units can battle any of the other 3 types of units...they are specifically to go up against an opponents castle...makes sense?
The game is balanced. More expensive equipment should be properly supported by infantry. The player taking casualties chooses which units are knocked off, so you shouldn't lose any siege equipment until after all your infantry, archers, and cavalry have been eliminated
Warlords of Europe lite. Thats the vibe I got. But Warlords was too expensive and took way too long. And it was a little swingy. Fun game, though. Im hoping this gives me a similar experience. And I was done buying games for awhile. Then Marco shows mew this. Bah.
You can but you have to leave units in the disputed territory equal to the amount of units the attacker has in that disputed territory so basically, no, you can't retreat.
Mark Ortego more accurately, the defender may use an expand order to pull troops out of a contested territory, but only if they leave at least an equal number of units of the attacking force. Attackers may never retreat.
Mark Ortego page 10 has the rule about a defender using an expand order to exit a disputed territory while leaving an equal number of units to the attacking force. Page 15 states that players cannot retreat from a battle for any reason.
