Where better to play-test a new Discworld board game, but in the very traditional Ivy tavern in Newtownards, Co Down. (Thanks Marty)
Designers Boyd and Brashaw invited three non-Pratchett fans for this latest session. New to the board gaming world was Draven, and what an interesting night it proved to be for him! The other two, let’s call them Bill & Ted are fairly experienced gamers, and very competitive, having both played the game before, and both with one win under their belts, they were more than ready to prove a point.
As play commenced it was immediately obvious that several players had already decided on different strategies. Each player begins the game with 2 free volunteer cards, and Brashaw (who had been dealt a volunteer carrying the mark of the Brethren) immediately attempted to plant a saboteur. Draven headed straight for a Man & Beast tile and with an easy charm roll successfully recruited an additional volunteer. Bill & Ted did likewise, and Boyd headed straight for the nearest temple to purchase a spell scroll (sneakily passing through his Guild House on the way and collecting a few extra Morpokian Dollars).
Over the next few rounds Brashaw continued trying to get a saboteur on the board and, having recruited two more volunteers carrying the mark of the brethren, then tried to summon a dragon to the Assassins quadrant. Luckily for the others his dice rolls let him down.
Basic Tactics of accumulating money and volunteers were applied by Bill & Ted, with Draven and maestro Boyd visiting Temples & Merchants to buy more Odds & Sods cards (items to equip their volunteers) and Curses & Cures cards (spell scrolls) to increase their magical abilities.
Brashaw eventually succeed in planting a saboteur and on the next round finally summoned the dragon. Unfortunately for him the other players were able to send some pretty tough volunteers to face it and it was quickly defeated. Wasted Brethren volunteer for him, ha.
Several players headed towards the spell tiles to try to return the first of the Great Spells. This resulted in a flurry of attempted sabotages and failed magical attacks. Despite this, most players managed to get at least some of their selected spell runners back to the Unseen University and we were all soon sitting with one Spell successfully returned.
Play continued with every one recruiting frantically to replace the volunteers discarded after their spell runs. The advantage swung to Draven as he quietly, cleverly, got to grips with the gameplay and within three rounds he was announcing his second spell run. Boyd successfully cast a scroll which wound mean that Draven would be at minus 2 to any rolls made during the spell run. Even with this handicap he succeeded in getting his spell runners to the Unseen University and managed to complete the second of the wizard’s challenges to return his second spell.
On the next round a second dragon was summoned, this time it was at the call of the Grand Master (Fate card). This time it was much more effective. The volunteers sent to face it failed in their attack and the dragon, having gleefully toasted a few backsides in its counter attack, remained in play, temporarily closing down one quadrant of the city. This annoyed Bill greatly, as two of the Great spells he needed were located in that part of Ankh-Morpork.
As skill levels and spell collections grew, magic was employed more and more as a way of stopping opponents. For a while everything Bill tried resulted in failure but his luck/skill finally changed and he was soon back in the game.
At one point Ted seemed to be streaking ahead and was aiming for his fourth spell while the rest of us struggled to get our third one past the secret saboteurs and through the third wizards challenge. However a few ‘sudden’ meetings with the luggage, an unfortunate case of the Pox, and the resulting trips to the nearest hospital each time slowed him down enough for the others to catch up. This amused Boyd greatly, but his laughter was short lived as in the very next round, on the turn of a fate card, he came across a small, rather worried looking swamp dragon which promptly exploded… The resulting coating of dragon bits meant he had to either return to his Guild House for a quick clean-up or suffer a penalty on all future charm rolls (vital when attempting to recruit volunteers). After much mumbling and several expletives Boyd went for the first option and headed off to his Guild House.
The race for the final spell was very close, with 4 of the five players in with a chance.
The one exception was Boyd, who was now lagging behind and in a “whose bloody game is it any-way” kind on mood, decided to forget about getting his own spells back and just concentrate on foiling the attempts of the others – he’s not really a bad loser, he just likes to make things interesting for his play-testers.
At this stage in the game there were two saboteurs secretly planted on the board, and most players had amassed a varied arsenal of items and magic scrolls.
However Draven’s careful non-involvement with others repeated pleas to help fight yet another dragon, (this one blocking Ted’s path to his last Great Spell) paid off, and Draven was soon heading towards the final spell tile.
Ted, in a last ditch attempt decided to face the dragon alone and sent all his best volunteers. They failed on their fist attempt, but most were able to withstand the dragons counter attack. On the second try (with the help of a few hastily sent reinforcements) the volunteers were successful and the dragon was driven off. Unfortunately the time this took allowed Draven to pick up the last spell and head back towards the Unseen University.
Several attempts were made to stop him but he made it through unscathed and successfully completed the final challenge to win the game.
Afterwards Draven commented:
“A game with plenty of excitement and a seemingly endless supply of wonderful characters from Terry Pratchett’s books that will enthral and entertain you and a group of friends for an evening and leave you itching to return for another challenge. A simple concept to grasp. There’s definitely an edge of the unexpected about it, but it is filled with tactical opportunities for a player to hinder his opponents and gain a sneaky advantage.”
You don’t need to be a fan of Terry Pratchett to become a fan of this board game. It’s full of twists and turns that may lead you, like me, to be victorious! – Ha, Ted.”
Summary
The game played well. Like always, when introducing a new player, it takes a while for them to get into it, but much less that some other popular board games we have recently played.
Saboteurs, Magic, Items, calling the Dragons and the Pox were all used; however no-one used their Guild Ability to much effect on this occasion (being kind to Draven, I guess). Interaction was plentiful, especially once the game developed and loyalties moved around.
Game time was around 2 hours, 45 minutes, but with the time-outs for Draven learning the game, the rule updates that were new to Bill & Ted, and Bill’s ‘super slow-mo’ approach to making decisions, this was understandable. (a 4 player game would normally take around 2 hours).
Time passed quickly and all agreed it was very enjoyable.
The evening ended with Draven smiling quietly as Bill and Ted repeatedly mentioned ‘beginner’s luck’ and urged Boyd and Brashaw to organise a rematch – soon!
Guards! Guards! hits store shelves from Z-Man Games this summer!
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Look forward to it, myself and my household are HUGE Pratchett fans.
We know your dad is really looking forward to GG, that’s for sure!