War, war, what’s it’s good for? How about serving as the basis for much of tabletop gaming. Gaming by its very nature is conflict oriented. Even cooperative games have you fighting against the game itself. So it’s not that odd for so many games being themed on the biggest sort of conflict, including standards such as chess (which actually isn’t that great a war simulation due to the lack of randomness). So this time around, we’ll be looking at four games that each focus on a different aspect of war.

Ars Victor

$41.95 for 2 players
Ages 13+
Designed by Stephan DeBaun
Published by Trip West Games

Let’s start with a straightforward wargame. If you’ve ever been to a gaming convention, you may have popped over to the wargaming room to have gawk at the set-ups. Certainly those elaborate terrain pieces and lovingly painted miniatures spread out over 3-4 tables per game look impressive. But it can also be intimidating to a newbie, and the prospect of investing so much time and money can be daunting. Ars Victor allows you to enjoy the wargaming experience at a fraction of the cost.

Unlike a lot of the games covered in this feature, there’s no backstory provided in the rulebook. You either just duke it out without any concern for motivation or come up with your own. As the units have a strong science fiction aesthetic with power armor and hover vehicles, you can use your favorite military SF setting as inspiration like Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers or David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers.

There are two methods of setup. The first is to use one of the scenarios in the back of the rulebook, which provides a predetermined layout of the modular map tiles, unit selection, and starting Glory. The other is to build one from scratch, with players taking turns placing map tiles to create the theater of operation. Both players start with eighty points to purchase a minimum of five units. Unspent points become your starting Glory. A good rule of thumb is to spend 45-55 points on units. Four units are designated as the vanguard with the remainder being your reserve units, one of which is assigned the HQ flag. Vanguard units are paired with Banner tokens of the player’s choice that are used to determine which units may act on a turn before being placed anywhere along the back two rows of that player’s side of the board.

At the start of a player’s turn, a check for Glory Bleed is made. If your HQ unit is on the board and your opponent’s HQ unit is not, your opponent loses one Glory. Your opponent will also lose one Glory for every Capture Point one of your units occupies. You then play a Command card from your hand, which will show a suit matching one of the unit Banner insignia and the number of Command tokens available for the turn. Command tokens may only be used on units with a banner insignia that is the same color as the suit on the card. Assigning one token allows a unit to Advance, which permits full movement but no attacking. Assigning two tokens allows a unit to Assault, which disallows Run movement but does permit the unit to attack any enemy units within range. When assigning orders to a unit that is off-suit to the Command card’s insignia, an extra Command token must be spent. Reserve units may be placed on the board by assigning an Advance to one. Unlike the vanguard units, the banner paired with the new unit must match that of the suit of the Command card unless two tokens were used, which will allow a same color off-suit banner. Unspent tokens do not carry over to the player’s next turn. The turn concludes with the player drawing a new Command card, adding it to the hand.

A unit’s movement is indicated by the colored chevrons on its token. Green chevrons are Walk movement and allow one space of movement per chevron. Gold chevrons are Run movement and allow two space of movement per chevron. Regardless of how much movement a unit has, moving adjacent to an enemy unit or into certain types of terrain automatically ends movement. Blue chevrons are Jump movement and allow two spaces of movement per chevron. Unlike Walk and Run, Jump allows the unit to move directly to the destination space, ignoring any enemy units or terrain effects along the way.

Attacks can be done either up close or at range, though some units are incapable of the latter. Also, when adjacent to an enemy unit, you must direct any attacks against it even if there are other targets within range. The left-hand corners of the unit token indicate how many and what color dice are rolled when making a close or ranged attack (and how far away in the case of the latter). Each skull rolled inflicts a Hit on the target and the appropriate numbered Hit token is placed on the unit’s banner. When a unit accumulates hits equal to or exceeding its hit points, the unit is removed from play and the player’s Glory is reduced by an amount equal to the unit’s cost. Reducing your opponent’s Glory to zero results in victory. Each U-turn arrow rolled is a Push, which requires the unit to move backwards one space for each Push. If the unit can’t move backwards (either because other units are blocking the way or the unit is on the rearmost row), the Push is treated as a Hit. if the attacked unit wasn’t defeated or Pushed, it can counterattack as long as it’s within range.

As well as opposing units, a player must take the terrain into account. Certain terrains can hinder movement and adversely affect a unit’s combat performance. However, units may possess special abilities which can be used to ignore terrain effects. Other special abilities can be used to enhance a unit’s offensive and defensive capabilities. This may sound needlessly complicated to a newbie. However, the game comes with two reference sheets that presents all of this information in a well-organized format that should nullify any confusion.

Castle Panic

$34.95 for 1-6 players
Ages 8+
Designed by Justin De Witt
Published by Fireside Games

Slugging it out in the field isn’t the only method in which combatants engage in hostilities. There’s also the classic siege where the defenders hunker down in a safehold which they hope will withstand the deprivations of the horde without. Castle Panic simulates this experience, as a mob of goblins, orcs, and trolls swarm towards your fortress with malicious intent. Your only hope is to wear them down before your citadel is reduced to so much rubble.

Castle Panic is a cooperative game of the open hand variety, meaning nothing is hidden among the players, thus allowing them to coordinate to their fullest ability. The game board consists of a central area where the castle is located which is surrounded by a series of concentric range rings. Both are divided into six numbered sections down which the monsters travel, with every two sections being part of a colored arc used by player for targeting attacks.

A player’s turn begins by drawing cards until the hand is at its maximum (based on the number of players). The player may then choose to discard and redraw one card, or up to two in a six-player game. The active player then may trade a card with another player to gain the fullest advantage for the turn.

At this point, the player can play any number of usable cards from the hand. The bulk of these are used for exacting damage on the approaching monsters, most of which inflict one point of damage. Many of these cards are restricted to targeting a monster in a specific range ring and/or arc. Once a monster takes its last point of damage, its token is removed from the board. There are also a few cards that provide non-offensive benefits, like repairing and reinforcing walls and hindering a monster’s movement.

Once all the desired cards have been played, all monsters on the board move one space down their section towards the castle. If a monster is in the closest range ring, the wall piece in front of it is removed and the monster takes one damage. If there is no wall in the way, the monster moves into the castle region. If there is a tower in that space, the tower piece is removed, and the monster takes one damage. A monster inside the castle moves one space clockwise, again taking one damage if a tower is present, removing it in the process.

A player’s turn ends by drawing two tokens from the monster bag. The majority are monsters, each of which are placed along the outermost range ring in a space determined by a die roll. A few of these are Boss monsters, which cause an additional effect when placed on the board. Some tokens will cause adverse effects, like granting monsters free movement, force players to discard, and cause additional tokens to be drawn and resolved from the monster bag. Then play passes to the next player, who begins a new turn. The game is won once all monsters have been drawn from the bag and been defeated, with at least one tower standing. The game is lost if all six towers are destroyed.

As with any other tabletop game that has been around for a while, there are quite a few expansions. I particularly recommend getting the Wizard’s Tower, which adds new monsters and spell cards, one of which allows you to reconstruct a destroyed tower (something impossible in the base game). If the fantasy theme doesn’t click with you, there have been other variants released. These include zombie apocalypse, World War II, and Star Trek.

Medieval Academy

Variable prices for 2-5 players
Ages 8+
Designed by Nicolas Poncin
Published by Iello

Of course, recruits aren’t going to be much good without training. I mean, you could just hand them a minimum kit and ship them out to the front. And certainly there have been nations in certain conflicts that did exactly that. But the results have always proved unsatisfactory. Medieval Academy deals with the training of the most romanticized sort of combatant, the knight.

Players represent squires in training for full knighthood who are jockeying for an open position on the Round Table. However, there is more to being a knight than knocking other knights off their horses with a big stick and laying a smackdown on any dragons. They must also exhibit gallantry, scholarly pursuits, charity, and deference to the king. Gameplay will abstract the undertakings in these aspects of knighthood.

The game takes place over six turns, each of which is divided into six phases. At the start of a turn, each player is dealt a hand of five cards. Players then proceed to draft a new hand. This is accomplished by selecting one card and placing it facedown before passing the remaining cards, to the left on odd numbered turns and to the right on even numbered turns. A card is similarly selected and the remainder passed. This is repeated until every player has a new hand of five cards.

Starting with the player who currently possesses the first player marker, players take turns playing cards. Cards have a value ranging from two to five and are color-coded to one of the seven boards, each representing a focus of knightly accomplishment. When a card is played, that player’s marker on the associated board is moved a number of spaces equal to the card value. If movement ends on a space with one or more markers already there, the active player’s marker is placed on the top of the stack. When moving a marker from a stack of three or more, be sure the remaining markers stay in the same order. This continues until all players have played four cards, discarding the last one.

Boards are then scored if they are so designated for the current turn, indicated in the upper lefthand corner of each. The Gallantry board is always scored first. The player with the marker furthest along the Gallantry track moves a marker on any other board forward three spaces. The second-place player moves a marker on any other board forward two spaces. In a four or five player game, the third-place player moves a marker on any other board forward one space. All remaining board eligible for scoring are ranked in a similar manner. Some will award tokens with positive Chivalry points for those furthest along their tracks. Others inflict tokens with negative Chivalry points for those furthest behind on their tracks. If a space has two or more markers stacked on it, the one on top is considered ahead of any below it. Also, if two or more markers are still on a track’s starting space, they are all treated as last place for scoring purposes.

Once scoring is finished, each board is checked to see if it resets. This is indicated on the upper lefthand corner of each. When a board resets, all markers are moved back to the starting point. In a highly recommended alternate rule, only the last place marker moves to the starting point. The next to last marker is placed one space ahead of the starting point, with the others staggered out in a similar fashion. Finally, the first player token is passed to the left and a new turn begins. After scoring is completed for the sixth turn, players count their Chivalry points, with the highest total winning the game. If there’s a tie, it is broken by whoever has the marker that is further along the Gallantry board.

Battle Merchants

Variable prices for 2-4 players
Ages 10+
Designed by Gil Hova
Published by Minion Games

Fantasy literature is replete with epic clashes between Good and Evil, with massive armies having a go at each other. But have you ever thought about how those armies are being supplied? Odds are you haven’t, and it’s even more likely that the author didn’t either. Weapons, armor, ammunition, food, and other such necessities don’t come cheap in such large quantities. Battle Merchants focuses on one of these oft ignored realities of war.

Our setting is a fairly typical fantasy world where the elves, dwarves, orcs, and hobgoblins hate each other’s guts and are always itching to go to battle with one another. To do that, they need weapons. As a Battle Merchant, it’s your job to make sure that all sides are fully equipped and that they pay through the nose in the process. It doesn’t really matter who wins or loses, because all their gold glints just as brightly.

Gameplay consists of a series of player turns that occur over four seasons. On a turn, a player may choose to perform one of four actions. One of three faceup Kingdom cards may be selected, with a replacement being drawn from the Kingdom deck. Kingdom cards come in three types. Immediate have the described effects applied before being discarded. Permanent are kept in front of the possessing player and provide the listed benefit for the rest of the game. End provide a gold payout at the conclusion of the game based on the indicated criteria. Some Kingdom cards require the expenditure of gold to claim, while others reward the claimant with gold when selected. Players are limited to possessing two Permanent/End cards and may not discard old ones to gain new ones, so choose wisely. This limit increases three at the beginning of Summer and four at the beginning of Winter.

A turn can also be used to select one of five faceup Craft cards, which allow you forge the indicated weapon type (Axe, Hammer, Mace, and Sword). Most Craft cards are free, but a few which provide additional benefits require you to spend some gold first. The more Craft cards you have for a weapon type, the greater the quality of those weapons. Also, the first player to accumulate six levels in a specific weapon claims the corresponding Craft Bonus card, which provides access to a special fifth action type.

Forging weapons requires you to have Craft cards for the weapon as well as gold to spend. You need at least one Craft level in a weapon to forge a standard weapon and five to forge a vorpal weapon. The base cost of a standard weapon is five gold and a vorpal weapon is fifteen gold. However, some Craft cards have one or more coin icons, which reduces the cost of forging the corresponding weapon by one for each icon. Up to three weapons may be forged on a single turn if you have enough gold. Once paid for, the appropriate Weapon tiles are collected from the supply.

Before going into how you sell weapons, the layout of the board needs to be explained. The board consists of three or four regions, depending on how many players you have. Every region has a string of six battlefields, each of which consists of a Demand token space and two Weapon tile spaces which respectively correspond to a particular race battling there. At the start of the game, all Demand tokens are on their locked sides except for the ones closest to the center of the board. To sell a weapon, place a Weapon tile in your possession along with a colored cube to distinguish that it’s of your manufacture on a tile space with a matching silhouette that isn’t next to a locked Demand token and collect the gold from the sale. The base sale amount of a standard weapon is six gold and a vorpal weapon is eighteen gold. This is increased by possessing Reward tiles corresponding to the race you sold the weapon to and the region the battlefield is located. For each matching Reward tile, the sale price is increased by one. If you are selling to that race for the first time that season, a reward tile for that race is collected from the edge of the board. If both Weapon tile spaces in a battlefield with a Demand token are filled, the Demand token is moved to a space in the center of the board matching the current season and the next Demand token in line is flipped over to its unlocked side. Only one weapon can be sold per turn.

A player with a Craft Bonus card may forge and sell a weapon of the corresponding type on the same turn. The player must have enough gold to forge the weapon and there must be a legal space to sell the weapon. Each Craft Bonus card can only be used once per season, being flipped facedown to indicate its use.

Once the final Demand token space for the current season is filled, the Season’s End is triggered as the races are ready to clash. Before that, each player except the one who made the sale that prompted the Season’s End gets one more turn, with any Demand tokens that get removed being returned to the box. Then each battlefield with two Weapon tiles assigned are resolved. If one Weapon tile is standard and one is vorpal, the standard weapon is automatically defeated. If both are either standard or vorpal, the weapon levels of the manufacturers are compared. The weapon with the lower level total is defeated. A defeated Weapon tile is collected by the player who had sold the winning weapon and flips it over to its broken side, which will be used for obtaining bonus gold at the end of the game. If there’s a tie, both tiles are removed from the board and returned to the supply, with the players who sold the weapons receiving one gold each.

Once all battles are resolved, players gain two gold for each Weapon tile they sold that is still on the board. The current selection of faceup Kingdom and Craft cards are discarded and new sets are dealt out. If summer just ended, the Spring/Summer deck of Craft cards is returned to the box before dealing out a new set from the Autumn/Winter deck. Any used Craft Bonus cards are flipped faceup and any empty Reward token spaces on the board are restocked. Then play continues as normal starting with the player who triggered the Season’s End.

The end of winter is handled differently from other seasons. After collecting gold from the remaining Weapon tiles on the board, any unsold weapons must be liquidated at a loss of three gold per standard weapon and thirteen gold per vorpal weapon. Gold is then collected from any End Kingdom cards and broken Weapon tiles in a player’s possession. The player with the most gold is the victor.