I just bought this game yesterday. I played it many times when I was a lad and loved it - its one of the most entertaining strategy board-games going.

Is anyone else a fan of this game? I suffer from a lack of players though. My family will play it (when the youngsters are older at least), but its best plkayed with seven people.

I was thinking of organising a 'play-by-email' game somehow - where alliances are made and broken via email, and at the end of each week, the players' orders are submitted to a central 'game master' who publishes the results to everyone.

Sound interesting at all?

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Dagster

Hi Alan,

This sounds very interesting! I have read about this game on "the geek" (www.boardgamegeek.com), and I was intrigued. I have read about people bursting into tears and not wanting to speak to each other because of this game! Is it that rough? I suppose it's how you play it.

I would have picked it up, but unfortunately we cannot get it here. I am trying to get some games in that are on my wishlist, but the retailers can't promise me anything.

Is it a big box? I have a colleague going back to Melbourne next week (lucky blighter), and I'm going to try to twist his arm to pop into MindGames on Swanston (I loved Australia - place feels like home to me already and I only spent 3 weeks there) and pick up a few games for me. I don't want to overburden him, you know, but I would like to make the most of the opportunity.

If it's not that big a box, I could add it to my list.

A bit of a ramble here, I know. To sum up then, I am interested but need to know how to play (which I imagine is best done with a copy of the game in your clutches).

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"Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best."

Yeah, my interest was piqued by the discussion on the Christian Gamers Forum. I've been looking for a copy since, but no luck so far, although I'm sure my closest brick-and-mortar shop would order it if I asked real nice.

Jon

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Respectfully,
Jonathan

Do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly

Battle Companies

The game box is about 50cm x 30cm and comes with about a hundred small metal playing pieces. Its a bit bulky, so if you are concerned about loading your friend up, then this will probably be too large.

Its played without dice and there is no luck or chance involved in the game at all. It is ideally suited to seven players, but you can play it with fewer if you wish. Each player writes down their 'orders' for their forces and reveals them at the same time with the results of all movements/attacks being resolved simultaneously.

The board is a map of Europe as at 1900AD and is divided into seven geo-political regions (Britain, France, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Austria/Hungary, and Russia), each with three or more smaller regions. There are also several other neutral land and oceanic regions that are up for grabs.

During the game turn, each person attempts to carry out their orders by moving their forces, one at a time into neighbouring regions. If two or more armies try to occupy the same region, then a conflict occurs. If one of the armies is 'supported' by another army (as written in the player's orders) then it wins the conflict and successfully occupies that region. The occupant of the region must vacate it to a neighbouring (unoccupied) region.

The secret of success with this game is, not how well you can roll a dice, but how well you can forge alliances with other players. A player can support the armies of another player, giving them much needed muscle at a crucial time. There is a period between games where alliances are forged, agreements are made, and bargains are struck.

But its entirely up to each player whether they keep those bargains or not.

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Dagster

Sounds like a great game, a little like Risk in its invasion tactics but I love the idea of forging (and breaking) alliances.
Would we all need copies of the board game or could we get away without it providing we all understand the rules?

sounds like a great idea. My dad has various rules on different games able to play by e-mail. I'll try and ask him to mail me those rules and ways of play. I'll forward them to you asap.

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<a href="http://www.bloodbowl-game.com">Blood Bowl !</a>

I used to play this game a lot for many a year, both face-to-face and by email. It works both ways. We had a rule that if you didn't put a return in then it is classed as nothing happening for that player and you'd get wupped as a result - this guaranteed player participation. We (my gaming chums and I) had adjusted the map and increased the amount of protagonists over the decades and even had one game going where we all played each of the seven nations in seven concurrent games. This led to lots of confusion and hilarity as none of us could keep up with all games at once - we used a referee for this one and doubt we will do it again but it was an experience to say the least.

Even after reading all the game aids out there and playing both against and as England I can never get the hang of winning as England. You either expand too rapidly and get picked off quickly or not fast enough and get stomped as you cannot take territory. I am fine with all the other nations though - especially Turkey.

Even though I have not played it for about ten years now, I'd be up for a game or two with fellow One-Ringers by email. We'd need to sort out which rule set, as mine are just a photocopied and scanned bunch from the game's originators (not AH).