Ares Games This War of Mine: The Board Game

i've seen a lot of feedback on this game, and it sounded like a mixed bag, so I decided to give this a shot and see what it was like for myself. After one playthrough we were HOOKED! This game offers something that NO OTHER game around does! Can it be challenging...YES! Does it present a story...YES!! Does it present deep dilemnas...YES!!! Will this game challenge your morals/ethics...ABSOLUTELY!! Does this all add up to a fun experience...YOU BET...BUT I can honestly say its not going to be a 'sit around the table and laugh' type of good time. TWoM is a fun game because of the challenges it presents, and the decision making you have to go through in order to make it to the end. You WILL lose more than you win, and you will most certainly ask yourself...'am i doing the right thing?' and this is what makes you come back for more! Many have said this game is a downer because of the story it tells...an attempt to survive in a wartorn city under siege...presenting the characters with very harsh circumstances and choices...do you keep your little bit of food and let the starving elderly person go without, or do you give up your food and then face the risk of starving yourself? There are no right or wrong choices in this game...just consequences for every choice you make. This is something other games don't often sucede at...conveying that everything in life is a matter of choices...and with those choices come results...for better or worse. And in this game the decisions you make will completely MAKE or BREAK your end results. So with all that said...in the end this is still a game...meant to present you with a challenge and make you think...not spoil your evening...not to be depressing. At the end of the day you can pack it up and put it away and reflect on the experience...'boy, maybe i should have pushed my luck searching for water' or 'should we have sent two people out scavenging so we could bring more stuff back...jeesh, but then EVERYONE is exhaused becuase nobody got any sleep'. Its a game set in a war...no different than any other war game you've played...but now your 'dudes on a map' are more realistic people...you tend to care about a bit more than the plastic dudes you push around the map in RISK/KEMET/CYCLADES etc... The overall result isn't that different...your dudes may perish in the conflict to achieve a goal. The big difference is that in TWoM your select crew of survivors seem more important...you want to see ALL of them survive...nobody is going to be the sacricial lamb so to speak. I find that fun...fun in a deeper way...I want to win, but winning isn't necessarily the ultimate goal here...you're building a story with your characters. I'll end this review with the story of my three survivors...Pavil (the former soccer pro), Katia (the former journalist), and Marin (the former garage worker). We only lasted three full turns...this is their story: For the first two days of our survival we worked hard clearing out the rubble in the building...searching for food, water and items we could use to make a rain collector. It was a rough first couple days, but we made it...Marin even got to have his morning coffee those first couple of days. And we got super lucky when Pavil ran into a thug and managed wrestle his assault rifle away from him...life was looking bright! But things got tougher after day two....the food dwindled and the water was not clean enough to drink. We needed a filter to finish off the rain collector. So we sent out Pavil and Katia to find some water in nearby buildings. It went well...they came back with a nice butcher knife to help us defend with, and they traded some sugar and herbs for some other usefull items. We made it to day 4, and decided that Marin needed to head out with Katia that night so that Pavil could do the guard duty with the assault rifle he had claimed for himself. They headed to a distant apartment complex to see what they could get. Katia had been complaining about how hard things were, and she had been secretyl writing a lot in her journal the last day or so...we really should have seen what was about to happen coming. They got into the building and while rummaging around came across some other survivors in worse shape than us. They begged for food but we didn't have any to trade or donate on our persons. This hit Katia hard...she seemed to withdraw even more...not speaking at all to Marin. But Marin searched some other rooms in the building to take his mind off the other survivors...maybe he could find something to give them. But he wasn't carefull enough and knocked over a candle...catching the curtains on fire...the old building went up in flames quickly...he was trapped...he couldn't get out! Pavil was still back at home..guarding for intruders...and the hours slipped by quickly while he waited for the others to return. Minutes turned to hours, hours into morning....no sign. Pavil looked around the house for any other items he could use... in the Katia's napsack he found her journal...she had been writing about how she just wanted to get away from all of this...no matter the risk. He pieced things together as best he could....she must have found an opportunity to slip away to a safer place through the darkness...maybe even taking Marin with her...he never did find out that Marin had actually perished in the house fire. Now it was up to him to find others to help him make it.... In hindsight...maybe we shouldn't have pushed our luck to find more goods in that apartment building...choices have consequences...This game is truly an experience worth taking!

I absolutely love this game! It is not for everyone, but it a perfect co-op game for 2 people who are comfortable making decisions together. I suspect this game does not play very well in a group. There is an absolutely beautiful review by a survivor of the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war on Board Game Geek that compares stages of the game to what he actually went through. The game is dark, it is story driven, and it is an absolute masterpiece. There is replay-ability and the story changes. There is also the ability to 'save' the game so you can pick up where you left off and keep trying to advance further, hoping to survive. The actually game contents are of very high quality, especially for the price ($50 when I purchased). Just a note on the complexity, there are some tools on Board Games Geek (a rules summery pdf and an app) that help a bit for those not used to this style of gaming. As a gamer who plays modern board games (Pandemic, Scythe, Eldritch Horror, etc), I personally would not call this particularly complex or complicated. We did one 45 minute run through to get the basic rules down. We then started over and played through the first chapter with only a few times where we needed to refer to the rules again. To me complex has to do with number of rules - constantly referencing the rule book. There is very difficult decision making, but for me, that is depth, not complexity. Everyone of course has a different perspective on this but to me games like Eldritch Horror are far more complicated. I bought the retail version of the game, and I'm really, really hoping to pick up the expansions offered in Kickstarter, plus the expansion that is being released later this year. But even without those, I will get far more than my money's worth out of playing this!

TLDR: Great if you’re looking for a challenge, bad if you’re looking for something quick and easy. Good quality pieces and game mechanics, thoughtful design. This is probably the most complicated game have ever played BUT this isn’t a downside for me. There is a 12 page booklet that is a walkthrough of one full phase/day. I had to make a cheat sheet. That being said I love this game so much. The replayability is super high because of all the potential scenarios. I love that it can be played one player as well as co-op(the instructions include when to switch players). It comes with a paper pad with a layout so you can save the game and come back to it. Once you get the hang of the phases it starts to move pretty quickly. I couldn’t tell you how long play through is because I still haven’t finished the game…

The punch out components are thick and of good quality, the board is beautiful, but... the minis are really disappointing. It's clear that these are not the same miniatures from the kickstarter edition. The bases are thin and will eventually warp with use or paint and the features, especially the facial features, of the characters are not as detailed as they are claiming. The ones pictured in the details above are not for this version of the game. Mine came with plain thin bases and for an example of the detail, the faces of characters with beards and/or glasses aren't melted properly. It's almost impossible to tell that they are there because they seem to melt into each other. It's weird and disappointing as I LOVE painting my games. I want to paint this, but I'm almost afraid to with the lack of detail. Otherwise, this is an intense game in more ways than one. The stories are deep and dark and you really feel for these people. There are also a TON of components to keep track of, but it really is worth the time to play. If you're looking for something different and story driven this is definitely something you should try.

Overview— A grueling take on average people trying to survive as a horrific civil war ravages the land (and people) around them. 1-6 players Cooperative Length/Win Condition- This game runs LONG. Don’t expect to fully finish a game in one sitting as it will usually take an entire day if you are doing well. Much shorter if you run into some bad luck. It says it takes around 2 hours for a game but I feel that is being super generous. Every game I played I ended up saving my progress and continuing the next day, more on this later. To win……ohhh to win, if only. This game is tough and that is putting it lightly. You have to survive all the chapters and each chapter is comprised of a number of event cards. Each event card is comprised of a single “day” in the game time from which you must survive. Not only that but just surviving through all the chapters isn’t enough if you hope to get the best ending for the characters, I’m not going to spoil anything but suffice it to say it is HARD. There are a bookoo of characters to choose from as well (over 10) and they each have an interesting back story as well as story arcs throughout the game. Components – This game comes chock full of components. Only 4 dice that are used for battle and rolling to see what extra supplies you might find when out scavenging. TONS of cards. The board comes labeled to show where specific draw piles of cards are placed which is awesome. Makes setting up so much more simple. On top of that there are little cardboard tokens showing food, weapons, parts, status effects, medicines and so on. There are also little plastic pieces that represent wood and gears and little blue plastic marble looking doohickies that represent water. There are also minis! You get a mini for each different playable character in the game and they are actually pretty detailed. All the components are of a higher quality and are sturdy enough. The one downside to the components in the game are the 2 plastic ziplock bags it comes with. As I mentioned earlier the game has a “save” feature to allow you to stop playing and pick up again later on. To do this you must place most of your cards and components you have collected into the included plastic ziplock bag. Now these bags are cheap. Just your basic plastic bag you would get at a grocery story. For a game that you will for sure be saving as often as you play you would think they would have included a more premium baggie to save your stuff. Box/Storage – The box is your pretty typical affair but it does come included with an insert to hold everything securely even when stored on its side. It also doubles as a holder for the hundreds of components when you are playing so you don’t worry about having to sort through everything and can just reach into the appropriate spot to grab what you need. Visual Appeal – The artwork looks good on the cards. They basically took the computer generated art from the videogame this is based on and printed it on the cards from what I can tell. The art on the board looks the same showing the insides of the house. Once the game is setup it is rather eye catching what with all the different card draw piles all over the board. Rulebook – The rulebook is…..different than what you are used to. The game is setup in such a way to teach you the game without actually telling you the rules, if that makes sense. Basically you follow along each section of a full day in a journal and it explains what you need to do during that day very vaguely. There are certain spots in this journal that shows you a number which leads you to the other book of stories (which is basically this really thick choose your own adventure style book). In that book there are “advanced rules” that are the actual rules of the game BUT you can’t just go through this book and read those. Oh no, it would take forever to find all those advanced rules that are split up amongst the other stories. So you have to, over time, discover those things as you play. So needless to say starting out playing this is kinda complex if you are used to learning via a rulebook. You will probably always keep the journal close at hand to make sure you don’t miss anything because just the slightest misstep in this game can spell disaster. Table Presence/Game Board – I talked about the game board a bit earlier with all the draw piles all over it. But basically you have draw pile spots for everything from things you can build in your shelter to locations you can visit to the loot piles you will scavenge from. There are also cards laid out over specific rooms in your house that you must clear out to find what loot they hold like rubble piles and furniture. The board is double sided with one side meant to be played by more advanced players and the house setup is a bit different. It alters the rules a tad on a few things so once you learn the basic gameplay then flipping the board and playing on that side would create a different experience which adds to the replayabilty of the game. The board is a pretty good size so it will take up a good amount of table space as well so be prepared for that. Table Talk/Fun Factor – I had a ton of fun playing this…by myself. Playing more than 1 player I….just don’t seeing this game working, however with the way it’s meant to be played multiplayer I could see it creating a decent amount of table talk, at least I can see how the developer would want it to. The choices you need to make in the game are at the very essence of survival and will more than likely impact you on a deeper level than you are used to when playing a board game. You will make terrible choices, choices that are meant to challenge you on what exactly you would do to survive. This game is an eye opener no doubt about it. Optimal Player Count – Solo far and away solo. The way the game is setup to be played multiplayer just sounds very boring to me. You are meant to use the journal to take care of things throughout the day but have to pass the journal around so that player can make that decision, after some table talk to discuss said decision that is. The problem is that this is all stuff that can easily be done by one person and it almost feels like the multiplayer aspect was tacked on. You would think that each player would get to control their own person/mini but nope, everyone controls them all. It’s just a weird co-op setup. All that said I can say this is one of my favorite solo board games, In my top 2 easily. Final Thoughts – As far as a solo experience goes this one is hard to beat so if that is how you like to play boardgames I highly recommend this one. Setup time is about par for the course with advanced board games however with the insert it shouldn’t take THAT long. A lot of the chance in the game has been removed in favor of just making better decisions such as what to build and what resources to conserve, however there are still dice to be rolled and cards to be drawn so there’s that. TONS and TONS of story elements in this game to discover so no two games are alike in that aspect. All in all for a solo story driven experience I give this game top marks.

I have been eyeing for this game for quite some time. Sadly, it is not in stock in my home country of Malaysia. But now that Amazon can deliver worldwide, I decided to take it. The game came in good condition with no issues. The game is phenomenal. Having played the actual computer game of the same name you will instantly understand the game mechanics and rules. It is a narrative driven game and the fact that no one player controls the entire game gives an interesting collaborative experience. It gets you thinking about life and gives you and your friends countless hours of fun, emotion and stories to talk about if you let the game play out. Don't skip the frustration it induces it is all part of the sad reality of an imperfect world with imperfect people. Enjoy!!!

This game is dark, unsettling, and quite excellent. I have never won, and more often lost quite quickly, but it is one of my very favorite games. The losses were not like some other games where it just maddening, or felt railroaded - when you lose this game, you are almost relieved it's over, and it's usually very clear where you messed up. The "rules" are not like other games, you discover the rules and game as you go. Most questions will be answered either in the book, or on the cards (a thing that threw me a few times when I first played, just keep going, things will become more clear as you play). The game tries to make your experience as close to the story as possible, including psychological kicks like writing your name, and having you feel personally involved in the scenario. Apparently you have to go well outside of your own moral code to win this game. I have well over a hundred games, and this game is quite unlike the rest - yes some mechanics are familiar, but....

Game takes longer time as you need to browse the reference in most moves, and shuffle decks every so often. Winning is more of a relief than fulfilling.