Junta

I have been hearing about Junta for a long time now, but just tantalizing bits of info. The concept sounds great, but it seemed that maybe the negotiation element overwhelms the rest of the game elements. And nobody that I knew had a copy. So it's been sitting on my long list of things to look into, though probably halfway down the list.

Until now. The local game shop has two copies in shrink. Looks like it might be a new edition. Either way, I just wanna know what you guys think of Junta.

Junta is actually two games. One is a negotiation game and the other is a tactical war game.

Personally I like Junta very much. Much more than Diplomacy.

Junta is about as negotiation heavy as is AGOT.

So I went over to TOS and looked at the comments about Junta. It sounds like I simply must buy this game. And yet, I want Android really badly too, and I can't justify buying either one until I finish my Christmas shopping. Gah!

I would be careful of Junta. It's good but it has a significant flaw, which Schweig! alluded to. The two games in one concept would be great were it not for the fact that the negotiation/card game is brilliant, short and simple but the wargame element is tedious, long and complex. And yet, annoyingly, one doesn't work without the other. So it often turns into a four-hour game which contains an hour of cracking entertainment and three hours of yawning.

The key to playing Junta is to make everyone understand that starting a coup (and thus bringing the wargame element into play) is a bad idea and should only be done as a last resort. Once or twice a game, yes, but more than that and it really wears thin. If people accept and abide by that then you can have a great time. Sadly, all to many AT gamers I know can't resist the chance to get the Helicopter Gunships out at the first opportunity.

It's also worth knowing that, like Diplomacy, you ideally need a full complement of seven for best effect. It'll work with five or six but less than that, forget it.

I appreciate the warning about Junta. My two most likely groups of players would be Vampire larp types, who will excel at the negotiation aspect, and Jyhad card players, who will do okay at the negotiation and probably find the coup combat reasonably easy. From what you are both saying about the coup, it sounds like just my Jyhad players would be able to play this game at a brisk pace. Then again, some of the larp crowd really enjoy Diplomacy, so they should at least have the attention span to handle a four-hour game of Junta.

Well, kinda. But the warning about the coup isn't really that it ought to be handled at a brisk pace, because there's only so much time you can shave off it by playing fast. Rather it's simply that the coup bit isn't a very interesting aspect of play, but it takes up the most time.

As a wacky aside....

The designer of Junta did another game called Jack the Ripper. Take the card bits from Junta and graft them to a weird Mr. Jack-like deduction tactical boardgame.

Server for two players.

It is quite good.

Have to agree with the "tedious coup" crowd. Great game, half of it.