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Kevin Klemme
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This war of mine boardgame

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29 Apr 2021 10:28 #322683 by edulis
I am thinking of purchasing this War of Mine for some solo gaming. Have people played this? What are your thoughts?

Does it have good replay? Do you feel like you are playing a game or is it more of a story with little actual control?

What is the set up and take down like? Are the expansions needed?

I like soloing Walking Dead All Out War and Arkham Horror (2nd edition).

I have Nemo's war, but have only found it meh.

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29 Apr 2021 11:10 - 29 Apr 2021 11:13 #322687 by mezike
Replied by mezike on topic This war of mine boardgame
I quite like it, particularly the evening exploration part of it which is done very well. What I am not so keen on is that the game is super-swingy, particularly on the front door events. I've had games where there was no trouble at all and it was just motoring through the story paragraphs, and others where we all died a brutal death without hope.

We put it away shortly after the pandemic started because it just felt like the wrong kind of game for these times but I'm sure we will play again at some point. Even though it isn't getting any play I am loathe to sell it because I'll likely just want to buy it again a couple of years later, which already happened once. The expansions are totally inconsequential in my view unless you have played through everything and are desperate for new content.

To answer your specific questions - setup is fairly quick, just dealing out some cards, and the rulebook does a good job of teaching while you play so you can get stuck straight in. It is definitely less hassle than Arkham 2e. Replayability i'd say is pretty good, the story paragraphs are mostly good although the quality does vary with so much material. Every game certainly feels different, sometimes very unfair, and it does generate some organic story notes and not just paragraph text which is good.

I've written about it a few times on here, but they are session reports so nothing particularly deep or revealing.
Sep 2019
Oct 2019
Oct 2019 (again)
Last edit: 29 Apr 2021 11:13 by mezike.
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29 Apr 2021 11:17 - 29 Apr 2021 11:18 #322690 by charlest
Replied by charlest on topic This war of mine boardgame
I believe this forum is well divided on this game. I'm in the group that likes it. It's made it into my top 50 games list the last couple of times I've done one.

I kind of like that it's swingy, although it seems to swing towards the easy end far less often than the difficult.

To me this game is all about generating a really harrowing story that would fit in alongside The Road.

I love how sophisticated the game is yet it all flows pretty well and is simple enough to play with just that turn walkthrough booklet. I love how difficult it is. I love the construction and how precious a handgun and a bullet feel.

Often times you don't have control, which may be a big turnoff for you.

However, I think this is the best survival board game yet.
Last edit: 29 Apr 2021 11:18 by charlest.
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29 Apr 2021 22:54 #322717 by ratpfink
Replied by ratpfink on topic This war of mine boardgame
It's a cool game. I think how the game basically teaches you the rules as you go is pretty brilliant.

I sold my copy after playing once or twice, mostly because I didn't think I was going to have much luck getting it back to the table and my solitaire gaming is on a PS4. So I play it on there instead.

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03 May 2021 10:49 #322815 by edulis
Replied by edulis on topic This war of mine boardgame

mezike wrote:
I've written about it a few times on here, but they are session reports so nothing particularly deep or revealing.
Sep 2019
Oct 2019
Oct 2019 (again)


Thanks for the links- your stories have sold me, I am ordering it today.

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03 May 2021 14:40 #322825 by mezike
Replied by mezike on topic This war of mine boardgame
I hope you enjoy it!

Completely unrelated my son asked about it earlier today so we set it up and started a game. Things are not going well, poor Marcin succumbed by day 4 by being the punchbag for our relentless misfortune and we lost all of our food two days running, but on the upside we did avoid a savage beating from a bunch of mafia types who forced us to set up a moonshine still for them and have started to board up the holes in the house.

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17 May 2021 07:56 #323183 by edulis
Replied by edulis on topic This war of mine boardgame
Played a few learning turns and then one 'full game'. Full game lasted until the end of chapter one, when misery from lack of cigarettes and failed chapter objective, vegetable gathering for refugees, caused a character to hang himself, this death caused the others to up their misery resulting in another suicide and the last character to leave the house.

I enjoyed playing the game, I like the book of scripts and how it makes for more specific stories relating to locations. I found in more engaging than Robinson Crusoe, which is the game it feels most similar to.

Although I appreciate the set up and play, I felt a bit lost on a few things:

When do you get visitors?
Can I use the place fittings right away or does a path need to be cleared through the house? The action space is in a weird area.
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17 May 2021 09:19 - 17 May 2021 09:27 #323186 by mezike
Replied by mezike on topic This war of mine boardgame
Glad to hear you are enjoying it! We just about scraped through our game, the first two events had permanent winter effects so we were having to add +2 cold tokens every turn as well as having a passive +2 risk added on top, then we had a famine following close behind. Of course all our goals were linked to giving away food and meds just to make it tougher to get through! We just had to let the cold pile up until it ran out, and everyone got very sick until the late game where we boarded up the house and then managed to get efficient enough with wood and book collection to keep the cold manageable. It was a pretty miserable cycle of fending off starvation and scrounging for wood but it became a unique story of its own that way. We had four deaths/exits from the house as we had to be callous in giving everything we could to Boris who was our last standing original character and had to be protected. That was probably our highest body count ever.

To answer your questions:

On the board you have a daytime action where you can go outside. After checking for sniper fire you draw a card from the visitor deck, and if you only have only two people left in the house then you go through the Visitor deck until you find a character. It's definitely worth going to the door if you have a surplus of items and are angling for a trade.

You have to clear rubble, furniture etc. before you can place fittings. It's something you definitely want to do because there are lots of useful things to find as you go. The actions printed on the board are different depending on which side you play on (the advanced side is not particularly difficult, just a bit more complicated).
Last edit: 17 May 2021 09:27 by mezike.
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18 May 2021 07:54 #323239 by edulis
Replied by edulis on topic This war of mine boardgame
Sounds like a tough go, glad Boris made it!

Thanks for the info that is helpful. I think getting that fourth character could make a big difference.

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19 May 2021 15:48 #323317 by southernman
How many players can you play it with and, if really obvious to people, what player-count should you not play with ?

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19 May 2021 16:18 #323318 by mezike
Replied by mezike on topic This war of mine boardgame
It really depends on how you interact over co-ops. You are all collectively playing all the characters and every decision is made jointly so it lives and dies on player interaction. Technically each stage has one player as the leader who has the casting vote but it’s disruptive to the ethos of the game, which is to explore a shared story together. I think it’s great as a two player as it creates a very personal experience with lots of involvement and discussion on what you choose to do, but you could do three or four or as many as you like. At some point I suppose people are going to feel like they are passively watching rather than guiding an emergent story though.
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19 May 2021 17:35 #323323 by charlest
Replied by charlest on topic This war of mine boardgame
Yeah, I think it's best solitaire.
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20 May 2021 13:20 #323346 by southernman
I'm not a solitaire gamer (even COVID lockdowns couldn't get me to play more than a few games by myself) so sounds like it may be a waste of money grabbing it - which is probably a good thing for my bank balance and free space on my shelves.

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