War on Terror

I bought War on Terror last Saturday; I was surprised to see it in my very small FLGS. I played a couple games solo to check out how it looks. It's OK, but it's obvious that with negociations and alliances (and booze) it will be much better. I read Barnes' review at BGG and I pretty much agree with everything given my very limited experience with the game. What do you guys think of this game?

War on Terror really requires at least 4 to be worthwhile IMO. But it's huge silly fun. I pre-ordered it simply based on the silly theme and it's been a good purchase.

It's a blast. Some day, Steve "Tanktop" Avery is going to scan in all the notes and pictures we've drawn on the notepad that comes with the game. There's some hilarious stuff.

It's a great example of a game that wouldn't pass muster with so-called "serious" gamers because mechanically it's kind of crap. But it's incredibly fun, easy to play, and it encourages ridiculous behavior, suboptimal revenge plays, and comes with a balaclava. What more do you want?

I keep missing the opportunity to play it. Have seen it played at the last couple of cons I was at.

Yeah, it looks fun with the right crowd. I can't imagine playing this with serious players optimizing everything. One thing I like is the wanton destruction without much penalties. You can launch devastating nuclear strikes without the "you can do this but you'll lose 2000 VP" moral message.

I can't imagine playing this with serious players optimizing everything.

Optimzing? There's one word for players who do that in this game...

Nukefood.

I just ordered it today. It'll probably go over well with the crowd I hang out with. Does anyone think this is a good "gateway game," or do the rules get in the way of teaching it to newbies?

I don't know about the "gateway game"... that completely depends on the crowd you play it with.

The rules are fairly streamlined and simple. It's easy to learn and simple to teach.

"Easy to teach" is really all I want. I hate it when you have to spend an hour teaching a game to people who haven't played before. The light-hearted theme and intended attitude of play should help if things get a little bogged down, though.

Yeah, being the perpetual games teacher can be the suX0rs...


Barnes, is War on Terror one that's on tap for when I come back to Atlanta in March?

vialiy wrote:

I bought War on Terror last Saturday; I was surprised to see it in my very small FLGS. I played a couple games solo to check out how it looks. It's OK, but it's obvious that with negociations and alliances (and booze) it will be much better. I read Barnes' review at BGG and I pretty much agree with everything given my very limited experience with the game. What do you guys think of this game?

I imagine booze would do nothing but improve the game considerably. The game doesn't look good, and the rules are crude and under-developed, and I laugh more while playing it than almost any other game.

As long as *coughcough* no fun-murderers are actually standing there holding the rulebook, answering rules questions directed at another person and correcting your moves when they go against the rules when he is not playing AND doesn't own the copy he is directing the use of either.

This same character managed to ruin both of the games of WoT I've played. I imagine if he had shown up earlier he would have ruined Hey, That's My Fish! with uninvited rules-corrections.

PseudoIntellectual wrote:

Hey, That's My Fish! with uninvited rules-corrections.

No. That game is far too elegant.

We finally played this tonight and had a blast (hehe). Talk about a fun game. Nukes flying, cities blowing up. Etc. My only complaint is that it seems like it is too easy to blow stuff up.

mikoyan wrote:

We finally played this tonight and had a blast (hehe). Talk about a fun game. Nukes flying, cities blowing up. Etc. My only complaint is that it seems like it is too easy to blow stuff up.

Kinda like Supremacy?

Rliyen wrote:

mikoyan wrote:

We finally played this tonight and had a blast (hehe). Talk about a fun game. Nukes flying, cities blowing up. Etc. My only complaint is that it seems like it is too easy to blow stuff up.

Kinda like Supremacy?

I don't have a problem with the nukes. I'm talking about the war cards or the terrorist attack cards.