Churchill Review

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I have taken you to task Before Matt, paticularly with your phillistine lack of appreciation for the genius of Knizia, but this Review was fucking fantastic.

Unfortunately as I get older (wiser? doubt it) I realise that it requires a proper commitment with some games, and they are no doubt Worth it but you need also some fellow players who are willing and interested to invest the time and energy in it. Many, many times I have bought these kinds of games in some kind of weird fantasy hope that this will occur for me, but the reality is I dont have the time or energy to take on too many big games at once, nor do I have access to a Group of people I like enough to play regularly enough with for a long enough time to make these things work for me.

I could probably ascribe the bulk of my Comedy buying, and Selling, and trading and buying again the hundreds of games that have come in and out of my ownership to this same disconnect between me being a lot more "into" the hobby than really meshes with the reality of my time/social circle. Its taken me a good many years to really Wake up to this fact

anyway that was a long rambling way to say that I can still appreciate great Writing like this, that captures the essence of game that I find very interesting, even if the reality is I doubt I will find the time to experience this. So I'll vicariously say thanks for taking the time to put this article together and now I'll bob off and play Troyes with the wife instead

I have heard incredibly mixed things about this game...

I have heard incredibly mixed things about this game...

That's likely because the amount of effort to demands is going to be divisive. I thought it peculiar at first. Even now I've decided that it's very good, I'm not sure I can really give it the time it needs.

I really enjoyed this review. You have touched on that basic issue with the game, the need to play it more than once. That's going to be the main sticking point.

This is a great review Matt shame SUSD or someone did not buy it from you but such is the interest in war* games in the wider market i guess. What you say is consistent with what I have heard about this game, it is not guaranteed first time fun and it requires players to invest in it to get a serious return rather than simply complaining if they think they can game the system first time. I've also heard that the longer game is the one to go for.

My friend has bought it, and it might be our new years eve game.

I played my second game of Churchill tonight. I liked it a lot more and kept my meltdown about the incomprehensible scoring rules and some of the visual design decisions for the very end. We mostly did not keep score which seems to help move it along. We only did a check at the halfway point and then before the last turn.

The puzzle box comparison is pretty apt I think. It's not really clear to me if what I'm doing is the best way to get points. That's mostly compounded because I'm never sure exactly how many points you should be getting, and at which other player's expense. Plus while there's a lot of levers and buttons, I'm not always able to pull or push them because I'm stymied by the other players or possibly some bad luck.

I agree that it requires some effort and the full campaign is maybe too long for an average weeknight game, and it occupies a weird 3-player game space, so I'm not sure how often it'll get out but I'm now more interested in trying again than I was after my first play a few months ago.