Review: Czas Honoru

Czas Honoru Dystopian Game Reviews

Players: 2

Publisher: Phalanx

Year: 2013

In 1944, in German-occupied Poland testing was done for the V-2 missiles, Hitler’s latest secret weapon. As they were being tested, and the missiles crashed, fragments were being collected with the purpose of being sent to London for further examination. In this game the Polish underground forces are pitted against the Germans.

The home-zones

Setting up is easy, as both players take a deck and the zone cards are placed between them. Cards are divided along various units, such as regular soldiers/partisans, or elite units as the SS/Silent and Unseen. Cards start in their Home Zone. Based upon how they are positioned, they can perform an action or not.

A turn consists of several phases. Players draw their cards and rocket fragments are placed. Afterterwards players take their actions, which continues until both players pass after each other, does the turn end and is a new turn started. This is repeated four times. Afterwards, the victory conditions are checked. The player that has the most rocket fragments (cubes) after four missiles have been launched (rounds played) is declared the winner. If the players have an equal number of cubes, the German player wins. If at any stage, your Home Zone is invaded and you have no friendly forces to fight them, you automatically lose the game.

Two player cards

The game is a bit simple and plays fast. There are special cards for every deck. It’s interesting how the historical past has been implemented. The cards are language-independent, using only symbols to provide information, although this might be a bit complicated at times. Not all symbols are as self-explanatory as might have been expected.

A downside is that the game can only be played with two people. So if you have a larger crowd, it’s unsuitable. It also has a few nationalistic tones. For example it feels as if the Polish are more powerful than they might have been. However, I’m not an historian, so I don’t know.

The rockets and their fragments

This game's most outstanding feature?

Thematically, it’s a niche game, which is great! It’s an unknown aspect of the Second World War and that alone makes it interesting. It’s wonderful tosee how they have incorporated historical features. The Polish can protect their fragments with Operation Wildhorn III, while the Germans can perform operation Sturmwind, which was an anti-partisan operation. Another example is how the Polish player always starts with the player actions.

There are several interesting mechanics and features. The theme is really cool, but there are also a few flaws in the game. Overall, it’s an above-average game, carried strongly by the theme. If you’re interested in the history, you can certainly get this game.

Review: 1500 expansion: The Netherlands

This review assumes that the reader is familiar with the boardgame 1500: The New World by Dan Verssen Games. If not, you can read about it here.

As this review will look at two of the expansions for the 1500: The New World, there can be overlap between the individual reviews. The first part will explain how AI works, which can be skipped if the other review is also read, the second features the Dutch deck. 

A copy of this expansion was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

The backs of the Netherlands AI and player deck

In general:

The set gives everything necessary to play as a specific country during this historical time period. Included are 56 cards for a player deck, 56 cards for an AI deck and rules to incorporate AI-decks. The deck allows the player to include an extra artificial player to the game. So instead of having just two players, they can be boosted by an artificial one. This means that the player and the AI can play as the same nation at the same time.

The deck includes unique cards and a special mix of cards, as you no longer draw from the same deck as other players. The AI cards are marked as such, with a special background and ‘AI’ on the front. They are easily identified and separated.

In this boardgame AI always goes last in player order. The AI draws cards as normal, but no one looks at them yet. Instead they are placed in a row and first the cards marked ‘Start’ are played, from left to right. Then the other cards are played, going from left to right again. Cards that can’t be played or would make no sense to play are used to advance the AI along the Royal Support Track or minimizing the Royal Support of the human players. Any remaining cards are used for building or reducing colonies (from the highest scoring player).

Normal rules for losing points for struggling colonies apply to the AI and they are removed afterwards. The AI targets the player with the most points, which could be a human player, or another AI. If the AI is the highest-scoring player, it takes on the player in the second position. If there are equals, the target is randomly decided.

Interesting is that some cards feature a minimum condition, so that for example up to 6 colonies may be struggled, but at least four must be chosen in order to trigger the card’s condition. This is of course to help the flow of the game and ensure that cards are left over for the Royal Support track.

The AI and player deck are almost identical, except for some nation cards. The AI contributes to the game as it allows you to play solo, provide a different challenge and adds to the replay ability of the game.

The Dutch nation-powers in the player and AI deck

Regarding The Netherlands Expansion set:

The Netherlands Expansion features a deck of 56 cards for a human player or 56 cards for an AI deck. In the player deck there are 10 cards devoted to special Dutch powers. These include ‘Late Arrival’, allowing the player to remove one colony in each region and replace them with their own. Another one is ‘Appropriation’, where up to 4 colonies can be replaced with your own if all areas have colonies. The last one is ‘Dutch Antilles’, where if you have a successful spice colony, you can take over the other spice colonies from other players.

The deck is good and features several interesting mechanics. The Dutch Antilles and the Late Arrival cards provide a historical note to the game, although the downside of the Antilles cards is that it only targets spice colonies and not other export products. The appropriation card can be useful, but only if all areas are full. This is not likely to happen early-game, but can be useful later on when the map is full and players are struggling over resources.The cards assume that the player deck is used. Only the Dutch Antilles card works a little different in the AI/Player deck, as can be seen in the image.

Overall, the Dutch expansion provides new mechanisms, through the nation cards as well as a whole new mode of playing, through the AI or through the nations deck. It’s a good expansion that adds to the game and provides a bit of historical background. Does it radically change the game? Not really, it’s more of the same, gearing towards a specific challenge, but with a different (historical) flavor. It will certainly be interesting for people that play a lot of solo games.

Review: 1500 expansion: England

This review assumes that the reader is familiar with the boardgame 1500: The New World by Dan Verssen Games. If not, you can read about it here: https://dystopiangamereviews.blogspot.com/2019/10/review-1500-new-world.html

As this review will look at one of the expansions for the board game 1500: The New World, there can be overlap between the individual reviews, because the review of another expansion will be posted soon. The first part will explain how AI works, while the second part will feature the English deck. 

A copy of this expansion was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

The backs of the English player and AI deck.

In general:

The set gives you everything to play as a specific country during this historical time period. Included are 56 cards for a player deck, 56 cards for an AI deck and rules to incorporate AI-decks. The deck allows the player to include an extra artificial player to the game. So instead of having just two players, they can be boosted by an artificial one. This means that the player and the AI can play as the same nation at the same time.

The deck includes unique cards and a special mix of cards, as you no longer draw from the same deck as other players. The AI cards are marked as such, with a special background and ‘AI’ on the front. They are easily identified and separated.

If the AI is included, it always goes last in player order. The AI draws cards as normal, but no one looks at them yet. Instead they are placed in a row and first the cards marked ‘Start’ are played, from left to right. Then the other cards are played, going from left to right again. Cards that can’t be played or would make no sense to play are used to advance the AI along the Royal Support Track or minimizing the Royal Support of the human players. Any remaining cards are used for building or reducing colonies (from the highest scoring player).

Normal rules for losing points for struggling colonies apply to the AI and they are removed afterwards. The AI targets the player with the most points, which could be a human player, or another AI. If the AI is the highest-scoring player, it takes on the player in the second position. If there are equals, the target is randomly decided.

Interesting is that some cards feature a minimum condition, so that for example up to 6 colonies may be struggled, but at least 4 must be chosen in order to trigger the card’s condition. This is of course to help the flow of the game and ensure that cards are left over for the Royal Support track.

The AI and player deck are almost identical, except for some nation cards. The AI contributes to the game as it allows you to play solo, provide a different challenge and adds to the replay ability of the game. 

Unique English cards, note that they work differently in the player or AI deck.

The English deck:

The England Expansion features a deck of 56 cards for a human player or 56 cards for an AI deck. In the player deck there are 10 cards devoted to special British powers. The AI and player deck are identical. The powers include ‘Sea Dogs’, where a player has to either remove 4 colonies of their own or lose three points. The ‘pirates!’ is a reaction card and allows you to steal points when another player is counting them. You gain the monopolies points instead. The ‘Domino’ card makes allows you to reduce an equal number of colonies from another player after someone else has reduced colonies. The AI cards all work differently and as the Sea dogs for example for the player to chose between losing three points or being set back two along the royal support track. The pirates don’t target a specific player and the domino allows you to reduce six colonies.

The cards are different between the AI/Player deck. The nation cards are interesting in that they provide the target with a choice or that that they are reaction cards. As such the English deck is aimed at intercepting the other players. The downsides of course are that the reaction cards can only be triggered under specific circumstances, which might or might not arrive. The reaction cards don’t work so well for the AI -they can’t decide when to play their cards after all-, so they have been changed to something similar.

Overall, the English expansion allows the player to incorporate an AI or play as England themselves. The decks are tailored towards a certain playstyle, give a bigger challenge, richer experience, and it adds to the historical depth of the game. It will not drastically alter the game, but it will enrich your experience. The expansion is certainly recommended for solo-players.