Great components. For someone like me who enjoys cooperative games with simple rules, this is great. The nature of the cards drawn, who has what left in their hand, etc., adds considerable complexity to the game, but the rules can be learnt in about 5 minutes. An interesting aspect of this game is that, although cooperative, the rules limit what you can speak about. As a result, although the team are trying to work together, it is really down to the individual to try to move the team, rather than the individual just going along with the group decision.



It is difficult to meet the win conditions, but what is interesting is that the game has various difficulty levels. You can move it up a level of difficulty by making use of the so-called trap symbols on the cards. You can also increment the difficulty by adding more cards to the "Trials" deck (which means you have more endeavours to tackle before you can win the war). And then you can bring in your own rules: You can simply change the rules about how other tokens like the Speech tokens are used (discarded or replenished), or how many hard knocks you can take before the war is finished (the rules specify that it's four).



This is not a game for young people, because there is a lot to keep in mind. That's what took this down a star for me. I know some people will love a game that means you are constantly checking what is happening at every moment and to make sure you remember all the rules, but I find it just a little excessive in that respect.