Designed by: Reiner Knizia
It sounds terribly bloody and combative, but Age of War is a pretty simple game of dice-rolling in order to claim Castles, which are represented by cards.
The Castles are laid out in the centre of the playing area in their matching colours (each set of Castles belonging to a particular Clan). On the Castle cards are rows of icons, representing infantry, cavalrymen and so on. On each players turn, they roll a set of dice and fill - or try to – a complete row on the Castle they are trying to capture. Having done so, they roll all dice again and try to fill another row. If they successfully fill all rows, they take that Castle and place it in front of them.
The catch is, if you fail to fill a row after any throw, you must discard a die before you throw again. So there’s a large slab of luck on any given turn, and some Castles are easier to catch than others. What’s more, players can also try and capture each others Castles, although this means fulfilling an extra row so is even harder to do.
The Castles have points values on them that are totted up at the end of the game. These values are increased if one player manages to capture all Castles of a particular clan (ie a particular colour). Capturing a whole Clan also means these Castles are all flipped face down and cannot be stolen by the other players.
The game ends when there are no Castles left in the central area.
There is a combative element to Age of War in that players can not only steal from each other (or try to) but anticipate which Castles their opponents are going for and try to prevent them getting it.
Once everyone knows what they're doing, Age of War moves quickly.
It's not a heavy game at all.
Dice are a good ensurer of randomness, and Age of War plays fast. For a shorter game, simply remove some Clans before play.
2-6
Players
6+
Years
15-30
Mins
Sam says
So easy to teach and play, Age of War is one for those who like their rules simple and their play fast-moving. If there's a criticism to be made it's that the end-game can drag on a bit, as the leader will inevitably be targeted by other players. If you're lucky the last card in the middle will be a decider though, and that avoids the potential for cards to keep shuffling around and leaders changing.