Designed by: David Thompson (I),Trevor Benjamin
War Chest is a head-to-head, two-player (or teams of two) game of battle for control over the board. Like chess, the game contains pieces that operate in different ways, but it is all fairly abstract compared to war games such as Memoir 44. Unlike chess, the opposing armies are asymmetrical, and the goal is not to conquer your opponent (- though it doesn’t hurt) but to gain control of strategic positions on the board.
We’ll describe the two-player game here. There are sixteen different units (represented by cards and coins) from which you can choose four (- the rulebook has suggestions for your starting game). The cards go beside the board, showing you and your opponent how your units move/attack. Two coins for each unit go into a cloth bag and the rest are placed in separate supplies beside your cards – they’ll come into effect later. You also start with control markers – two on the board already, and four more in your supply: getting all your control markers on the board is how you win the game.
The battle is fought over rounds. In each round, players draw three coins from their bag, keeping their identity hidden from the enemy, and deploy them one at a time over three turns each. Each unit can be deployed in multiple ways. It can be added to the board onto any of your control markers if they are currently unoccupied, or placed on top of a matching unit to bolster: making it harder for your opponent to remove from the board.
But matching units can also be discarded – discarding a unit face-up can trigger its matching unit on the board into action; moving, attacking, or deploying a unit-specific tactic. It also allows you to place a control marker (possibly jettisoning your enemy’s in the process) which, don’t forget, is how you win. Discarding any unit face-down can also be pivotal, though as it allows you to add more units to your discard pile (which will all go into your bag once it’s empty) or to grab the initiative from your opponent: this means you’ll be going first in the next round, and turn order can be the difference between defeat and victory at the right time.
What surfaces from this seemingly-abstracted bundle of rules is a tense, reactive battle for control: you’re not only marshalling troops on the board, you’re also managing them off it. Discarding coins can feel wasteful, because nothing happens for you on the board, but not doing so means you are slowly running out of options.
I haven't played this, but it looks like something I might enjoy.
Plenty. It's a battle, and if the tide turns against your troops it can feel brutal.
Low to moderate. See Brain Burn...
You have, at most, three units to choose from, when to activate on the board and when to deploy off it is absolutely critical, so although the rules are relatively light, implementation is something else...
Even with the same eight units there would be a huge variety here, as players can draft their troops at the start of the game and end up with different combinations - and then a battle with the same distinct forces can play out very differently thanks to the random draw of the bag and the strategies of the players... but there are sixteen. War Chest doesn't suffer from a lack of replayability.
2-4
Players
10+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
Whenever I think I don't really like 'abstract' games - abstract being a bit of a grey area anyway, as you could argue all games are an abstraction - I stumble on something like War Chest and realise they can actually be exceedingly good. Games such as Ingenious and Qwirkle have a kind of simple genius to them - very accessible for families, always a good puzzle, but not something I long to play over and over. War Chest has more allure for me partly because there is a sense of narrative here, partly because of the asymmetry making each game feel unique, partly because it has a sense of overlapping challenges - both the battle on the board, and management of your troops off it. It feels like a brilliantly conceived thing overall - a first play may feel a bit of a muddle, but if you find your way to the heart of War Chest, I think it may become something you return to again and again.