War On Terror - 22 December 2010

Amazingly, it's almost four years since we last (and first) played this game.  It's not a great game in comparison with the rest of our stock but we did again have a great time playing it (as long as you don't take it too seriously).

Stuart was the first to don the Evil Balaclava and spent most of the rest of the evening wearing it - with brief interludes by Kieron's brother-in-law Mark, James, and for the last couple of minutes David.

But it suited Stuart best.  In his second turn, he attempted to extort money from Kieron.  Instead of paying, Kieron took the risk of a die-roll and ended up having to pay twice as much.  But this early in the game, he didn't have enough resources or money to cover the costs, and so was bankrupted and instantly converted to a terrorist.

Kieron struggled for many turns with little money to fund his terrorist activities and both Mark and Andy came close to winning the game conventionally.  But then Evil Stu donated $1.5billion to the terrorist cause - and Kieron gleefully swamped the board in terrorist cells.

To protect his South American interests, Andy paid Kieron a billion to place those terrorists elsewhere.  Kieron complied.  And then promptly accepted a further billion from Mark to fund more terrorists and place those in South America instead.

Mark, David and Andy all had a lot of cities but the tide felt like it was turning for the terrorists.  First to leap was James, followed by Stuart.  But extra terrorists also means a lowering of the victory conditions and with some upgrades and useful cards, David built enough cities and held Australasia which gave him the win.

A fun evening and probably our last games night of 2010.  I'm looking forward to playing War On Terror again in 2014 (although I believe they are releasing a 2nd edition so perhaps it's time to get a rules upgrade and see if it compares more favourably with the Eurogames we prefer to play).

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our readers!