Manoeuvre
A game for 2, 4, 6, or 8 players by <PERSON>.
“Victory belongs to the most persevering.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte
Introduction
Manoeuvre is one of those games that can be a little tricky to categorize. It has the veneer of a Napoleonic era wargame laid over top of a clever game of movement and area control that uses troops and terrain to determine an ultimate victor.
It could easily be called a light wargame. It could also be called chess-like. Both descriptions would be apt and correct.
Manoeuvre is a game I've played many times and with the expansion slated to come out later this year (2015), I wanted to bring some attention back to this great little game.
The Components
I have the original edition of Manoeuvre from 2008, but the reprint is virtually identical save for some minor corrections on the cards and having slightly thicker counters. The game comes with 24 terrain tiles, 8 armies (8 units each), 8 small decks of cards (one per army), dice in various denominations (d6, d8, and d10), and assorted player aids and informational counters.
Image by <PERSON>. Tuck boxes don't come with the game, but are well worth downloading from the files section and printing out.
The cards for each army are extremely thick and combined with their small size make them nigh indestructible and similarly hard to shuffle. Riffle shuffles are not likely with these cards. This is not a bad thing, you won't need to sleeve these!
It's my understanding that the game was originally slated to have 12 map tiles, double sided, but due to a printer error, it came out as 24 single sided map tiles. This has been a silver lining, as it allows an astonishing 65,286,144 map combinations.
The graphics on the maps are quite plain, which possibly diminishes the game's visual appeal, but they are clear and easily read, which makes the game play easy. I'll take clarity in graphic design over pretty but confusing any day.
Game Play
So what's Manoeuvre all about? Well, the game is played on a set of four map tiles forming an 8x8 grid of squares. The game ends once both players have exhausted their decks, unless you manage to eliminate five of your opponent's units resulting in a sudden death win. Assuming there wasn't a sudden death win, you earn points for controlling space in your opponent's territory. You earn one point for every unit in their territory plus one for every orthogonally adjacent space that isn't contested. 92
High score wins.
The game then, as the title suggests, revolves around clever movement and placement of your units. Combat is not something to be avoided, but the effort should be placed on strategically moving your units to grab control of spaces on your opponent's side of the board and placing the units you've kept on your side of the board in such a way as to prevent enemy control.
Movement in the game is orthogonal, and infantry units move one space, while cavalry can move two. Each turn you must move one unit, and then you may attack if you wish, either with the unit your just moved or another one on the board. Attacking requires the play of cards. The terrain on the map will help you defend your territory, or provide a strong point to hold on your side of the board.
Manoeuvre is a great game of bluff and deception. I might boldly advance my Imperial Guard, but I might not have their cards in my hand, meaning I'd be unable to attack and possibly badly hampered in my defence.
A clever mechanic is that the card draw for your turn occurs at the start of your turn rather than at the end, so you might well have a brilliant attack plan and execute it to perfection, but then have no cards in hand for a defence on your opponent's turn.
The game ending at nightfall (represented by both players running through their decks) works a treat too. If you exhaust your deck first, you simply reshuffle your discards and continue and the game ends when your opponent runs out of cards, but the tempo and timing of when that happens is now somewhat in the hands of said opponent.
Each of the eight armies in the game is different. The French and English are both very strong. The Spanish are formidable on defence. The Ottomans are extremely mobile having four cavalry units as opposed to the standard two for everyone else. The Russians are resilient, being almost as strong on their reduced side as their front side.
Each army comes with its own deck of 60 cards, and every deck is different. The cards are a mix of unit cards, leaders, and special cards. The unit cards are used for attack and defence of specific units. 301