QUARTERMASTER GENERAL: AN INSTANT CLASSIC
(<PERSON>, Griggling Games, 2-6 Players, $49.95)
by <PERSON>Best card game I ever played"
--One pal
"After this first game I'm going up to the front of the store to order a copy. Then we'll play again, right?"
--Another pal
This new game (GenCon 2014) is so good that I'm writing my first game review here on Boardgamegeek to praise it, since it is close to being The Perfect Game for what it is; a tribrid. Its a World War II Strategy game that creates a new niche. Its not a Eurogame, or Ameritrash, or a Wargame. But it is. Its an elegant design, and that's the best thing you can say about a board game. With simple rules you have fun, learn history painlessly if you didn't know it before, and want to play it again after your first try. Also:
*The set up time is only two minutes; same to knock it down.
*QMG has beautiful WWII poster type art on the many cards, with national flags and colors to show you which nation's card you are playing at any time--useful if you are playing more than one nation.
*Any type of gamer can love it; wargamers and nonwargamers. Find me another like that and I'll eat it.
*The game plays in only 90 minutes or less with 5-6 players (its shorter with more people); who then each can take a different Allied or Axis country.
* Fast turns after a learning game are the rule, so you don't have to wait long until your next one.
*QMG is supported. The designer is very active on boardgamegeek, and has already posted the rules, a short 2.0 FAQ, and a preview of a small expansion, as well as answered/clarified a few questions.
*Its played and scored only as a team game. 993
How nice.
*The replayability is huge as each time around is a different 'alternate history' of WWII, and there are six very different player decks to play with and against.
*Its not collectible; everything you need is in the original box and that's that. There will be one small expansion.
*Unlike many WWII games, it starts before war breaks out, and let's you set up for your own grand strategy before combat begins for a few turns. Usually.
*Its World War II in 90 minutes. Seriously!
The reason its elegant is that each of the many cards facilitate play while also reflecting a historical aspect of World War II. The more period history you know, the more you can appreciate the subtlety and streamlining designer <PERSON> has done; and every card is only used one way. Each of the six nations (US, UK, and USSR versus Germany, Italy, and Japan) have a very different deck of cards. You can rarely get a played card back, and by the end of the game some of you may have actually run out of cards in your draw deck and even in your hand!
Victory conditions include, in order of likelihood, outpointing your opponents' team at the end of twenty turns, creating a 30 point scoring differential after the end of any complete turn (optional but recommended), capturing two of three enemy capitals for an instant win, or getting up to 400 points (not likely, mate). Lose your capital and you're still in the game, but your nation's victory points can't be counted unless you get it back!
There are eight kinds of cards (see my complete descriptive list in the bgg discussion board Files section): four are basic ('Build' one of the two types of units or 'Battle' against either an army or a navy. Four are advanced: a one time use 'Event' (Fate card if you will) played directly from your hand, an 'Economic Warfare' card that usually costs your opponent(s) to discard draw cards and perhaps give you victory points as well, and two types played out on the table in front of you: one face down and one face up. Face Up 'Status' cards are permanent and give you advantages, face down 'Response' cards ambush your enemies or augment your card play during certain circumstances and are one time play and discard.
So each national deck has a different balance among these eight types, as well as different national cards for the special card types, as well as different numbers in your deck from 30 to 40 cards for each country. You can 'count cards' to a small extent if you have the list of what each nation has in front of you, but not knowing what they have available in their hand or on the table at any time pretty much defeats that aspect of card play. 597