I have a confession to make. I’m a defector. When I was younger board games used to be about rolling dice and removing pieces from the board. Hero Quest (both regular and Advanced), Space Crusade, Space Hulk, Shogun, Talisman and Thunder Road were all a part of my staple diet. Then I grew older (though not up) and experienced strange games that didn’t involve dice, drawing cards, removing pieces or shouted insults. For me the revolution happened when I played Amun-Re, my first Euro. How could I have so much fun playing a game that involved minimal chance, cards with no text on them and that only lasted about forty-five minutes? After that I was hooked. If my life was a movie, then the following scene would have been a montage of Ticket to Ride, Colosseum, Settlers of Catan, Medici, In The Year of the Dragon and others - probably with something like Eye of the Tiger playing in the background. Probably my lowest moment came when I was struggling to enjoy a game of Zombies!!! and found myself wishing that I was playing Wildlife instead. This was a game with dice, overpowered cards and zombies, for goodness sake, and yet I couldn’t get into it. What was wrong with me?
I was all set to move to Germany and change my name to <PERSON> when I played Age of Renaissance. To be honest, I almost didn’t make it. It took me about six months to understand the rules and arrange a game, but I’m glad I’m did. AoR isn’t the greatest game that I’ve ever played, but I do think it rekindled something inside of me. I have no intention of adding it to my collection, but it’s probably the reason why I’m now looking to purchase War of the Ring and Twilight Struggle as well as The Princes of Florence and Caylus.
Simply put, AoR is one of those chaotic, random, oh-that’s-a-good-strategy-but-what-happens-if-I-play-this-card-oh-dear-did-I-do-that-bwah-hah-hah, confrontational, lengthy, frustrating games that reminds me why I still love Ameritrash.
For those of you who don’t know it’s essentially a game about building a trading empire in Europe. 52
It spans from pretty much the end of the Dark Ages right up to the Enlightenment (which, coincidentally, is about how long it takes to play a single game) and involves rolling a lot of dice and playing cards that fit into one of two categories - ‘average’ or ‘stupidly overpowered’. If you want specifics on how the game works then I’m sure you’ll find them excellently explained in another review here on BGG. I’m concerned with giving you my overall impression of the game.
So it’s a game that I have something of a soft spot for, but I also have to admit that it’s flawed. So, in best reviewing tradition, here’s a list of the the Bad and the Good.
The Bad
Arbitrary
Perhaps the biggest complaint against AoR is that is can be awfully arbitrary. Combat in the game essentially comes down to a ‘highest-roll-wins’ mechanic and you can imagine how that turns out. You’ll have turns when you feel like you are the illegitimate child of a union between Fate and Chance as all the rolls come up in your favour. But you’ll have turns where you’ll watch your fickle parents kick you out into the street and grant their boon to their new favourite son - who also happens to be the guy who’s winning anyway.
Then there are the cards. You draw and play cards, and some of the cards are very nasty. Crusades is one of the cards that gets talked about a lot. In every game I’ve been a part of, someone has played Crusades on the first or second turn. In every game I’ve been a part of, that someone has gone on to win. I’m not saying that whoever gets Crusades is definitely going to win, but merely that it seems to grant a big advantage if played in the first couple of turns. Then there’s Civil War, which in my opinion is the most powerful card in the game. It’s as if someone said "What are all the bad things that can happen to a player?", made a list and then just copied it directly onto the Civil War card. I’ve had that card played against me on a key turn, which consequently led to me failing to catch the leader. 237