Wir Sind das Volk!
A game for 2 players by <PERSON> and <PERSON>.
“It's always the small people who change things. It's never the politicians or the big guys. I mean, who pulled down the Berlin wall? It was all the people in the streets. The specialists didn't have a clue the day before.”
― Luc Besson
Introduction
I am a huge fan of <PERSON> games. <PERSON> and <PERSON> are differentiated only by player count in my mind as worthy entrants in my top 20 games of all time.
<PERSON> is a prolific designer, possibly best known for his brilliant little game König von Siam.
I love the Cold War period as a game subject. When I heard about Wir Sind das Volk!, it was an instant must buy for me. With these two designers at the helm, how could it not be?
The Components
Wir Sind das Volk comes in a small box. It's the same size as the King of Siam box, roughly 9x9x2", but it is packed full of components. Many other publishers would have gone for a bigger box, but there's a certain elegance in getting all the bits packed into such a small package.
A lot of gaming goodness in a very small package.
The game comes with a mounted map, about 25x17" when unfolded, 84 action cards split into the four decades covered in this game, 50 unrest markers, 12 socialist markers, 35 living standard markers, tokens for factories and infrastructure, and a set of rules in German and English.
The art of the game nicely captures the spirit of the postwar socialist realism that was encouraged in the eastern bloc countries. The graphic design is clean and clear and makes it relatively easy to gauge the state of the board, although care must be taken by players with respect to Berlin as it has its own special area on the map.
The cards in the game are artistically in the spirit of things, but from a graphics perspective could have been better. The cards are multipurpose in that you can use them for their point value or their event. Events are yellow for the West, red for the East, but while the ones that are usable by either side are both yellow and red, it can be difficult to assess this based on the art. The text on the card is red, in contradistinction to the black text on the other cards. 92
Nonetheless, the art is more eye catching to me and I find it hard to distinguish the events playable by both; to me, the red stands out over the yellow.
There is no wasted space in the box. Everything fits nicely inside, even after all the components are punched and bagged, and if you're someone who compulsively sleeves cards, they'll likely fit as well.
Game Play
Wir Sind das Volk! is played over roughly four decades, covering the early postwar years to the fall of the Berlin wall.
A selection of cards. Photo by <PERSON>.
Each decade, players are dealt a couple of cards as hole cards, and then seven event cards are laid out in a shared pool. Players alternate playing cards from the pool or their held cards until the pool cards are exhausted. A second set of pool cards is then dealt out, and once those are gone, it's time for the special end of decade phase.
Victory is achieved by causing your opponent to have at least four mass protest markers at the end of the decade collapse check. If both sides experience this simultaneously, East Germany wins. So the onus is on the West German player to drive unrest in the east as much as possible. Much easier said than done.
The historical outcome is well known. West Germany became an economic powerhouse in western Europe. East Germany did relatively well compared to the other eastern bloc countries, but by the time the fall of the wall loomed large, its economy was in dire straits.
The focus thus shifts from merely economic to a more broadly propagandistic view. The old saying that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence is a great way of describing the end of decade phase. Here you are trying to showcase the superiority of your system, and by doing so successfully, cause unrest to your opponent.
The game play itself is relatively straightforward, but it's the multi-layered interconnectedness of the systems that really makes the game an interesting exploration. <PERSON> (qwertymartin) created a of the various interactions in this game.
The cards are ultimately the fuel for the game engine.
Players will be trying to build up their economy using the build points on the cards. Building factories and infrastructure will allow you to increase the living standard for the regions, which will in turn reduce unrest. 597