Roll on to victory: Age of War review

Age of War is a new game from Fantasy Flight, and more relevantly, from Reiner Knizia. This game is simple and fun. The tricky part of Age of War is finding a retailer with the game in stock.

This is one of the cheaper games on the market, and easily serves a larger number of players. As with Zombie Dice, this game is more fun with a larger group of players at the table.

Age of War has two components; seven dice, and a group of cards you will capture by rolling those dice.

The dice has six different results.

The cards each require a different combination of dice rolls to capture. When you roll your seven dice, you look at the results and choose a card with a row you can ‘capture’ by matching the symbols with one or more dice. You cannot capture more than one row of a card per roll.

For example if you roll one archer and two horsemen, you could put either against a row of Azuchi (above left), but not all of them

Once you have put dice against a row of a card you are committed to that card for the rest of your turn. Roll the remaining dice again, and capture another row. If you fail to roll sufficient to capture a row, you roll again with one less dice. Your turn ends either when you capture a card or you run out of dice to capture a card. Play then moves to the next player.

Back and forth

If an opponent captures a card, you have the opportunity to take it from them in the same way – however you must roll an additional daimyo symbol, shown above in red on the left side of each card.

T avoid having you cards captured, you need to complete sets if each colour available – yellow, green, red, purple, black, and white. Once you have a complete set of a colour, the cards are turned face down and cannot be taken from you

To victory!

The game ends when one player has more points and cannot be caught by any other player. There are 38 points available if you add the value of all face-down sets.

The art of the age of war

The real pleasure in this game is the trash talking and general mind games that erupt during each player’s turn. Your decision on which card to attempt will have an effect on other players’ plans, so expect them to take a keen interest in your choices, especially when you attempt to capture one of their cards!

Victory will go to the player who is able to ignore all distractions and focus on capturing complete sets as quickly as possible.