Orcz

Introduction

We just had a game of Orcz over the weekend and it was a hoot!

Overview

The premise of the game is the players are orcian cheftians that are participating in a conquest of the fair lands of the elves, dwarves and humans. They are rewarded for defeating their enemies with goblin slaves. The aim of the game is to be the cheftian with the largest number of goblin slaves at the end of the game.

Game Mechanics

The game is played in four rounds, during which players must cooperate to defeat all three challenges in at least three of four battlefields. If they fail to do this, everyone loses. Each round, players take turns placing a rank of two units, one face up and another face down, in each battlefield. Each unit is marked with a strength and a unit type. There are three troop types, namely Infantry, Cavalry and Archers. There are four infantry units and three each of the other two for each warlord for a total of 10 units. After each player has placed five ranks, the players challenge each other before trying to defeat the challenge of the battlefield.

Strength of challenge in each battlefield is random, based on a chit drawn multiplied by the number of players. If the combined strength of the orcian army is equal to or greater than the strength of the challenge, that challenge is successfully defeated. Otherwise, the orcian army is defeated.

If the challenge is successfully defeated, the player who contributed the most troops to the battle gains a number of goblin slaves. He is also given a number of goblin slaves to distribute in any way to the remaining cheftians who contributed troops to the battlefield.

Did I mention "internal struggle"? Orcs being what they are, are prone to fight amongst themselves. Before a challenge can be fought and overcome, players have an option to fight each other. The rear ranks have an option to attack the front ranks, beginning with the rearmost rank. Archers automatically defeat Infantry, Infantry automatically defeat Cavalry, Cavalry automatically defeat Archers. If of the same type, the higher strength wins.

In addition to the normal troop types, there are three unique characters: the Hero, Shaman and Scout. The Hero and Shaman can be played into a rank like any other unit, except that the Hero and Shaman cannot be played together in the same rank. The presence of a Hero automatically ensures victory in the current battle with the enemy forces. However, it does not contribute to the troops a warlord has in each battlefield. Therefore, even though the victory is secured, it is by no means certain that the player contributing the Hero will gain from the spoils of battle. In addition, the rank with a Hero cannot be attacked by a rear rank. The presence of a Shaman doubles the strength of the other troop counter in the same rank. Like the Hero, the Shaman protects its rank from attacks from the rear ranks. However, instead of simply stopping the attack, the attack is redirected to the rank in front of the Shaman! The scout can be played at any time to let the player peek at a face down unit of another player. The unit however remains face down unknown to the rest of the players. Each character can be used only once during the game, after which it is discarded.

Comments

There is a lot of guessing and counter-guessing in this game. Deals struck and deals broken; scheming and whining. Its all here. Fortunately, the light theme prevents the game from becoming too cut-throat.

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