This is a review of Condottiere

It's summary is as follows

Materials = 6

Rules Presentation = 6

Gameplay = 8

Personal Tilt = 6

Replayability = 8

Useability = 7

Final Score = 6.8


I got this game as I was looking for portable games that I could take around to friends houses, travel, to work for play over lunch, and other areas where portability is a great asset. I had been printing out free Wargames, as they were cheap and easy to carry around in a plastic baggie, but they failed to scratch the itch some had of a Eurogame. In addition, some of those were quite hard to play over a lunch hour, or at the beginning of a game night when waiting for others to arrive due to their length.

So that's how I ended up picking up this little gem of a game. Overall, it's basically a glorified and modified version of the traditional card game played with Poker Cards...War. I'll probably refer to War occasionally in this review, so I apologize before hand to those who are unfamiliar with that game.

Materials - This game cost me 19.99 USD. That's more than a pack of cards. Of course, this is a board game, and comes with more than a pack of cards. It has a mounted board, six sets of colored wooden playing blocks, a black pawn, a white pawn AND a set of cards. The wooden pieces are durable, the board is mounted and trifolded, and the cards have a nice feel, a nice coat, and are on the higher end of card quality. Nevertheless, if this was offered last year during FFG's sale for 5 USD, this would be more than worth the value. It's till a worthwhile investment, and a decent boardgame. It costs half to a third of other board games. The materials are nicely integrated into the game itself. It's not excellent, but it's definately not bad either.

It rates a 6.

Rules Presentation - The rules are straightforward and simple to read. There are special rules and cards in the game that may make you reread certain portions of the rules during the first (or even second) game, but after that you should have the rules down. There's nothing really exceptional that I can note about the rules, but they are very readable and score on the high end of average.

It scores a 6.

Gameplay - As stated before, this game is a glorified and modified version of the game of War. However, in this game you are playing for territory instead of cards. For each round of card playing you win, you gain a territory, with the objective to have 3 (or 4 in a 2-3 player game) connecting territories or 5 (or 6 in a 2-3 player game) territories total.

You win a round in a similar way as you would with War, in that the high card wins. However, there are some big differences. First each player plays a card on the table one at a time as play goes round. They can place other cards on the table as well, one at a time in order, and each card's total is played. In otherwords, the total of the cards determines who wins, not just one card or the top card. The player who wins gets' to determine where to put a black pawn. This black pawn is placed in a territory, which is the next area to be fought over with another round of card playing. (this control of the black pawn can have an exception if one plays one of the special cards called a courtier which gives that player the control of the black pawn instead of whoever won the last hand). Who ever wins each hand also wins the territory.

Play goes around during each round until players run out of cards, stop laying cards down, or a surrender card is played (another special card which ends a round immediately, high score wins).

A number of special cards make play a little bit more interesting, such as a Scarecrow card which allows players to take back cards they've already played on the table, a courtier card that gives a player control over where to next play the black pawn as opposed to the winner of the round, and other types of cards with special abilities. One of these in particular is called the Bishop, which allows one to control the white pawn.

The White pawn can be placed on a territory one time if someone wins it with bishop cards. This territory can not be fought over. We found that this doesn't affect us early in the game, but late in the game control over this peice can be vital if the board is hotly contested. In fact, the placement of this peice has determined the winner occasionally.

Near the end of the game, we've found that like many other area control games, is just as much about preventing someone from winning as winning yourself. It isn't unusual for everyone to gang up and spend all their resources just to stop one other player from winning. These mobile and easily made and broken alliances can really make the end game interesting.

The game IS highly random. For the fun of it, I played a game solo, to see how it would flow. I dealt out cards, and played cards from the top of the other hands, making an exception for scarecrows (which I played as a standing card that drew back the highest played cards from that hand at the end of the round), and found that winning is more of a challenge then one would think.

At the same time, a game between highly motivated and thinking human opponents is far more fun and unique, the alliances and table talk increasing how good the game works and flows.

It's the game of war, and though more complex, still ultimately simple, however it flows well and works well.

It scores an 8.

Personal Tilt - I'm glad I got this game. It's highly portable in it's box, and makes for a nice time filler. It's a little easier to get people to play than some of the other games, and it seems easier for many to grasp at it's concepts. I can't say it's my favorite game, or high on my list of games. It's an okay game, and I'd play it (in fact I play it as perhaps one the most played game I have to tell the truth, at least right now), but it's not what I'd call on my list of awesome games. It's an okay game, and probably ranks high on the scale of average games.

It scores a 6.

Replayability - This game is highly replayable. Since hands will vary every turn, and hence strategies must be flexible, every game can be slightly different. On the otherhand, after a while it starts to get boring and though different every game seems to be almost the same. Give it a rest, and then it can be fun again for an hour or so. We have been playing it more than just about every other game recently, however, except for San Juan, so that also indicates that it has a high replayability aspect. I say in short spurts, it's a great game for that.

It scores an 8.

Useability - This game has a good useability. It's a great filler for a short game night, a pre-game night, or for travel. I have an exceptional daughter (or so I like to think, could be just that Dad syndrome as well) who catches onto games rather quickly. Me and my wife were playing, but this game doesn't play that well with two players (and it can be played somewhat solo even as I remarked I tried above), so I introduced my daughter to it and taught her the rules. She was decent at it, even managed to win a game. On the otherhand, she told me that she was bored of the game and would rather play candyland (I on the otherhand would much rather play Condottiere). It's more of a limited game with less than 3 players. It's doable, but not what I would call really worth it.

I find it works best with more players such as 4 or greater, preferably 5 or 6. This gives the game it's best intensity and best competition in gameplay. It still ranks high on useability scoring above average.

It scores a 7.


Overall this is a good game for the investment. You get durable pieces and compact size which makes it perfect for travel, for work, or other areas. It also makes a great filler for a game night. It's a good game that scores a little above average.

Its final score is a 6.8


Good game, that we have been playing quite a bit of recently in between heftier and weightier games. I'd say it's very worthwhile for the traveller, for someone on a budget, or someone who likes portable games which they can take to friends game nights, or other locations.



(Edit: For reference, link to explanation of my game ratings http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2426690#2426690 )