Well, here comes the first review ever from a completely bloody untalented bgg addict, of a game I had the good luck to come to playtest.
Hope you enjoy it, or that at least I get you entertained for a little while
(criticism on writing & grammar is welcome and encouraged)Layout and structure inspired by Neil Thomson (thanks for your great reviews on games I love! Even if we have never spoken, you truly know how to transmit a gaming experience to the reader)
Battlefields of Olympus
Overview
Game Type - Card Game
Play Time - 20 - 30 minutes
Number of Players- 2
Mechanics - Rock-Paper-Scissors, Campaign/Battle Card Driven, Hand Management
Difficulty- Pick-up & Play (Learn in under 15 minutes)
Components– Excellent, truly outstanding ( I got to test it on a Pc emulated version, so I can only speak for the artwork not the actual printed version which hopefully will come out soon!)
Components
As already stated, I’m only capable of commenting on the artwork, and to put it simple, in this case, words are completely out of place in order to transmit the beauty of the art used to represent the multiple units and scenery.
The design of the cards manages to keep the balance between simplicity, and decorative elements, without over-flooding the available space and detracting attention, but still elegant enough to pleasure the sight on seeing the game in process.
Introduction & Theme
Battlefields of Olympus is a turn based light-strategy battle game where players fight to gain control over several land cards, ranging from the not-so-valuable woodlands and meadow landscapes, up to the all risk worthy Temples or even Olympus itself.
As a side note, the theme is pretty related to the game play (in an abstracted way, of course, but far more than you would expect from a light battle card game, to the extent that in some way, ancient battle behaviour gets to leave a mark)
The Set-Up
One of the major plusses I see in card games is the nearly instant set up, and Battlefields of Olympus is no exception. And furthermore, the playing surface is minimal. Primary, no more than a A4 paper size area is in use, maybe even smaller; making it a nice travel game.
Play can immediately begin right after stacking up the 2 card piles with which players interact: the warrior pile, and the fate pile.
The Game Play
I won’t delve too much in the rules, since they are extremely fast to read and understand; available on the designer’s homepage I believe.
The aim of the game is to be the first player to earn 16 points, in form of Land Trophy points.
In order to accomplish the task, players set up an army integrated by the combination of multiple forces. Which are divided in 5 types:
Archers, Cavalry, Heavy infantery, Spearmen and Swordsmen
Players alternate turns of card drawing from the Fate card pool. Which contains 3 types of cards:
Action Cards: This cards give the player different abilities, that can later be used in battle to gain advantages. The cards are:
Ambush, Elite, Flank, Raid, Rally, Scout, Skirmish, and Surround.
This ability cards are kept in the players hand up to a maximum of 4, after which the player will have to discard newly gained cards, challenging the player’s hand management skills.
Land Trophy Cards: Aside from abilities, the ‘Fate’ deck also contains these desired cards (from less points to more):Woodland, Meadow, Bridge, Fortress, Temple and Olympus
When a Land trophy Card is drawn, it is placed between both combatants, creating the Land pile, where every new Landscape card is placed on top of the previous. Players can declare war on the topmost Land Trophy card at start of their turn, triggering the start of a battle.
Ares (God of War) Cards: 
Love him, or hate him. When Ares arises, he’s placed on a separate card pile, forcing the beginning of a battle over the top Land card, his presence can strike at the most unexpected moment. So watch out!
After the 6th and last Ares card is drawn, game ends, the player with the most land trophy points is victor.
Battle
Fighting in Battlefields of Olympus is decided using an elegantly modified Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanic, allowing some strategic planning when composing an army.
Player take turns in placing warrior cards capable of beating the previous opponent’s played unit, enhancing one’s warriors using the ability cards.
The crucial part here is hand management, knowing which cards to keep in hand, judging by what u think (or in some cases know, thanks to scouting) your opponent has in his hand and by keeping some track of which cards have already been played, getting an idea of what is left in the pool, so to speak.
Winning the game
Land Trophy Points (victory points) are awarded by winning the battles raged for the landscapes as already stated.
But there are two aspects which influence in your decision weather fighting over a specific land is worth the warrior loss [here I may add that all units used to fight are discarded after battle, both the winning and losing warriors]. To achieve victory one must know when to battle, and when to concede a less useful land for you to the opponent, keeping forces for a better objective.
On one hand, a player who possesses 3 Land Trophy Cards with the same colour icon, gets a ‘’mercenary’’ allowing the player more flexibility (providing the owner a 5 card hand instead of 4, at the cost that the mercenary is revealed to the opponent)
On the other hand, players must keep in mind when deciding to battle, that 3 Land Trophy cards of the same type, give an extra of 2 victory points to the final count.The Final Word
There’s more about Battlefields of Olympus than meets the eye.
As the light battlegame it is, I believe it fills the itch perfectly for me, both in fun and playing time.
And aside from the luck element strongly related to every card game, strategy and planning is still possible to some extent.
I would say, even if luck is a strong element, the better player will win in most cases.
- Therefore, I rate Battlefields of Olympus a solid 9.
I believe a game rating, should be done independently of other games, and as said before, the itch filled by this one in particular, can’t be complained about.
[I’ve left some pretty interesting mechanics outside of the scope of the review (like the reserve pile, which is the basic element when arranging which units compose your army), since I just wanted to give more of a feel on how the game plays, not exploring the rules completely.
Hint: For those who want to give it a try, here is the link to the vassal module
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/326479
Posted Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:49 pm
