A Tactical Retreat (War Chest)

Congratulations, you are the brand new captain of this rag-tag team.  Sure, they might seem crazy, but each one has proven their loyalty and worth on the field of battle.  Besides, it's not like the the war is going to advance on us, so let's...hmm, a message?  For me?  I'll read it in here.  Oh, it's time.  The war is advancing on us, grab your War Chest and meet me outside.

BACKGROUND:  War Chest is a tile based strategy game designed by Trevor Benjamin & David Thompson for 2 or 4 players, and published by Alderac Entertainment Group.  Playing either 1v1 or in teams, players draw and use tiles to conquer their opponents and claim all the special Locations.

GAMEPLAY:   Each player has two phases on their turn: First, they draw 3 Coins from their bag into their hand.  During the 2nd phase, the player can either either play a Unit Coin, or discard a coin face-up or face-down, each having different effects.  If a player ever runs out of Coins to draw, they put their Coins in their discard area back into the bag to draw.  If there are none and still not enough coins, they merely lose those actions.

COINS:  To play a Unit Coin, place it face-up onto a green Location space, or onto an matching Unit.  Players can only control one of each type of Units on the board.  Once per round, players may discard any coin face-down to take the Initiative Marker to start the next round, to add a Unit Coin from their Supply to their bag, or pass.  By discarding a Unit Coin face-up, the matching Unit on the board can now take actions.

UNITS:  Units can Move, Control, Attack, or use Tactics when a matching coin is discarded.  Moving allows the Unit to move 1 space.  Attacking allows the Unit to remove an opponents Unit adjacent to them, or remove the top Coin if it was bolstered.  Tactics are located on the card, and give special abilities to the Unit.  Some Units, like the Archer, can only Attack by using its Tactic.

WINNING:  When a Unit is on a Location tile, the player may also discard a coin face-up to place a Control marker there, removing an opponents if one exists.  When any player or team has only their Control markers placed on all the Locations, they win.

CONCLUSION:  War Chest is a tactic strategy game, with luck elements sprinkled in to add some flavor and challenge, and that's where the game gets me.  I love strategy and tactics, but the drawing from the bag element feels something that should be kept to games like Clank, a game that by nature is luck-focused.  This makes it feel bad when you just draw nothing and your piece dies because you needed them to move, but they couldn't due to an unfortunate random pull.   But even with that, there's still a bevy of strategy and planning that goes into the game, and you can adapt to the luck, it's just harder.  If you want a good strategy game, then open up this War Chest.