First Impressions of Cry Havoc

You know, TROGS sometimes it would be TROGS nice to be able to do TROGS anything without godda- TROGS – getting in the way! But then I guess we wouldn’t be playing Cry Havoc now, would we?

The lizard toad-like race of Trogs are the indigenous peoples of this far off world and they aren’t too pleased with the 3 strange races who’ve started mining their favourite minerals. Fortunately they are player controlled (in the 4 player game) starting slap bang in the centre of the map, and so have at least a fighting chance. In fact… probably more than a fighting chance as the enemy’s first foray into this land is almost inevitably going to end under a tide of muscly green locals. Trog smash!

You see, virtually every space on the board will spawn a bunch of free Trogs for the Trog player to immediately use. Thus the other factions; the humans, the machines, and the jazz-hands pilgrims need to hit each area hard and, to an extent, work together to contain the Trog menace. Unsurprisingly in our demo with all new players, they vastly underestimated me as the Trogs, and I didn’t even have to do all that much to hold them back.

Part of the reason for this is how difficult/expensive it can be to move and produce new units. You can spend your hand of multi-use cards to do either of these things (in addition to building and using structures), depending on the number of relevant symbols on the card. You can play more than one, but then you’ll rapidly run out of said cards as you only draw 4 for each 3 turn round. I felt very restricted in my ability to move around the map, to do anything, really, in those opening 2 turns of the demo. And I was playing the Trogs who basically spawn for free! Getting dudes on to the map and then into position to threaten your opponents feels like a herculean task.

Cry Havoc has flaunted its combat system like the pilgrims flaunt their dance moves, and it’s certainly an interesting experience to take in (the combat… not the dancing). The 3 part battle board requires you to chose between winning the area, protecting your units from capture and actually dealing damage to the enemy. But once each side has placed down their units, each involved player can play one card at a time using those card’s battle abilities to bring in nearby reinforcements or move pieces around the battle board. Deciding how much to commit is key because once you pass, you’re out and your opponent can play as many cards as they like! It leads to some real tension as you wonder at what your opponent might pull out of their sleeves. But it didn’t blow me away.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly interesting but it felt like either you have enough troops to win the area, or you instead just slaughter and capture everything you can. The card play is exciting, and forcing your opponent to commit more cards than they want just to avoid passing is extremely satisfying! But even this system has built in clunkiness. The cards you can add to your deck (in a lovely little bit of deck/hand building) are tied to certain terrain types (2 of 4), and so can only be played to affect battles in those terrains. It feels like a restriction to make life more difficult for the player, rather than adding something positive to the experience.

For a game about combat, war and conquest, I think I was looking for something more dynamic than the slow gruelling slog through the bodies of a million natives (which has its own, awkward, connotations) that Cry Havoc in some ways feels like (even as the Trog player). I think this has to do with the board itself. It is intended (I believe) to represent the entire planet, and thus this war is occurring on an epic scale, each board region representing a whole land mass or ocean, in effect. And in that frame of mind the huge effort required to make progress is appropriate. But the board doesn’t look like that to me. Instead I see something reminiscent of a King of the Hill type scenario, played over a single mountain or a single country. The circular rings of large spaces and a lack of any guidance from the board’s bland artwork leaves the miniatures to set the scale in the mind of the player. An incorrect impression not helped by Trog’s tunnel ability letting them cross the whole map in a single move. It’s an incongruity between theme, mechanics and presentation that I couldn’t shake during the demo or since.

Of course, this demo was only the first two turns (of 4 or 5) so the pace might pick up in later turns… but I couldn’t see obviously how. Instead I need to shift my way of looking at the map and how the mechanics relate to that. And I will certainly play Cry Havoc again with that frame of mind in place, assuming I get the opportunity. But even then I’m left with the impression that Cry Havoc is a game focussed on creating difficult decisions for the players rather than giving the players the freedom to run wild and let challenging decisions emerge. It’s a valid approach and gives you a system to get your teeth into, but in the end left me feeling that little bit colder for it.

This first impression of Cry Havoc was based on a 2 turn demo at Essen Spiel. To see what other games I got to play and will be writing about over the next few weeks, check out my list of played games here.