The Cousin’s War Review

Matt: There was once a terrible war between trigonometrists known as the cosines war!

Robin: No… this is The Cousin’s War. Cousins. It’s about the War of the Roses.

Matt: Stop taking us on tangents, Robin.

Robin: No, really… read the box again.

Matt: The Cousin’s War… oh. If only there had been some clearer sine!

Cousins War

Players: 2
Time: 30 mins
Age: 12+
Designer: David J. Mortimer
Artist: Klemens Franz
Publisher: Surprised Stare Games Ltd


Matt: There was once a terrible war between Brits known as the Cousin’s War! Because it was fought between cousins: the families of York and Lancaster and their various, ever changing allies. I don’t have any cousins, so have been fortunate to avoid similar bloodshed over the years. But many a childhood has been rent by the dreaded familial visits. Thank goodness most kids grow out of it!

Cousins War Components

Compressed into one of the world’s tiniest boxes, The Cousins War gives you a map of the best bits of Britain to fight over (queue Scottish readers walking away in disgust) a collection of anatomically correct Yorkshiremen and Lancastrians, a deck of cards, and some suspicious looking dice. Oh it’s not going to be one of those games is it? I had my fill of those games when Risk went out of fashion. No don’t worry, this is the best use of dice since Strike.

But I’m not going to tell you why just yet.

Struggling with cards

A war game with cards! It can only mean a loving homage to Twilight Struggle and that is always a great place to start. Most cards in this game can either be played for command points to move your cuboidal men around, or for the action listed. But under certain circumstances your opponent will get a bonus action. The challenge is in manipulating things and timing your plays such that any bonus you offer them is of little to no benefit.

Cousins War Cards

There is a big difference between how things work here and how they work in Twilight Struggle (or last year’s 13 Days). Instead of cards being aligned to a particular faction, any event can be played by either side, with their opponents potentially getting the bonus in the bottom part of the card, depending on which round it is. Across the top of the card are the round numbers which may be wrapped up in an ornate box or emblazoned with a rose. The box means that if played in that round your opponent definitely gets the bonus, the rose is the same, but only if it is the same colour as their faction. Which side is the white Rose and which the red? The answer is that like 80% of England can’t remember anymore so don’t worry about it!

This card system is a nice twist on the classic Twilight Struggle that works especially well here where most of the deck is dealt out every round. You are going to be seeing the same cards multiple times over the course of a single game, but because the effect for your opponent changes depending on the round, how you need to approach the playing of that card changes depending on the round too. Several actions will similarly depend on the state of the board or require you to have enough resources to make full use of. Every round is an interesting new puzzle, each play only making it more interesting as you learn the deck of available actions and consider whether your opponent might be able to counter you.

Cousins War Board

The Board is Set

Your aim is to control the 3 regions of England (annoying the Welsh to no end I’m sure): the South, the Midlands, and t’ North. Have more man cubes in a region than your opponent and you control it. Control more regions at the end of the game and you win, or control all the regions at the end of any round and win immediately. In true kingly style.

There are 3 main ways of getting men on board. One is from the card abilities. The second is through the use of command points on those cards instead. You can attempt to move cubes on to the board, but you must roll higher than the number of cubes you have in that region already. These come from your reserve, so you’ll often also need to refill that reserve from the supply, for the cost of one cube per point. But more importantly, and more efficiently, you can shift men to this round’s battlefield of choice!

Cousins War Battlefield

You can’t have a war without breaking a few battle lines and in a fit of generosity Cousin’s War will let you fight 5! Each round both players will submit one of the battlefield cards from their hand for consideration by the War office. Whichever was historically earlier will be the battle fought this round, any other battlefields you have in your hand can be used for command points later. The advantage/disadvantage* of getting the winning battlefield is you must go first this round. (*delete as appropriate)

Over the course of the round, you will be able to send troops to the battlefield to throw insults and make offensive gestures at the gathering enemy until you’ve both played 4 cards and the round is over. Then it’s time for the usual sharpening of blades, inspiring speeches, and dice rolling. Oh yes it’s time for the dice!

A Good Day to Die

I made big promises earlier. The battles in Cousin’s War are suitably climactic, terrifyingly tense and exceptionally exciting and it’s because they are resolved, as was customary in England at the time, by playing Liars Dice.

Oh it’s so good! Let’s do this. You can be the… red people. (No one knows which is which, I’m telling you!)

Cousins War Battle

I roll the 3 dice in secret, and then tell you what I have. I’m looking for the largest set I can make. 3 of a kind beats a pair no matter what pips are showing. It’s a pair of 5s.

Cousins War Bluff

Question is, do you believe me? Accept and you’ll have to roll the dice and try and beat my claim regardless of whether it’s true or not. Pair 5s is tough to beat. Call me on it then. I dare you.

If I’m lying when you call me, I immediately lose a cube, and the turn passes to you. If I’m telling the truth, you immediately lose a cube. You feeling lucky? Well are you? Punk!

Cousins War Roll

Oh I was lying! Sort of… you see what I didn’t tell you was you can play the one card you’ll have left over from the preceding round when caught in a lie, using its command points to modify the value of the die you’ve rolled. Looks like I wasn’t really lying after all.

Cousins War adjust dice

You now have to roll to beat me but can also use your card to help if needs be. There’s a little matrix on the player reference that will tell you how many cubes the loser loses depending on the results. Players alternate lying – I mean bluffing – and guessing until one side is wiped out. The winners then move en-mass into the region where the battle was fought, meaning a mid game win almost always requires a big victory in battle to secure!

This battle system is fantastic. It makes for a truly climactic end to each round. It’s all about what your opponent is thinking, their poker face, playing the odds. There’s still the thrill of chance but so much more depth too it. And you’ll be learning from each other over the course of many such exchanges within a game. It becomes about opposing generals staring across the field of battle trying to feel for where they will strike, what ploy they will pursue to get an edge. All crammed into mere moments of gameplay. Utter brilliance.

Cousins War Game

Cousin’s War isn’t just decided in battle though. It is a game split between combat and intrigue but the two halves complement each other thematically. There is no battle without the risk of betrayal by supposed allies, no manipulation of the noble courts without some quiet removal of enemies in the dark. And as such the manipulation and out thinking of your opponent applies as much during the card play in the first part of a round as it does in the dice rolling melee of the battles. That there is so much game crammed into so small a box is an exceptional achievement! Go buy this now!

Rating: Rose Above the Rest

 


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