War Chest Review

“Yes… here we shall make our stand. Captain! Ready the men!”

“Yes sir! They’re here sir!”

“That was quick! How did – there’s 4 of them!?”

“Well. Arguably 5 sir -”

“I’m not counting the horse!”

“No sir.”

“What happened to my army!?”

“This is all we’ve got I’m afraid but er…”

“Yes?”

“The general did give you this royal token.”

“…”

Players: 2-4
Time: 30 mins
Ages: 14+
Designer: Trevor Benjamin, David Thompson (I)
Artist: Brigette Indelicato
Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group

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War Chest gets the chest out of the way early with some unsubtle product design. It is a lovely box, with a magnetic hinged lid that opens up to reveal a tray of coin-like poker chip playing pieces. Unfortunately this all makes me think pirate rather than general which is presumably why the “War” was put in the title. It also makes me want to go out and bury it in the garden if only because then I could say it was easy to store. War Chest gets the aesthetics right, but the ergonomics (of its box) are something of a mixed bag.

Speaking of mixed bags, let’s talk about some mechanics! (What a transition. Seamless!) War Chest is a bag builder, which means those delightful poker chips go in, get shuffled up with a sound not dissimilar to a full plate knight striding across the room at you, and drop back out three at a time. It’s deck building, but with a bag.

Much the same considerations arise from this. Considerations of draw probabilities, of which new units (disks) to add to the bag. I know how many of each type I have in there, so the number face up in my discard pile tells me how likely it is that I’m going to draw a particular unit type next round. But importantly, it also gives my opponent that same information. Unlike so many deck and bag builders, what your opponent has waiting in their bag is of considerable interest.

That is thanks to the ‘war’ part. Pieces will be placed out on the board to become units in a skirmish battle game. This is the focus: winning requires manoeuvring on to and securing the key spots of this abstracted battlefield. But the bag building is what drives it. Each unit type, and you’ll each have 4 available, comes with a stack of tokens. As they filter into and then out of your bag into your hand you can place them out onto the board, but then the only way to move or attack with that unit is to discard a matching token.

Perhaps you see how this works. I watch my opponent’s discards so that I have some idea of what units they can still activate. Is that token in their hand that crossbowmen guarding that space? Or is it their swordsmen over on the other side of the board, meaning I can move up in safety? To create some healthy doubt, tokens can be discarded face down to ready a new token into your bag, to steal the initiative for the next round, or just to pass and leave them unsure.

It’s a very nice system! Each draw from the bag is thrilling as it can mean the difference between seizing the ground or kill you need, or leaving your key unit exposed. But your opponent won’t know for sure that they are exposed, are you just luring them into an ambush!? Which makes having the initiative, and going first in a round, both a blessing and a curse depending on the situation. But this luck of the draw doesn’t ever feel unfair as you make choices knowing roughly how likely it is to draw what you need.

Each unit type has its own special rules and movement too, nothing so complicated that either player will lose track, but just enough to make them feel unique. Obviously the archer can attack at range, but in a different way to the crossbowman who can only fire in straight lines, or can clock a neighbour over the head. But what is really exciting is how each combination of units makes you re-evaluate how you play. Seeing your opponent has Pikemen makes you immediately afraid and attempt to commit your ranged troops to hunting them down. I felt legitimately excited to see how each mix of units was going to change how the battle played out. With 16 different units of which only 8 will be in any given battle, that gives a lot of possible battles to experience!

War Chess

Your strategic options vary with each new game, your tactical decisions are kept tense and exciting by the small hand size and random nature of the bag-building. While War Chest looks like a pure abstract it captures surprisingly well the nature of fog of war and limited communication through a system as elegant as the Command & Colours games such as Memoir 44. Players may chafe at the restrictiveness of only having one of each unit type on the board at a time, but I appreciated how, as units are killed and brought back to the board, the front shifts from one part of the board to the other and back, a dynamic ebb and flow that only ends once one player has pushed themselves over the threshold for control.

War Chest doesn’t do everything perfectly. Managing your bag is not as interesting as most deck builders. Typically you’ll end up with most if not all your chips running through the bag so decisions are more about when rather than if to select certain tokens. But since it is not the game’s focus this is far from a serious problem. I’m not convinced all units are created equal either, though I’m hardly an expert. But light cavalry can be extremely effective with a double move, whereas if anyone can tell me how on earth to get the swordsman working I’ll be forever in your debt. Well, moderately grateful anyway.

But these niggles, even the stupidly shaped box, are not enough to ruin War Chest for me. It is a wonderful game and I have been delighted by just how much I enjoyed seeing different unit combinations in action. Even the “weaker” (if that’s what they are) units feel more like challenges to master than real detriment to the game as it can easily be tested multiple times in one evening as the game plays with all the speed and fury of bloody combat. I’m not generally that excited about two player skirmish games (although I have also been enjoying Shadespire) and abstract ones least of all, but War Chest has absolutely won me over.

 

Rating: Pieces of Great

 

Our copy of War Chest was provided for review by Asmodee UK. You can pick up a copy for £46.99 RRP from your local hobby store.

If you want to see War Chest in action, check out this Gaming Rules! playthrough: