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Warchest is a "collectible board game" which is played on a standard chess board. Using a handful of playing pieces, your goal is to capture your opponent's warchest while defending your own warchest from his army. The game uses pewter miniatures as playing pieces, and there are over 100 figures available. Each figure comes with a reference card displaying its Attack, Defense, and Movement values, as well as any special abilities it may have. A picture of the miniature is also included on the sheet for quick identification. Each figure also has a point cost which comes into play when building your own custom armies, as well as when using some special abilities such as Mind Control and Summon. Overall, the statistics sheets look very similar to a card in a collectible card game like Magic: The Gathering, although this is not a card game by any stretch.

The easiest way to get into the game is to buy one of the six starter boxes which are available. Each starter box focuses on a "race" such as Goblins, Dwarves, or Bandits. A starter box contains six figures and a pewter warchest. A statistics sheet for each figure is included, as is a rulesheet and a paper playing board with an eight-by-eight grid on it in the event that you don't have a chess/checkers board available (use a board if possible, it is more visually appealing). The rulebook suggests that new players use 48-point armies, and the six figures included in a starter box allow for several variations in the army--all six of them combined cost more than 48 points so you can't use them all without changing the point limit.

After the armies are built (a 48-point army will average about 4 figures), players take turns placing units on the board. You are allowed to place your figures anywhere in the back two rows on your side of the board. There is a strategy element to this placement stage, as you try to determine where your opponent will place his warchest and trying to keep the location of your warchest a secret as long as possible. Generally the warchest is placed last, and it is common for them to be placed in opposite corners of the board.

Gameplay is simple--if your figure has a movement of 2, then he can move two spaces in the direction he is facing. It costs one movement point to change a figure's facing by 90 degrees. Thus, a figure could move one space and change facing, or he could change facing twice and stay in the same space. Figures can walk through spaces occupied by friendly pieces, but if you enter a space with an opposing figure, then a melee attack takes place. Your attack value is deducted from the defender's Defense value--Thus, if the attacker has an Attack 2 and the defender has a Defense 3, then after an attack the defender will have 1 Defense remaining. If you reduce the defense to 0, then the figure is captured and removed from the board. If the defender is still on the board, then the attacker steps back into the space from which he came and his action is complete. You can only take one action with any one figure in a single turn. Each player takes two actions per turn.

That's the game in a nutshell. However, there are quite a few special abilities which make the game more interesting. Some figures can fire missile attacks at remote enemies, some can boost the values of friendly figures, and some can take control of opposing units. Without counting, I would guess that there are at least 25-30 special abilities in the game, and the majority of figures have at least one special ability.

If you haven't guessed by now, the "collectible" part of this game consists of buying more miniatures so that you have a larger stable of figures from which to build your custom army. A starter box sells for $12, which seems very reasonable considering that you get seven miniatures for that price (six figures plus a warchest), not to mention the rules. Most of the other miniatures sell for $2.25, but they range as high as $7.50 depending on size. The larger figures are generally more powerful in game terms, and they are also given a minor cost break so that they are not impossible to bring into play. Although the minimum listed price is $2.25, my local game store sells many of the figures for only $1.50. We bought four starter boxes between the two of us and were able to play for quite a long time with those figures before we got the itch to investigate some of the other figures.

As far as presentation goes, the pewter figures look great but in other aspects the game seems to be very budget-conscious. In this age where companies like Cheapass Games are doing very well, though, I think this is something that many gamers can look past. The statistic sheets for each miniature appear to be photocopies. The rulebook is one foldout sheet of paper--one side contains the rules, and the other side is nothing but descriptions of the many special abilities in the game. The playing board included with the game is somewhat ugly, but most players will opt for a regular chessboard anyway so this doesn't matter much. One problem with the individual figures is that the statistic sheet is folded twice and stuffed into a regular miniature package--generally you can see the Attack/Defense/Move value of a figure but the special abilities are hidden. However, complete statistics on each and every figure is available on the Warchest website so you can do your planning ahead of time.

As of this writing, there is one expansion set available for Warchest--this expansion comes in a ziplock back and includes paper markers for such things as remaining Defense, locations of corpses (some undead figures can eat corpses to gain in strength, and some corpses can be brought back to life), and so on. Also, the expansion set introduces the concept of Terrain. Terrain essentially works like any other figure except they have a Movement value of 0. For instance, there is a Bramble terrain which has 0 Attack/3 Defense/0 Movement. It also has the special ability "Backlash 1". This terrain blocks enemy movement (but not your own) and if they attack it in an attempt to remove it, the Backlash ability means that they will automatically take a point of damage every time they attack. Most terrains have a special ability (including summoning other units from your collection), and those that don't generally have a high Defense value so that they are effective walls which take time to dismantle. The presentation of this expansion is not the best--all the counters and figures are just computer-printed paper rectangles which you cut out--but the concept is a great addition to the game and the production is easily overlooked.

Overall, Warchest is a game which seems simplistic at first glance but which has great strategic depth when you begin playing. I highly recommend it to gamers looking for a relatively fast game (30 minutes or so) which will challenge your wits and has the added bonus of being customizable so that you can try out different strategies and army rosters. Hit the following website to learn more about the game, including a free downloadable version of the rulebook:

http://www.io.com/unigames/warchest/warchest.html

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

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Warchest
Author: Jeff Dee Category: Board Game/Miniatures Company/Publisher: UNIgames / Lance-and-Laser Line: n/a Cost: varies Page count: n/a ISBN: SKU: Capsule Review by David Stallard on 08/04/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	Warchest is a "collectible board game" which is played on a standard chess board. Using a handful of playing pieces, your goal is to capture your opponent's warchest while defending your own warchest from his army. The game uses pewter miniatures as playing pieces, and there are over 100 figures available. Each figure comes with a reference card displaying its Attack, Defense, and Movement values, as well as any special abilities it may have. A picture of the miniature is also included on the sheet for quick identification. Each figure also has a point cost which comes into play when building your own custom armies, as well as when using some special abilities such as Mind Control and Summon. Overall, the statistics sheets look very similar to a card in a collectible card game like Magic: The Gathering, although this is not a card game by any stretch. The easiest way to get into the game is to buy one of the six starter boxes which are available. Each starter box focuses on a "race" such as Goblins, Dwarves, or Bandits. A starter box contains six figures and a pewter warchest. A statistics sheet for each figure is included, as is a rulesheet and a paper playing board with an eight-by-eight grid on it in the event that you don't have a chess/checkers board available (use a board if possible, it is more visually appealing). The rulebook suggests that new players use 48-point armies, and the six figures included in a starter box allow for several variations in the army--all six of them combined cost more than 48 points so you can't use them all without changing the point limit. After the armies are built (a 48-point army will average about 4 figures), players take turns placing units on the board. You are allowed to place your figures anywhere in the back two rows on your side of the board. There is a strategy element to this placement stage, as you try to determine where your opponent will place his warchest and trying to keep the location of your warchest a secret as long as possible. Generally the warchest is placed last, and it is common for them to be placed in opposite corners of the board. Gameplay is simple--if your figure has a movement of 2, then he can move two spaces in the direction he is facing. It costs one movement point to change a figure's facing by 90 degrees. Thus, a figure could move one space and change facing, or he could change facing twice and stay in the same space. Figures can walk through spaces occupied by friendly pieces, but if you enter a space with an opposing figure, then a melee attack takes place. Your attack value is deducted from the defender's Defense value--Thus, if the attacker has an Attack 2 and the defender has a Defense 3, then after an attack the defender will have 1 Defense remaining. If you reduce the defense to 0, then the figure is captured and removed from the board. If the defender is still on the board, then the attacker steps back into the space from which he came and his action is complete. You can only take one action with any one figure in a single turn. Each player takes two actions per turn. That's the game in a nutshell. However, there are quite a few special abilities which make the game more interesting. Some figures can fire missile attacks at remote enemies, some can boost the values of friendly figures, and some can take control of opposing units. Without counting, I would guess that there are at least 25-30 special abilities in the game, and the majority of figures have at least one special ability. If you haven't guessed by now, the "collectible" part of this game consists of buying more miniatures so that you have a larger stable of figures from which to build your custom army. A starter box sells for $12, which seems very reasonable considering that you get seven miniatures for that price (six figures plus a warchest), not to mention the rules. Most of the other miniatures sell for $2.25, but they range as high as $7.50 depending on size. The larger figures are generally more powerful in game terms, and they are also given a minor cost break so that they are not impossible to bring into play. Although the minimum listed price is $2.25, my local game store sells many of the figures for only $1.50. We bought four starter boxes between the two of us and were able to play for quite a long time with those figures before we got the itch to investigate some of the other figures. As far as presentation goes, the pewter figures look great but in other aspects the game seems to be very budget-conscious. In this age where companies like Cheapass Games are doing very well, though, I think this is something that many gamers can look past. The statistic sheets for each miniature appear to be photocopies. The rulebook is one foldout sheet of paper--one side contains the rules, and the other side is nothing but descriptions of the many special abilities in the game. The playing board included with the game is somewhat ugly, but most players will opt for a regular chessboard anyway so this doesn't matter much. One problem with the individual figures is that the statistic sheet is folded twice and stuffed into a regular miniature package--generally you can see the Attack/Defense/Move value of a figure but the special abilities are hidden. However, complete statistics on each and every figure is available on the Warchest website so you can do your planning ahead of time. As of this writing, there is one expansion set available for Warchest--this expansion comes in a ziplock back and includes paper markers for such things as remaining Defense, locations of corpses (some undead figures can eat corpses to gain in strength, and some corpses can be brought back to life), and so on. Also, the expansion set introduces the concept of Terrain. Terrain essentially works like any other figure except they have a Movement value of 0. For instance, there is a Bramble terrain which has 0 Attack/3 Defense/0 Movement. It also has the special ability "Backlash 1". This terrain blocks enemy movement (but not your own) and if they attack it in an attempt to remove it, the Backlash ability means that they will automatically take a point of damage every time they attack. Most terrains have a special ability (including summoning other units from your collection), and those that don't generally have a high Defense value so that they are effective walls which take time to dismantle. The presentation of this expansion is not the best--all the counters and figures are just computer-printed paper rectangles which you cut out--but the concept is a great addition to the game and the production is easily overlooked. Overall, Warchest is a game which seems simplistic at first glance but which has great strategic depth when you begin playing. I highly recommend it to gamers looking for a relatively fast game (30 minutes or so) which will challenge your wits and has the added bonus of being customizable so that you can try out different strategies and army rosters. Hit the following website to learn more about the game, including a free downloadable version of the rulebook: http://www.io.com/unigames/warchest/warchest.html Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)