Warchon deserved to be a board game, but it would have been lost among similar offerings. It screamed to be a double book strategy game, but Lost Worlds, Ace of Aces, and 1-On-1 Gamebooks went out of style years ago. So Tony Lee (author of the Extreme Vengeance RPG) created the Playmark Book Game format. The singular design goal for the game was that you would need nothing else. No dice, no pencil, no paper -- just the game. Z-Man Games met their design goal, but the game still has a few problems.
This $25 two-player game includes two sets of full color Playmarks plus a single black-and-white book (Larry Elmore color cover) containing three primary sections: a story by Margaret Weis and Don Perrin (~10 pgs), the game rules (~25 pgs), and the game "board" (~60 pgs).
I couldn't get into the fiction. Additionally, I don't think it significantly contributed to the ambience of the game itself. I think Weis and Perrin are established as novelists rather than short story writers. I suspect (without hard evidence) that at least 20% of the product's cost went to paying the name-brand Weis and Perrin; I resent that, because for me, it dragged down Warchon's value for the money.
The rules are concise and well written, but it's no use using them as a reference. You play the game IN the third part of the book, so if you need to refer to the rules, it's extremely distracting. Also, passing a single book back and forth is a bit of a chore, but necessary. Here's how the game is played:
Each player receives a set of Playmarks (bookmarks) with CCG-like characteristics. Each Playmark is either a Unit or a Spell, and possesses Size, Speed, Attack, Defense, Hits, Cost, and Special Abilities. Both players agree on the total cost of the game, and choose a number of Playmarks such that the total Cost of the Playmarks does not exceed the game cost. Then, each player puts their Playmarks in specific starting locations (pages) in the book, depending on which side they represent, as specified in the rules.
Each location may include any or all of the following: a table of special events for units in that location, a list of terrain qualities affecting units in that location, a map showing how that location connects to other locations (for units that can travel multiple locations in a turn), a random number generator for resolving combat and determining events, and a combat results table for determining, um... er... combat results. You track whether a unit has moved by shifting it to peek out over the top or bottom of the book from turn to turn. To determine whether a unit has taken an action other than movement (combat or special ability), you slide the Playmark up/down just a little bit so that the word "Activated" (printed on both sides of the Playmark) is revealed outside the upper/lower edge of the book. Very keen, very elegant.
Determing combat results requires that each player add up all the Attack scores in a given location, subtract the Defense scores in the target location, and cross reference that column value with a random number row to generate how many hits attacking and defensive units take. Hit are recording by first rotating units 180 degrees, then flipping them over, then rotating them 180 degrees again. Obviously, maximum possible Hits for any unit is 4. Whe a unit reaches 0 Hits, it's out of the game. Where do you put it? Well, I wish the book had a pocket, but it doesn't. You just tuck it in the back or drop them back in the box.
Units -- Knights, Priests, War Machines, Dragons, Soldiers, Demons, etc. -- are extremely balanced, and variable cost games ensure that a variety of scenarios are available. You can have a game of hiding in the woods and taking potshots at one another, up-close brutal combat with multiple bruisers, ninja-like hunt and destroy scenarios, or "mortal kombat" with one or two units fighting arch-nemeses.
Is it everything the advertising claims? Sure, but there are some caveats:
Drop the book and your game is over. I know, same thing with most other board games that get scattered. But this is billed as a portable game.
Lose a Playmark? Too bad, say bye-bye to that unit forever, unless you want to buy another copy of the game.
Trying to learn this game with a poor memory? You'll have to photocopy all the rules pages for reference so you don't have to keep flipping back and forth.
Also, the title has a bit of a problem -- first person I showed it to, asked, "Clash at Syphilis? What the heck is that?" Oops. :) But it was good for a laugh.
I really liked this game, but there are few things I would have done to make this game more accessible and playable.
1) Drop the Weis-Perrin fiction.
2) Print and include two cheap, black-and-white copies of the rulebook. Or, at the very least, include two reference cards for brief rule, trait, and effect reminders. Heck, what're two more double-width bookmarks gonna cost?
3) I'm not sure how much box packaging helps sell this particular kind of game. Z-man chose to package it to look like a computer game. I would have shrinkwrapped the book, making sure the back cover had a pocket to hold all the Playmarks.
4) Include a full list of all Playmarks and statistics in the back of the book. That way, if you lose a Playmark, you're not totally hosed, except perhaps emotionally.
If each person had their own playbook, they could really play under fog-of-war, rather than the not-so-foggy variant included in the game. But then again, if you implement the above ideas, you could likely buy two copies of the game for the same price.
You'll want to play this gem of a game again when you finish; the problem is that the tedium of rules referencing may turn you off. While I definitely recommend purchasing Warchon, I'm not certain I can fully support its price tag.
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