Review Summary: Enjoyable, even though they are kind of different from what they claim to be.

Blurb from the publisher: 'Secondary objectives bring new excitement to your skirmishes in the streets of Longfall. Every scenario gets a breath of fresh air and is enriched with new flavour. Where else can you find “New Friends” and engage in “Monkey Business” at the same time?

A total of 26 bilingual (German / English) game cards, neatly packaged in a wrapper of crinkly transpartent foil.'

What you get: Your EUR 6,90 will buy you the Freebooter's Secondary Objectives, a deck of cards to use with the Freebooter's Fate miniatures game. The product contains 24 Secondary Objective cards and 2 cards with the rules on how to use them. All cards are bilingual, with text in both English and German.

Gameplay: The name says it all; now there are even more things to achieve in addition to the mission’s goal. Each player draws four cards after hiring but before deploying his crew. He keeps three and discards one; these are his secondary objectives. If he thinks they are unplayable, or if he feels that they suck, he can discard all of them and draw three new ones, he will be however obliged to keep all of them then. On a usual game all objectives are open and your opponent(s) know what you are going for. You can however play with secret objectives or even combine the two, if you feel confident enough. Succeeding in open objectives nets you 75 glory points per, while secret objectives net you only 50.

All 24 secondary objectives are different. Examples of objectives include Defender Of The Weak (your cheapest character must survive), Pile On! (have three of your heroes gang up on an opponent touching his base at the same time), Heroic Fighter (one of your characters must take two opponent specialists out of action) and Lead By Example (your leader and specialists may not be knocked over or panicked).

The strong points: I was looking forward towards adding an extra layer of depth in the light-hearted Freebooter’s Fate. It might never become Mutant Chronicles Warzone Resurrection in that sense, I was interested however into seeing it give it a try. The result is solid, even though the name raises different expectations.

Very few of these goals register in my head as ‘objectives’. They do register however fantastically as achievements: not only I am going to win you, I am going to do it while hitting your guys five times in the head! Or with that guy shooting once only! Or by shoving your characters around! I can’t accurately define how an achievement is different to a secondary objective; in my mind the achievement is mostly about the bragging rights, the secondary objective means however that you did a good job without depending solely on luck. Let me give an example. Back in 1985-86 in that quaint game called basketball, in a game where the Celtics faced Portland, Larry Bird decided that he would only shoot left-handed while being a right-hander. The Celtics won. Is that a secondary objective? Not really; it’s an achievement. A secondary objective would have been to keep the opposing team (or a particular player) under a certain number of points; not allow them to run fast breaks; force the opponent to play out of the paint.

So, are the cards bad? Hell, no! The thing works, even though a handful of them are actually secondary objectives. The product is however different to what it suggests, in how it makes you perceive your gang and the way you want to structure your force, your equipment and then run your game. If you are prepared for some randomness and for whimsical additional goals, this is the expansion for you. In many ways it makes the game harder since the points that you will net are not negligible. Don’t kid yourself however that you did it through your sheer tactical genius.

Once again the cards unflinchingly follow the overall look of the game. Card quality is identical to the previous two sets, so no worries there.

The weak points: Seeing how some of these goals look like objectives and some like achievements, they are not balanced. Defending your weakest hero and keeping him out of harm’s way is one thing, is it however as easy to achieve as the Longfall Kiss, which needs you to hit opponents’ heads a total of five times? Your life will not become easier if you try to claim points for the Pacifist, whereupon a selected character may not attack at any point in the game. Some scenarios are not particularly helpful in you gaining Breakthrough, i.e. having two of your characters in your opponent’s deployment zone. I feel that Mutant Chronicles Warzone Resurrection did a much better job with real secondary objectives that felt balanced. Any further comparison however would be grossly unfair, seeing how it is nowhere near a light-hearted game.

Thematically speaking these objectives will rarely fit with the primary scenario objective. Why would one of your figures need to be a pacifist? Why would you aim five times for opponents’ legs? On the other hand, this is a rather easy thing to fix. Like the good mature adults that you are, choose along with your opponent eight secondary objectives that you feel go with the scenario you are using, mix them and deal these ones only.

The Gaming Cards came in a carton box, as expected. This expansion however, just like the Freebooter's Fate Equipment Cards is packed only in a transparent plastic wrap similar to what you see on cigarette packs. Seriously? How does one keep the cards safe? Clearly they do not fit the initial Gaming Cards box, which means that some of your cards are tucked in nicely (if you didn’t sleeve them, that is), and some are exposed. On the other hand, if you sleeve all the cards like me, it means that you can’t use that box either. Great! Now all cards are held together only by a rubber band. This is quite a let down, frankly... for a second time.

Conclusion: Secondary Objectives is a sort of a misnomer for this deck of cards, which is however still enjoyable and totally affordable. It will not make your game more tactical or thoughtful; it will however make it more mischievous and fun. Sometimes, this is how memorable stories are born.

For more info on the Secondary Objectives and Freebooter's Fate, visit the company’s website at www.freebooterminiatures.de.

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