The Great Wall - KS Core with Stretch Goals (Dragon Pledge)

The Great Wall is a new asymmetric worker/soldier placement game with engine building themes and a twist in form of a constantly attacking AI (Mongolian Horde) that requires players to sometimes cooperate in order to defeat it. This is a new major board game from Awaken Realms.

Players will control ancient clans in China trying to defend against invading Mongolian hordes and build a Great Wall. While every player will want to win (by earning VP = Honor) they also need to sometimes cooperate to defend against the hordes. Each clan will be asymmetric through its chosen Leader (resource production/starting resources/starting workers and units) and this asymmetry will increase as the game progresses (players will hire Advisors with unique skills, often creating unique engines).

In The Great Wall, the players take the role of Generals defending the Wall against the Mongol Horde. The game is played over a series of turns called Years, each divided into 4 parts called Seasons.

During Spring, new barbaric hordes invade the fields in front of the Great Wall and prepare to launch their assault. Summer is the time when generals prepare for the assault and mobilize their forces. During Fall, players take their turns, playing Command cards, resolving their effects and Activating Locations to gain various benefits. In Winter, the last layer of Defense is activated, then, the hordes try to assault the Walls.

During the course of the game, players will create their own unique engines based on their clan strength as well as interact with other players during all phases of the game, trying to get the most Honor points, which can be gained in a lot of different ways.

At the end of the game, the player with the most Honor wins.

This edition contains:

• Core Box - 5906660421368
• Stretch Goal Box - 5906660421382

Our review and recommendation

Firstly this is one of my favourite games. Co-operative, yet competitive (so not one person will lead the game), highly themed, awesome artwork and detailed minis that add value to the game play. It really does feel like you are building the Great Wall in china and fighting off the hordes. Each time new horde cards are drawn, everyone is in anticipation of where they are coming from, and what will they be! Then there is discussion around the table on the best strategy to survive, meanwhile whilst your scheming in how you can lead in honour points. At its heart its a work placement game but it's added some unique and interesting mechanics that work so well in this semi coop game. We've had some interesting game plays with this game, games with over 200 points with only a few points between all players, to games where there is a 80 point lead, and games where we've all lost and no one is a winner (yes we were all greedy to get the most honour and failed miserably with catapults smashing our wall). The game has asymmetrical powers, and my only negative on this game is I find some combinations of certain powers between players can be a little unbalanced. This could be easily fixed in the way Scythe bans certain player combination types in a game. If I get around to it I might even create my own list. That said the theming in this game is just next level, everything you do makes sense, horses can't attack pike men because they don't fit on the card properly but can penetrate through the hoards potentially taking out that catapult on the edge of the board, your arches can't get the spoils from the hoard (because they are on the wall), and the shield bearers will make your archers almost useless. The balance between an engine build, and attacking for honour, or just the embarrassment when you are shamed because you were the only one that took that action (must be stupid action then eh?).

Absolutely love this game, especially with 3 or more players. We've also decked our game out with the black powder expansion - and this adds even more insanity to defending the great wall of China. 

We rate this game a 8.9 / 10. If you like the theme and idea of a semi co-op grab this before it goes (Kickstarter only). We sell this with the stretch goals box included and it's a steal for the content provided. (Note Black powder expansion is purchased separately).

Upgrades and Expansions

The following upgrades and expansions are available on our store:

• Awaken Realms Black Powder Expansion
• 3DLevelup Resin Barricades
• 3DLevelup Round Marker
• Awaken Realms Deluxe Resources