"Revolution!" Review

Revolution! just happens to be the most recent game that I have played. I wanted to do a quick overview of the game, as well as my thoughts on it.

Theme

The game has slight confusion with the theme, although the initial premise is sound. Revolution is about to break out, and you want to have the most influence by the time it arrives. To do this, you are going to have to bribe, blackmail and force different members of the community onto your side. Now, if you squint at the background of the box above you will make out, what appears to me, to be something resembling revolutionary France. The gunpowder bomb taking place of the "O" also fits this assumption. Characters such as magistrates and printers definitely place this game somewhere in the 18th? century. However, on playing, you will notice that the board contains a large number of roman soldiers. In a tavern? I don't think so. Anyway, its just a nitpick worth mentioning.

Game Rules

Revolution! is essentially a bidding game. Players, behind closed screens (which I must point out was a well-implemented and well-designed component) place their gold coins, black coloured letters and red fists onto a collection of characters (printer, magistrate, captain etc.). Some characters cannot be forced, or blackmailed, or both. Then, all players reveal what they have, and you hope that you have bided on things that nobody else did, or bided higher on a specific character than someone else.

         Winning over a character has certain advantages. Winning over generals and captains will give you some manpower that you may use to beat up a bishop onto your side, or buying out an innkeep might get you some nice gossip to blackmail the merchant with later. This all ties nicely in with the theme and makes for some enjoyable circumstances, like every player putting ludicrous amounts of money to attempt to bribe the apothecary.

         Other than replenishing your tokens, you will also win support, as well as being able to place wooden cubes onto different areas (e.g. winning over bishop gives you influence in the cathedral). At the end of the game, you will get points for having the most cubes in an area. This is also what ends the game.

         Other than that, there are no other real rules. Apothecaries and Thieves can be used to swap or replace cubes on the board, which adds a nice touch, but other than that, there are no cards, no dice, nothing.

Components and Art

The game looks alright. Its not a particularly poetic phrase, but its the best way that I can describe it. The tokens are nice and large enough not to be lost, and are all very distinguishable and solid. I have already expressed by like for the covers, as well as my dislike for the roman soldiers. There are further problems with the board - I couldn't help feeling that a lot of space was simply wasted - in reality the only thing it was used for was having thirty-something spaces for different coloured wooden cubes. It could have been used as a place to store perhaps the tokens? Or had a more interesting visual art style (see Village).

         I like the wooden cubes (I am a big fan of wooden components in games), however I think that there could have been nicer score-markers for racing along the outside of the board. It felt a bit last-minute. The bidding board was a bit unimaginative as well, I would have liked some pictures, or icons, or even some different typefaces or something.

Opinions

The game is highly enjoyable but not a classic. I got it very cheap - only £10, and I would say that it was worth the money. I felt like the game lasted about the right amount of time, and its the sort of game that you can easily get people involved in, and don't really have to get that competitive to play.

         However, the game occasionally lacks strategy, and it can be pure luck that turns the tide. I do not deny that there is skill involved, after all, TECHNICALLY there is no chance in the entire game, but it often feels like a player can have a huge advantage by a lucky streak. This sometime works in the game's favour however as it keeps you on your toes and means that anyone has a chance of winning.

         I would have liked to see some more aspects to the game - some more interesting mechanics, perhaps some greater strategy involved as I found, although I cannot deny that the game was very streamlined, that the game became tedious and not very engaging in places. Overall, a hearty 6.5 out of ten. What that scale means we shall discover, but for now, see you next time!

Glory to Boardgameistan.