Asymmetric factions engage in epic struggle for land and crystal on an alien planet
I had my eye on Cry Havoc for quite some time—it’s a beautiful looking game, with its brightly coloured, distinctive factions battling it out on an alien planet for land and crystals. I only held back because I felt I already had a number of ‘dudes on a map’ (urgh—can we please retire that silly descriptor now?) games. Cry Havoc seemed to be an updated and expanded version of the old classic, Nexus Ops.
I wish I could tell you what’s different, but I haven’t yet had a chance to get this one to the table. It gets great reviews however, though there does seem to be some grumbling about balance issues between the factions. I’m not sure if the expansion, Aftermath, addresses this, but the basic rules for it are included in this summary. More information when I get to play this one!
It doesn’t have balance issues, it is just like most asymmetrical games where some factions take longer to figure out. I think a big issue with modern board gaming in general is that everyone has so many games that they don’t get to play a single game multiple times, and unfortunately a game like this needs that for certain factions to shine. They play it once, and immediately say it is “imbalanced” if they get a harder faction to play. As an example, my favorite faction are the Machines, which are commonly called “under powered” but after about 10 plays I figured them out to the point where I either win, or come in second every time now.
Glad to hear that, and you’re spot on about not having the time to get to know games well. Which is why I always have problems with ‘campaigns’ – I never have the opportunity to devote that much time to one game over 5 or 10 games sessions in a row!
Exactly, campaign gamed are the hardest to get to the table for me as well.