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Allow me, if you will, to take you on a little trip down memory lane, right back to your school days.
Picture the scene…
It’s a brisk autumn morning, you’ve brushed your teeth, donned your school uniform and you are watching the last few minutes of breakfast TV that your schedule will allow. Just as you’re about to run out of the door for the bus, you realise you’ve forgotten something deathly important…
You dart back inside and grab hold of a tattered old shoelace, at the bottom swings a giant, slightly cracked brown orb. Break time rolls around and you pull that same string from your pocket. Gasps ripple around the small crowd gathered to watch, as you swing your mighty ‘Sixer’ and obliterate your friends pathetic excuse of a challenger.
That conker is your most prized possession. Life is simple. Life is undoubtedly good.
Now, if any of that sounds familiar, ‘Divide & Conker’ is the game for you! And if it didn’t, here’s your chance to experience one of the true joys of growing up in the UK.
What is Divide & Conker?
Divide and Conker takes the very essence of the schoolyard game of Conkers and distils it down into a 2-4 player card drafting, dice rolling battle to declare the true King of the Swingers.
Players are tasked with drafting a troop of military-themed conkers into their hand, along with the all-important string to hang them from, a selection of ‘hardeners’ (which might be frowned upon in the playground, but thankfully not here) and if they are lucky, some trick cards to aid them in battle.
Each ‘type’ of Conker, from the high-ranking Colonel right down to the lowly Cadet, has its own set of stats indicating how much damage they can withstand, what battle dice the player gets to roll and how many victory points they are worth when it comes to scoring at the end of the game.
In addition, the types of string also vary, with your bog-standard cord breaking after the first round, the leather lace ensuring its owner goes first and the bungee cord even allowing a single die re-roll if the first one wasn’t too kind.
Hardeners mostly add extra health although sometimes it can come at a cost to the conkers victory points, and only one can be applied to each of your recruits so players must choose wisely.
Finally, Trick Cards are one-time effect cards that can be played in battle to tip the battle in your favour, from reducing your opponents HP, to completely swapping out one of the conkers for a chestnut; either protecting your own to fight another day or to instigate an easy victory.
At the end of the first round any surviving conkers receive an ‘Aged’ marker, meaning they can roll a special die in future battles for maximum damage.
Battle Time!
Drafting your dream team is only part of the fun though, as once everyone is prepared the battle phase commences!
The two players who are engaged in combat take turns to roll whatever combination of dice their conker, string and hardener allows them to (there are orange, yellow and red dice, with varying odds of hitting or missing the opponent.)
Hits do 1 point of damage, misses as you might have guessed… do nothing.
The first player to reduce their opponents’ hit points to 0 picks up the win, and to the victor go the spoils as the losing conker, and all it’s victory points, tuck behind the tough nut that just scored the win.
Players must be careful though, as any unspent hit points on a knock out blow come back and damage their own conker. This might sound like a small point, but it adds a wonderful layer of strategy, with players sometimes opting not to roll their most potent dice in an effort to do just enough to score the win.
After 2 rounds and multiple battles, players add up their victory points and the person with the most is declared the winner.
A Real Beauty
Divide & Conker has some solid gameplay mechanics, but that isn’t the only thing that makes it stand out from the crowd. Thanks to the artistic flair of Dawid Wiacek, the game is an absolute joy to look at too, with each Conker, Hardener and Trick card having its own unique feel.
It may be early days, but it is easy to see how expansions could be released, introducing fans to a whole new raft of lovable but menacing characters ready to join the ranks.
Ready to Rumble?
If all of that nostalgia put you in the mood for a good old-fashioned game of Conkers expertly converted into a card game, I have good news for you…
Divide & Conker by No Drinks on the Table is crowd funding right now, and all the details can be found on the Kickstarter page!
What’s more, Divide & Conker’s fulfilment will be carried out by Zatu too, so your nuts will be in good hands until they eventually arrive at your door, ready for battle!