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15th century England was a strange place. I mean, I don’t even see my cousins outside of the occasional large family gathering, let alone start a war with them over the English crown. That is the situation in which the players find themselves in The Cousins’ War. There have been many games about The War of the Roses over the years, yet not many that resolve the conflict inside 30 minutes. Can The Cousins’ War deliver a suitably evocative 2 player experience in that time?
Influential Battles
Winning The Cousins' War couldn’t be simpler: control the 3 regions of England, namely the North, Midlands and South. Control of a region is achieved through simply having more of your side’s cubes (influence) there than your opponent’s. If someone achieves control of all 3 regions, they win and the game is over. Else, the winner is the player with majority control after 5 rounds.
This wrangling for control of England is achieved through card play. Playing cards lets you put influence on the map, move it around the map, remove your opponent’s influence, train more troops and commit your troops to the separate battlefield card that is in play for the round.
Yes, each round there is a battle card next to the map. Winning this battle will allow the victor to place their winning troops onto the main map, causing seismic shifts in the balance of power.
The card play is similar to that in David J Mortimer’s latter designs in Surprised Stare Games’ Pocket Campaign Series, namely The Ming Voyages and The War of the 3 Sanchos. Playing cards provides you with 1-3 action points and COULD allow your opponent to also get a bonus action, according to the round number. This is open information and combined with the fact you have to pass one of your cards to your opponent at the start of each round, leads to interesting strategic choices.
You could give your opponent a weak card with one action point. Or you could hand them a better card, which, if they play it this round (one card always goes unplayed), will allow you a helpful counter action.
Knowing the cards is advantageous and the deck is mercifully small, allowing for players to quickly become familiar with some of the key events in the deck.
Call My Bluff
Alongside the map manoeuvring taking place each round in The Cousins' War, there is also exactly one battle. If both players have committed troops to the battlefield, there is a conflict that continues until one side is eliminated.
Each round of conflict consists of one player rolling by 3 dice in secret and declaring their result. Doubles beat singles, triples beat doubles and then in dice value order. The second player has the choice to accept or challenge the declaration. Accepting means the dice are never revealed and they roll their dice openly to try and beat it. Challenging means they are revealed and one side or the other will lose a troop at the start of the battle according to the validity of the declaration.
The wrinkle in this system comes from each player having their last card from the round in reserve. This can be used to adjust dice up or down by one, thus ensuring a challenged roll is then correct, or making sure the second player beats the roll.
This bluffing element is a sprinkle of strategic seasoning on the battle phase. The first player will often declare something they think is decent enough that they can make by playing their card. The challenging player needs to decide if the challenge is worth the risk.
In practice, I’ve found the first player typically declares something they can make using their card and it is then usually in the interest of the second player to call their bluff, forcing them to burn their card to change the dice. It is in more extended combats, that take several rounds to resolve, that the bluffing element comes into its own. The call is more important than ever when players lack the power to mitigate their initial dice roll.
Yes, the bluffing element is there, but it does not require you to have your best poker face on at all times, lest you fail to outwit your opponent. Ultimately, if you have more troops than your opponent, you are more likely to emerge victorious in the battle.
To Battle, Or Not To Battle?
It is a good question and one upon which The Cousins’ War hangs it’s longbow and poleaxe. Position too many of your cubes on the main map and you hand your opponent the battle. Commit too many to the battle and you risk being overrun on the map.
There is a fluid back and forth to the card play part of each round, as players jostle for influence on the map and best position themselves for success in the round ending battle. The winner of most battles is the tiebreaker at the end of the game, all else being equal, so they simply cannot be ignored.
It all adds up to The Cousins’ War possessing silky smooth gameplay, yet agonising choices are presented by the simple rules. Indeed, one of the strengths of The Cousins’ War is that I feel I could teach it to anyone. I’ve played with teenagers at my school games club and my mum, who won’t thank me for mentioning she’s now in her 70s.
The rules here are explained easily, before doing what all good rule sets should; namely getting out of the way and letting players get on with enjoying the game.
Yes, there is some randomness through the use of dice for combat and some actions. There will be times when you roll nothing but a 2, a 4 and a 6 (can’t be turned into anything useful) and your opponent is there, chucking out triples for fun. You will know if a dice induced random element is something you like in your games or not. My experience with The Cousins’ War thus far, is that the better player will win far more often than not and am yet to experience a game lost due to ‘bad dice’.
The Cousins’ War is an accessible, fun, strategic take on area control, with far fewer ‘feels bad’ moments that put me off this genre more often than not. Surprised Stare Games are doing an excellent job with producing these fast-playing Pocket Campaign series games and this first entry sets a very high benchmark.
Rather than competing for the English Crown, you can enjoy the quick-playing The Cousins’ War as a way of settling far more meaningful issues. Such as who’s doing the dishes. If it ends up being you, you can ruminate on how it was your opponent’s superior play that has resulted in your hands in the suds. The hallmark of every good 2 player game.
