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A campaign game is something that I previously shied away from, they felt a little bit like too much of a commitment was required. I will preface this by saying that although I played video games a lot as a kid I mostly used to play single race games like SSX Tricky or MarioKart and if I ever played longer games like Tomb Raider I used to spend all my time in training mode enjoying locking the butler in the fridge and doing the assault course. I had no real interest in completing the game at all. So given that insight into my personality, I am sure you can see why I never jumped on a campaign game.
However, fast forward to adulthood, and I have found a real passion for completing campaign board games. I love how the story develops and how you are drawn into the world of the game. I guess it is a kind of escapism for me. Also most campaign games are co-operative and for me that is something I really enjoy, I like to defeat a common foe, right a wrong and so on. A legacy game offers that, but it has a defined end point, whereas a campaign can be played over and over with a different game causing a different outcome.
For Those Wanting a Relaxed Night With Wine & Cheese - Hannah Blacknell
Viticulture is a smooth operating worker placement game which has you and your fellow vineyard owners pitted against each other to see who can produce the best wine for the most points. The game is, especially at even player counts, exceptionally tight. At two players there is only one spot available to do each action, so you will find that your opponents taking spots will hugely affect how you need to play each turn. The newest expansion for Viticulture from Stonemaier Games is Viticulture World https://www.board-game.co.uk/product/viticulture-world-expansion/which is a co-operative campaign expansion.
This new content runs you around the world cooperatively trying to not only get yourself 25 victory points but also collectively gain 10 influence as well. This requires you to sometimes sacrifice your wine making for the benefit of the team. The additional change here is that you now start with four workers and your Grande worker, but the twist being that they will be wearing either summer (yellow) or winter (blue) hats. Until you train these workers, you will need to use these workers in the correct season according to their hats, adding extra complexity to the gameplay in the beginning.
The campaign aspect of this game is completely replayable, initially you will be able to complete an introductory scenario which will allow you to learn how best to change up your traditional Viticulture strategy to overcome the challenges of the cooperative play style. Then as you become more confident, you can start on the more difficult scenarios which will take you across the world. There is no need to play these in order, although we elected to for continuity of difficulty.
For Those Who Want to Immerse Themselves In An Alternate History - Dan Street-Phillips
There is no doubting the incredible success of Jamie Stegmaier’s Scythe. Set in the gorgeously designed world by Jakub Rozaliski in an alternate 1920+ Eastern Europe, this engine building euro game is a firm favourite. So undeniable, it has sat comfortably in the top 20 on Board Game Geek for quite some time.
With such a detailed and fascinating world it made sense of the final expansion to be a narrative driven campaign. The story explores the world on the brink of another war and what can happen when technological power can fall into the wrong hands. It’s very difficult to talk about this campaign without giving spoilers but it is safe to say that there are some brilliant reveals throughout the 8 games. You will open boxes throughout the story and have to make branching choices as to which game you will play next. The story is interesting and the player's decisions feel important. However it is worth highlighting that unlike in base Scythe, combat is more of a threat during this campaign and therefore can alarm a more passive, euro player. The Rise of Fenris will demand more combat than is usual and so therefore can get quite tense at moments.
All in all, this is a thrilling campaign that offers genuine surprises and a really satisfying conclusion. Not to mention, once finished, it will add a series of modules that you can add into any of your Scythe games going forward. And with only 8 games it is one of the most achievable campaigns out there!
For Those Who Want Something Short Yet Satisfying - Favourite Foe
I see you Dan, and I raise your 8 game campaign to a simple 5 games! Short yet unbelievably satisfying to play. In fact, short enough to play in a single sitting! Do you have any games that instantly clicked for you? For me, one was It’s a Wonderful World after my super pal and fellow blogger Hannah introduced me to it. I don’t know what to expect, but one game in and I was hooked!
It’s a smashing close drafting, set collection, engine building, resource management game set in a dystopian universe. To be fair, the theme isn’t that strong, or even that important. And that is because the game-play is ruddy fantastic. Tight, fast playing, and fun. The idea is simple; bank or build. And choosing between (a) building to produce ongoing recourses (and potentially reserve some scores) and (b) recycling cards for immediate resources is wonderfully tense.
Now, thanks to the War or Peace expansion, however, that same simply crunchy gameplay has also extended into a full blown campaign! And what a perfect excuse to get your best boarding buddies together for a series of games (although you can totally solo it too!) There are no complex rule sets to add in. No overblown narrative to plough through. It’s a box of surprise scenarios with new cards which take you on a journey into peacetime or…well, the other thing. And what’s even better is that you don’t know at the beginning of each one what the winning condition is going to be. I’d like to say the good guys always get the golden VPs, but not in this game! Plus, whilst this is a campaign full of surprises, the cards and mechanics that get revealed can be added into the base game for future plays. So whether you are building a dystopian future alone or solo, you can pepper your OG with some add-ons from this crackingly conflicted time! Because of its seamless expansion to the familiar base game flow, this is one campaign we have instantly clicked with. And if you love It’s a Wonderful World then this could be a great campaign for you too!
For Those Who Want To Live Out Their Fantasies - Andy Broomhead
If you want a self-contained campaign-style experience with a twist, Fog Of Love might be the game for you. While it doesn’t tick some of the conventional campaign game boxes of your current experience impacting your future games, it does bring a lot of other concepts together in a really neat way.
Firstly, there’s a strong element of role-playing as the game steps you through crafting a character allowing you to choose particular traits and an occupation and letting your partner in crime talk about your features to round you out. Perhaps they were drawn to your bedroom eyes or your old mobile phone, and it’s your passion for your Nokia 3310 that’s sparked the relationship.
Fog Of Love does a great job allowing for same-sex couples in both player selection and with event cards, allowing you to discard those that wouldn’t be relevant to your relationship.
The game itself has three acts of varying length – the honeymoon phase of the relationship being typically more adventurous and whimsical, but as you both level up in your relationship, the decisions you have to collectively grapple with become more complex. You’ve decided to go to couple’s therapy – can you be honest about what’s driven that even if it means damaging your relationship?
You start with a number of destiny cards, whittling them down to a smaller number as you play, hoping that you can balance the selfish decisions to score points and reach your goal, while knowing that your partner is trying to do the same. It can be hard to do, and you might feel like you’ve been through the emotional mill to fall agonizingly close to your destiny, while your true love has met theirs.
If you’re comfortable with role-playing, like to lean into some immersive story-telling and want to feel something develop as you play, I think you’d enjoy this.
For Those Wanting Something Completely Different - Tom Harrod
Michael Menzel is one of those annoyingly talented people. Not only is he the designer of The Adventures of Robin Hood, he’s also the artist! The art plays a major role in this game, because the board provides an interactive experience. It’s like an old-fashioned advent calendar. Instead of chocolates behind the door flaps, you reveal a change to the scene underneath…
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 2-4 player campaign offering, by Kosmos Games. Across nine chapters, each of you plays as either Maid Marian or one of the infamous Merry Men. The action takes place on a huge board, in and around Nottingham and Sherwood Forest.
There isn’t a rulebook, per se. Instead, there’s a hardback book, which guides you through the adventures in an organic manner. It drip-feeds new rules in as you progress through the scenarios, so you don’t have to read a dull rulesbook. It has a ‘choose-your-own-adventure vibe to it. You flick to certain pages in the book, depending on your actions. (This does demand willpower not to read other pages, which contain spoilers!)
On your turn you can move around the setting, using your custom-shaped meeples. They’re silhouetted akin to characters running in a cartoon, where they leave a trail behind them! You sit your meeples toe-to-toe, which dictates how far you travelled on your turn. If you land on sections of the board with a ‘?’, you can investigate them. What will you find underneath? How will it impact your current goal? Will the NPC (non-playable character) give you anything? Might you unearth some cool items you can use later on, or discover answers to mysteries? During the game, added rules enter the fray, such as guards and nobles that ‘move’. (Their slot on the board sits either face-up, or face-down, representing them being in that location, or not.)
Guards present danger. If your character is too close to them on the ‘Dark Events’ turn, you’re captured! You have to fight your way free… This not only slows you down, but getting captured decreases the Hope in the land.
The drama unfolds with every adventure due to you not knowing turn order. That’s down to drawing tokens from a drawstring bag. Turn order is crucial, especially with the Dark Events causing havoc! And with the new expansion, Friar Tuck in Danger, there’s even more adventure to be had…