OK… so the name of the game brings to mind silly people at Ren Faires pretending to be knights in not-so-shining armor. Forget all that. Anachronism is quite possibly the best new game concept I’ve seen in quite a while.
Imagine a gladiatorial arena where you might see Miyamoto Musashi battle Achilles. Now imagine that condensed into a table-top card game that takes ten minutes to play. Sound impossible? Maybe, but TriKing Games has figured out a way that makes the gameplay fun, exciting and fast. Kudos to them.
Of all the games I sampled at GenCon, this was by far my favorite. If you’re at all a history buff… or if you just like to play table-top games, this would be an excellent game to add to your library. Unlike other modern card games (Magic, Warlords, L5R, etc.) you don’t really need to buy a ton of cards to play. You could easily buy 4 or 5 packs and build effective decks. Why? because the cards aren’t randomized. You know exactly what you’re getting when you, for example, purchase the Spartacus pack or the Genghis Khan pack. Each pack is a completely playable deck. Unfortunately, the list of warriors is amazing and it sort of puts you in that spot where Gamer OCD (Obsessive Completion Disorder) takes over. Just like Doritos, you can’t have just one. 😉
Anyway, I’ll stop gushing enough to say that the Warhammer 40K card game was also very fun. As was Fishing for Terrorists.
Oh yeah… I flamed out horribly at the National Championship for D&D Minis. I played a “fun” warband and had my ass handed to me. That said, I still had a great time. See what a “fun” warband can do for you? that might also have to do with my personality… your mileage may vary, especially with gas prices the way they are
–sam