The mechanism is clever and well themed to siege warfare in renaissance
Italy, but do not
be put off as this is no more a wargame than Risk or Stratego. Each player
is dealt ten cards,
representing but a fraction of the large deck (thus card counters are always
frustrated), and
must use them in a series of attacks on the towns in the game. Each town
is based in a
region, which in turn neighbours up to six regions, and the player to first
control five
consecutive regions wins. At the start of the game there are no castles,
so the lead player
decides which region will be contested, with the kicker being that every
player can contest
a battle. This befits the eponymous mercenary troops and allows for constant
action for all
players, should they choose to stay. Once a winner is determined, a player's
castle is placed
in the region showing ownership and making subsequent battles easier on
the defender. The
game proceeeds in this fashion, siege following siege, until one player
has the required linked
chain of castles. The balancing item, and the reason for the horse, is
that the player winning
a battle also chooses where the next one will take place allowing weak
castles to be picked on, or vacant areas conquered.
Play takes the form of a hand of cards, split into a series of tricks,
and continues until only
one player has any cards left, at which point everyone replenishes to ten
for the next round.
In this way, any number of battles/tricks can be fought in a round and
card conservation is
important - it is no good playing out all your good cards leaving nothing
to defend, or
preventing you attacking a weak position; conversely you mustn't drop out
of battles and hold
back too long or you'll lose the cards with the round ending. Each trick
consists of the play,
one by one, of soldier cards (with numeric values from 1 to 10) and specials,
each of which
has a marked and different effect on the battle. For instance, a Drum will
double all your
cards, Winter will make all cards worth just one each, a Heroine adds ten
and is hard to shift,
a Bishop intervenes and brings the battle to a close, a Surrender ends
the battle there and then
in favour of the biggest army.
The card combinations and timing are actually quite intriguing and card
play is a constant
series of gambles and choices, with both long and short term implications.
It isn't the heaviest
card game in existence, but it is far from light and seems to offer reasonable
depth. There is
but one vague rule, in both the French and English sets, regarding the
Scarecrow card. The
rules are unclear as to whether playing this card, as a decoy, allows you
to remove a soldier
card from another player into your hand or simply to pick up one of your
own. We played
the former, and felt the game would be less interactive and cutthroat if
the latter is correct.
Condottiere plays well and quickly, has some good ideas, reasonable tactics,
even some
proper cardplay in there. It undeniably has something to offer the fluffy
hobby but remains
a curious title, and production, to be released in this form. I can't help
feeling that the price
will kill it stone dead, but we have come to expect this from the French
and occasionally
from the German market. It may also have a potential problem in actually
trying to bring it
to an end, as it suffers from Risk's to-and-fro characteristic and the
ability to gang up on the
leader. However, we had no such problems in three games so perhaps the
advantage conferred
by control of the horse is enough to balance things out. Whatever, a solid,
original game that
definitely isn't worth the asking price but if you play it, and enjoy it,
you can at least search for a cheap copy.
Mike Siggins