Kingdom of Heaven - First Crusade

A snappy three turn scenario to try out this game.

Richard played the Crusaders,

red counter just entering Asia Minor.

The Crusaders captured Antioch, but just failed at Edessa.

Result was a win for the Muslims.

Not overly complex, plays quick and there are eight scenarios to enjoy.

Richard sent me the following which sums up the game play perfectly from my point of view:

We covered quite a lot of the rules today which was good and I think we

now have an idea about how to play. Only diplomacy not covered which

starts from the 2nd Crusade. Also you didn't try shadowing which would

have been interesting, although more than enough attrition damage was

done through card play.

I don't think we made too many rules errors, although I did forget to

add the 1st Crusade flavour cards into the deck which was a pity. I'm

going to re-read all the rules today to solidify knowledge. The

Crusaders maintaining a siege over turns (winter) seems a bit strange.

Also, I didn't understand how attrition worked as the march through

Anatolia could have been handled slightly differently to minimise losses.

It's funny how pre-conceptions can affect what you do in a game. The

game is definitely slanted to sieges as the principal type of battle

which is historical and the rules offer a lot of flavour without too

much complexity. Blockade, Starvation, Fortunes of War, Siege Cards and

finally Assault. All neatly done I think. For some reason I had it in my

mind that sieges would make the game uninteresting and a long slog. It

certainly didn't prove to be the case, and they were kind of fun to

resolve, although potentially do chew through a lot of cards, so you

need to be careful about what to besiege.

You'd certainly have to think twice about having more than 4 units

inside a city being besieged, especially if it can be blockaded (even a

port is at risk which is a good aspect as you never know what cards the

other player has). Definitely a no go area for major leaders as this

could cripple you in one of the longer campaigns. The effects of

starvation can be devastating for large armies holed up inside a

blockaded city.

The game also lends itself to AAR write ups, especially the sieges.

Definitely a game which engages you with a narrative. The game does

seems like it could possibly be quite swingy depending on the cards that

come up, but they are all plausible and add to replayability which is good.

Anyway, I found it enjoyable and the topic is one that interests me. The

game time is also a perfect length for completion in a single session.

I think we should aim for the 1st Crusade again. I think it will play

much faster now that we have an idea of what to do. We can play it twice

and swap sides. Set up will be fast as there are a limited number of units.