Strike is a game about Lech Wałęsa – a Polish electrician who became a trade-union activist, co-founded Solidarity (the Soviet bloc’s first independent trade union) and eventually went on to become President of Poland.  The game focuses on the Polish strikes of 1980 and the agreement reached between the workers and the government. (Yes, really.)

This theme may sound unusual even compared to some other board games, but the historical Polish theme is more understandable when you know the game is by Karol Madaj the designer of Kolejka (Queue) – one of my favourite games ever – who designs games for Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance.  One of their goals is to mark important moments in Polish history.

Theme-aside, Strajk is fundamentally a deck-building game mechanic but with a board and a bit if a difference too.  (If you’re not familiar with deck-building games such as Dominion, players each have their own deck and play cards to add better cards to their deck, take special actions, remove weaker cards from their deck, etc.  Whenever their deck is empty, they shuffle their discard pile and start drawing from it again so their deck builds as they play.)   Read the rest of this entry »

Strike is a game about Lech Wałęsa – a Polish electrician who became a trade-union activist, co-founded Solidarity (the Soviet bloc’s first independent trade union) and even became President of Poland.  The game focuses on the Polish strikes of 1980 and the agreement reached between the workers and the government.

The game is by the designer of Kolejka (Queue) which is one of my favourite games and which also has a historical Polish theme.  The game itself has a deck-building game mechanic at its centre but the game has a difference.

On their turn, a player uses their cards to move Lech Wałęsa around the board and gain better cards by using cards in their hand.  The first player to gain 2 agreement cards wins (in the real events, 21 demands were made of the government by the workers and these cards represent agreement to these demands).

The reason this seems a bit different is because there is only one Lech Wałęsa on the board and each player continues moving them from wherever they have been left by the previous player.

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Ogonek (which means ‘Line’) is the expansion for one of my favourite games Kolejka (meaning ‘Queue).  Kolejka is a game where players are queuing for goods at shops in 1980’s Poland.  As crazy as it sounds, it’s a superb game and a very historical theme.  For more details on Kolejka see my full review.

Ogonek adds a few new elements to the game.  One item is that it adds the potential for a 6th player (as Kolejka is 2-5 players) which is a welcome addition.  Having 6 players adds a bit more chaos into proceedings than with fewer players as more things can happen to your plans between your turns.

Ogonek adds alcohol as a new item.  Rather than having to queue at shops for this, players can place one of their queuers on one of the available alcohol goods cards at the side of the board.  At the end of the round, the player receives the alcohol (so it’s not usable in the round they obtain it).  Alcohol can be used to bribe the speculators (the neutral queuers that get in the way) which allows the player to swap places with them in the same queue.  Alcohol can also be used as a substitute item when swapping goods at the market.  So, alcohol is useful but too powerful.
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Letnisko (Summer Resort) is a game by the designer of Kolejka (Queue) which is one of my favourite games.  In Letnisko, players are running a summer resort near Warsaw in the 1930’s.

Each player starts with 2 plots of lands and one of these has a cottage on it.  During the game, players will buy new plots and build bigger and more varied accommodations which will attract and suit different types of vacationers.

Each round the train arrives with vacationers.  Vacationer cards are drawn based on the number and type of accommodations that have been built so far, plus an extra amount are drawn based on that round’s weather card.  These are shuffled and dealt out onto the train’s carriages in sequence.  If there are lots of vacationers then there will be more than one vacationer in some carriages.

Next, players take turns taking actions.  A player can either: 1. Go to greet some new vacationers from the train (gain vacationer cards), 2. Receive a package from the train conductor (gain cash), or 3. Invest (build/improve buildings, buy land, etc.) Read the rest of this entry »

I really like the game Kolejka which is about queuing in 1980’s Poland – in fact, it’s one of my favourite games as it’s a superb game, plus it has a great theme and is actually educational about the real situation that occurred in Poland too.  Like Kolejka, The Outcast Heroes is a game with the backing of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance; however, it is by a different designer and publisher.

The Outcast Heroes is a semi co-op card game about the soldiers that continued to fight Soviet influence after WWII.  Players send their soldiers on missions – placing soldiers in different roles of the mission give different benefits/abilities.  The missions are assessed based on the soldiers sent and the order cards assigned to them.  One or two players may be working for the Government (so are traitors) and will have their own objectives and want the mission to fail.  The player who is the commander decides whether to assess a mission each round, or wait until later so that adds some uncertainty/tension.  It seems the main gameplay is about jostling for position so you can achieve your objectives – especially as some positions in the mission can only be occupied by one soldier at any one time.  You also need to manage your hand, allocate your soldiers, and get good cards.

For more info, you can read the rules of the game which are on the game’s BGG page.

James.

When someone suggests a game about queuing and shortages in Poland in the 1980’s, your first thought is probably to avoid eye contact and back away.  However, Kolejka (which is Polish for ‘Queue’ and pronounced col-aay-ka) is actually a gem of a game which I hope gets the attention it deserves as it actually contains a great Eurogame as well as an interesting and fitting theme.

Players are each trying to obtain 10 goods listed on their objective cards – for example,  4 luxury goods, 3 pieces of clothing, 2 food and 1 electrical.  The first player to collect all of their items wins, or the player that collects the most of their items by the end of the game.

Each round a few goods will arrive at some of the 5 stores.  First, before knowing what will arrive where, players take turns adding any of their people (meeple) who are not in queues to the queues.  Then, goods cards are revealed which determine how many goods arrive at which stores, e.g. 2 electrical items at the electrical store, 3 foods at the food store, etc. Read the rest of this entry »