Crusaders Thy Will be Done: Rapid Review

Crusaders Thy Will be Done: Rapid Review

Information:

Mechanics: Mancala, Rondel, Area Movement Variable Player Powers
Player Age: 14+ 

Player Count: 2 - 4 Players

Time to Play: 40 - 60 Minutes 
Game Designer: Seth Jaffee

Game Artist: Adam P. Mclver

Publisher: Tasty Minstrel Games

Year Published: 2018

BGG Weight: 2.43

Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

I have recently decided that I would try a new review format that focuses more on my thoughts than how the game runs. This new format is called a R.A.P.I.D. review and the categories are Rundown, Alteration, Production, Interaction and Determination.

Rundown:

This game is set during the period of the crusades; eliminating enemies and raising settlements. However, the main focus of the game is the underused mechanism of Mancala. Crusaders has you building, crusading, travelling, gaining influence (victory points) and mustering, all using this clever mechanism. The Mancala mechanism involves picking up all action tokens on one action wedge in order to perform that action, then drop one token at each following wedge until all have been relocated.

Alteration:

There are two crucial parts of alterations in the game; the different knight orders and the unique setup of the action wedges. The knight order refers to each players' unique character. They will each have a different distribution of action tokens. Some knights may have 10 tokens for the whole game, where some might have 13. This may not seem like it matters but when you are trying to plan an efficient turn this can be the difference between winning and losing. The knights will also either have unique setup requirements (such as another knight on the board), upgraded tiles or special abilities that help them modify the Mancala action system to their benefit.

Each game the action wedges will be randomly placed (with each player having the same setup) as each action wedge has a different action and/or a different upgraded side. This creates unique puzzles for the player to solve and create the most efficient turns. Due to the Mandala mechanic, you are planning future turns to get the most out of each subsequent turn by carefully redistributing your action tokens.

Production:

The version I have is the deluxe version which has metal influence tokens and plastic tokens for the buildings and knights (where the base game comes with cardboard influence and wooden buildings tokens).  I have a hard time deciding what looks better as both components look amazing and have a strong table presence. If I could of got this as a basic version then I doubt I would be affected as they have created great components for either version. 

Interaction:

The game will end once the influence tokens are depleted and players have had equal turns. This pool of influence tokens for the game will change based on the player count. 

     - Two players = 140 influence

     - Three players = 200 influence

     - Four players = 260 influence

This creates the majority of interaction between players, as it is a race to gain the most influence before it’s all gone. Influence can and will be gained every turn as nearly everything you can do will give you influence. The challenge comes from players trying to gain the most on one turn, or in planning to consistently gain a large amount every turn. The other high interaction comes from the enemies. Players can crusade against enemies on locations to gain a majority of conquered areas (which will score influence at the end of the game). The interaction comes from when an enemy has been defeated, the strength needed to defeat this enemy type will increase. There are enemy cost track on the side of the board to help player’s. This makes them cost more strength and sets other players back a couple of turns based on their plans. Don't take this as a negative as that means players have to be versatile in their strategy and can't always rely on combos that they have set up on their player board. Players must also be tactical at times and not purely strategic. 

Determination:

Crusaders is possibly the best implementation I have seen of a Mancala system while adding in the complexities of a large game. The challenging decisions that come from the action wedges in this game have players planning multiple moves ahead to try to get the right amount of action points on the right action wedge for later turns. Certain setups of wedges can lead to interesting combos and turns that have you creating a perfect order of events. This can be completely derailed by just a small amount of interaction from other players.  This is a great game that feels like it spans for the right amount of time and has you gaining points on nearly every turn. This will be staying in my collection and entering my top 50 games. This is definitely a Go-To Golden Game.

Click...feed the addiction: 

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