Games - Greyhawk Wars

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	Games - Greyhawk Wars

Greyhawk Wars is a fantasy board wargame published by TSR in 1991. The game was designed by David Cook as a strategic simulation of the eponymous Greyhawk Wars on the fictional world of Oerth, the Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons
role-playing game.

Components

The game included two fold-out color paper maps; two sheets of cardboard counters (chits); several sheets of cards representing the various countries, events, mercenaries, and treasures; a rule book; two ten-side dice, and a book containing a history of the war and a set of scenarios.

The maps depicted the various lands and nations involved in the war, and were joined together along the edge to form the full game world. The map is sub-divided into areas of roughly equal size, with edges often lying along various geographical boundaries such as nation borders or terrain features. The nations are divided into "good", neutral, and "evil" states, with green, gray, and red borders, respectively. The terrain types included plains, forest, marsh, mountains, hills, lakes, oceans, and wastes. The major rivers are also depicted, usually along area borders. The map also contained a series of iconic symbols depicting the various capitols, ports, fortifications, and sites where treasure or mercenaries could be obtained.

In addition to their place on the map, each of the countries in the game is represented by a card. Each player starts with one or more country cards representing their home nations. Additional nations can be gained through alliance, conquest, or by liberating a conquered nation. The cards for these nations are placed under the home nation cards. Every nation card includes their Alliance ratings, which determine how easily good or evil nations can ally with it. The card also includes a modifier for alliance attempts to specific countries, and a roster of troops that the country can raise.

Each player has a set of hero markers that they can use for various purposes each turn. These represent a band of heroes that can perform various special actions. They can not be destroyed, although they can be hindered in various ways.

Armies are represented by colored chits that are printed with a shield symbol of the owning nation. These are placed on top of a stack of up to 5 troop units. Troop chits have a strength rating, a silhouette symbol for the creature type, and sometimes special information indicating a unique ability.

The color of the troop chits are based on the ethos of the creature, with good-natured creatures being green, neutral creatures gray, and evil creatures in red (the same colors as the nation borders.) There are a number of different creatures represented by these chits, and the various races or species are drawn from the Greyhawk world setting. Thus there are Elves, Bugbears, Orcs, Humans, and so forth. There are also counters to represent fleets for nations along the coast.

The various scenarios require from 2 to 6 players, and the two-player scenarios only use one of the maps. Each scenario lists the initial set-up, any special rules, and the victory conditions. The scenarios attempt to replay the situations described in the war history.

Game play

Each turn of play represents a full year in the game setting, and is divided into a series of phases. Every player must complete the procedure for a phase before continuing to the next phase. The first phase is used to randomly determine the order that each phase will be performed. The remaining phases are used to place heroes, draw event cards, and perform actions, in that order.

A player's heroes can move across up to six contiguous areas each turn, although their path may be (optionally) blocked by the occupying armies of another player. Areas with terrain features cost more movement to enter, such as desert, hills, and forests, while swamp and mountains ends movement for the turn.

The event cards produce a random element that can positively or negatively affect a player's situation. These can range from additional forces joining your side, to a sudden attack or rebellion that draws off some of your forces. The cards can also affect the actions of heroes.

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