Cheapass GamesVeritas Board Game

If ever a game screamed "nerd," it's this one. France. The Dark Ages. You are Truth -- well, some version of the Truth -- that wants to become the orthodoxy of present and future generations. All you have to do is survive the end of the Dark Ages as the most frequently transcribed teachings in the libraries of all the monasteries that haven't burned down over the years. A fast-paced action game this ain't.It is, however, all about seizing control of territories. The game board divides Old France into twelve regions (Champagne, Anjou, Normandy, etc.), some of which are more valuable than others. Making copies of your "books" (stackable poker chips), dropping those copies in monasteries along the way, and becoming the prevailing doctrine in as many regions as possible is the object of the game.The rules suggest eliminating some of the regions for a three- or four-player game, but our trio used the full board and found that the next 75 minutes or so passed swiftly. There's a lot of strategy involved in deciding where to move those books, especially when you get to move those belonging to an opponent. Players in control of large territories always benefit when another monastery burns down, whether their Truth is spread more widely that turn or not.VERITAS has at least one serious drawback, though. The one component the players need to provide -- micro-sized, stackable poker chips or, as the box coyly refers to them, "tokens" -- aren't being manufactured or sold anywhere that I know of. Regular poker chips, whether clay-filled or cheap plastic, are just too big for the spaces on this game board, and we often had to pick up stacks of chips just to see which region a particular monastery happened to be in. You'll have to provide an even smaller, color-coded scoring token for each player as well, because the spaces on the scoring track are TINY. At times I got the impression that VERITAS wasn't so much a game as a thought experiment marketed as a game.(EDIT: Thanks to Koplow Games, mini poker chips are now available through Amazon, and through online game retailer Paizo.)I'll say this for it: it's a Euro-style board game that's got just enough smartass attitude to make it more fun (for me) than something as humorless as SETTLERS OF CATAN. Come to think of it, what Truth really needs is a violent sequel about consequences. They could call it "Heresy."

Don't buy this game unless you have 80 poker chips! You must have 80 stackable pieces (up to 10) and in 4 colors.

Interesting to play

I bought this game after I played it so i know it is a great abstract game that helps overly defensive players learn that being on the offense is sometimes what you have to do. I teach and have a few students that just weren't getting this until we played this. The game is a four star great game... I gave it three stars because the board is kind of a pain (separate sections that shift and slide, I wish I had a sheet of plexiglass to lay over it when we play - I may just laminate it. The other thing is the pieces have to stack and be pretty small for the parts provided by you. I ended up spending more than the game cost on the chips to go with it. That is a bummer. I thought about just making it a fewer player count to save money but really this game shines with 5 or six players (more push and pull). Oh well, the Cheap Ass game just cost as most games in the end. Still a great play though (thus I still bought it). Fish Cook is their best game (you need 12 d-6 dice, but that isn't a normal thing to have around... small stacking chips aren't).