Ares Games This War of Mine: The Board Game

I absolutely love this game! It is not for everyone, but it a perfect co-op game for 2 people who are comfortable making decisions together. I suspect this game does not play very well in a group. There is an absolutely beautiful review by a survivor of the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war on Board Game Geek that compares stages of the game to what he actually went through.The game is dark, it is story driven, and it is an absolute masterpiece.There is replay-ability and the story changes. There is also the ability to 'save' the game so you can pick up where you left off and keep trying to advance further, hoping to survive. The actually game contents are of very high quality, especially for the price ($50 when I purchased).Just a note on the complexity, there are some tools on Board Games Geek (a rules summery pdf and an app) that help a bit for those not used to this style of gaming. As a gamer who plays modern board games (Pandemic, Scythe, Eldritch Horror, etc), I personally would not call this particularly complex or complicated. We did one 45 minute run through to get the basic rules down. We then started over and played through the first chapter with only a few times where we needed to refer to the rules again. To me complex has to do with number of rules - constantly referencing the rule book. There is very difficult decision making, but for me, that is depth, not complexity. Everyone of course has a different perspective on this but to me games like Eldritch Horror are far more complicated.I bought the retail version of the game, and I'm really, really hoping to pick up the expansions offered in Kickstarter, plus the expansion that is being released later this year. But even without those, I will get far more than my money's worth out of playing this!

i've seen a lot of feedback on this game, and it sounded like a mixed bag, so I decided to give this a shot and see what it was like for myself. After one playthrough we were HOOKED! This game offers something that NO OTHER game around does! Can it be challenging...YES! Does it present a story...YES!! Does it present deep dilemnas...YES!!! Will this game challenge your morals/ethics...ABSOLUTELY!! Does this all add up to a fun experience...YOU BET...BUT I can honestly say its not going to be a 'sit around the table and laugh' type of good time. TWoM is a fun game because of the challenges it presents, and the decision making you have to go through in order to make it to the end. You WILL lose more than you win, and you will most certainly ask yourself...'am i doing the right thing?' and this is what makes you come back for more!Many have said this game is a downer because of the story it tells...an attempt to survive in a wartorn city under siege...presenting the characters with very harsh circumstances and choices...do you keep your little bit of food and let the starving elderly person go without, or do you give up your food and then face the risk of starving yourself? There are no right or wrong choices in this game...just consequences for every choice you make. This is something other games don't often sucede at...conveying that everything in life is a matter of choices...and with those choices come results...for better or worse. And in this game the decisions you make will completely MAKE or BREAK your end results.So with all that said...in the end this is still a game...meant to present you with a challenge and make you think...not spoil your evening...not to be depressing. At the end of the day you can pack it up and put it away and reflect on the experience...'boy, maybe i should have pushed my luck searching for water' or 'should we have sent two people out scavenging so we could bring more stuff back...jeesh, but then EVERYONE is exhaused becuase nobody got any sleep'.Its a game set in a war...no different than any other war game you've played...but now your 'dudes on a map' are more realistic people...you tend to care about a bit more than the plastic dudes you push around the map in RISK/KEMET/CYCLADES etc... The overall result isn't that different...your dudes may perish in the conflict to achieve a goal. The big difference is that in TWoM your select crew of survivors seem more important...you want to see ALL of them survive...nobody is going to be the sacricial lamb so to speak. I find that fun...fun in a deeper way...I want to win, but winning isn't necessarily the ultimate goal here...you're building a story with your characters.I'll end this review with the story of my three survivors...Pavil (the former soccer pro), Katia (the former journalist), and Marin (the former garage worker). We only lasted three full turns...this is their story: For the first two days of our survival we worked hard clearing out the rubble in the building...searching for food, water and items we could use to make a rain collector. It was a rough first couple days, but we made it...Marin even got to have his morning coffee those first couple of days. And we got super lucky when Pavil ran into a thug and managed wrestle his assault rifle away from him...life was looking bright! But things got tougher after day two....the food dwindled and the water was not clean enough to drink. We needed a filter to finish off the rain collector. So we sent out Pavil and Katia to find some water in nearby buildings. It went well...they came back with a nice butcher knife to help us defend with, and they traded some sugar and herbs for some other usefull items. We made it to day 4, and decided that Marin needed to head out with Katia that night so that Pavil could do the guard duty with the assault rifle he had claimed for himself. They headed to a distant apartment complex to see what they could get. Katia had been complaining about how hard things were, and she had been secretyl writing a lot in her journal the last day or so...we really should have seen what was about to happen coming. They got into the building and while rummaging around came across some other survivors in worse shape than us. They begged for food but we didn't have any to trade or donate on our persons. This hit Katia hard...she seemed to withdraw even more...not speaking at all to Marin. But Marin searched some other rooms in the building to take his mind off the other survivors...maybe he could find something to give them. But he wasn't carefull enough and knocked over a candle...catching the curtains on fire...the old building went up in flames quickly...he was trapped...he couldn't get out!Pavil was still back at home..guarding for intruders...and the hours slipped by quickly while he waited for the others to return. Minutes turned to hours, hours into morning....no sign. Pavil looked around the house for any other items he could use... in the Katia's napsack he found her journal...she had been writing about how she just wanted to get away from all of this...no matter the risk. He pieced things together as best he could....she must have found an opportunity to slip away to a safer place through the darkness...maybe even taking Marin with her...he never did find out that Marin had actually perished in the house fire. Now it was up to him to find others to help him make it....In hindsight...maybe we shouldn't have pushed our luck to find more goods in that apartment building...choices have consequences...This game is truly an experience worth taking!

TLDR: Great if you’re looking for a challenge, bad if you’re looking for something quick and easy. Good quality pieces and game mechanics, thoughtful design.This is probably the most complicated game have ever played BUT this isn’t a downside for me. There is a 12 page booklet that is a walkthrough of one full phase/day. I had to make a cheat sheet. That being said I love this game so much. The replayability is super high because of all the potential scenarios. I love that it can be played one player as well as co-op(the instructions include when to switch players). It comes with a paper pad with a layout so you can save the game and come back to it. Once you get the hang of the phases it starts to move pretty quickly. I couldn’t tell you how long play through is because I still haven’t finished the game…