It has been a decade or so since we defeated the Martian invasion, and now they have come back more powerful and just as sinister. But we have weapons too, better guns, ships, and tanks! Who wins? You decide in the game War of The Worlds: The New Wave.
War of The Worlds from Grey Fox Games is a 2 player deck builder where one person is the Martians/aliens and the others are the British forces protecting the civilians in Great Britain. Players square off against each other with customized asymmetrical decks in an attempt to obtain victory. Either the Martians are pushed back or they eliminate the population of Great Britain.
To start, each side takes their customized deck of cards, standees and building tokens, and finds their 10 starting cards. Next, the Martians take one tripod and one UFO standee, placing them on the board in the region of their Landing site. The human player takes the 30 civilian cubes and places three in each region on the board where indicated and place the damage marker at zero on the board. Each player then takes their non-starting cards, shuffles them, and takes the top 5 cards laying them out to create their offer row. Next, each player shuffles their 10 starting cards, drawing 5 for their hand. The Martians go first. To win, either the Martians eliminate all 30 civilians off the board or the humans give 30 points of damage to the alien forces.
On a player’s turn, they will use their 5 cards to perform actions. There are 3 types of cards; action, building, and units. Action cards allow the player to move, attack, or use special abilities. To play a card, simply follow the instructions on the card itself. Some cards have more than one ability, choose the one you wish to use. For example, the humans can either use a relocate card to move a civilian or use it for its coin value to purchase cards from their offer row. The Martians also have cards that allow them to generate power which is their currency to acquire new cards. To purchase a card, pay the cost in coins or power and add that card to your discard pile. The exception is when purchasing a building card. To use a building card, pay the cost, and immediately remove the card and place the appropriate token on the board following the building placement rules.
Unit cards allow the player to add units on to the board or activate their units already in play. Each side also has specific rules for placing units. The Martians place all new units where their ship is, while humans may place theirs in areas occupied by civilians.
When in combat, the human units act as an additional defense for the civilians. The Aliens deal damage first to buildings, units then civilians. Moving civilians into sheltered areas and/or spreading them out is a good strategy to keep them alive. Each human unit has a base defense of 1. Bunkers and the fort add defense value to the area they are placed in. Supply depots add purchasing power to buy new cards. Tank factories increase defense of army units. When attacking humans with extra defense, the aliens must deal enough damage in one turn to remove the defenses before attacking civilians. Alien units and buildings are never removed, but all damage to the alien forces is tracked on the damage track. If the humans deal 30 points of damage to the alien forces, the humans automatically win. The Martians automatically win when the last civilian cube is removed.
I love asymmetrical games. They create a challenge requiring the player to create a strategy to achieve their goals and objectives. War of the worlds is very asymmetrical. The aliens have superior weapons and technology at their disposal, while the humans use cleverness and determination to win.
Component wise, the game comes in two forms; the Kickstarter with miniatures and meeples, and the retail version with standees and cubes. However, Grey Fox sells the upgraded components on their website. I think the standees and all of the components are good quality and work just fine.
I believe the game captures the theme well. As it is based on HG Wells’s book, the aliens use the famous tripods in addition to their saucers.
I purchased the game based on the theme and mechanics; I am very pleased with both and can recommend it if you like asymmetrical challenges.
Written by Ed Carter
