Brief Remarks
We recently pulled out this old Mayfair game, and had a blast with it.
We used to play it a lot, actually, but for some reason it's been
neglected for a while. I thought I'd briefly describe it, if you don't
know it, and give our house rules if you do. It's getting hard to
find, to be honest - been out of print a long time. But worth pulling
out, if you own it, as a light filler game while waiting for your fifth
and sixth players to show up, or late at night when you can't think too
clearly. Yes, it's that kind of game.
The game was, er, "borrowed" by Lion Rampant, who published their more
complicated version as The Challenge - without giving
Mayfair any credit for inspiration, by the way. I have both games, and
preferred Lion Rampant's for a few years, but I've come back to
Encounters lately - with some house rules to make it a
better game, of course.
The game consists of two dice and two decks of cards. One deck
contains 28 heroes, the other 56 cards including 33 monsters and 23
items, weapons, and spells. The game plays with two to four
players.
It's a simple game: deal out seven heroes to each player (placed
face up on the table in two rows), and seven of the monster/treasure deck as
a secret hand. Each turn you can draw two cards and play two cards,
which include sending monsters against other players, banking
treasure, and awarding items and weapons to your heroes.
The heroes range from the weak Clerics, Wizards, and Elves to the
strong Knights and Paladins. The monsters range from the wussy Goblins
and Wraiths to the awesome Dragon and Death itself. Clerics have bless
and curse spells and can attempt to turn Undead; Wizards have more
complex spells they can cast.
Combat resolution is simplicity itself: add a d6 to the value on the
monster, add a d6 to the value of the defending hero, high total wins.
Heroes can have bonuses for weapons or magic items; wizards and clerics
can cast spells, elves can shoot bows, dragons breathe fire, etc.
The round is over when only one force of heroes is left standing. At
that point, count up all banked treasure - last one alive gets a bonus
of 1,500 Gold. Play a set number of rounds, keeping a running total of
Gold, and the one with the highest Gold value wins. There are a few
more details, but that's the gist of it.
Sounds simple, and it is, but it's also lots of fun if you're in the
right mood. However, the luck factor can be a bit much. If you're
dealt lousy heroes, you'll lose the round pretty quickly. If you're
dealt lots of treasure, bank them and you'll win no matter what happens
on the battlefield. And so on - luck is very strong in the game as
written.
So we have some house rules to try to balance out the luck. Try them
at your own risk, of course, and I'd love to hear of any other house
rules anyone else has - send 'em to me, and let me know if I can post
them.
Enjoy!
House Rules
Weakening Monsters: After each victory, monsters are at -1 for
the next round. [Warning: makes for a longer game. But I've
seen a Dragon wipe out a player's seven heroes before she even got to
play one card, so we use this rule.]
Variant on this rule: if the monster's die roll is at least
twice the defender's die roll, it doesn't weaken that round. [This
means the monster will not weaken 25% of the time. Note
that this does not take the monster's or defender's strength into
consideration - just die roll.]
Banking Treasure: Only Gold may be banked directly from the
hand. Weapons and items must first be played to a character, and on
the following turn may be banked. Likewise, captured weapons must be
assigned to a character, and only on subsequent turns may they be
banked. Exception: If you have an item but no character capable
of using it (such as a Bow but no Elf), you may show the
card to your opponents and bank it directly from your hand. [This rule
is designed to even out the luck when one player has all the treasure
cards. It forces them to risk treasure being captured for a turn
before they can bank it to safety.]
Distracting Dragons: Because of their greed, Dragons can be
distracted by discarding treasure from your hand (only). The value in
Gold discarded, divided by 100, is subtracted from a Dragon's
strength. A Dragon's initial attack must be against a character
possessing a weapon or item, if possible.
Suggested Starting Forces
(Each 7 Heroes and 16 points)
One of the failings of the game is that it's possible to get a very
unbalanced starting situation. I've played games where a 2-point Dwarf
was my highest warrior, facing an opponent with a front line of Knight,
Paladin, Paladin, Knight. These are short and unfair games.
An easy way to get around this is to build armies instead of
dealing them out randomly. Since there are 28 hero cards totalling 64
points, and since each player starts with seven heroes, it's easy to
calculate that a fair game gives each player 16 points among those
seven heroes.
So I came up with some set armies. Do not deal out heroes randomly -
instead, roll for first, second, and third choice of force. Highest
roll chooses which force they start with, next highest chooses from
among the remaining forces, and so on.
The forces, labelled A through H, are:
Box 1 Box 2
o--------------------------------o o---------------------------------o
| A B C D | | E F G H |
|--------------------------------| |---------------------------------|
| Paladins 1 1 - - | | Paladins 1 1 - - |
| Knights 1 - 2 2 | | Knights 1 1 2 1 |
| Men at Arms 1 2 1 1 | | Men at Arms 1 1 1 2 |
| Dwarves - 1 1 1 | | Dwarves - - 1 2 |
| Elves 1 - 1 1 | | Elves 1 2 - - |
| Wizards 1 2 1 1 | | Wizards 1 1 2 1 |
| Clerics 2 1 1 1 | | Clerics 2 1 1 1 |
|--------------------------------| |---------------------------------|
| Cards *: 2 2 2 2 | | Cards *: 2 2 2 3 |
o--------------------------------o o---------------------------------o
* Note: Cards refers to the number of monster/treasure
cards you draw and play each turn. Because Force H is weak
compared to the others, the player choosing this force may draw
and play an extra card each turn. And, in case you're wondering
if I made an error, Forces C & D are indeed identical, as
are Forces A & E. (Note that other force compositions
totalling 7 heroes and 16 points are possible - feel free to try
them.)
- With Four Players: The first player chooses a force,
and other players may only choose from the remaining forces in the same
box. [Each box contains all the heroes in the hero deck.]
Example: if the first player chooses Force F, the others may
only choose from E, G, and H.
- With Two or Three Players: the second player may choose
any unselected force, from either box. The third player may
choose any remaining force, except that some will no longer be
available. Example: If the first player chooses Force A, and
the second Force B, Forces E & F are no longer available because there
aren't enough Paladin cards.
Back to SOS' Gameviews
Back to Steffan O'Sullivan's Home Page