GAME REVIEW: This War of Mine

This War of Mine tells you right up front it isn't going to be "fun". Adapted from a video game of the same name, it takes place in a fictional country in the middle of a civil war. It's been said it was loosely based on the experiences of survivors of the Siege of Sarajevo. Another survivor wrote a sobering review in which he said it perfectly captured his experience, so that should give you an idea of how "fun" it would be...

You play survivors who are stuck inside the city among other survivors and rebels, all of whom might trade with you...or they might attack you, shell your shelter, or raid it at night and steal all your supplies. You have no food, no water, no medical supplies, not even a chair or a book to your name. You're holed up in a ransacked house with two other survivors trying to scavenge what you can to stay alive day-to-day.

I don't know what to do with myself and this game. We kickstarted it, and knew it was going to be an investment in time and energy to play, so other games kept bubbling to the top of the "let's play" list. Finally we had a fully free weekend and I suggested we finally get invested in set up, learning, and playing. We played both Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon on the first scenario.

Punishing doesn't even cover it. Before we were through Chapter 1, snipers showed up in town, putting us at risk every time we went scavenging, and we were feeling fairly shell-shocked (no pun intended). You MUST go scavenging or die of starvation or dehydration/misery. We were making decisions about who got to eat the one vegetable, or drink the limited water. Who gets to sleep on the bed we managed to make, and who works through the night without a break. A new survivor showed up at our door. A fireman! With an axe, our first weapon to defend ourselves from interlopers during night raids! He's strong, can carry a lot, and only comes in a bit fatigued. Maybe things are turning around for a little bit.

First night out scavenging he gets shot by snipers. Three wounds. Back at the shelter, raiders attack, wounding one of our other members, and stealing almost all our most valuable supplies we had managed to scrape up including the only food. Before the next dawn, three of our members have taken their own lives, their hunger maxed out, unable to withstand the emotional burden of pushing on. This left our last survivor alone in the house. The only bandage we managed to trade for left with the fireman when he committed suicide. The bullet wound on our lone survivor gets worse, and he can't scavenge effectively alone. He takes his own life due to maxing out his misery. I am tearing up reading the first character's final story, and by the end I am choking back sobs as I read how each chose to leave the world and why.

We had plenty of day left. We could have played more right there, and usually do with games we find this compelling. But instead we cleaned up this game, re-set the game for another day when we have steeled ourselves and feel ready to try again. I have no idea when that will be...

Punishing.

Small complaint to share: I find the way they introduce the rules to be needlessly frustrating. In order to keep the main rule book streamlined (the "Journal", as it is called), they peppered more detailed rules into the "Scripts" book--the thicker book which has all the narrative aspects of the game (think Tales of the Arabian Nights or Above & Below/Near & Far, with numbered paragraphs which are referenced during the game to add to the story or introduce boons or consequences of actions). Thank heavens for BGG and their player-made downloadable files. We downloaded a PDF which had all the Scripts rules collated and indexed (rather than skipping around the book searching), a "Important to Know" sort of player-made errata to help address common mistakes, and sleeveable card size player reference cards to help us track round progression. In the end, the game is no all that complex, just laborious to get through the first day or so if you've never played before and are flipping around all the reference materials. So if you're feeling frustrated, avail yourself of the resources available and rest assured it will all make much more sense quickly.