Yesterday I completed my first campaign of
This War of Mine. I bought this recently and began playing a solo campaign a few days ago.
And honestly, why didn't I picked this up sooner?! What an incredible game! I always liked challenging, highly thematic experiences (one of my favorite board games of all time is Eldritch Horror), and this game absolutely delivers on that front.
Actually, it might be the most thematic game in my collection. Your (unspecified) country erupted in civil war. You're now trapped in the city and must try to survive. This is definitely not a game for the faint of heart, the designers wanted to represent the real, harsh reality of what it was to live in the middle of a war. They succeeded. It means you'll see plenty of horrific and heartbreaking situations along the way. The goal of the campaign is to survive for a set number of days by any means necessary.
From the first moment I began playing, I got completely absorbed by the story. Exactly like if I was reading a good book. For example, I noted what happened on a specific night in the campaign. Here is exactly how it played out from the point of view of a character named Anton:
Anton was on guard duty that night. He was starving, sick, and was so tired he could barely stand. Because he couldn't really get out of the house, it was Katia and Marko that went out scavenging tonight. They wanted to go to the old apartment building that was still standing nearby in the hope of finding some food. It has been two days since anybody ate anything.
Anton was nervous. Yesterday night, the house they are squatting in was robbed by some local thugs. They were armed, but luckily nobody got harmed. They took all the medicine, though. So tonight Anton kept the knife with him.
After Katia and Marko had been gone for a few hours, Anton first heard someone fiddling with the door, then heard some rustling at the back of the house. Finally, he doesn't know how, some people got inside. He heard footsteps upstairs. He got ready for a fight and stood at the stairs.
When they saw him, they froze. After a moment, he heard one of them say: "We're sorry. We're not robbers. We thought the house was empty. We haven't taken anything. We'll leave right away, we're just looking for something to eat..."
They left through the door a moment later. A woman, an older man, and a teenage boy. They looked like a family. Anton closed the door behind them...
A few hours later, he saw Marko come back with a few bottles of water and some mechanical parts he could scavenge somehow. He was alone. Katia didn't make it.
What exactly happened with Katia and Marko during scavenging is also another good story....
If it seems highly narrative, it's because it is. The game comes with a book containing more than 1900 small narrative entries that you randomly get with the help of a clever cross-referencing card system. While you'll from time to time come across some content you've seen before, this system very efficiently makes sure no game has the same story. Also, what impressed me the most is how seamlessly these small narrative pieces integrate with what's really happening on the board. The story flows very naturally in a way I've never seen before in a board game.
And the game is
brutal. That said, while a few situations are certainly luck-based, I've never had the impression it was unfair, though. After a few hours of play, you begin to understanding the game world, and how to react in it. It is definitely unforgiving, though.
Something that surprised me is how long a regular campaign takes to play. This first campaign took me a good 5 to 6 hours to complete. Thankfully, there is a very clever "save system" in the game that let you stop the game, put it back in the box, and restart exactly where you were when you're ready to continue. And trust me, you'll want to use it. Because of its subject matter, the game can get very exhausting to play sometimes. It's good to take a break and put away the game after a few in-game days.
While playing I went a few times on BGG for rules questions, and I came across two very good threads. The first one is a review of the game by an actual survivor of the siege of Sarajevo. His testimony is fascinating. According to him, the game is very realistic:
Another thread that is very interesting was made by a guy that asked his twin 13-year-old daughters to play the game as an educational tool. According to him, they took a lot from the game and it provoked a lot of family discussion. His daughters kept a diary throughout the campaign, and he posted the unedited version of it in the thread:
www.resetera.com
