Tannhauser

Customer Reviews

Eldritch, yes, horror, maybe. Review by Keven

Value
Quality
Price

A little bit pricey, this game is worth the price if you are into small scale squad based tactical miniatures games. It's a mouthful, but that's what Tannhauser is, at it's core.

Being a 'horror' type of board game enthusiast I picked this game up hoping to find a healthy backstory and some slightly familiar sort of overarching theme of opression and terror. What I found was partially that, while the game's story and characters are well fleshed out, I felt it was missing the 'horror' piece the box mentioned.

The setting is interesting, a sort of alternate timeline with an alternate first world war. You will control either the Union(an USA type of army/country) or teh Reich(a German type of army/country). And the object of the game is to either finish a certain ammount of the objectives placed on the map, or eliminate the other time. Usually. One interesting point I found is that the rules include options for alternate game modes, such as capture the flag. This almost gives it a feel of an FPS in a board game form, even though you control the entirety of your squad.

The double sided board is nice, almost giving a beginners map on one side, and a more advanced map on the other. The pathfinding system is easy to understand, and makes a lot of sense. Miniatures look nice, my copy had a piece that slid out of one of the minis, it was a simple case of applying some glue and slipping a tab back into an openning on the model. Overall this game provides a great gaming experience for people who are a little more experienced with board games.

Recommended to play with 2, or 4 players(with the two armies split in the case of having 4 players). While it can be played with 3, it might cause some unbalancing due to strategic differences. (Posted on 5/16/10)