Manoeuvre

Customer Reviews

Just the right amount of thinking Review by Jasmine

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Value
Quality

Manoeuvre is a medium weight game that has just the right amount of thinking involved. You get a small handful of cards and only eight units to work with on a small 8x8 interchangeable board.

Everything essentially dictates what you can and cannot do, immediately eliminating the hassle of worrying about most of the things that you might need to do in order to win the battle. Knowing that your opponent is on the same boat is also a great relief and allows you to focus on what you can do and how to do it best.

The game is all tactics and small victories. Do you try to hit or eliminate a unit? Or maybe just push the opponent back and re-take a hill? Combine this with the fact that you don't know what cards your opponent has and the dice rolling and you get a nice intense 2 player game.

The army imbalance is a bit of a shame, actually. It would be nice if they offered different styles of play without making certain armies blatantly better than others, as it would encourage more game combinations and diversity for equal level players. Not everyone finds it fun to win with a handicap or lose while giving one.

Overall, the game is nice and short and is a good introduction to wargames, or a compromise for those who are not interested in wargames at all. (Posted on 11/24/10)

Quick and fun, shame about the components though Review by Murray

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Value
Quality

Manoeuvre is an amazingly simple, yet deep game. It is easy to learn and plays on a small 8x8 "board" made up of four random 4x4 tiles. Each player gets only 8 unit tokens to use and a deck of 60 cards.

The goal of the game is to either destroy 5 of your opponent's units or to control more territory on your opponent's half of the board. Every turn you may discard unwanted cards and redraw up to five in your hand, then you must move one unit and may attack with any of your units, provided that you have the card for it in your hand.

When attacking, your opponent can play defensive cards and you can stack your offensive using cards as well. There is a bit of luck involved as attack cards usually require dice rolls. Terrain bonuses and other things make up for it in the strategic column.

If you manage to hit over your opponent's defense, they may choose to take the damage and flip over their token or to withdraw. If you double your opponent's defense with your attack roll, then you get to make the choice for them. If you triple their defense, then they must take a hit and withdraw. Finally, if you quadruple their defense, then the unit is destroyed and removed from the board. If the unit is blocked and cannot withdraw, or if the unit takes a second hit, then it is also destroyed.

The game is more about vying for position than destroying each other. The game is over once both players run out of cards in their deck. You score 1 point for each one of your unit in your opponent's half of the board and you get 1 points for every square your unit contests that is uncontested by your opponent. The player with more points at the end of the game wins.

For a wargame, Manoeuvre plays fast. Most games last less than an hour. Although this is a two player only game, there are 8 different armies to use and plenty of terrain tiles so that you can have multiple instances of the game running at the same time. Because of these 8 armies, there is a lot of variety in the game.

Manoeuvre is very easy to learn and great fun. Unfortunately, the components of the game looks and feels a bit cheap, but the game is out of print, so it's worth the price right now. Even as a wargame, casual gamers can enjoy Manoeuvre. Highly recommended. (Posted on 4/21/10)