Warrior Knights

Theme : In Warrior Knights, the kingdom is in chaos. The King lies dead without an heir, slain by a villainous hand. Will a leader rise up and rally the support of the people, or will the shadow of anarchy spread over the land?

Through the deliberation, it is plain to see that this conflict will not end without bloodshed. With such power at stake, there will be no compromise. Even now, each Baron plots to gain advantage and hires hardened mercenaries to strengthen his forces. Soon the crashing of marching boots and the roar of battle will drown out the negotiations taking place at the Assembly. Fortresses will fall, cities will be razed, and a King will be crowned.

In Warrior Knights, each player takes on the role of one of six powerful Barons vying for control of the Kingdom. Through strategy, politics, and raw force, Barons gain influence over the land.

In this struggle for power, will you lay siege to your opponent's city or try a more perilous assault? Does your strength lie in your military might or in your political power? Will you focus your limited resources on hiring mercenaries, supporting the Church, or gaining the upper hand at the Assembly? The choice is yours in Warrior Knights.

This re-design of the 1985 Games Workshop classic game of power and politics features new streamlined gameplay, brilliant graphics, and gorgeous components. Warrior Knights is finally available for a new generation of contenders to the throne. For two to six players, playable in two to four hours.

Gameplay : Warrior Knight has a very clever mechanic. Each player has a selection of tasks they can accomplish each turn, such as move & attack, gain political strength, hire mercenaries, and gain religious faith. Only 6 of these are done in any turn. Each player selects 2 tasks for each 1/3 of the game turn. The task cards are then shuffled with all the other players. So each player doesn't know the exact order of play, only which two tasks they will perform in each 1/3 of the game turn.

In addition, the game has four special phases that are triggered based on how frequently players are choosing a particular task. Collecting taxes individually, once done often enough, will trigger a taxation phase. Players collecting political power trigger a session of Parliment. When enough players want to hire mercenaries, there is an auction for their services. The flipside is that the more mercenaries that are hired, the more often they want to be paid in the wages phase.

The mixing of these two clever mechanics, choosing tasks but performing them in a random order and triggering the 4 special phases at somewhat unpredictable times makes for a tense game. Players can often be caught short of cash if wages are demanded more frequently than taxes are collected. If the other players all collect political influence, a Parliment might be called when one or two players has only a single vote. These elements of variable turn orders and variable phases give the game a highly addictive quality.