Richard Smith
Canada
Coquitlam
B.C.
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Revolution is a Euro-style game about the build up to a revolution in some 18th century community. You are trying to get your influence in place so when the mob and guns come out, you will be in control.
The first couple times I played this game, it felt random and dull to me. Now I am fairly enthusiastic. What changed?
Note, this review is not going to rehash the game's mechanics in any detail. (The game has many reviews that do that well.) It will look at why and how my opinion has changed.
QUICK SUMMARY OF GAME PLAY:
This is a game of blind bidding. There are 3 currencies: Power, Blackmail & Money. If two people bid the same amount, neither gains influence and their resources are lost. Power trumps Blackmail which trumps Money. However, the lower currencies can be used to break ties. (So 1 Power will beat 2 Blackmail & $3, but 1 Power & $1 will beat 1 Power.) Some areas do not allow Power or Blackmail to be used on them, and every player gets at least $5 money each turn. The game design is clever in that it makes sure that even people with little influence have tactics that will allow them to have a chance to recover.
You bid on areas which have benefits which range for more Power, Blackmail and Money next turn, to influence in a region and to gain bonus victory points. Two areas (Spy and Apothecary) have special powers which allow you to move cubes around on the board, strongly affecting who has the majority of an area.
At the end of the game, you pick up a lot of victory points by having majority control of regions on the map.
GAME COMPONENTS:
The bits are good looking and solidly constructed. The map is mounted and shows a top down view of the town you are fighting over. No problems here - a handsome game.
INITIAL REACTIONS:
This game was being demonstrated by a Man in Black (MiB); one of the people who go to game conventions to demonstrate SJG's products. They give out free games and the like.
I didn't like the chaos of blind bidding much the first time I played. I lost badly, because I seemed to always to tie with one person or another and the game felt very random.
I was waiting for my game to start at the con and had more time to kill so played it again. Same reaction tho I did a bit better.
However, later in the con, I was sitting at the next table and after some Munchkin, the MiB played a couple more games of Revolution! The guy demoing the game had won 5 out of 5 times he had played that day. Admittedly he was playing against newbies, but still, there obviously was more strategy to the game than the luck-fest it first seemed to me.
SECOND TRY:
At the con the next year, I decided to try Revolution! again. I understood better how the various parts of the game worked, and was determined to win.
The first couple rounds were fairly random as you had no information about the other players.
However, this time I spent much more attention watching what the other players were trying to do and how they accomplished their goals. Some areas always seem to be undervalued, (the church area for example), and I often picked it up cheaply. I few times early in the game I went for Apothecary (which allows you to switch cubes in areas) to get my major opponents in to big fights for control of areas. This made them more predictable and got them out of my hair.
There was a lot more table talk in the second game. "If you let the MiB do that, he will win!". With players more alert to what was going on, we had less of one player running away with the game. The main difference in my play was I was less predictable, as I was spending more of my effort trying to understand what the other players would do.
The games this year were far more cut throat and hard fought. The MiB didn't win every time. I didn't win either game, but came very close both times.
SUMMARY:
My initial reaction to this game would be to say it has a 4/10 rating - nothing broken but far too random for me. Right now I would love to play it again (say 8/10) but in the long run, it likely would settle to a 7/10 once I figure it out better.
It is a fast game taking around 45 minutes. It IS chaotic, with sometimes two people both trying to be unpredictable and ending up colliding anyway.
However, there is some real thought behind the design, and the key to the game is to understand what your opponents are trying to accomplish. You know how much Power, Blackmail and Money they have at the start of each round, use that information. If you play it like solitaire, ignoring what other people are doing, you will get stomped.
This is a game where experienced players have a real advantage over new players. A number of combinations of areas work well together which are not obvious at first. I am no expert at the game, and wouldn't want to try to say anything deep about the game's strategy. But there is more strategy than I thought at first.
To have any success in this game, you have to pay close attention to what your opponents are doing. You need to have a strategic plan of your own (going for victory points with the Newspaper, trying to control a powerful area or picking up a few weak ones, etc.). You also have to have a tactical plan (the area I want can't have power spent on it, so how do I get blackmail materials?). But you can't be too predictable and inflexible about working on your plan.
I don't think that this game is amazing. However, I would like to play it more. I could see it being a quick, 'decompression' type game played at the end of an evening. Despite a poor initial impression, my feelings for it have undergone a Revolution - it is far better and more subtle than I thought at first.
Warm regards, Rick.
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Brett Christensen
United States
Dickinson
North Dakota
Bad touch!
Rub the wizard!
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Nice review.
 I've had the same initial reaction to this game, maybe it's time I give it another try.
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Edward Jamer
Canada
Fredericton
NB
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While I thought Revolution! was totally random at first, once I picked up on some of the cycles and bidding patterns encouraged by the board design it became much more interesting. Add in some player psychology and timing questions about when to switch cycles and disrupt the plans of your opponents, and suddenly it's a very enjoyable game to start or end an evening with.
Have you tried with the expansion yet? Certainly adds an interesting wrinkle to the game with the Guardhouse in play.
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Paul Chapman
United States
Texas
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Rick Smith wrote: To have any success in this game, you have to pay close attention to what your opponents are doing. You need to have a strategic plan of your own (going for victory points with the Newspaper, trying to control a powerful area or picking up a few weak ones, etc.). You also have to have a tactical plan (the area I want can't have power spent on it, so how do I get blackmail materials?). But you can't be too predictable and inflexible about working on your plan.
Yes! A thousand times: yes!
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Patrick Riley
United States
San Jose
California
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newuser wrote: Have you tried with the expansion yet?
The expansion also has 4 more bidding spaces, which allows for more players but also decreases collision rates with fewer players.
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Tom Stearns
United States
Houston
Texas
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This game was an immediate hit in my house with all who played, which included several teenagers. The learning curve is not steep. If you have a good instructor teaching the game, then the idea about needing to watch what the other players are doing won't take 2 or 3 plays to pick up on. In fact that should be one of the obvious things that a game explainer should tell those he's explaining the game to. The fact that the MIB didn't get that information across when he was teaching the game was a big error on his part imho.
This game is FUN, bottom line. Lots of opportunities to mess up other players. When your screen is lifted and everyone looks around to see what other people did, the ROAR that goes up from the table when two or more players canceled each other out, or one barely out bid the other....PRICELESS.
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Richard Smith
Canada
Coquitlam
B.C.
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newuser wrote:
Have you tried with the expansion yet? Certainly adds an interesting wrinkle to the game with the Guardhouse in play.
Hi New User.
No I've never tried it with the expansion. What does the guard house do?
Rick.
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John Adkins
United States
Charleston
West Virginia
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Control of the Guardhouse blocks other players from using the Spy or Apothecary against your influence cubes.
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Kevin Garnica
United States
Buena Park
California
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xenongames wrote: The expansion also has 4 more bidding spaces, which allows for more players but also decreases collision rates with fewer players.
Not true! I played my copy of Revolution! with the expansion and this is what happened:
I spend everything in the first turn (as I suspect is usual) and I never saw a single blackmail or force for the entirety of the game.
Do you know how hard it is to get anything done with *just* 5 gold?
It actually turned me off to my own game. I liked it before as a base game, but the expansion experience was just plain frustrating...and I was seriously trying to play well. Maybe it was a freak experience.
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John Brownsill
United Kingdom
Milton Keynes
Unspecified
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pacman88k wrote: I spend everything in the first turn (as I suspect is usual) and I never saw a single blackmail or force for the entirety of the game.
Don't know if I'm misunderstanding what you mean, but it sounds like you're not using all your tokens.
You must spend all your tokens to bid each turn, and can't hold any over for use in later rounds.
Apologies if that wasn't what you meant.
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Philip Reed
United States
Kyle
Texas
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pacman88k wrote: Do you know how hard it is to get anything done with *just* 5 gold?
How were you using that five gold? If you were the ONLY player with five gold at any point during the game it would have been dirt simple to get two Blackmail. Or one Force.
And if you and another player both had five gold at the same time you simply make a deal so that you don't compete on a space.
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Philip Reed
United States
Kyle
Texas
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Pogle wrote: Don't know if I'm misunderstanding what you mean, but it sounds like you're not using all your tokens.
I think he was saying that he could never win a space that granted Blackmail/Force.
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Tom Stearns
United States
Houston
Texas
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Ive seen players with only gold in their hand do quite well over and over....
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Philip duBarry
United States
Cincinnati
Ohio
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Nice review! Glad you gave it another try. For the record, I came within 3-4 points of winning the other day and didn't have anything but gold until the last round or two. Difficult but not impossible.
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Philip Reed
United States
Kyle
Texas
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gohrns wrote: Ive seen players with only gold in their hand do quite well over and over....
I've been beaten by those players.
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Jimmie Bragdon
United States
Austin
Texas
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pacman88k wrote:
I spend everything in the first turn (as I suspect is usual) and I never saw a single blackmail or force for the entirety of the game.
You are actually must spend all of your tokens each turn. There is no holding any in reserve.
Quote: Do you know how hard it is to get anything done with *just* 5 gold?
Actually, the expansion makes it even easier to get decent progress and tokens if you only have gold. The entire bottom row of the bidding board (4 spaces) are gold only, and all but one give force or blackmail as a reward.
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Edward Jamer
Canada
Fredericton
NB
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pacman88k wrote:
Do you know how hard it is to get anything done with *just* 5 gold?
How difficult it is depends on how many people are playing and whether you are using the expansion. However, *just* 5 gold is enough influence to get you rolling as long as it is put to good use. (Of course, "good use" is much easier said than done!)
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Jason DeWitt
United States
Rushville
Indiana
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So glad you like it!
I've loved this game from day one! We played it when it first came out at Gen-Con, and I even met Philip!!! I've never had a bad game and even enjoy myself when I do lose. And yes, you really have to think and worry about what the other guy does.
I've also been stuck with only money before, and you can do well with it!
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The root of all evil... but you can call me cookie.
United States
Gainesville
Florida
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Great review thanks. I've been noticing more and more positive mentions of this game around BGG. I've been interested but no one I know owns the game and I haven't been inclined to buy it myself yet, though your review is intriguing to me. Now I'm very interested in giving this game a try.
I would also say as someone who has been a game rep for both Days of Wonder and Steve Jackson Games (yep still got my Game Guide and MiB T-Shirts) that I feel the MiB who was demoing this game at the convention was not a good MiB. If enjoy the game you are demoing it's best to NOT PLAY the game. Teach the game and moderate the game. Walk the table and let the newbies learn it on their own, giving equal amounts of strategy tips to all players as the game goes on. If this game is as short as you are saying then in a convention session block you are probably going to play this game 3 times. Maybe by the 2nd or 3rd game you sit in and play with the noobs. If you are struggling to get players and have to sit in to fill the game or give it what you feel is a better number of players then again you need to be GUIDING the players even if it means pointing out optimal moves for them that will cost you the win. Being a demo rep isn't about winning games it's about demoing a game and getting people to love the game.
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Philip duBarry
United States
Cincinnati
Ohio
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Hope you're not talking about me! Was this at GenCon?
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Andrew Walters
United States
Hercules
California
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MiB = "Men in Black". Note that some of us are not men, and many of us may not *appear* to be wearing black. We're sneaky that way.
The Men In Black are the SJ Game demo people. We hand out promo items, run tournaments, and generally help people discover and have fun with SJ Games. We all have secret numbers, but that's a secret.
http://www.sjgames.com/mib/
As for playing in a game vs moderating it, either can be great. I'm sorry you didn't have a good experience with that particular MIB. Nobody's perfect all the time. In a casual demo if I sense a group wants to try the game and has a good handle on it and there are enough players for a good game, I will definitely sit out and let them have at it. Then I watch and help them stay on track for the first couple of turns, then try to stay out of the way. If there are two few players for a proper game, or if people really seem to be lost, I will sometimes play in the game. I don't try to lose, that's just insulting, but I'll let people know why I'm doing what I'm doing, and let them know how they can stop me.
I avoid telling people what to do, as that's no fun; it leaves people with the choice of being a robot or ignoring advice from the guy who's played many times, both of which lead to bad outcomes. When I need to throw out some advice so people can enjoy the game and not struggle with it I lay out a couple of paths they might take and why they might take those paths, that way they're still driving.
So it can work either way.
If you like SJ Games you should look to meet your local MIB at a game store or convention. They're the people who have all the bookmarks and coins and stuff.
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Posted Thu Mar 24, 2011 5:48 pm
