Jason Meyers
United States
Illinois
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Quote: A review of games based on experience playing with my kids, with its suitability for children in focus. For more, see my blog at Kinderspiel.
Attack! (Eagle Games/Glenn Drover, Sean Brown, and Mike Selinker, 2009[Deluxe Exp.])
2-6 players / 13+ / 240 minutes
After subduing all of North America, I turned my greedy heart and cast a wanton eye towards the south. There, trough the Isthmus of Panama, ripe for the picking, lay the land of coffee, bananas, and rubber trees - all the necessary resources to supply the corporate offices, bakeries, and bouncy ball factories throughout my lands. Only one thing stood in my way: the Blue Player. But through clever use of rail transport, factory research, oil production, and naval superiority, I was able to amass a fine invasion force ready to cross the Caribbean Sea into Columbia. It was a fail-safe strategy! I beamed, "Look out Blue, your territories will soon be mine."
"Um, dad, no they won't."
"Huh? What are you talking about...look at this army!"
"Whatever, your rolls stink."
"Oh, uh, yeah. Maybe I should wait till next turn to bring more men...?"
What You Get:
More like what don't you get! And that would be the kitchen sink. Between the base game and the deluxe expansion, you're getting something like 500 plastic miniatures: six sets of infantry, artillery, tanks, planes, destroyers, subs, carriers, and battleships (plus one plastic capital, per color). You have 14 custom d6's and 2 regular (in a killer blue color). A stack of paper money in 5 denominations, government planning mats, special action cards, naval cards, research cards, chits, chits, and chits. Finally, there are two massive boards representing the world, Risk-style. This game is easily the best value in our collection just in terms of components per dollar. All of the components are of sturdy to excellent quality with the lone exception being the research cards which are essentially like a deck of standard cards.
Quick Rundown:
Attack!, with it's Attack! Deluxe Expansion, is a world conquest war game with dudes on a map. While the look is all quasi-1930s pre-war era, there is no set-up along real political or historical boundaries. Attack! really fits a "smaller than a house, bigger than a breadbox" label within the genre. In that sense, I think it fills the void between Risk (the breadbox) and Axis & Allies (the house). It is an area control and area movement game that uses dice to resolve conflict like those two famous titles. It is more complex than Risk since it has a variety of units, extra chrome, and includes a basic build/develop element. However, it is more accessible than Axis & Allies because it is more streamlined and infused with some Euro aspects to minimize downtime and shorten overall game length. Make no mistake, though, this game still takes a little time to plow through. The major Euro element is Glen Drover's action point mechanic. Each round represents one year, which is divided into four seasons. There are seven different actions you can choose from each season and you cannot play the same action more than once per year. The familiar elements of earning income, producing units, moving troops, and attacking are all present here. But you are not able to do all of those in a given year, because you also can - and will want to - research, move naval units, and conduct diplomacy with neutral countries. Battles are resolved with custom dice - to score hits, you need to match the symbols on the dice with your units engaged in the fight. Euro elements have influenced the end game, as well. There is a fixed number of years (per the players' choosing), victory points are earned for a win, and if one player's capital is captured, the game ends that round.
T for Teens:
I struggled with labeling this game, because I think it is a limited appeal, small niche game. Basically, as succinct as possible, here's my logic. My kids do understand the rules and can follow game play. So it's not above their heads. Indeed it even seems to be a good title to teach them strategy basics. However, there is still enough chrome that throws in choices that they'll inevitably miss. So your options are to ruthlessly crush them for their errors or benevolently teach them how to survive in a brutal world. So in that since, I enjoy playing with them for the bonding and the teaching. But I can also enjoy playing Sorry and Life with them in the same manner. In other words, I don't see adults genuinely enjoying the game play with kids because the challenge will be lacking. Hence I passed on the 'E' rating. With older teens, the situation would be different. For hobby gamers it is probably too long for a group's regular, more casual "game night." The title is probably served and experienced best as a "buddy" game in which adequate time is set aside solely to one session. But even then, if you're committing a block of time from your busy schedule, there are other more immersive experiences than Attack!
There are some commendable aspects to recommend about Attack! The action point mechanic results in smooth game play that reduces the downtime endemic to traditional war games. The structured turn sequences create a good rhythm of order that is only broken up when one has a lot of fighting in a particular season. The closed-end finishing point means this will not be a weekend-long slug-fest. The victory point system causes players to divert attention to research and naval building in addition to mere conquest. Research is uniquely conducted by spending units, which then forces you to consider infantry, etc., as a form of capital instead of expendable cannon fodder. It also deals with, and omits, one of the more contentious issues that gamers have with the genre: player elimination. The result is a classic, Ameritrash, dice-fest that ventures a wee bit into the Euro game zone with some tight mechanics. The main issue I have personally, though, is that Glen Drover's reworking of Conquest of the Empire handles all of this in the same way, only better.
Probably the biggest issue for me with the game is the sheer size of the board(s). Even with six players, it is common to go 3-4 turns before running into an opponent. If playing the 6-turn limited war scenario, that's half the game right there. So first off, I recommend constricting the playing space in some manner. This is easy to do since you get to choose your starting locations. Another drawback is that you will find yourself often doing the same thing each and every year, with maybe only slight variations. After all at the end of the day, despite the choices in actions and the need to research and build, it is still a world conquest game.
Combat can be a bit wonky as there is no graded firepower for more advanced units. You just simply roll as many custom dice as you have units in the battle and hope you can match the symbols up with the units. At first, this seems to make the point of combined arms moot. However, there are some differences to unit types that play out in the overall scheme of things: artillery gives you a first-shot, preparatory barrage, tanks and planes can blitz (though a separate action) from up to three spaces away, and planes have a slightly better chance of hitting since each die has 2 plane symbols on it. Naval battles are handled in the same fashion: subs serve as the first-fire unit, battleships have the extra symbol on the custom dice, and a carrier lets you roll an army die in which a plane symbol scores a hit. Naval units do not serve as transports. For amphibious invasions, your navy simply must control the predetermined sea lanes required to move your army from one coast to the other as if they were adjacent land spaces.
Okay, I'll Shut Up Now:
Personally, I rate Attack! Deluxe Expansion a 6 on the Board Game Geek scale (OK game, some fun or challenge at least, will play sporadically if in the right mood.). It has more to offer than Risk, but is not as thematically engaging as other dudes-on-a-map games. For the adult, it can be a fun way to spend a few, lighter hours when in the right mood on a war game and still be able to finish in one sitting. For kids, it is a nice introductory strategy game before exploring further titles in classic Ameritrash or traditional war gaming.
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Brett Doull
Australia
Queanbeyan
NSW
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Great review. Although I'm pretty sure that destroyers and battleships are also unit transports. I think sea lane movement is only for the actual 'transport' action isn't it? (Also negotiation maybe?)
It's a completely ancillary point though, just thought I'd be the first pedant.
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Malcolm
United Kingdom
Preston
Lancashire
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Thanks for the reivew.
I do like 'dudes on a map' game and this game interests me - cheep & lots of platic - how could it not???
Anyway, just a quick question: What do i need to play?
* The base set? I assume so.
* The regular expansion?
* The deluxe expansion?
How do these 2 differ? Do i need them both or does the deluxe expansion have everything that the regualar expansion had?
thanks,
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'The Completist'
United States
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Great review. I too am still on the fenceabout Attack. My son wants this for the components and I want it for the maps. I just haven't heard great things about gameplay. Game length seems a bit daunting too. We ended up going the Memoir '44 route for now but someone needs to talk me into (or out of) this one.
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You need the base game and Deluxe.
(Attack! Expansion is long out of print)
Deluxe has everything Expansion had in it, plus new cards, rules, and dice.
The Deluxe expansion greatly reduces playing time (since it uses threaded turns). and the overall experience is a fun one!
Sean
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Leo Zappa
United States
Aliquippa
Pennsylvania
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A fair review. I happen to love this game, and rate it considerably higher. Then again, most of my gaming is 'buddy' gaming with 'dudes on a map', and we usually set aside every month's session for a single game, and play that game all day long (Axis & Allies, Twilight Imperium, History of the World, Sword of Rome, etc.) I think there is more of this kind of gaming going on than some who frequent BGG might think, and I think this game is a perfect fit for such groups. I have to say that this newer "Deluxe" version, as opposed to the original Attack! is a very different game than the original, and while I've enjoyed playing both, I prefer the "Deluxe", with its limits on actions in a given 'year' of gametime, making the players make tough choices.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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onekccs wrote:
The Deluxe expansion greatly reduces playing time (since it uses threaded turns). and the overall experience is a fun one!
Sean
Both very true! Ever since playing Shogun/Samurai Swords/Ikusa as a child, I have been a huge fan of "dudes on a map" games. Attack! Deluxe Expansion is my third-favourite game of all time, following War of the Ring and Mr. Jack. It's sort of like the Nexus Ops of huge conquest games in that it incorporates all the elements one would hope to find in a game like this but manages to do so in a very distilled, simplified manner with a minimum of rules.
Mind you, I still think there are a few areas in which this game could be improved. And my next step is to do some serious rules meshing to create the game that would result if Attack! Deluxe Expansion and Axis & Allies 1942 (second edition) had a baby... 
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Jason Meyers
United States
Illinois
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desertfox2004 wrote: most of my gaming is 'buddy' gaming with 'dudes on a map', and we usually set aside every month's session for a single game, and play that game all day long (Axis & Allies, Twilight Imperium, History of the World, Sword of Rome, etc.) I think there is more of this kind of gaming going on than some who frequent BGG might think, and I think this game is a perfect fit for such groups.
Yeah, I can definitely agree it fits that type of gaming very well. Have you played Conquest of the Empire? If not, and you regularly set this kind of time aside for gaming and really like Attack!, you'd like it, too.
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Jason Meyers
United States
Illinois
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chicken_ramen wrote: Great review. Although I'm pretty sure that destroyers and battleships are also unit transports. I think sea lane movement is only for the actual 'transport' action isn't it? (Also negotiation maybe?)
It's a completely ancillary point though, just thought I'd be the first pedant.
Yes, thank you, sir. I believe I'm mixing up the rule between the basic game and the deluxe expansion. In the expansion, you may embark army units onto naval units during the Navigate Action: destroyers carry an infantry or artillery; battleships carry infantry, artillery, or tank; and carrier the plane. Then you may disembark to an adjacent coastal territory later during the Move Action. I guess the sea lanes only pertain to the base game which had a different naval mechanic.
That actually makes invasions more difficult. Good catch! 
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