So far I played Judean Hammer five times with various opponents – each time learning something new about that small, neat wargame. While not taking too much time to play it end-to-end, there is something which drags you to this position to try one more time – maybe with different approach, strategy or concept. Whatever it is, I am always gladly coming back to this title. Today we shall look in more details at its rules, components and my impressions based on various sessions / plays. Enjoy!

The game

A very thematic box cover

First, a few words of introduction. Judean Hammer is a fast-playing wargame which depicts tense struggle between the rebel player (The Maccabeans) and the empire player (The Seleucid Greeks) trying to re-assert their control. This two-player wargame plays in about an hour or two, with a lightning-fast set-up time. The Greeks start in their unassailable supply centers, controlling Jerusalem, but the Maccabeans can use ambushes to whittle their foe while cutting off the Greek supply.

Cards driving the gameplay

At the heart of the game, you strive for control of critical cities in the region, especially Jerusalem, playing cards to move or recruit units or to use a special ability that benefits only your faction. However, there is only one deck, and the more special ability cards you play, the weaker your side becomes in combat — which leaves you to make tough decisions at almost every play: Do you push for an early advantage, capturing critical regions and amassing a victory point advantage? Or do you bide your time, watching your opponent weaken themselves, then strike hard at the end to steal the win?

As for the victory, after each turn you give 1 Victory Point to the side which controls one of six regions. To gain control you need to have more cities occupied by your units than opponent. Whoever first reach 12 VPs wins. game can be finished also if only twelve or less cards are left in draw deck.

Historical Background

As a history buff, I care about story the game tells as much as for its mechanics. So let me write couple of sentences about period and events. The Maccabean Revolt was a pivotal event in Jewish history and unfolded in the 2nd century BCE under the reign of the Seleucid Empire. Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid king, aimed to Hellenize his empire, imposing Greek customs and prohibiting Jewish religious practices. This led to widespread discontent among the Jewish population.

Mattathias, a Jewish priest, sparked the revolt in 167 BCE in Modin, refusing to offer a sacrifice to Greek gods. His son Judah Maccabee became the rebellion’s charismatic leader after Mattathias death. The Maccabees, a group of Jewish fighters, employed guerilla tactics, engaging in a series of battles against the Seleucid forces.

Despite being vastly outnumbered, the Maccabees secured significant victories, including the recapture and purification of the desecrated Jewish temple in Jerusalem. This event gave rise to the annual celebration of Hanukkah, commemorating the rededication of the Temple and the miracle of the oil lamp burning for eight days. The revolt’s success established an independent Jewish state, the Hasmonean dynasty, which endured for around a century.

Session Reports

Now, in a lightning report I will share the game set-up as well as quickly report on games I played, underlying especially what I learned during each of them.

PS. Feel free to click any of below images to expand them in new window for more details.

Set-up of each game is similar. Greeks in their Supply Centers around the map, with strong garrison in Jerusalem. Jewish insurgents mainly in one region, will have to expand quickly to catch up in points with Seleucids. Also, some of the Greek Supply Lines are pretty brittle!
The first two sessions ever I played with my fellow colleague, Clio (https://cliosboardgames.wordpress.com/).The initial game was incredibly even, maybe because we were still learning the game. In case of such result like draw, which was still victory for the Hasmoneans.
The immediate rematch we played was for a long time very close, but my deck shaping in the end allowed to break through the Jerusalem defenses and grab enough advantage to achieve a win.
Next three sessions of Judean Hammer I had a pleasure to play during AgroWar 2023 Polish Wargaming convention. First we had a play with Jacek – and I must admit my experience started to tell here; while the game does not have a steep learning curve, some things are obvious after the first game. This time Maccabeans won again!
This time I played with Michal (WojennikTV) and was leading Greeks. In this session we probably had the most prevailing feeling of game being a bit too random – a lot of well Maccabean planned attacks were spoiled by bad card draw. Still, Michal did not give up till the final round!
My last session was with yet another Michal (a lot of wargamers in Poland with that name as you can see!) Based on my earlier experiences I immediately proposed to play as Jews, as this seems to be more difficult. We had pretty balanced session, with some crazy rolls but I had a feeling they even-out. There was also a good lesson how much the supply is important for Greeks.

If you look above, insurgents won four out of five games; each time that was victory hard fought, oftentimes by minimal value. What I learned, is that it is better to start with Greeks, as at least initially, they have more forces and better position on map. Will definitely suggest it in future plays.

First Impressions

Let me share now my impressions, observations, things I liked after that couple of plays and elements which I found less impressive. Let us see:

  • Definitely, big plus to the game for the asymmetrical concept of Greek and Jewish forces. This is visible in events, combat modifiers, move and recruit actions as well as special ambush mechanic.
  • What is another positive is relatively short time to play – not too short, just enough to taste the game and immediately change sides to play rematch.
  • The connection of deck shaping with the impact on combat and events is something unique. You have one, common deck. Each time you play event – you remove it form game but also lose your positive combat modifier.
  • As far as components are concerned, I am divided. On one had you are getting all you need – nice map, decent cubes, proper cards. On the other, Ione would love to see a bit higher quality of box, rulebook, maybe even map. That does not hurt, but also does not impress.
  • It feels sometimes a bit random – while I appreciate deck shaping, for game which lasts three, sometimes four rounds you simply do not have enough time to feel that deck shaping. More plays will be needed here to formulate final opinion.

Now, the final and most important question: do I like this game? Definitely yes. A short, asymmetric design which you can play changing sides in under two hours. For sure it will hit the table in the future.