About game:

Essen Spiel is always a fantastic place to discover new titles – even wargames. Verdun from the Finnish publisher Dragon Dawn Productions was one such find for me. I had the chance to play it, and its clever trick-taking mechanics used to resolve combat and scoring really stood out. Combined with beautiful, thematic components and constant tough decisions, it quickly became an easy choice to add to my collection.


The game supports both 1v1 and 2v2 modes, recreating the struggle between German and French forces on the World War I battlefields of Verdun. Players start with a fixed set of cards, and as their hands shrink, they are often forced to play cards that may benefit the opponent, making timing a critical element.


It has an introductory mode, full game, a small expansion with additional cards and weather – all of which makes it a pretty replayable title. As each time you will get different hand, different defense disposition and victory areas placement – you will never get two identical sessions ever!

So, would you stand-up to the task and manage to prevail against odds, leading your forces to the victory in the field?

Number of players:

While game supports and suggests 1vs1 play, it really shines in its variant where two groups of two players form a teams, playing interchangeably the trick cards. So definitely always go for 2vs2 mode, where interactions between and within the teams create wonderful suspense and tension!

Playing time:

This is one of the quicker tick-taking wargames, which in 1vs1 mode takes about 30-45 minutes and max 60 minutes in team type of play. So you can easily use it as a game to finish long evening or a warm-up. But be careful about it… I will mention why later in the review.

Complexity:

I think this game is essence of what following statement means – low rules complexity, extremely varied choices and decisions. You will learn rules in 5 minutes. You will understand them and start to appreciate after first play. Will you master them ever? Well, this is a good question – there is a lot of variable elements and you will need to cope with them.

What I like:
  • Difficult Choices – the rules for this game are very straightforward,; the choices you need to make each round are not. You will be agonizing whether to play your or opponent card; whether to play high, medium or low value. Beautiful complexity from minimal rules.
  • Wonderful Graphics – please have a look at the graphics depicting areas you can conquer as well as cards you will play. All of them are Great War propaganda posters. And they are beautiful and… dreadful. Makes you wonder what kind of hell it was…
  • Deep theme and feeling – I will say this in summary but I will say this here too – this is deep title, leaving you in uncomfortable situation to decide who will die and in what volumes. In simple way that title puts the weight of Great War on you.  
  • Replayability – I am never tired of this game. Each time you have a different hand; you can play introductory mode, full game, 1vs1, 2vs2 or with small expansion. There are so many ways to play it that you will not get bored.
What I do not like or would like to see in the game:
  • Let us be straight and honest – while the sequence of play changes and varies (as each turn it moves to the player to the left of the one who was first previous turn), it is most fun to be the last. You actually decide the whole trick (as all the cards are played revealed) and probably get the most satisfaction. Still, as this changes, that is probably not such a great issue overall.
For whom?

This is pretty good trick taking game. You will enjoy the mechanics, you will like how the choices are made. Will you enjoy it? Well, this game is a sobering experience how dreadful Great War was. Expect a lot of negative feelings and death everywhere. Which is exactly what WWI game should be.  

More about the game:

And now let us have a look at the components – all pictures / videos taken during my plays:

My material presenting the game components and actual gameplay
This is board showing areas which you will be attacking as well as hidden defense markers
Close-up on one of the cards; it uses beautiful, thematic posters from the time of Great War; look at all the details meticulously pictured on it
And here are victory spaces / areas you will be fighting for – from one to seven stars.
My storage solution based on great Cube4Me Trays!

VERDICT:

I was thinking a lot how to write this summary. Sometimes I would say a game is great and thematic. Or that it didn’t meet expectations.

Verdun is different. This is sobering experience. This is not a fun game, but this is a decent, quick, trick-tacking title. Your score will be like -12 to -24. Both sides lose, this is a questions of who loses more. This is game about dying, about death and you really can feel it. Rarely, such a simple game left such a great impact on me. What I can recommend is that you should try it – not once, but at least 2-3 times – and always in a team mode (2vs2) – to check what you think about it.