• Game: Gears of War: The Board Game
• Publisher: FFG
• Designer: Corey Koniesczka
• Genre: Co-op Dudes in a Hall
• Players: 1-4
• Playtime: 45-120 minutes



• What's Hot: Smartly abstracted, streamlined combat, cover and movement system; great co-op synergy; multifaceted cardplay; completely committed to Gears setting and concepts



• What's Not: Dull look and feel; lacks narrative and detail in scenario design; cards as health results in some gamey decisions

by: Michael Barnes

Bar none, Fantasy Flight Games’ long-anticipated Gears of War board game is the best title the company has released since 2009’s Chaos in the Old World. Bearing a major AAA video game license and penned by FFG’s lead designer Corey Koniesczka, the game surpasses expectations with its evolutionary (but not quite innovative) reduction of classic dungeon crawl and tactical miniatures gameplay.

Unlike many of FFG’s recent titles, the game is tightly focused, streamlined, and highly editorial, with huge swaths of judicious abstraction keeping rules and procedure under tight control. The design also brings forward some ideas that have been kicking around in the genre for a couple of years in games ranging from Asmodee’s Claustrophobia, the recent Dungeons & Dragons Adventure System games, and Mr. Koniesczka’s own Mansions of Madness. As a result, it feels less incestuous and more progressive than a full two years of the company’s recent output.

The game is a one to four player affair with human players taking on the roles of COG grunt Marcus Fenix and his thick-necked squadmates. A deck of AI cards controls the Locust, including all activations, special unit-specific behavior, and spawning. On a turn, a player chooses an activation card that might have one or more different actions including moving, shooting, finding ammo, or other functions in various combinations.

As in a card-driven wargame, these activation cards also have additional uses. They can be discarded for basic actions or to perform tasks such as picking up dropped weapons. There is also one of three different action icons on each card that indicate a reactionary ability- an overwatch-like guard action that allows a player to take an off-turn shot at an activating enemy, a defense bonus, and a follow action that lets a player follow another moving teammate. At the end of a turn, each player draws a Locust AI card and follows its instructions.

The card-based activation system plays smooth and fluid, sometimes almost feeling real-time. The cardplay also creates some neat tactical opportunities, like luring a Locust into an area where one of your buddies is manning a Troika machine gun or playing a Cover Fire card to draw enemy attention away from weakened COGs. The way cards affect teammates and encourage close cooperation and coordination works masterfully. Although the game can be played solo with a single COG, I’m of the opinion that any game regardless of the number of players should use all four characters in order to take advantage of the teamwork elements.

Combat is a simple Heroquest-derived contested “skulls and shields” style die roll. Weapons- and they’re all here from the ubiquitous Lancer to the Hammer of Dawn- have the expected range and two damage numbers indicating how many attack dice are rolled. Spend an ammo counter, and you can roll the higher value. Attack rolls can also result in Crimson Omens, which trigger special weapon or Locust effects. Melee is more or less limited to the Lancer’s chainsaw- an instant kill if you roll an Omen on four dice. Damage for the Locust is a very abstract unwounded/wounded/dead model, and COGs take damage by discarding action cards.