Discworld Ankh-Morpork board game review

Plip plip plop heavy April snow showers! Thankfully, staying in and avoiding the crazy weather has been great fun recently as we’ve been playing Discworld: Ankh-Morpork the board game.
The largest and smelliest location in Sir Terry Pratchett’s fictional Discworld is beautifully mapped out in this simple, funny and engaging board game.

The immaculately groomed Lord Vetinari has mysteriously disappeared and in his absence the noble families of the unruly city are vying for control. The action takes place on a map of Ankh-Morpork, divided up into twelve areas with two to four players trying to place minions and buildings onto the map through card play. Before the game began, each player was assigned a secret personality from a cast list of Discworld’s most famous characters. Each personality had specific victory conditions attached which had to be kept secret from the other players. Some appeared deceptively easy like ‘if the game ends due to the cards running out then you win the game’ whilst others required a certain number of minions in place or areas under control to win. Trying to create the right conditions for victory whilst guessing what the other players needed to do in order to win was easier said than done once the cards were dealt out. Taking an eye off what an opponent was doing could easily gift them the game even though the rules were so simple even a bumbling Rincewind could get them right – just do what it says on the card!

Discworld Ankh-Morpork Map

Each of the 132 cards was unique and had actions represented by symbols on the top to follow. Choosing a card from a minimum of five in the hand, players had to follow the actions in the order they appeared from left to right. A small, happy action might have been taking money from the bank. Actions placing pieces on the board or picking up additional cards were also mostly welcomed, however, we soon all began to dread the random event cards which in typical Discworld fashion, rarely went in anyone’s favour and could flip the outcome of a game; poor players were forced to hand over thick cardboard coins to wealthy rivals or fires broke out across the city and rolled on destroying carefully built up areas thanks to some pretty depressing rolls of the die. Even Death popped up to say hello and cull two minions from the board. As most cards had more than one action, one turn could quickly create chaotic chains of events, and also made keeping track of everyone’s progress difficult but never at the cost of removing the fun.

Causing or avoiding trouble was a huge part of the game. Each player had a coloured set of wooden minions to send out and stand around in areas on their behalf. If they were placed in an area that already had one or more minions in it then a trouble marker was promptly dropped down (usually accompanies by growls, evil laughs or sighs of despair depending on a person's gameplan) which was massively important (read disruptive) for anyone trying to build in that area. Each area offered unique perks which could also help or hinder a game, depending on a player’s victory conditions. The Shades gave us an extra chance to cause trouble (cue more evil laughing) whilst building in Seven Sleepers brought in an extra $3 from the bank per turn.

Discworld Ankh-Morpork Cards

Designed by Martin Wallace, it’s clear there has been a lot of care and attention taken in representing the characters and buildings from the books, not just in the detailed, hand painted quality artwork by Peter Dennis, Ian Mitchell, Paul Kidby and Bernard Pearson, but in the spirit of the cards. The Beggar’s Guild card allowed us to select another player who had to give us two cards of their choice whereas the History Monks card allowed us to shuffle the discarded pile and randomly draw four cards. The entire set of coins, minions, buildings and cards was fabulously presented whilst the gameplay itself was clever and unpredictable. It often lured us into thinking victory would be easy yet it took well over an hour for one of us to finally declare they had won. The rules aren’t so complex or frustrating that a mixture of ages and abilities can’t enjoy playing together whilst the pace was steady at times, frantic at others. Discworld devotees and newcomers to the world will find that Ankh-Morpork is a city where everything that can go wrong probably will, which of course eventually makes winning all the sweeter.

Discworld: Ankh-Morpork the board game is out now and we totally recommend it. Head over to Esdevium Games to check out where your nearest stockist is and to see their full catalogue.

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