I’m always torn when it comes to games that are tie ins to
shows that I really like, because on the one hand I already like the show, so
that scores a plus for the game, but on the other hand, I already like the
show, which means that if the game isn’t true to the show, there’s going to be
a problem...
And when I really like the show, sometimes that stops me
from even picking up the game in the first place because I’m too worried about
the game not being true to the show. So it was with some trepidation that I
took a look at Sons of Anarchy: Men of Mayhem.
It’s a simple premise, everyone gets a gang, and you try to
control locations, along the way you throwdown with other gangs, skim money off
the top, run contraband and in general act in an unsociable manner, with the
proviso that all blood feuds are off when the game is over.
After the first time of playing, I’m pretty sure the blood
feud didn’t leave the table immediately...
The thing about the show is that it’s not about the various
criminal activities that the gang gets up to, it’s about the family and friends
that make up the gang and their associates, so it’s interesting to play a game
where the primary focus is all the things that the show is supposed to be
about.
Presentation values are extremely good, at least on a par
with Fantasy Flight, and there’s a good number of plastic counters as well as
press out pieces. A turn consists of
each player taking a number of orders (actions) equal to the base number of
orders plus the number of members (that’d be guys on bikes) that they
have. Actions include Ride (move to another
location), Exploit (use a location you control), Throw down (fight at a contested
location), Recruit (add a new prospect to the clubhouse), Patch in (Pay cash
and guns to promote a prospect to full member), and Sit tight (do nothing...).
The immediate thought for one of the players was that more members
equals more actions, and as a result, more win in the turns to follow, and so
followed that strategy, one of the others instead went after the locations, and
the third took a mix of both. As it
turns out, none of these strategies is an immediate game beater, and a lot
depends on what cards are drawn through the course of the game. In order, players claim the order tokens for
their turn, reveal new cards (Sites and Anarchy cards), issue orders (in
rotation around the table, not one player takes their whole turn then the others
and so on), Black market (how much contraband is being moved that turn), then
Last Calls (typically problematic events) and clean up, including checking if
any of the gang have been killed in the turn previous.
It plays well, little slow to begin with, but once you’ve
got the hang of the orders and moves system, you can see strategies evolving quickly,
but you have to be way of the cards that are revealed every turns, which
escalate from one card in the first round, then adding one card every round
till there are six cards revealed in the final round. It’s possible for a gang to be eliminated before
the end of the game if they don’t have any gang members left to take a fall
when one is called for, but this didn’t happen in our game and I suspect you’d
have to be extremely unlucky to get that to happen.
The game plays straight to six rounds, at the end of which,
the person with the most money wins, in the event of a tie, the player with the
most guns wins and if that fails, both gangs throwdown against each other to
see which one wins.
On the one hand, being a fan of the TV show, my thought on
the victory was that it should have come by wiping out the other players, but
the other players aren’t fans, and the six round limit worked very well for
them (translation: I didn’t win...).
Overall it’s interesting, the three player minimum, four player maximum,
will limit the playability of it in some quarters and it’ll never get the same
level of interest as things like X wing because of the way it’s going to be
played that can’t be expanded upon. That
said, the rules are simple enough that it can be played by casual gamers and
hardcore alike, and will provide an entertaining break for both, but remains
true to the TV show from which it originates, and so for those who are picking
it up because it’s tied in to the TV show of the same name...
There’s win to be had...
