\n| Wertung<\/td>\n | ![\"red](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen2\/star_red.gif\") ![\"gray](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen2\/star_gray.gif\") <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\nThis time I am going to talk about another game from the golden age of fantasy wargaming. Yes,
\nthe golden age, the 70’s, when fantasy and SF wargaming was shock full with colourful worlds,
\nfantastic ideas, and when the graphic presentation was not yet depicting stereotypical steroid
\npumped barbarians on every cover. One had to be satisfied with counters instead of miniatures and
\nthe boards were often hand-drawn and printed on flimsy paper.<\/p>\n The game I will talk about is “Divine Right”, by Glenn and Kenneth Rahman, a pair of
\nauthors who worked in all fields, wargaming both fantasy and historical, and also roleplaying.
\n“Divine Right” is one of the most sought after games of this time. It was originally
\npublished by TSR who were then riding high on the success of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons First
\nedition and published a couple of boardgames in box format. Divine Right stands next to Dragon Pass
\nas one of the most colourful imagined completely original fantasy worlds. Glenn and Kenneth Rahman
\nobviously took inspiration from their roleplaying worlds and populated the realm of Minaria with
\nincredibly varied creatures, kingdoms and factions.<\/p>\n At it’s heart it was the first decidedly “political” epic fantasy game, in which
\nthe focus is less on a tactical situation but on a sweeping view of a rich fantasy world. Dragon
\nPass had its diplomacy rules, but they were rather simple compared to the diplomacy in Divine
\nRight. At its heart it is a conquest game – depending on the game variant you strive for being the
\nultimate ruler of the land, which means you have to bring factions to your side and lead your
\narmies to conquest and plunder.<\/p>\n Minaria is divided into several smaller countries, there are Dwarves, Barbarians, Elves and
\nhumans (and many more), each with there own kingdoms and castles that are waiting to be conquered.
\nYou start controlling one of these kingdoms and try to bring other kingdoms to your side while
\nwaging war. The all important phase in Divine Right is the diplomacy phase, in which you try to
\nbring monarchs of varying respectability to your side, by rolling dice and playing event cards. You
\ncan also attempt to disrupt the alliances that other players have, by making their allies neutral
\nagain. As this is a multiplayer game, this phase can result in a crass change of the power balance
\n(imagine playing Third Reich and the German player suddenly allies with the US) – a weak player can
\nsuddenly become extremely powerful, and a powerful player suddenly can see his allies turning on
\nhimself. Until next round that is.<\/p>\n This diplomacy aspect was one of the reasons why this game became extremely popular during
\nit’s time, as it avoided the typical problem of every conquest game, namely that the player
\nconquering the most land becomes increasingly mighty in resources as well, so the strong become
\nstronger and the weak become weaker, like in Risk. In Divine Right things are never that sure, and
\nthe only way to force a kingdom out of play is conquering its main capital, which can be a long
\nsiege process.<\/p>\n The game mechanics work like a simple hex and counter wargame, but with enough beef to stand
\napart from more primitive games. There are rules for encirclement in a siege for example, and all
\nin all the rulebook is not exactly for the faint of heart, even though it is no “Campaigns for
\nNorth Africa” certainly.<\/p>\n The most detailed rules come for the various factions and single creatures that one can enlist;
\nof course there are also heroes and leaders with special abilities, magicians with spells, etc. In
\naddition to this the game designers have created a history of the land as well, and there are
\ninteresting back stories and descriptions of practically every place on the map. The fantasy world
\ncomes really alive here, and players really feel like they are waging an epic war in a sprawling
\nfantasy world.<\/p>\n Not surprisingly the game can go on for quite a long time, as the person who is about to win can
\nsuddenly lose half his army through diplomacy, but the game more than makes good with an incredible
\nlove for detail.<\/p>\n The TSR edition was extremely sought after the game went out of print, and commanded high prices
\non eBay. But 25 years later a distributor of Manga and Anime who was apparently a big fan of the
\ngame, “rightstuf” publications, decided to put out an all new edition, “Divine Right
\n– 25th Anniversary Edition” This was a one off publication, and also this game is out of
\nprint, but it might be cheaper to find than the ancient , battered TSR box. The new edition had
\nsome quirks – half of the rules came -inexplicably – on a CD-ROM, and you had to print them out,
\nthe board was larger and mounted, but the counters were perforated instead of diecut, which meant
\nthey tore apart and had fuzzy edges like stamps when you tried to punch them out, the only solution
\nwas to use a pair of scissors, which was quite annoying, as the counter cardboard seemed to be hard
\nas stone. They also tried to update the rules and made them so complicated in the advanced game
\nthat playing the game became like playing a rule lawyer’s wet dream, a rule for even the most
\nobscure events that could happen if you travelled along a river for example. It doesn’t have a
\nspaghetti rule like Campaigns for North Africa, though. I guess there are no spaghetti in Minaria,
\nthat was probably the only reason, or it would be there in the new edition.<\/p>\n One could be sure that GMT would have done a better job, but again, the game was not published
\nby a professional games publisher.<\/p>\n In the buzz around the new edition it was also promised that an online game would appear, there
\nis still a website dedicated to this project, but it was apparently abandoned due to the advent of
\nVassal and Cyberboard, even though I have never seen an adaptation for these platforms of this
\ngame, if I’m wrong I would like to hear about it, folks!<\/p>\n Anyway, if you like Dragon Pass and the quirky fantasy worlds of the 70’s you absolutely
\ncan’t go wrong with Divine Right, it is a classic game in it’s own right and is worth
\nseeking out, if you look for a light hearted but rich game with lots of action and epic
\nbattles.<\/p>\n Until next time, may all your hits be crits!<\/p>\n \n |
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