Game Review: Mordred

By Brad Keen
August 6, 2008

Publisher: Warfrog Games
Designer: Martin Wallace
Players: 3-4
Playing Time: 45 minutes
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One of my many acquisitions at Origins 2008 was Mordred. Re-released by Martin Wallace and Warfrog Games and distributed by FRED in the U.S., this edition of the game features upgraded bits and a revised rule set. After Brass and Tinners’ Trail reinvigorated my interest in Martin Wallace, I was excited to play another one of his games, even if Mordred is an entirely different type of game. Mordred, as you will find out, is not a deep economic game, so take a minute to rethink your expectations and get ready for an entertaining battle between good and evil (and good) set in the fantasy world of King Arthur.

The goal of Mordred is simple and thematic. King Arthur has finished his conquest of Briton, but the land is still dangerous and the evil knight Mordred poses a constant threat. As one of Arthur’s knights, you embark on a quest to defeat Mordred. You do this by constructing different types of buildings and using these strongholds to battle Mordred. Here’s the twist: Mordred is partly a cooperative game, and victory points from your buildings will count only if Mordred is defeated at the end of the game. If this doesn’t happen, players instead score points based on how well they have refrained from helping Mordred throughout the course of the game.

Building the Defenses

At the start of the game, each player places his pawn on a corruption track, which represents the help each knight has given to Mordred. Additionally, one of Mordred’s men is placed onto Castle Anglesey on the board. Each player is given a set of buildings, representing villages, towns, and small and large castles.

A turn is composed of two phases. First, you collect income, and if you are greedy or unlucky, you help Mordred. Income is generated using a three track chart printed on the board: Track A offers less money and less risk of helping Mordred; Track C offers the greatest chance of both outcomes; and Track B represents the middle road. A roll of 3 and 4 on Track A, for example, would give you £5 while providing no help to Mordred, whereas on Track C you would receive £7 but also help Mordred by placing two of his men onto the board. As a result, you would advance your pawn two spaces on the corruption track. Mordred’s men must be placed adjacent to a square that already contains one of Mordred’s men. You can either place one into an empty space or attack another player’s building to try to remove it from the board.

In the second phase, you can use your money to build buildings onto the board. The board is nicely illustrated and composed of a series of paths connecting location or building squares; these squares depict either a forest or a mountain. A player can build anything he wants, assuming he can afford it, with only one major caveat. The first player to build must put the building in a square with a black border (located on the right side of the map). All subsequent buildings must be constructed either adjacent to an existing building (either with or without a Mordred piece), in a space where the player has already constructed a building, or in an empty space with a black border. The cost of a building is determined by its type and by the type of square in which you want to build it. The buildings vary in cost, attack and defense values, and victory point values at the end of the game. Villages, for example, are worth 3 victory points but are more expensive than houses and have very low attack and defense values.

One decision that a player can make when placing a building is whether he wants to attack one of Mordred’s men. If the player succeeds, he removes that piece from the board and is rewarded with a movement back on the corruption track. Lose, however, and he can no longer build that building. A player can build as many buildings as he wants in a turn or save the money. After building, his turn ends and play passes clockwise to the next player.

One of the interesting twists in this game is the multiple end game conditions. Play will end if:

• A player must move either forward or backward on the corruption track and cannot (i.e. they would fall off of one end of the track)
• All buildings of one type have been built
• All of Mordred’s pieces have been placed onto the board
• A player defeats the Mordred piece in the Castle Anglesey

Playing Both Sides

I was originally hesitant about Mordred for two reasons. First, I do not have many fantasy dice games in my list of favorite games, and Mordred is definitely a lighter game with a prominent fantasy theme – yet it is not devoid of strategy or planning. On your turn, you are presented with a number of interesting but relatively quick decisions. Farms are worth more victory points than small castles, but offer less defense, making them easier for Mordred’s men (i.e. other players) to defeat. This leads you to figure out the best way to construct your own defenses to shield your most valuable buildings. Also, you can build around other players’ buildings, consequently making it more expensive for them to build in the future. Finally, you may decide to take a different route altogether and try to force a Mordred victory while staying low on the corruption track.

In the first game I played, for example, I noticed that the other two players had become very corrupted early on while I was relatively untouched. I decided that it may be best to rush the end of the game, place as many of Mordred’s men onto the board as possible, and build few of my own buildings. This strategy paid off with a victory for Mordred and my low placement on the corruption track ensured me the victory. A longer game, on the other hand, may necessitate the strategic placement of large and small castles to protect your farms and villages and a careful management of your corruption track via attacks against Mordred and selective use of the money tracks. Now, the ultimate outcome of your decisions does depend on the roll of the dice, but this has not yet hampered my enjoyment of the game. And the different strategies that emerge over the game add to its replay value.

Mordred also features an interesting relationship between player cooperation and competition. The decision about which money track you roll on and how to place the Mordred pieces onto the board can be based on either pure self interest or on the good of the team. Each turn, you must evaluate how you’re standing if Mordred were to win or lose. If it looks like the players will win, but you are far behind in victory points, it may be time to attack other player’s buildings with Mordred pieces. But you have to be careful because eliminating too many buildings or providing Mordred with too much help can swing the game dramatically in the other direction and you may quickly find yourself wishing that you had made another decision.

To sum it up, Mordred is a lightweight game that encourages table talk and player interaction, weaves a story to tell after the game is over, and still has room to pack a fair amount of strategy and tactics into it. It plays in about an hour, the perfect length for a game of this weight, and the rules are well written and very clear. As an added benefit, all profits from this game go towards supporting organ donation in the UK. So, if you are looking for a game that plays relatively quickly and stresses theme slightly higher than strategy and tactics yet doesn’t ignore them altogether – and if you won’t mind an unlucky dice roll or two – I would suggest picking this one up while you still can. Given the limited print run of a thousand copies, odds are good that it won’t be around forever.

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