by RockyMountainNavy, 16 February 2023 ~ #UnboxingDay
Archie’s War: Battle for Guadalcanal by designer Derek Croxton was funded through a Kickstarter campaign by Worthington Publishing from September 2022 with a projected a delivery of April 2023. Arriving in late January—over two whole months early—was a very welcome surprise!
Archie’s War is another block game as many have come to expect from Worthington. The game depicts the heroic defense of Henderson Airfield on Guadalcanal in late 1942. Mechanically, here is how Worthington described the game for the Kickstarter campaign:
The game includes one double sided game board with a 2 player map on one side that uses diceless combat to achieve victory, and a single player map with an innovative solitaire system.
The 2 player game is a tense chess match of maneuver, deception and surprise. In the solitaire game you play as the Marines as you attempt to hold on to the perimeter protecting Henderson Field against relentless Japanese attacks taking your forces to the breaking point.
Archie’s War – Kickstarter Campaign
click images to enlarge
The contents of the box are actually quite few. I have to admit when I got the box in the mail I questioned if it really was a block game because it didn’t have the heft that I expected.
Although the game box says only one copy of the rule book is enclosed my box had two. I hope this is a factory mistake and not an overpayment by Worthington.
There are actually rules for games in Archie’s War; a two-player game and a solitaire game.
Part of the reason the game doesn’t have the heft I maybe expected is that it doesn’t actually have that many wooden blocks. Overall the quality of these—dare I say—lighter blocks is not bad. I had only one American and one Japanese block that chipped in shipment but there are a few spares included. The fewer blocks also means less time needed to sticker them. In fact, the game only uses half the sicker sheet meaning there is a complete set of duplicate stickers on a full sheet. Again, I wonder about cost here…
The map board is double-sided with the two-player game on one side and the solo play board on the other. I didn’t realize this the first time I photographed the game.
There is also a “Battle Archive” included for recording your games. Cute, but absolutely unessential. Another question of production costs comes to mind.
The solitaire game looks good on the table and plays fast. I’m still writing up my thoughts on the two-player game.
Thanks for joining this month’s #UnboxingDay with the Armchair Dragoons and we hope you enjoyed a look under our hoods! You can always leave us your feedback in our #UnboxingDay thread, or in the comment area on this article, below.
You can find our regiment’s social media on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. (We have an Instagram page and we never use it.) We also have our Patreon, where you can support The Armchair Dragoons activities.
Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below.
Want to contribute to next month’s #UnboxingDay? Drop us a line in the #UnboxingDay thread in the forum and let us know
UNBOX THE BOX SO YOU CAN REBOX THE UNBOX
