Morrison Games VIKTORY II: A Fast-Paced Game of Strategy and Conquest

The game is great. Got it for my 12-year old for Christmas and he played it with friends and family throughout the holidays. The box was a little worn around the edges, I was wondering if it was used and would have been reluctant to give as a gift if it wasn't for my own son. All the pieces were sealed in their separate plastic bags. So couldn't have been used. Just wished the box looked like new.

When I found this game and saw it was self produced I was a on the fence about it, no a solid company behind it, the quality of the pieces, customer support, etc... I had nothing to worry about. It is one of the best games I've ever played. A simple, easy to learn, concept that forces you to be very strategic and cut throat. I've played about a dozen games of it and every one is dramatically different, the only consistent advice I can give you when playing is trust nobody lol.The quality of the pieces was incredible too, very solid plastic miniatures, much better than risk pieces.The only problem I had was I was missing some of the red pieces. I emailed creator of the game personally and got a response, on a weekend, in less than 24 hours. I got a full new set of red pieces rush deliver free, and an apology, so no need to worry about customer service.I would very highly recommend this game.

A great game. Fun to play with 2 to 8 players. Was pretty easy to learn and I love that it encourages attacking instead of "turtling".

My son and I have enjoyed this game very much.

Some interesting game ideas and features, but not really conducive for solitaire play.

Viktory II combines some of the best aspects of different types of games I like. The rules are simple to get started with and recall yet has play that continually reveals more depth of strategic considerations. It's a fresh world to explore and conquer each time due to its Catan-like hexagon reveal board. It rewards both aggressive attacking and defense in depth, giving a healthy sustainable reward for the risk of attack. It also pretty strongly rewards combined assault and having developed a full spectrum of resources. It plays as well as either a two player or multi-player game. The physical copy of the game I have - 2-8 player with the border - has great components and I've played online a fair amount on a really good implementation of the game at gamesbyemail dot com.The rules are in complexity somewhere between Risk and Axis and Allies/Settlers of Catan. The trickiest parts are probably remembering how far a piece can extend travel by a city build or take over and where a ship can be built from a land locked wooded-resource city. The order of move and attack actions is entirely up to the player within those pieces' current reach. This leads to the player having a wide variety of strategic approaches to expansion. It also extends the depth of defensive strategy in allowing for planning to be able to retake possibly vulnerable towns and cities. The rules allow for some containment of an opponents' expansion by placing forces adjacent to their resources, so both sides have to take this into account in planning. Over a number of games a player will probably see various strategic themes played out or thwarted - mass attack, flanking maneuver, amphibious invasion, central control, etc. - coming from the varied positions found on having a new world every game.Like Catan the 'board' is made up of random hexagon tiles - unrevealed at first - of different terrains you discover as you move inland from your corner. So it's a different game every time from this alone. The player has a choice as to where to start with his capital town, and moving out from there can choose depending on what kind of terrain is found where to place some more towns or build up existing towns into cities. There is a trade off here in that towns can expand one's territory out faster as well constrain an opponent from building in an area, but the 'vertical expansion' of improving a town into a city gives a number of advantages as well. Building a city reveals hexes 2 away instead of just adjacent, provides stronger defense, can serve as either a hard to reach base of resources or as a forward base of attack, and probably most importantly provides the variety of units as each different resource terrain can specialize in supporting a different kind of unit - mass infantry, artillery, cavalry, and naval. So this all results in each game having a different build up of opposing towns, cities and routes of expansions.It's very much an attacking game, but in I think a more creative way than most. Both sides have regular opportunities to build up forces in different parts of their territory each turn - the forces a player can have on the board depend on what the player's current towns and cities will support. And there are a number of defensive advantages to build up as well - building in a woods or mountain territory, building up to a city, having defenders of various types of units, etc. So an attack has to be planned to be able to overcome these. Here's where this game gets particularly creative. A variety of offensive bonuses can be achieved by building up an attack that is: made of of a variety of units, coming from different sides, bombardment (naval and/or artillery), etc. Also units can have a variety of approaches to a target hex - can go through rough terrain if another unit is adjacent, naval, cav ability to go longer distance and through rough terrain, etc. To a new player it appears the game rewards only attacking, and it will be the only way to Viktory (pun intended) but also there are options for defense as well. Besides the ones mentioned above, there as also a depth to planning to be able to retake towns and cities that may be vulnerable. This has the double effect of possibly being able to take them back and/or making an opposing attacker think twice. But having attacked and taken a town or city, a player may have some good options to hold that gain by reinforcement or build up *unless* a defender was able to have an additional unit adjacent - further depth to defensive strategy and offensive contingency planning.As mentioned the game reflects advantages to building a combined force assault. Rather than having as many dice as units - ex. a die to roll for each infantry unit - an attacker (or defender) gets a die for each type of unit in their force. So the effect is a mass of infantry is still good for defense and to soak up losses in attacking, but not overwhelming by itself. This rewards coordination of different forces well. It also deepens the reward for building up (to city level) of a full spectrum of all the different resources. Besides the ability to produce a variety of units, having one city built up of each terrain type gives an additional combat bonus that continues as long as the player maintains one of each type of city. This in turn adds value to different strategic objectives for players - in building up or denying cities of types to others.Another way the board is variable is by size. The diameter of hex tiles set up varies according to the number of players. I've played I think every size from 2 to 8 player and I've found each size board feels like the right amount of space for the designated number of players. And of course if you're playing 2 players and just want play on a bigger board to expand in you can do that as well. There is even a variant here on BGG that looks like it combines two big set ups for a type of huge empire game. Two-player or multi-player plays very differently. With a two player game it's an all out war with the goal of overcoming your one opponent where as with the multi-player, there can be diplomacy, a variety of options as to which direction to focus, and possibilities to have defeated players still have a part in the game to mitigate the downside of player elimination. I've enjoyed games of all player numbers with the only one potentially lacking being three player because it can sometimes become a quick case of just two against one. But even three player can become interesting if the players' strengths and experience are pretty close.The components are a good mix of plastic minifigs of a Napoleonic style infantry, cavalry, artillery, and ships, Catan-like hex tiles and also a nice set of border pieces to help hold the board together better, and smaller and larger buildings to represent towns and cities. It's been a good game to play with friends and my kids as well as against more seasoned strategy gamers. There is an annual online international tourney each year - hosted on the afore-mentioned gamesbyemail dot com - which is great for meeting new opponents as well as testing out how one compares against the best players in the world. For myself this tourney has repeatedly shown me new strategies and tactics to be found in the game. But it was the physical copy of this game that taught my kids when they were a little younger how to use combined arms and diplomacy to beat their dad!

Over the past month that I've owned Viktory II I've come to the conclusion that I love it. It may be silly, it may lack "realism" and it has serious problems with game ending and player balancing and yet... And yet it is the greatest thing since sliced bread, Science Fiction and Stratego put together, not to mention the ultimate Risk killer.Yes, that's right. Once you own Viktory II you can toss your copy of Risk as the light, party wargame. You an also get rid of a number of other games, from Settlers to Monopoly, used to lure your non-gaming friends into the demonic folds of sickly craving for tiles and dice.Viktory II is simply the best beginner's game there is. It shocks, it rocks, it tiles, it dices and if you order now you'll get a complementary set of player mats for FREE! Oh, and it's a good game too...Statistics:Players: 2-6Playtime: 25 minutes to 2+ hoursType: Light wargameDesigner: Peter MorrisonPublisher: Morrison GamesOverviewIf you've never held it in your hands - and if you're reading this chances are you haven't - Viktory II is a tile based, high speed, low intensity, light, semi-random wargame. If that actually told you anything stop reading right now and go buy it. If not, read on.I've compared Viktory II to Risk and that is, as comparisons go, a rather fair one, assuming you can imagine a Risk on amphetamines and steroids going "Ra-Ra-Rasputin" or whatever 1970's, Boney M'y tune happens to be your favorite right now.For Viktory II is a step back to the simple days of yore, before Avalon Hill introduced the 11.5.4.7a type rule clauses (in case you're wondering, that's the 11th section, 5th part, 4th rule, 7th paragraph, subpart A detailing the effects of rain and a high bean diet on long range missile fire). Well, not quite but it's definitely a step towards the essence of wargaming, instead of attempted realism by emulating computer wargame rules with pen and paper.Make no mistake about it, Viktory II is all about feeling, tactics and wild gambling on the 1/4th of 1/12th chance that your single infantry could take out that cavalry army and invade the only available artillery producing town on the board that you desperately need in order to prevent the other player from overrunning your capital and making you his plastic love slave and oh, crap those dice must be fake, well, it was worth a shot and if you don't invade I'll give you a cup-cake. Mwahaha, maniac laugh.ComponentsAh, yes, the components. What to say about them. First off, there's a lot of them. It's a pile, a horde, no a plethora of little plastic pieces, nicely pre-packed in ziplocked bags. There are over 800 (862 to be exact) of them, and that includes over 100 pieces per player and more than 180 hexes (enough to have a few to spare even when playing with the largest type map).The armies themselves are composed ofinfantry (general cannon fodder type guys dressed as Napoleonic guards),cavalry (19th century light hussars - charging of course),frigates (ships of the line with loads of sails) andartillery (exquisitely detailed little canons - there's even a tiny hole for limbering them up to the caissons, can you get more anal retentive than that?).Each plastic piece is pressure molded, free of flash (those annoying lines around plastic pieces) and ready to play - no dismantling of spruces necessary. They're the good quality hard plastic manufactured in the Western World(tm) and not the cheap, oily, bendableChinese kind. Of course, if you step on them Chinese plastic will do its best rubber ball imitation but Viktory II pieces will turn into a fine, colored dust. Think good, old Games Workshop/Citadel plastic miniatures tabletop miniatures if you were alive in the 90's. If not think good quality Monopoly pieces. Which brings us to the next part.The towns and cities are modeled as Monopoly houses and hotels. That's right. You've got houses marking the spots of prime real estate on your map. When playing in cafés it causes people to stop and ask if this is a new version of Monopoly. Which makes for a great opportunity to drag some unsuspecting schmoe kicking and screaming into board gaming addiction. I suspect those houses are a stroke of marketing genius by designer Peter Morrison.The board consists of 5cm (2") hexagons and is functional. The cardboard is thick enough to not to wrap but not thick enough to give that almost-wood solid feeling you get from some boards. Measured by high end gaming company standards they're only fair but considering they're printed, glued and die-cut in Peter Morrison's garage they're a marvel.GameplayYou've ripped open your priority mail package, drooled over the pieces and disturbed all your friends at work, badgering them into quitting early to come and play. Now it's time to wipe your sweaty palms and set out the board.The size of the board varies from 61 hexagons for a 2-player board to a whopping 169 for a 5-6 player board. In general, once you've gotten a game or two under your belt, playing on a 1 step larger board than the amount of players makes for a better (if longer) game.The board is set up covertly and part of the fun of Viktory II is discovering the world at the beginning of the game. Will you be stuck on an island with nothing but plains (highly unlikely but something to dread anyhow) or will you get the opportunity to develop a balanced army before reaching the enemy?Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more. If only plastic pieces could quote Shakespeare before throwing their expendable little lives into the fray to save their glorious ruler... Failing that Viktory II can be summed up with the words "attack, attack, drink tea and attack some more".It is a game adapted to fast attacks. You don't produce any troops. Instead your cities support up to two units of troops and if those guys are wasted by your deplorable tactics (sorry, you're right, poor dice rolls) they return, hale and hearty, at the end of your turn. This means that it's often advisable to attempt futile attacks. Who knows, your lone inf might storm the mountain, kill of the cavalry, capture the guns and take the city all by itself (yeah, right). Or if not it might cause the enemy some losses that he won't be able to use during his turn (remember, troops get spawned at the end of the turn).While this sounds like you'd just throw all your troops away each turn and get them all back at the end it's balanced by two ingenious mechanics: you can't pop more troops in a city in a single turn that it can support and you can't pop troops into a beleaguered city (one that has enemy troops adjacent). In reality if you botch your assault your troops will be spread out over half your empire and it will take time before you can assemble them for a new attack - time that your enemies will use to spank you. Knowing when and where to charge is the key to winning - that and having luck with the dice.For there is a significant amount of dicing luck, although not nearly as significant as in Risk. You might loose a battle purely on bad dice rolls but it won't happen twice in the same game (all right, maybe twice, but no more). If you don't like that there are rules for "low variability combat", but hey, half the fun of light wargames lie in heroic determination in the face of a horde of plastic.Planning your battles overrules luck for there's another good idea in Viktory II: combined arms. You don't get dice based on the amount of troops you have in a battle but on the different type of troops you have. So ten infantry would only give you a single dice to roll but one infantry and one canon would give you two. And each troop type (except inf) has some desperately needed special abilities. So plan where you build your cities for each city will generate only one inf and a single other troop type, based on where the city is built, and you need all those different troops.This combined arms strategy also hinders the feared Axis and Allies turtle sickness where each player does nothing but build huge armies only to throw them into a single battle that decides everything. In Viktory II each city you take means something, and each battle is critical - but not so critical that you can't regroup and re-conquer if you lose.That is also Viktory II's greatest hindrance. When playing with conquering rules the game is potentially endless. At the same time a long game of Viktory II is, in my experience, shorter than 2 hours. The longest game I've played lasted 2,5 hours (although it wasn't finished, the coffee house closed - that's the risk you run when you try to play another round late in the evening).ConclusionsBuy it, buy it, buy it. If Peter Morrison sells all his stock he'll to a second print run and maybe a 10th year anniversary edition with 3D hexes!Viktory II is good for light and quick, almost filler level, fun. A two player game can be played in 25 minutes and in that time you've discovered a brand new world, built an empire and watched it crumble into plastic dust.I've heard newbie player commenting that they'd like to put up all those plastic troops and play war with them like children (you won't hear me say that - I'm a serious gamer). I've heard jazzed players ask where one could buy Viktory II after looking at a game for ten minutes. I've heard people saying that they'd introduce their grandparents to the game. I've even heard a waiter asking whether we wanted something to drink - but I don't remember what I answered, my troops were about to storm Tomas's capital and make him my vassal.On a serious note, Viktory II is a very good game, with great game mechanics but it does suffer from flaws. One of them is the aforementioned feeling of endlessness. Another is the risk, especially when playing with 3 players, of leader bashing. This exacerbates the endlessness as all the losers invade anyone who's ahead. Fortunately there are rules that provide for set victory conditions to end the game faster but face it, it's way more fun to conquer the world than play until "20 Victory Points".And fun is what Viktory II is all about - the best fun being had the more players there are, and I've got a nagging suspicion that it would be even better if I bought another 6-player set and played 8 players on a 331 hexagon board. But that's for another time.