OBJECT OF THE GRIZZLED: The object of The Grizzled is to empty the Trials deck and make the Peace card visible without ever making the Monument card visible.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 5 players
MATERIALS: Six Grizzled Cards, Fifty-nine Trial Cards, Sixteen Support Tiles, Five Speech Tokens, One Mission Leader Token, One Game Aid, One Peace Card, and One Monument Card
TYPE OF GAME: Cooperative Card Game
AUDIENCE: 14+
OVERVIEW OF THE GRIZZLED
Go through WWII warfare with your friends in this cooperative card game. Attempt to stay alive as rounds get increasingly more difficult. If one man falls, you all do. Are you able to keep friendships together, work as a team, and get your men to safety?
SETUP
To begin setup, all players will choose a Grizzled card, which they keep Goodluck charm facing up. Each player will then receive three support tiles.
Twenty-five cards are stacked facing down on the top of the Peace card, creating the Trials deck. The remaining thirty-four cards are stacked facing down on the Monument card, creating the Reserve of Morale.
Speech tokens are positioned in the middle of the card stacks, the number is dependent on how many players there are. With two or three players there are five tokens, with four players there are four tokens, and with five players there are three tokens. The Mission Leader token is assigned to the player with the most har and the war is ready to begin!
GAMEPLAY
The Mission is made up of four steps. To begin, the Mission Leader will weigh the risks and choose the Intensity of the Mission. This will determine how many cards each player is handed throughout the course of the Mission. The cards are handed out singularly, rotating around the group, with the Mission Leader being first. The cards are from the Trial deck and the Intensity begins at a minimum of 1.
The second step is The Mission. This is where players will try to get the Trial cards out of their hands without causing an issue for the group. There will be Threats placed in the center of the group. These may include Night, Rain, Shell, Whistle, Mask, or Snow. There may never be three identical Threats simultaneously in order for the mission to continue.
The Actions
Actions are what players can do while The Mission is ongoing. Beginning with the Mission Leader, and continuing clockwise around the group, players choose one action to complete.
Play a Trials Card from Their Hand:
When player plays a Threat, it is placed in the center of the group, where the other threats are accumulating. Three matching ones and you are out. If it is a Hard Knock, the player who played it is assigned it.
Use a Good Luck Charm:
The player is able to discard a Threat that is the same as their Good Luck Charm. The Grizzled card is now flipped, and to be able to reuse it, they must recover it.
Make a Speech:
When a player uses a Speech token, it gives them the ability to announce a Threat. This gives all players who are still active a chance to discard one card from their hand that is that same Threat.
Withdraw and Play a Support Tile:
When a player withdraws, they no longer take action in The Mission. They choose which player to give support to, if they have Support tiles left. All Support tiles that have been played throughout the course of the Mission will be assigned to the correct players at the end of the Mission.
End of the Mission
The Mission can end two different ways. All the players may have withdrawn, so therefore the Mission is successful, and the game continues, or three identical Threats are present, and The Mission has failed. The game begins again.
When the Mission has ended, players show the Support tiles they chose to play and give it to their chosen player. If one player got more support than all other players, they may remove two Hard Knocks or recover their lost Good Luck Charm.
If the Mission failed, then only tiles from previously withdrawn players are taken into account. If a player received more support than any other, they may only remove one Hard Knock. After the Support phase, if a player has four or more Hard Knocks, the group fails and the game ends. If the Peace card is able to be seen and there are no more cards left in the players’ hands, then they have won!
However, if the players have cards left in hand, then the game has one more step. The number of cards still in the players’ hands is the number of cards transferred from the Morale Reserve onto the top of the Trials deck. If the Monument card is able to be seen, the game is lost.
The Mission Leader token is moved on to the next player and another round begins. The war goes on!
END OF GAME
The end of the game may be signified by the Peace card being able to be seen and players having no cards, the Monument card being able to be seen, or a player earning four or more Hard Knocks. If the Monument card is able to be seen or a player earns four or more Hard Knocks, the group loses. If the Peace card is able to be seen, and the players have no cards in hand, then the group wins!
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