MEGAforce Boardgames Night: Dad's Army

T'Other One and I played his copy of the Dad's Army, a recent charity shop acquisition. 

The game was a 2021 re-release, the original, by Denis Fisher was released in the 70s.

Set up for play

How to Play

Each player has two characters, cardboard standees with cartoon versions of iconic characters (Cpt Mainwaring, Sgt Wilson, Lance Corporal Jones, Pike, Walker, Godfrey, the Vicar and the Verger). They are paired by token colour. 

The objective is to be the first to get both characters to a square, randomly determined at the start of the game, and different for each player. Movement is by d6 throw, and all movement points must be used. 

To help and hinder, various squares are War Department depots, with cards that allow an additional move of a specified character; air raid cards that move all characters* to the air raid shelters, then players place a random number of bomb tokens, which block squares (certain squares are 'unbombable', though not, interestingly, the safe squares you are aiming for); 'Union Jack' cards that allow removal of a random number of bombs; and the Mr Hodges card, allowing the player to swap any character on the board* with the irritating ARP Warden. 

And that's it.

T'Other One has played this before, it was my first try. The game took about 30 minutes to play. 

Who do you think you are kidding?

For me, if a game based on an IP is to work, it has to provide a good play experience, and it also has to feel like the IP (I must finish off my post about GWs Doctor Who game).

Dad's Army does neither.  

There are some interesting game play ideas, but they aren't used to best advantage. Placement of bombs can be quite tactical, but the availability of Union Jacks means they are a minor hazard. 

The one sheet rule book is sketchy, and often confusing.  I suspect folk less used to board games would find it baffling. 

As for the Dad's Army feel, the board artwork is reasonable, with some reference to both Wartime Britain, in the form of propaganda posters and locations such as Jones' Shop (but sadly no Jolly Roger Ice Cream Parlour).

There is no practical difference between the different characters, you're simply moving bits of cardboard around. You could replace the names and you'd have a rather pedestrian board game nominally set in Wartime Britain. 

Grades

I'll give this one a D. Possibly a D+ for mechanics and D- for veracity to the source material and general 'feel'. 

The potentially interesting ideas in gameplay can't raise it to a C because it's so annoying seeing them wasted here. For instance, at the start of the game each player draws two numbered cards, one pink and one black, to give a grid reference for their destination square. This is neat (though better colour printing on the board would make this more obvious) but it's never used again. It could be used for the bombs (though that removes tactical placement), or at least for where Hodges sends an opposing character, and surely there could be extra War Department cards that capitalise on the random location generation?

I would have liked to have seen more characterisation; perhaps Godfrey moves slower?  Maybe some reference to specific situations in the episodes?  But I doubt it would be worth it.

I understand that T'Other One is donating it to another charity shop.  Hopefully the next purchasers get more out of this than we did.

Caveats

I mentioned above that the game is a re-release.

The original game has a backstory of the Home Guard in an occupied Warmington On Sea. There are landmines to cope with, and part of the objective seems to have been to cover swastika markers with Union Jacks.  Understandably, these have been removed in the modern version, but I'm not sure if there was any more interesting game play involved with this aspect.

I wonder if a casual group with a love of the source material might enjoy this?  Even so, I think they might expect a bit more characterisation.

*unless the character has arrived at the destination square, in which case they're safe.