Battle for Hill 218 Review

Battle for Hill 218 review by Count Zero

Battle for Hill 218 is the latest offering from Your Move Games, there most popular game so far has been the Battleground series but I think things may change now.

For your money you get a single deck of cards in the standard cardboard box, similar to a deck of Magic cards. Opening the box you get a small paper instruction manual, two decks of 26 cards one set blue and the other is green. Finally there is the Hill 218 card.

Each player has the same set of 26 cards; these are split into the different troop or equipment cards that make up your army. These are infantry, heavy weapons, tank, special op's, paratroopers, artillery and final air strikes.

Setup of the game is very easy, the hill 218 card is placed on a table. It's more of a marker and serves no real purpose in the game other than as a visual aid. Each player then takes there two air strike cards and places them on their side of the table. There deck of cards is then shuffled and five cards are drawn. From these five two are discarded.

Player one now starts, he draws two cards from his deck and places one of his 5 cards. The first placement needs to be on his side of the Hill 218 card. You have to imagine that the board is made up of a grid of spaces. Each space being able to take one card. The spaces on opposite sides of the Hill 218 card represent your base. Your objective is to place one of your cards in your opponent’s base space. Sounds easy, but it can take a bit of effort.

Player two now takes his turn, he draws two cards from his deck and places two on the table. From this point on, both players take turns to draw two cards and place two. These can be either from their hand, or one of their two airstrike cards. The rules of placement are simple; each card has an image showing its supply route. This is represented as arrows running from a square. Cards can only be placed if they can trace a line back to your base. So for example, an infantry card will show supply routes North, South, East and West. You could place another infantry card next to this card in any of those spaces. Most of the cards have this same supply rules except for paratroopers who can be dropped into any space on the board.

Once a card has been placed it has the opportunity to attack. Again a small image will show the attack directions that this card can use and whether it can destroy a card or will need support to help it. The bigger unit cards such as tanks and artillery can destroy cards. So for example a tank can destroy a card to its North, South, East and West. So place it in front of an enemy card and it will destroy it. Most of the other cards need help to destroy your enemy’s cards and this is where the support rules come into place.

The final image on the card shows what support that the card can play, it will again have markers pointing North, South, East, West or in all directions. If a card is placed that requires support in order to destroy the enemy card the cards next to it are checked. If they can offer support then the enemy card is removed. Sounds a bit complicated, but after your first game you will get it.

The final type of card is the airstrike; by playing one of your two airstrike cards you can instantly remove one of the enemy’s cards from the board. You only have two of these so you need to use them wisely.

First player to place one of their cards into the opponents base square wins the game. It's a quick game that last about 10 minutes, so you will be playing multiples of the game or usually a best of three games to determine the winner.

I have found that the player who starts second seems to have a bit of an upper hand. But I am expecting this to even out after more plays. Hill 218 is a good quick game; it's one of those games that will surprise you with its unexpected complexity. From the start it seems pretty easy, but after a couple of games the strategies start forming.

As a bonus, your move games have put a free java version on there web site. It's easy to install and allows you to play the game without spending any money.
The link is here http://www.yourmovegames.com/pages/hill218.html

Summary

Presentation
Card stock is good with a nice shiny finish. 8/10

Clarity of Rules
Rules are pretty clear, after a game you will not need them again 8/10

Game Length
Games last about 10-20 minutes, so you can play a few quickly 8/10

Value
It's a pack of cards 7/10

Overall
An abstract game with a WW2 theme, quick to play and allot of fun (8/10 not an average)