Freedom!

I like siege games that do more than ask you to admire a dry exercise in positioning. Freedom! has cannon fire, brawling and assaults, with more than one route to victory. You are not merely locking down spaces here: you roll dice, fire guns, and send people to their deaths.

The struggle is unequal, as it ought to be, but the design gives both sides a real fight. Hunger can bring the Greeks to their knees, while the Turks need to enter the city without letting their morale come apart. Events, reinforcements and bombardments are not decoration; they are how you spoil the other player's plan.

The rules are approachable, and the game is easy enough to teach to a lighter player as an introduction to CDGs. Then the pleasant chaos begins: in one game, the Turks had nearly starved the Greeks out when government aid arrived on an 11; precise cannon fire and events followed, Turkish morale collapsed, and taking the city in round five still was not enough because the attack came through a random wall rather than a fortress. They got in and lost. That hurts in exactly the right way.

Production is not its strongest suit, especially the map colours, which could be much clearer. With a clearer map, it would be even easier to recommend; as it stands, it is an honest siege game that deserves table time.