Jagged Alliance: The Board Game

Some bakeries may have collapsed, because I sat down to play a cooperative masterpiece. Jagged Alliance: The Board Game is a good adaptation of the computer game and, most importantly, it captures plenty of its feeling without demanding a doctorate before you put it on the table. If you remember moments from the video game, the campaign gets an extra layer of laughs.

We play cooperatively, advancing the liberation of Arulco through a campaign. The group has to coordinate and handle the situations the game throws at it, while the AI takes care of the opposing side. It is not especially complex overall, and its mechanisms are streamlined enough to keep the flow alive.

Cooperation does bring the classic alpha-leader problem, though: one player can easily start directing the entire operation. The biggest enemy remains the rulebook, which makes you work before you understand how the AI functions. There is also limited dice rolling; it does not turn the game into chess, but after a while it can become tiring.

Despite its small hassles, the campaign is honest fun and the Jagged Alliance atmosphere makes it to the table. For me, it is a clear 7/10, and we will keep liberating Arulco every Tuesday.