Lawyer Up

Lawyer Up has become one of those two-player games that hits the table often lately. I would not call it a masterpiece, but it has that nice quality that makes me want one more game, because the first play feels more like an introduction than the real experience.

The core of the game, as I have experienced it in Case 00, revolves around the case's card pool. At first, you do not really know what is in there, so you play more exploratively, trying to understand what the case material itself can offer you.

In later games, once the cards start becoming familiar, choosing witnesses carries much more weight. That is where the real interaction between the two players lies: you are not simply picking what looks useful to you, but considering the order in which your choices will leave things for, or deny things to, your opponent.

That is why repeated plays feel clearly better to me than the first one. At the moment I prefer it to Radlands, though I have one reservation: I have only played Case 00, and I still do not know whether the other cases improve the game or end up putting me off it.