Endeavor

Recently, I got to play a board game named Endeavor. It is built for three to five players with an hour and a half to two hours to spare. There are more pieces in the box than I’m comfortable with.

Just Real Quick, The Rules:

Each player has four attributes: Industry, Culture, Finance, and Politics. Each of these effect a different part of the game. Industry dictates what type of buildings you can create. The higher your score, the better the buildings. Raising your culture alters the amount of people you get in phase two of any turn. Finance changes the amount of people you buy back from the buildings as you use abilities. Your politics score indicates how many cards you can hold in your hand.

The turns go clockwise around the board, but happen in phases:

1. Choose a building to create.
2. Get your new influx of people.
3. Buy back your people that were in use.
4. Use your actions.

There are several common actions that you can use in Phase 4: attacking, occupying, drawing a card, and sailing. You must have a way to make every action you partake. You get actions in one of two ways. You either have a building that allows you to use the action, or you have a blue token captured from the board that allows you to use one of the abilities without having the corresponding building.

The game and all its bits.

Every action utilizes some of your population. Drawing a card only takes one person, but you have to have the appropriate amount of people inside of any given territory. Occupying and shipping take two each. One of them is required to activate the ability. The other poor sap is sent to either take the city or is shipped off to one of the new territories.

Attacking is the only way to occupy a city that’s already been taken. This takes three men. One is used to take the city. One is lost in the ensuing battle. The last man is used to occupy the newly liberated city.

The fourth phase happens repeatedly in any individual turn and continues until everyone passes.

What Happened…

What is most interesting to me is how the game ramps up. The first few turns are quick, with little more than a few seconds thought put into any one action. The entire game is played in seven full turns, so the last four are taken very seriously.

I won in such a way that made me the European based USA. I was the might of the area, slaughtering those that got in my way of taking over Europe but caring little for the other areas. I’d send a single ship out, perhaps take over a city or two if it was connected via an obvious trade route. Otherwise, foreign territories were ignored.

It was an awesome game. I look forward to playing it again and discovering other viable strategies. Maybe England is a good way to go.