We gathered at Miniature Market Rock Hill for a game of “Taifa” by Worthington Games this Thursday with two goals in mind. First it was to learn to play this game based upon the 11th Century conflicts between Muslim and Christian Kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula. Our secondary goal was to evaluate the game for inclusion in our “History Through a Different Lens” games in education program.
This board-game is a high quality presentation with an nice hardboard, thick cardboard counters, specialty dice and well done cards that drive the game. A bookcase style box and a lidded counter tray are also included along with a couple of copies of the game rules. There was no doubt that it was a nice presentation and the Boardgame Geek page gives it high marks, but our question was will it work in a classroom where it has to be simple, fast and provide the student/player with enough of historical overview of the era as to make it worthwhile to build an enlarged and enhanced version.
Jay Clendenny provided his analysis of the game play and we will turn it over to him…..
“Today our game of choice was Taifa: Intrigue and War in Medievil Spain. This game covers the struggle of factions within Spain for control of the country. There are 3 Christian and 3 Muslim positions. The Christians are in the north and Muslims in the south. Today, the Christians were represented by Mark J. (yellow), Steve (red), and Jay (dark blue) while the Muslims were played by Pat (light blue), Mark W. (dark green) and DJ (light green). Kevin was the game master.“
“Essentially, Spain is divided up into areas and each faction wants to get all their control counters on the board. This can lead to interesting inter-faction fighting where a sister faction may attack a faction on the same “side” to prevent an outright victory. Cards are the main driver of play and players may select between outright invasions (using troop cards), incursions, response cards (used to defend against attacks or to support attacks), or event cards, The game goes 3 turns, but there are multiple rounds each turn. Invasions are resolved through the use of 6 sided dice with 1/2 the sides being Muslim and 1/2 being Christian. For invasion combat, the attacker had to win with more “hits” than the defender (ties go to the defender). Turn order is always the same and never changes. “
“With this being a brand new experience for everyone involved, just about anything could and did happen.”
“Turn 1 started out mostly pretty slow except DJ took over the neutral areas between him and Jay and made good inroads into Jay’s territory before declaring a truce (event card that means two factions can’t invade each other).”
“Turn 2 saw a lot more action with Mark J, Pat and Steve all coming within 1 counter of winning the game and getting pushed back from the brink as the turn proceeded. DJ continues to get the better of Jay while Jay winds up being married to Steve (another event card) on the eastern flank and DJ enforcing another truce from the south.”
“Turn 3 started with DJ playing yet another truce on Jay early in the turn. Pat wins relatively early in the turn on an event card granting the two areas he needed to have all his counters on the board and the game immediately ends. “
“I believe everyone had a good time with this game. It covers a time period that is rarely represented in gaming and not really covered that well in schools either.”
Consensus was that it is easily teachable to non gamers and plays fast enough to get a game in about 2 hours. It was also thought to be representative of the give and take of the historical period and would serve as a basis for students to do their research for their extra credit reports. Hence the group recommended that the project to create an enlarged and enhanced kit would be a plus. We will now get into the details of doing so with DJ’s creative and technical talents.
Thanks to Jay for this game report, getting us into the action. A Thank You to all the players for taking time to join in and continued appreciation to Miniature Market Rock Hill for their for their support.
Remember to shop local.
