Chaos in the Old World

Fantasy Flight’s recent release of Chaos in the Old World is a quick dip into thhe Warhammer Universe where the gods are bad and mortal men are mere pawns in their power struggle. This game for 2-4 players presents an asymmetric challenge to its players. The four Gods have differing strengths and hence give rise to different tactics. The game also allows several paths to victory - either through a player victory dial or via a scoring track. The protagonists include Krone (the Blood God) - a slayer of men and gods alike, he's only in it for the body count. Nurgle (the Plague Lord) - the bringer of decay and pestilence. If he gets hold of the old world in his grip it's curtains for all. Tzeentch (the Great Conspirator) - a slippery character who avoids direct conflict, but instead prefers to scheme and undermine from within. You wouldn't buy a used car from this character. Finally, Slaanesh (the Prince of Pleasure and Pain) - the giver of pleasures and corrupter of souls. He preys on the weak with offers of unworldly pleasures and riches.
These are all very naughty boys hell-bent on claiming the Old World for themselves and each other. There's neither mercy nor honour among them.
The game itself is a blast with relatively simple rules that are quickly absorbed and the level of production which those family with FFG's games will be very familiar. The game invites a degree of role play and is both fun and tense right up to the end as the different gods have distinct periods of ascendence with the game.
I can highly recommend this game, which may have suffered some oversight with the recent release of another Games Workshop classic (Space Hulk), but it is a superb game in its own right and deserves pride of place in your collection.

Chaos In The Old World
Each players takes on the role of one of the four Chaos Gods in their quest to corrupt and ruin the Old World. The Gods consist of Khorne the Blood God, nothing but slaughter and death with slake his thirst, Slaanesh the god of pleasure, corruption and decadence are mighty weapons, Tzeench the changer of the ways, using magic and gaining power is his route to victory, Nurgle god of disease and decay, spreading pestilence will bring down the old world to his sickening, belching laughter.
The individual Chaos powers are represented by a card deck and figures unique to their power.

The Old World itself is depicted on a beautifully realised board that looks like a piece of flayed human skin. It also has an event deck, showing the various upheavals of a fantasy land. The deck also acts as a game timer. If no cards remain in the Old World event deck at the end of the round, then the forces of good have triumphed and all the players loose.
Divided into nine territories, each with their own resistance to the corrupting forces of Chaos, the board allows a wide variety of strategies. Random counters are also draw and added to the territories at the start of the game. These consist of: Heroes-The forces of good that slay one Chaos Figure with the highest threat a turn, Warpstone-Adds one corruption to a territory making it easier to ruin, Peasants-These can be attacked by anyone during the combat phase and provide Victory Points at certain times, Nobles- Increase the conquest points of the area.

Each Chaos God starts the round with a certain number of Power Points, these are used to summon followers or to play cards to territories on the board. Cards are God specific, for example Khorne’s cards deal with killing lots of the enemy, while Slaanesh corrupts areas and subdues foes.
Each god has three kinds of followers. The Cultists are the weakest as they have no combat value, but they are the only unit that can place Corruption Tokens. Lesser Daemons are the foot soldiers and primary fighting units, both cheap to summon and durable. Finally there are the Greater Daemons, each God has only one of these and they require a lot of power to summon, so should only be used when you have to hold on to a territory, or simply to paint the land with the insides of your foes.

Once all the gods have exhausted their Power Points, the combat round begins. Battles occur when followers of different powers occupy the same region. Units attack in the order of the chaos powers, Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeench, Slaanesh. The attacker adds up the combat value of his units and rolls that many six-sided dice, which hit on a four or higher with sixes adding and additional die roll to their attack. Wounds are inflicted simultaneously, so any units killed are tipped on their side to show this and can still strike back during their turn. Once the dust has settled and the spilled entrails and opened brain pans have been removed, it’s time for the Dominance phase.

To see which power is Dominant in a particular region, players count up there individual figures and the cost of any Cards they have played in the area. If they have the highest total and beat the resistance value, they dominate the area with their foulness and score points equal to the resistance for their dark masters.

The Corruption phase is where the Cultists earn their tentacles. Each Cultist places a Corruption Counter on its region. These counters remain permanently, adding up from round to round.
When Corruption Counters have been placed, it’s time to count the cost of all that depravity. If the total Corruption Counters on a region equals or exceeds 12, the region is considered ruined and all players that added counters that turn score a ruiner’s bonus. At the end of the turn Ruined Regions score additional points to the Gods that contributed the most and second most Corruption Counters to the region. The Region is then declared Ruined and no further cards can be played or points scored there.

Fantasy Flight are starting to have a thing about dials in their games and Chaos in the Old World is no exception. The Chaos Gods have their own dial, depicting bonuses and threat numbers. Threat number is important as it determines the target of heroes and certain timing, it is also a tie breaker when winning the game.
The bonuses on the dials range from additional points, to upgrade cards for a player’s units, making them even more formidable. At the end of the dial is the all important Victory slot. Any player that advances their dial this far instantly wins the game when victory is checked, regardless of how many points they have. The Chaos Gods have their individual advancement conditions that need to be met. For example Nurgle advances his dial by placing two or more Corruption Counters in a populace region, while Khorne needs to kill two or more units in a single battle to earn his.

At the end of the round victory is checked. If a player has advanced their dial to the ‘Victory’ space then they win, with ties being broken by victory points. Next, any player who has scored 50 or more points wins, with ties being broken by threat number. If there is no winner and five regions are Ruined, the Old World has fallen and the Player with the most victory points wins.

Component wise the game has polar opposites. Card quality, the outstanding board art and even the box itself are a joy to behold. Whereas the miniatures while nice looking are made of horrible plastic that breaks and deforms easily.
The designer seems to have got the struggle between the various Chaos powers down perfectly. The different decks of cards, figures and dial advancement conditions help give each power a particular character and play style. Matching Chaos gods against each other is a master stroke, with each opposing power (Khorne/Slaanesh, Nurgle/Tzeench) able to hose the other down and stop any one from getting a run away lead. This being said, loosing a power in a three player game does alter the symmetry a bit and takes something away from the struggle, but it does not unbalance game.
Overall, shoddy figures aside, this is a great game worthy of all the pus, blood and other juices shed in the name of the dark Gods.

I am a great fan of both Fantasy Flight Games and Games Workshop, and a great fan of the Warhammer Fantasy universe in special. Therefore this game was a must have for me.
The mechanics are nice, the balance is pretty good, only a bit of to the worse for Tzeentch, but that's no problem. Playing the game is quite a challange and nice to do especially if you know the background setting.
Still, the game has not made it on my "Geeks List", as this one has been stored away in a box after having been played 10 times or so. It's an awesome game for everyone that wants to keep it relativley easy, but if you are a hardcore gamer the game just packs too little variety and too much luck in it. Also the plastic models are bad. VERY sub standard, compared to everything else that FFG has produced so far. (e.g. Descent or Twilight Imperium)
So... solid 5.0 as it still is a nice game, but a hit it is not.

Chaos in the Old World is currently the game I am always looking to play. At first, it seems like this is a game of chasing your chaos power's individual goal: killing things for Khorne, corrupting nobles for Slaanesh etc.

After one game, you will realise that the two routes to victory offer a new strategic consideration. You need to decide whether you will go for a dial victory or a VP victory. If you decide too early, you are taking a big risk, but if you decide too late the opportunity may have passed you by because you split your attentions for too long. New players seem to focus too much on the dials.

After two games, you will realise that Khorne's destructive power is very important. You will see that, if he doesn't judge his attacks well to keep the other players down, they will win. Being left alone by Khorne is often a game winning advantage. So you make sure Khorne players realise this.

After four games, you will see that it is not just up to Khorne. You will appreciate that this game is a brilliantly balanced web of interests. Each player has two routes to victory (except Nurgle) and three opponents to watch out for. It is just as important to hurt the right player as it is to advance your own cause(s). Khorne is not the only policeman on the board: everyone is a policeman of the other players.

That is what makes Chaos in the Old World such a gem. It is a deeply tactical game. It is a deeply strategic game. Within the strategic element, it has multiple parallel strategy goals and considerations. As you play the game more and more, you will increasingly appreciate this great strategic depth.

To achieve this, you will need 3-4 players willing to play it multiple times. The first 3-4 games will be fun, but you won't really hit your stride until everyone has played several times.