AND ON THE EIGHTH DAY …

LORDS OF CREATION, by MARTIN WALLACE

from WARFROG

4 small, connectable generic maps, 4 sets of People counters, Terrain counters, Placement Cards, 8-page Rulebook. Ziplocked.Warfrog, 54 Beverly Road, Fallowfield, Manchester,

M14 6TG, England. c. $20

Reviewed by BILL JAFFE

If you've played some Titan, and maybe Civilization and Risk, but you want something that won't take all weekend to play, then Warfrog's Lords of Creation, fresh off the boat from England, might just be for you. It's an amateur production, but it's a fun little game. As the game comes with counters mounted on hard cardboard, you'll have to spend some time with a scissors before playing. But the effort is probably worth it. It also comes with a rather intriguing blurb: " … game where you create a whole new world from chaos, then fight to populate it with people who will worship only you." Sounds as lot like Command magazine.

The rules are deceptively easy. The four maps are all blank hexes, the sections of which match up to form a giant hex shaped "world". The players, who are "Gods", place terrain. Habitable terrain includes Islands, Hills, Forest and Grassland, while the Uninhabitable is Mountains, Sea and Desert. There are no rules for terrain placement. (Placing a desert hex in the middle of an ocean is apparently OK.) However, we sort of followed some logic without any real rules forcing us to do so. There is some strategy to this, but more anon....

After the terrain is placed (not every terrain marker will be used, so there is a different game each time), players secretly choose a Placement Card. When all have chosen, the cards are revealed. Each card specifies a number (1-5) and a terrain type, with that number of people starting in that terrain. Each turn consists of as many "impulses" as a player wants, with one "civilizing" phase (but only if adjacent to an already civilized hex), one "alter creation" phase, and as many moves and attacks as the player desires. Moves are from like terrain to like terrain, but a people counter must be left behind.

Barbarians can attack into any terrain, but only one counter moves forward. Civilized people cannot attack, but defend normally. Alters do not defend, their people defend them.

Players attacks by rolling two dice to determine "hits". Attacker rolls 2 dice, with a total of 6 needed to hit into like terrain and 8 into different terrain. The defender hits on one die if his die roll is greater than each of the attacker's die rolls (i.e., a defensive '5' hits an attackers '3'+'4'. Both can hit, and both can miss.

After just a few turns, the strategies will become apparent, even though they are many and varied. You have to decide: when to do the once-a-game "civilizing" that doesn't have to be adjacent (after all, we're Lords of Creation here...); when to civilize an opponent so he can't attack with a big stack, which cards to play and when, etc., etc.

I wouldn't say we had a blast, but it was fun, it took only about 2-3 hours, and we were happy to have played. The mechanics are nothing new, an amalgamation of the three games mentioned above, but there is a nice dose of originality is in the overall effect.

If you're looking for something to occupy an afternoon, or to entice some non-gamer friends into playing something a bit unusual - and better than Yahtzee - this might be a good game to pull out. In many ways it's a quintessential "Brit" game; after all, that's where such as History of the World and Britannia came from. There's not much in the way of rules, what there is is easy to understand, it's more social than competitive, and yet it has a nice fun level with some teeth in the strategy aspect. Do be warned, however. It can only be purchased directly from Warfrog … and it appears they make them up in bunches of fifty. So, if you're interested - and it is an interesting game - be "creative" when you contact them.

CAPSULE COMMENTS:

Graphic Presentation: Map is blank, counters are cute; all very "handy-man special".

Playability: Easy to understand, quick to play.

Replayability: After a while, it does make you wistful for the depth of Titan, or the sophistication of Civilization, or...

Wristage: Not too much.

Creativity: Nothing special. Derivative and balanced, with good integration of concepts.

Historicity: Not applicable.

Comparisons: If you like Civilization or Titan, you'll get bored with this...

Overall: I wouldn't buy it personally, but my fellow players said otherwise. It was fun to play....