Hadrian’s Wall

 

The Game

Hadrian’s Wall is a paper-and-pencil game. I was about to call it a roll-and-write, because each player gets a piece of paper and ticks boxes off it. However there is no dice. In this game you are not constantly reacting to die rolls and deciding what to do with them. There are cards drawn which introduce some randomness, but mostly you know what resources you are generating every round, and you carefully plan how to use them. You have more control and more long-term planning than the typical roll-and-write game this is mostly about positioning yourself as best you can to handle whatever the dice deal you.

The game is played over 6 rounds

Your personal game boards (there are two of them) are complicated and intimidating. It takes some effort to explain and remember what all the sections mean. Generally to mark any box you need to spend resources. Some boxes give you a benefit. Some are just steps before the next box which does. The benefit can be a resource, which in turn lets you mark other boxes. So you can create some chain reactions. Some boxes when ticked unlock sections with new functions. These are things you can plan for and work towards. 

This is just part of your first player board

This section has the four main victory point tracks. 

This is part of your second player board, showing three types of citizens.

These are the remaining two citizen types. 

Some boxes help you produce more resources at the start of every future round. More resources means getting more done. Ultimately some boxes give you points, and that’s how you win the game. 

Some tracks have dependencies on others and may not overtake them.

At the end of every round the Picts attack. They may attack the left flank, centre, or right flank of your army. If you have developed all the sections of your army enough to repel the Picts, you’ve done your job. However if any enemy gets through, you are penalised. The penalty gets more severe the more instances that Picts get through. So defense is something you must not neglect. 

The game is played over a fixed number of rounds. After the final round, the highest scorer wins.

The Game 

The game is intimidating at first, but once you get over that initial hurdle, this becomes a game with a lot to explore. Building the wall and training your army are a must. It is a matter of deciding how fast and how complete. You can do okay without completing everything but you’ll be in trouble if you are too far short.

The five classes of citizens is where the game opens up many possibilities for you to explore. The five classes offer different abilities and scoring opportunities. You can’t be everything everywhere. You have to choose. 

The game is pretty much solo. You don’t interact much with your opponents. It works well on BoardGameArena.com as an asynchronous game. In fact it might work better in this mode than playing in person. If you have a slow player and you play in person, everyone must wait for him to finish the round before you can start the next round. If you play in online asynchronous mode, just logout and come back the next day. 

This is almost a deterministic game. Little randomness, no hidden information. Your challenge is how to make the most of your resources. You have many options. There are different ways to increase your abilities and different ways to score more points. You choose some and you need to commit to work on them to get a worthwhile return on investment. One particular building type lets you reduce points lost due to poor defense against the Picts. If you go for this, you can afford to work less on defense. 

The game ends after six rounds. This is like life. There are many things you want to achieve but your time and resources are limited. So you must decide and utilise your resources well to maximise your score. Towards late game you will get a sense of which things are too late to start work on and which you need to prioritise to get the most out of. 

This above is what the end of one game can look like on the second player board. I have completed the advancement track for the first and fourth citizen types, and almost for the fifth as well. However I had only utilised the unique abilities of the first, second and fifth citizen types. I had planned to use type 4, but eventually didn't. Because... priorities. 

Of the four victory point tracks, I mostly ignored the purple track. Getting to 15 on a track allows you to build a monument. That's something to work towards too. 

The Thoughts

This is almost a solitaire game. You mostly work on your own boards. There is a lot to keep you busy. There are many different strategies to pursue so there is replayability. Every game you can only specialise in a couple of functions provided by specific citizen types. Each new game you can try different functions and different combinations of functions. There is fun in creating chain reactions. If you utilise your resources well, you can spend them to generate more resources which you then spend to do more things. It is fun to do this kind of planning. It’s all open information so it’s up to you to analyse your board situation and find those opportunities.