Pyramid Review
Anachronism
Published by TriKing Games
Created by Michael Brown, Karen Brown, Dennis Lackey, Dan Tibbles, Justin Walsh, Shteevie McLaughlin, Charlie Oglesby, Kai Nesbit, John Burgess, Tyler Mays, Tony Burian, Luke Peterschmidt, Ryan Dancey, Ian Ryan, Ryan Miller, Richard Goodwin, Danny Walker, Jeremy Holcomb, Jessie Brock, Daniel Carew, & Chris Porowski
Sepia-toned playmat, 10 full-color cards, two six-sided dice, $12.95; warrior packs, $6.95
Someone at The History Channel must be a gamer. TriKing Games has some sort of cross-marketing deal going with them, and together they have produced Anachronism,, the sort of game that drives many a bar bet among gamers, historians, and time travel aficionados. The idea: Major figures of military history and legend hop into an arena, mano a mano, to see who's "da man."
The object of the game is to kill your opponent or, barring that, be the healthiest man alive when the fight is over.
Each player gets a set of five cards, either Achilles or Spartacus if you're playing with just the two-player starter set. One card is the warrior card, showing the hero, his statistics, and any special abilities he has. The others are called support cards and show equipment and circumstances the fighter can make use of as the game progresses.
There is no rulebook; rather, the rules of play are included on the playmat (convenient during the game, but you won't be brushing up on these on the bus). This is . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: April 29, 2005
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