Battle Line

Battle Line is a fantastic little game by Reiner Knizia.  Basically, its a 2 player game where you play opposing generals facing off on a battlefield.

It's also one of the few games which I have rated as a 9 on BGG.  Yes, the game is that good.

What makes the game so much fun is that, while there is a small element of luck involved as the game involves card draw, the winner is often determined by the player who plays their cards best and not necessarily who draws the highest cards.  This is a direct contradiction to the views of one of my friends who believes that luck is highly important in this game as you need to draw high cards.  Worth mentioning that he has never beaten me at this game.  :)

Anyway, this principle of playing your cards well was illustrated perfectly in a recent game I had.

The initial draw didn't give me any high cards.  However, I did have a stack of 1's and 2's which gave me the potential for getting straight flushes or three of a kind from the start.  I played them early and set up a potential charge to win 3 flags in a row.

What made this game fascinating though was mid-way through the game.  At this point, I could see my opponent setting up his own 3 flags in a row in the middle of the deck.  I had only one way and that was to try to race and get my own flags won first.  Luckily, he didn't grab any of the tactics cards which might have stopped me from completing my sets.

One round before he won, I was able to get my flags and get the win.  Tight tense finish which shows the importance of strategy in this game.