Mercenary

A review by Glenn Hanlon

Those people whose interest was aroused by the recent articles in S&T on
the 30 Years Wars, should be similarly interested in the game Mercenary.

Mercenary is designed and marketed by Gametesters of Yorkshire, yet
another small British games company. The actual period covered is that
just before the 30 Years War, best described as the Renaissance.

The game itself is an amusing mixture of 'Diplomacy' and 'Monopoly', in
that it is a multi-player, strategic, area movement simulation of war in
Europe in which the object is to arnass as much money as possible.
Although it is a multi-player garne it can be played very well just by
one, thanks mainly to an ingenious feature called Mechanistic Movement
which provides full details of what the countries did or attempted to
do, historically.

The game starts with the invasion of Italy by Charles Vlll of France in
1494 to the French Wars of Religion in 1560. Since the game consists of
eleven turns the turn equivalent is thus 6 years! Now six years is a
long time, and in this time many changes, particularly during the
Renaissance, took place in the art of war. So, as the garme progresses,
new weapons become available to the players with which to equip their
armies. For example, the French start the game with a Mediaeval Arrny
consisting mainly of cross bows and knights but end it with a true
'Musket & Pike' army.

Each game turn is divided into 20 state phases, although generally only
the five major powers, (Spain, France, Austria, Turkey & Poland) will
have much to do. Each state phase is divided into 4 sections; Collection
of taxes/ Buying and paying of rnercenaries/ Movement and Combat/
Diplomacy. Mercenaries can be hired from a great number of different
states, mostly the Holy Rornan Empire and Switzerland. There is no
distance limit on movement due to the long game-turns. However, there
are several cases when an army rnay want to or be forced to call a halt,
the most prevalent of these being lack of funds, it costs quite a bit to
keep an army in the field!

Combat is worked out on a strength difference scale, as opposed to the
more common odds ratio. The last section, Diplomacy, whilst including
all the usual player alliance possibilities is augmented by an
imaginative feature of this game called 'The Diplomacy Scale'.This
unique device is printed on the map sheet and consists of a five-pointed
track with a major power at each point and a counter representing each
of the minor states.

These counters are moved along the track and the closer to a major power
a state becomes, the more diplomatic power is exerted on that state.
This power is divided into three types, shown on the track, Influence,
Domination and Control. With each of these goes increasing taxation and
troop control. The counters are moved along the track in a number of
different ways, Inter-marriage, Bribery and Trade and by far the most
cornmon, Military Conquest. This latter is decided on the number of
towns captured, first it is worked out whether the town is merely
captured or is pillaged, then by using a formula the number of space s
that state counter rnoves can be calculated.

The rules coverinq this track take up about 25% of the 20 page booklet,
there being many permutations possible.

As can be gathered from the preceding, this game, combining as it does,
a 'Diplomacy' type sirnulation with fairly complex game mechanics,
should become a must in rnost people's Games Collection. It is certain
that this game, if once 'taken up' in a big way, could develop a cult
followinq similar to that which 'Diplomacy' has

Now, to keep the review balanced, a few criticisms, although these
mostly boil down to what is generally known as presentation. The map
comes in a roll which, although preventing creases common to many folded
maps, does make it hard to flatten it out ! The map-sheet itself is
two-colour, Black and  White! 22'' x 34" and is made of shiny paper
similar to the covers of S&T; printed on it are the Arms Proqression,
Movement costs, Marriage, Diplomacy and 2 CR Tables. The 220 counters
are of thin card and have to be cut out by hand, as did the original SPI
ones. Although this packaginq does tend to detract slightly from the
game it does keep the price down to a reasonable level. So what you
loose on the roundabouts you gain on the swings.