Almoravid - Review

In 2019, the first game in the GMT Levy and Campaign series, designed by Volko Ruhnke, is released. The medieval period is not one of my favorites and that period and conflict were unknown to me, but I decided to give it a try. It opened up a whole new vision for me regarding the world of wargaming. But, what is the cam and campaign series about?

The games in this series are operational games set, for the time being, in the Middle Ages. These games stand out for their logistics section and it will be around what everything revolves around. The game pieces will represent feudal lords, each feudal lord has a board where his troops, supplies, transport, capacities, etc. will be. Movement is point to point and is limited. Each turn is divided into two phases: Levy and Campaign

In the Levy phase, the players will prepare their hosts. In this phase you can disband lords and even lose them for the whole game, if they have exceeded their period of service, all the lords start with a service marker that tells you in which turn that lord will disband. That marker can be increased or decreased, for example, losing a battle will cause that marker to be decreased a number of turns. In addition, each lord has a series of "points" that he can spend in each levy phase. With them he will be able to buy cards (capacities), transports, call vassals, and even try to call other lords.

Our first task in the Campaign phase will be to create the action deck. Depending on each season, more or fewer cards will be used. Each lord has several actions that he can perform during his activation and the creation of this deck will indicate the order of activation. During this same phase, the actions of each lord will be carried out as they come out of the deck. These actions include foraging, movements, sieges, etc.

In broad strokes, the turns would flow like this. I want to point out that this is not a fighting game, but a movement game. When it comes to fighting you have to make sure that you are not going to lose in a decisive defeat, you will rarely attack if you do not have superior numbers or better capabilities than your rival. I must also say that the combat is quite intuitive and is easily resolved.

This game adds another layer to the politics of taifas. Each taifa has three states: Pariah, neutral, or reconquered. In neutral it is considered an enemy of the Christian player and its lord will be deployed. If it is reconquered, it will grant 3 victory points to the Christian player, plus the points for conquering the capital. But if it is Pariah, it is considered neutral territory, and no one can assault or loot it. This gives a lot of play because if you know how to leave certain taifas without being called up, you can annoy the movements of the Christian player. Another way to hinder the Christian strategy is the Jihad markers, they can be placed in strongholds of the reconquered taifa and they will count as enemy territory for him.

The peninsular terrain is quite peculiar, compared to the previous game in the series. The map is much bigger and the movement will be done by two types of routes. Roads and mountain passes, to cross the latter we will need mules to transport supplies. Certain key points are essential when it comes to defending the borders, but being a large map there are quite a few gaps through which to enter enemy territory. Warfare is also different; we will see more ranged weapon capabilities and light cavalry evasion.

For me, it is the best game I have played during 2022. If Nevsky served to show us the system in this game, we could appreciate its potential and time attracts everyone. One of the points to highlight is the narrative that it offers us, all the games are story generators but some are better than others. My rival and I will remember the glorious siege of Valencia by King Alfonso. Although it may seem like a long game while we played the campaign we completed a turn every 45 minutes, in two sessions or a long afternoon you can complete the campaign. If you are looking for an operational medieval game this should be on your shelves.