Anachronism (game)
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''Anachronism'' is a tabletop game with aspects of both miniatures and
collectible card A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other ...
genres. The basis of the game is war between various historical characters. The creators of the game, TriKing Games and The History Channel, have dubbed it "The Greatest Game in History". ''Anachronism'' won the 2005 Origins Award for ''Gamer’s Choice Best Collectible Card Game of the Year''.


Description

The game is a contest of arms between two
warrior A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have been p ...
s from numerous historical periods. Each game lasts a maximum of five rounds. The game is unusual for a card game in that it does not use shuffling as a randomization technique. ''Anachronism'' "decks" consist of five cards, and players do not draw cards or have a "hand" of cards. Despite the relatively small number of cards used in each game, card interactions and strategy can become surprisingly intricate, especially in the later rounds. Each player places his chosen warrior card on the playmat and his four support cards, face down, in slots corresponding to the first four rounds. The support cards may be any combination of inspiration, weapon, armor, or special cards. Each player flips his leftmost face-down support card at the beginning of each round. Initiative numbers on the support cards determine which player goes first in each round. The warrior cards may move and be turned (faced) as in a miniatures game. Support cards represent a variety of historical weapons, armor, items, deities, people, places or concepts such as the Norse sverd or
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese book ''
Go Rin No Sho is a text on ''kenjutsu'' and the martial arts in general, written by the Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi around 1645. Many translations have been made, and it enjoys an audience considerably broader than other martial artists and people ac ...
''. The game's name is derived from the ability to mix the various support cards such that the ancient Greek Leonidas wearing a
kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono ...
may fight a Japanese
ninja A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enem ...
who is wielding a
gladius ''Gladius'' () is a Latin word meaning "sword" (of any type), but in its narrow sense it refers to the sword of ancient Roman foot soldiers. Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those of the Greeks, called '' xiphe'' (plural; singular ''xi ...
.
Dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...
are used by both the attacker and defender to determine the outcome of battles. Each warrior card has four stats: life, speed, experience, and damage: *Life indicates the warrior's starting life total. Current cards have values ranging from 5 to 10. *Speed shows how many actions the warrior can take each round. This is usually 3, but a few warriors have slightly more or less than this. *Experience has subtle but far-reaching effects as an all purpose tie-breaking stat. It is the most variable of the statistics with current extremes ranging from 1 to 10. *Damage shows how much damage the warrior deals with a basic attack. This is almost always 1. However, Aztec warriors usually have a base damage value of 0 and at least one warrior has a base damage value of 2. Every warrior and weapon card has an attack grid showing what bonus or penalty is applied to attacks rolls to each possible space. Blank spaces on an attack grid indicate that the warrior or weapon can not attack that square. Attack grids are relative to the orientation of one's warrior, so skillful management of attack grids becomes very important to successful gameplay.


Elements

Every Inspiration and Warrior has an element reflecting the nature of the card. Elements also identify card interaction. A popular example is Maui-Tiki-Tiki, a water warrior, who gains +1 to all attack rolls against fire warriors. *Fire "melts" Metal *Metal "cuts" Wood *Wood "penetrates" Earth *Earth "absorbs" Water *Water "puts out" Fire *Fire cards, like Mercury, represent speed. *Metal cards, like Horemheb the Restorer or Rokumonsenmon, represent strength. *Wood cards, like Leonidas, represent longevity. *Earth cards, like Zeus, represent experience. *Water cards, like the Oracle of Delphi, represent intelligence. *Wind cards, like Ninja, represent cunning. *Aether cards, like Seti I, represent religious cards or spiritual cards.


Multi-player

''Anachronisms standard rules are for two players, but official support and rules have been given for multi-player battles. Multi-player ''Anachronism'' is usually played with four players, either in teams or as a free-for-all. The standard four by four battlemat is used and additional starting rows are squeezed into the normally unused border rows. This means that each corner has an overlap of two starting rows, making it possible for two warriors to start adjacent to each other. Free-for-all style multi-player can also be played with only three participants. This does not limit the number of participants to just four. Many players have created their own large mats, ranging from 5X5 to a giant 8 x12 mat. With this, it is possible to have six to even eight competitors playing.


Culture Shock

"Culture Shock" is an alternative method of play that restricts players to only use cards within their warrior's culture. For example, the Japanese Warrior, Ninja could never use the French weapon, Rapiere. As a result, players can still choose to play any one card, but the combinations are limited. Hence, Culture Shock is generally perceived as the best method of play to enable newer players or players with fewer cards to be able to compete against more experienced players with a larger selection of cards.


Sets

The initial game was released in three parts. The first part was a free demo consisting of the warriors Miyamoto Musashi, Beowulf, their support cards, and a playmat in the April 2005 issue of '' InQuest Gamer''. The second was a starter set featuring the warriors Spartacus & Achilles, their support cards, dice, and a playmat. The final portion was 16 warrior packs. Set 2 followed soon after, and TriKing attempted to release a new Set every 3–4 months.


Published Sets

For the published Sets, cards were available in four different avenues. Each Set contained a Starter Box, with ten cards representing two warriors and their respective support cards. Released with the Starter were 16 Warrior Packs, each containing five cards representing a warrior and their support cards. Players could then mail in UPC codes to get the last two "Mail-in" Warrior Packs. Finally, by playing in sanctioned tournaments, players received exclusive promotional cards. Each pack always had the same cards, so there was no rarity or randomness, outside of promotional cards. This format lasted through Set 7, the final release published by TriKing Games. Due to financial concerns, TriKing went on a "hiatus" in early 2007, from which it has yet to return. The company continued sending tournament kits, but had let go of its design team after they turned in the card text for Set 9. TriKing had little to no presence during the important 2007 summer conventions; soon after, they stopped sending tournament kits, and their forums have been in disrepair since October.


Players' Committee

Since then, players and designers have attempted to keep the game alive. ''Anachronisms Lead Developer released the finished card text for the unpublished Set 8, sanctioning it for organized play. He is in the process of doing the same for Set 9. Players in "The Coliseum" (an alternate ''Anachronism'' forum) have worked together to create a full set of card images, to be used online or printed at home. These resources can be found a
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''Anachronism'' Cantina
A handful of dedicated players, along with a couple of former design team members, have formed the ''Anachronism'' Players' Committee (PC). Also based out of "The Coliseum," the PC is working to finalize Set 9 text, continue an organized play system, and develop the first post-TriKing release—Set 10.


Releases


Competitive play

''Anachronism'' features a series of tournaments with high-profile prizes, such as a trip to one of various destinations in
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. At the local level, Tournament Organizers and Mercenaries schedule and run tournaments of various sizes. The prizes for these events are often exclusive promotional cards. Each month, a new set of three promotional cards are sent to stores hosting sanctioned tournaments. Near the end of ''Anachronisms published run, TriKing began charging for these tournament kits. Since the advent of Set 8, all tournament kits are available online a
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There used to be a series of larger tournaments held over the late spring and summer months. Starting in 2006, TriKing began sanctioning Regional Qualifier tournaments. Open qualifier tournaments for U.S. Nationals and the World Championship were held at
Origins Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...
, in
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. U.S. Nationals took place the next month in
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, at Gen Con, which also had another open qualifier for Worlds. The annual World Championship was held at
Dragon Con Dragon Con (previously Dragon*Con and sometimes DragonCon) is a North American multigenre convention, founded in 1987, which takes place annually over the Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. , the convention draws attendance of over 80,000, f ...
in
Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
. In September 2005, Mathieu Brochu won a new MINI Cooper as the grand prize of the first ''Anachronism'' World Championship. One year later, in September 2006, Garritt Pruim won a
Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
laptop computer as the grand prize of the second ''Anachronism'' World Championship. In 2007, the World Championship was cancelled by TriKing, the day before the U.S. Nationals at GenCon. Recently, the Players' Committee has attempted to revive Competitive Play, using online resources such at
Apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

LackeyCCG
and over AIM with a
Online Playmat
The first tournament organized by the PC is offering the winner the choice of Set 10's final culture sweep. Today the ''Anachronism'' plugin for Lackey is available and up to be played with the LackeyCCG.


Reviews

*''
Pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...
''


References


External links

*{{bgg, 14038, ''Anachronism''
Dystemporalia
A very handy ''Anachronism'' site
''Anachronism'' Yahoo GroupBrazilian ''Anachronism'' ForumFrench ''Anachronism'' Forum
Card games introduced in 2005 Board wargames Origins Award winners