Covenants and Combinations
Designed by: Harper Camp
Published by: Harper Camp
Overview
Covenants and Combinations is a two to four player game where each player is vying for control of the promised land as either the Nephites,Lamanites, Jaredites, or Gadianton Robbers. Using armies, leaders, and special cards players will try to outwit and out roll their opponents in this Risk meets the Book of Mormon board game.
The Game
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| Risk is a trademark of Hasbro |
The game is set up by placing the board in the middle of play along with the territory cards, scripture cards, and dice. Each player then takes an army of one color and you are ready to go.
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| Game Setup |
On a player’s turn she may do the following four steps: 1) Reinforce or gain armies depending on number of territories and regions owned or cards turned in. 2) Attack!!! 3) Redeploy and 4) Draw new cards. Play then goes to the next player.
Play continues like this until one player has taken over all the territories on the map, players reach a pre-determined ending point (in which case points are tallied), or they have been playing for five hours and they just give up.
As mentioned above the winner is determined by either one player controlling all the territories OR the player with the most points (based on territories and regions owned and number of strongholds).
The Review
So what is different between Covenants and Combinations and Risk? Well besides the use of a map based on the Book of Mormon there are a few subtle changes. 1) Players have leaders that they can move around the board that grant bonuses in combat (both offensively and defensively). 2) There are strongholds around the board which if controlled will give the controlling army a defensive bonus. 3) There are Sites of Power place around the board which allow a player who moved a leader through them to draw a scripture card. Scripture cards give special powers to players during the game like gaining extra armies or another leader. There are some other differences as well that are implementations of house rules I have encountered before while playing Risk that really enhance this game.
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| Scripture Cards |
I really enjoy a good game of Risk so it was a no brainer that I would like Covenants and Combinations as well. In fact because of some of the new implementations and rule changes I like playing Covenants and Combinations more.
One problem that still exist in Covenants and Combinations is player elimination. If you are playing a two player game that isn’t a problem, but in a three to four player game that means there will be players that end up sitting and watching. This is easy to fix though by having other end game triggers like time constraints or point goals.
The great thing about this game is the tie into the Book of Mormon. Harper has done a great job creating a realistic rendition of the map of the promised lands. I was recently reading in Alma Chapter 2 as Alma was describing one of the battles between the Nephites and Amlicites that took place in the valley of Gideon and the land of Minon by the river Sidon, all of which are part of the board.
The Scripture cards are also a great tie in as each card has a scripture reference at the bottom. In fact while playing with my seven year-old the other day he left the game to go look up the scriptures. Thanks Harper!
All-in-all this is a solid game with a great LDS tie in. Great for families and gaming groups alike although it probably plays a bit too long for a FHE. I give Covenants and Combinations 4 out of 5 stars.
If you wish to pick up a copy of Covenants and Combinations please support Harper with his Kickstarter campaign at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1219210913/covenants-and-combinations.
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| The Lamanites from Ishmael are moving in on the Nephites in Midian |
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