Armor of God - Review

Armor of God

Designed by: Mike Drysdale

Published by: Pioneer Plus/Cedar Fort 

The Game

Armor of God is a card game that plays two to four players, ages eight and up, and last between twenty and forty minutes.  Players are trying to collect the six pieces of the Armor of God which include the Shield of Faith, the Breastplate of Righteousness, Loins Girt with Truth, Feet Shod with the Gospel of Peace, the Helmet of Salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit. The first player to do this wins the game.

Set up is quick, players each take a Feet Shod with the Gospel of Peace card from the armor deck shuffling the remaining deck (one type of armor per player) then taking the top four cards and placing them face up in the play area. Players then take a set of tokens for later use. Players now remove the Arm Yourself cards from the Faith deck and shuffle then taking the top four from that deck and placing them face up in the play area. The Arm Yourself cards a returned and the deck is re-shuffled. Players are now ready to play.

Game set up for four players.

Armed with Feet Shod with the Gospel of Peace a player has three choices of what she can do on a turn. 1. Draw a card, 2. Play one card, OR 3. Play three of a kind. As she gains more armor cards the number of play choices she has goes up. More on this below.

To draw a card the player simple takes the top card from the Faith deck or takes one of the face up cards from the four next to the deck. If one of these are taken a new card is turned face up to take it's place. To play a card the player must have a faith card that matches one of the armor cards that are currently face up. She then takes the matching faith card and plays it next to the face up armor card along with one of  her tokens. Note a player may never play a lower point value Faith card on his pile, it must always be higher. For example the Blue player below played a  five then a seven. He could not have played a seven then a five.

Blue and Green have both played two cards on the Sword of the
Spirit Armor card while the Red player has played one card on the
Helmet of Salvation.

The final play choice is to play three Faith cards - any armor type with the same point value - from her hand along with a token to trigger an Arm Yourself event. More on this below.

Play continues until an Arm Yourself card is drawn from the Faith card deck OR a player triggers an Arm Yourself event by playing three matching cards from their hand and discarding a token. If the Arm Yourself event is triggered by drawing an Arm Yourself card, players look for the face up Armor card(s) that match. The player with the highest point total played on that Armor card wins the card. If a player has triggered the Arm Yourself event then that player chooses which Armor card is being armed.

The Sword of the Spirit Arm Yourself card has been drawn so
the Sword of the Spirit Armor card will now be resolved.
The Blue player has played two cards worth 12 points against that
armor card while the Green player has played two cards worth
10 points. Therefor blue is the winner of the Sword of the Spirit
Armor card.

Once the Arm Yourself card is resolved the cards played against it are discarded, the players receive their tokens back, and a new Armor card is turned over to take it's place.

Armor cards that are won can now be used for their actions. For example the Blue player - on his turn - can now use the Sword of the Spirit's action of "removing a faith card from an opponents pile" (played on an Armor card). To take this action the Blue player will also have to discard a token.

The game ends when one player has all six pieces of Armor in front of them.

The Green player has won the game!!!

The Review

Armor of God is a quick game to play, fairly easy to learn and can be taught to younger children. The box it comes in is small and compact which means it is a great game to take on trips. It also doesn't take up a whole lot of table space so it can be played almost anywhere.

I really like the different actions on the cards which create many choices for players each turn. Although some of the actions are antagonistic which some players might not like. Removing cards from player's hands or faith piles.

The artwork on all the cards is wonderful and very detailed (not sure who gets the credit here). Kids will enjoy looking at all the different pieces of armor they can collect.

This is a great game for Family Home Evening especially when the lesson is based on protecting ourselves from Satan's fiery darts. Mike has also designed a kids version of this game called the Whole Armor of God which you can find out more about HERE.

I am giving this game 4 out of 5 stars and is a great game for the whole family!

BUY THE ARMOR OF GOD HERE!