Dive into TGs #1: The Three Kingdoms (三国杀标准版 San Guo Sha Classic)

Hi guys! I am back with my new BLOG site! Since recently I'm pretty into Tabletop Games (TGs), I've decided to introduce TGs to anyone who reads my blog whenever I come across nice and interesting ones! Today I'm going to start with one of my latest addition to my growing collection of TGs -- The Three Kingdoms (三国杀 San Guo Sha, SGS). My friends from University introduced this game to me one day when I went over to their place and I fell in love with it!

Introduction

The red-colored tin box is the Classic SGS Gameset, along with its expansions (the two packets on the right of the box). The blue box on the right is another game mode for SGS, I will talk about that some time later.

Note1: You may click on the images for a larger and clearer picture!

Cards from the Box! Properly sleeved. =)

SGS is a Chinese card game that can be played by 2 to 10 players! Though, the the gameplay for 2-4 players differs significantly from the more than 4 players' play style. This game has a similar game concept to Bang! except that it is slightly more complicated, has some extra mechanisms and is generally more challenging.

(Image obtained from Analog Games)

Some of you may have played Bang! before, it's simple. You have a Sheriff who aims to kill all the Outlaws and Renegade; a Deputy who assists the Sheriff in his/her task; Outlaws who win by killing the Sheriff; and the Renegade who wins by slaughtering everyone else (with the Sheriff being the last to die). 

 The "Identity Cards" - (L > R) Lord, Loyal Official, Rebel and Traitor

In a game with 5 players or more, you play with Identities. In essence, the Lord and Loyals want to get rid of the Rebels and Traitors; Rebels want the Lord dead; Traitor wants to be the person who stands alone after killing the Lord last.Throughout the game, the only identity known to the others is the Lord, all the other identities remain as a secret until the player dies in the game. You get rewarded for killing the Rebel (no matter who you are); but you get a huge penalty if you kill your Loyal Official as the Lord.

 These are Basic cards used in the game. The top 3 cards are "Kill/Slash 杀 Sha" where if it hits whoever you use it on, you take down 1 health from the player. The different type of Kill cards only differs in terms of the element they possess - Normal, Fire or Lightning. 

Cards at the bottom are Evade 闪 (to avoid being damaged by the Kill card), Peach 桃 (to heal yourself by 1 health; or to heal any player on the verge of death by 1 health) and Beer 酒 (to increase your Kill damage by 1, or to heal yourself by 1 health when you are on the verge of death).

These are instant Magic cards - cards with special effects that happens immediately. Some require all other players to play a certain Basic card or they get dealt 1 damage; some heal everyone by 1 damage, some allow you to obtain/discard cards from other players - they come in various forms. There are some rules that may be applied to them, you will learn them as you play.

These are delayed Magic cards - cards that are played to have special restricting/damaging effects but will not happen until some time later.

You gotta be equipped if you are going out to war! You have a variety of Equipments to choose from - weapons (with different effects), armors (again, with different effects), and mounts (horses). If you noticed, the horses come in pluses (+) and minuses (-). This is used to increase/decrease distance between you and other players. 

In this game, there's distance between players and in order for you to Kill or use certain Magic cards, you need to be able to reach your target. Weapons (for Kill cards) and -Horses (for both Kill cards and Magic cards) allow you to reach a faraway target, while +Horses allow you to be slightly safer from those effects.

So who do you play as? You get to pick from a draft of a minimum of THREE choices. They are all categorized according to the nation they belong to -- Shu (蜀), Wei (魏), Wu (吴), Qun (群). Though this categorization is not important in this game mode. 

The cards with small comma-looking jade below are the Life cards. They show you what is your maximum health (you cannot recover past this value) and for you to keep track of your health.

Each character has comma-like jades on the top left of the card to show how much maximum health s/he start with and can have! Each also has its own special ability, be it to draw extra cards, to counter attack somebody, to give cards away to allies, etc. All the characters are specially designed to have abilities that reflect their true personality as per the history of The Three Kingdoms. In fact, I learned a lot about characters I never heard before after playing this game, all thanks to the explanation of a very knowledgeable friend -- Flame Kho (also the one who introduced this game to me! =P).

Review

This game is a great filler to times when you are with friends and you don't know what to do! Each match could easily take up to an hour (30 minutes minimum unless something really epic happens...)! In addition, this game is a game that integrates both Luck and Skill. You need luck to see what cards you and/or your opponents draw; but you also need to know when to play/keep what cards to best maximize your chances to win! 

In general, this game is really worth it -- its replay value is very high! There are tons of character to choose from, tons of characters that work wonders with others! So, you can keep trying to find the best supporter for the Lord as a Loyal; or best Rebels that can help each other! The creativity of the designer to have the abilities be related to the history of each character is a brilliant move as well! It's like a game that tells you a story while you play it! Another good point of this game is that the cards in the expansions are definite. It's not like a collectible card game where you might have different cards when you buy different expansions. 

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There are two big drawbacks to this game. First, it's in Mandarin. That means if you don't know the language, you probably don't want to play it. I say 'probably' because I know this game is played in the Western countries as well, but you just gotta learn the effects or have someone who knows them teach you! Secondly, you can't really get the complete set in Malaysia. I had to order it from China because the one sold in Malaysia lacks some of the expansions.

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Overall, I'd give it a 7.25 over 10. Some points are lost because as the expansions emerge, some of the abilities become slightly confusing or just pure bad, to the point that they have to fix them after and release new versions/explanations of the same character.

If anyone of you want to try this game, let me know!! I would love to teach you and play with you guys! That's all for SGS! 

Note2: You may use the images if you need to for non-commercial purposes, but do credit me/attach a link to  my site! Thanks! =)