Land and Freedom: The Spanish Revolution and Civil War is a very interesting and unique card-driven in which players are play the roles of various factions who are attempting to work together to repel the Fascist attack on Spain’s sovereignty. The three sides, including the Moderates, Anarchists and Communists, have to work together in a loose alliance against the Fascists but also in an attempt to keep each ideology in check and win the game by amassing the most glory. The game looks at Spain in the framework of 4 separate geographic Fronts, which players have to defend using only their wits and the cards at their disposal. These cards can be used for their powerful events or placed into a tableau where in later turns the play of matching symbol cards here can trigger a very powerful and game changing momentum swing. The game is semi-cooperative, and what is meant by that is that all of the players will lose the game if 2 of the Fronts or Madrid are lost but if they sufficiently work together to keep the Fascist invasion at bay, they can then win individually for their ideology by amassing the most Glory through their brave deeds, skillful manipulation of the turn order and focus on increasing their hold on important aspects such as government control, external support from world powers in the form of Foreign Aid, the increase of individual liberty or a focus on collectivization.

In Action Point 1, we took a look at the Game Board and discussed the Fronts and various Tracks that belong to the different factions. In Action Point 2, we examined the anatomy of the Player Cards and discuss the use of their Action Points and Events as well as the Fascist Event Cards. In Action Point 3, we looked into the Morale and Teamwork Bonuses and how they are best used by the players. In Action Point 4, we discussed the uses for Hero Points and looked at the various Medallions that can be acquired and their uses. In this Action Point, which is the conclusion to this series, we will discuss how the game is won or lost and the process of acquiring Glory.

Victory

Victory is a bit of a mixed bag in this game (pun intended here!). What I mean by this is that there are more ways to lose than there are to actually win. The players must first cooperatively work together in order to ensure that no losing condition is met. If they survive the war over the 3 Years of the game, the game will then move to the second phase of victory where each faction can win the war by themselves and the game changes from cooperative to decidedly competitive.

The game is divided into 3 separate Years. Year 1 covers the period of 1936–1937, Year 2 covers the period of 1937–1938 and Year 3 covers the period of 1938–1939. Each of the Years is further divided into 4 Turns. If the players do not lose the war earlier, the game will end at the end of Year 3. If the war is lost, then all players lose together and there is no victor as Fascism has won and taken over Spain. If the war is won, then the single player with the most Glory is the winner.

If you remember, the board is divided into 4 separate Fronts that include Madrid, Northern, Aragon, and Southern. Any time that Fascist Attack Tokens are found on one of these Fronts, this means that the Front has a negative value as each of the individual Fascist Tokens has a -1 value. On the other hand, the presence of any Republican Strength Tokens means that the Front has a positive value as each Strength Token has a +1 value. Remember, that when a positive or negative value token is placed on any Front it actually will remove 1 of its opposite from that Front and will only accumulate tokens once it has a positive or negative value. This is important to understand because this factors into one of the ways that the players can lose the war. If any of the Fronts ever falls to -10, meaning it has at least -10 worth of Fascist Attack Tokens, that Front will suffer Defeat. But, if any Front ever is increased to +10, it achieves immediate Victory. But don’t misunderstand that this Victory is not ultimate Victory but means that the players will no longer have to fight over that Front as it is victorious and the Fascists can no longer attack it.

The overall war can be lost in any 1 of the following 3 ways. 1. Defeat on the Madrid Front will always equate to an immediate and instant loss. Madrid is the capital and the epicenter of all resistance to the Fascists and if it has fallen, the remaining Fronts cannot hold out. 2. Defeat on any 2 Fronts (also equates to an instant loss. This would mean any combination of the other 3 Fronts. 3. Also, there is a bit of a stricter requirement for the fighting to continue beyond the end of Year 3. At that time, if any 2 of the Fronts are at 0 value or worse, this will equate to an instant loss. Once again, resistance is a communal thing and as Fronts fall individually, the other Fronts become weaker and less likely to survive.

Victory will only be achieved if the 4 Fronts have at least a value of +1 or better at the end of Year 3. This is important to remember, and I have found that players will be making a big commitment of their actions to ensuring that the Fronts are positive during Year 3. If and only if the war is won at the end of Year 3, we will then move to the Bag of Glory that players have been building throughout the entire game by adding their tokens. Player tokens are then drawn from the Bag of Glory until the Glory area and its remaining 5 spaces are full. At the end of the drawing, the player who has the most Glory will be named the individual winner of the game and their ideology will be first and foremost in building the new future of Spain.

Building the Bag of Glory is a game long process that starts during Year 1. Players must be aware of the ways that they can add their tokens to the bag and must always keep an eye open for opportunities to do so. Remember, that the easiest way to add your tokens to the Bag of Glory is through controlling Initiative. One player will always possess the Initiative Token. This allows them to go first in Turn Order, break all ties and most importantly add one of their Player Tokens to the Bag of Glory at the end of every turn AND also at the end of every Year. With 3 Years and 4 Turns in each of those 3 Yeats, there are at least 15 opportunities to place a Player Token into the bag. This means that if you would control the Initiative at least half of the time, you could expect to have somewhere between 6-8 of your Player Tokens in the Bag of Glory. The benefit of having the most tokens in the Bag of Glory means that your chances of winning are increased as you will have a greater chance of having more of your tokens at the end of Year 3.

The Final Bid portion of the game is a bit different as well. After the Fascist Event is revealed at the beginning of Year 3, each of the players have to simultaneously choose up to 3 cards from their hand as their Final Bid. These cards will not be able to be played as they will be used for the Final Bid and then discarded. The player who chose to bid the largest total number of Action Points on these cards wins the Final Bid and score one of their tokens directly to Glory in the Final Bid space on the board.

So what does all of this mean? Well, you have to work together to win the war but then you also have to have been building the Bag of Glory with you tokens to be able to win individual victory. This is a very different game than many others that I have played and I found that players really have to work together but also not get too far ahead as the incentive to then play together to avoid defeat will lessen. I really like how victory is determined and like that it is really a game versus a more specific strategic affair that you can follow a good strategy to win. Don’t get me wrong, you have to play smart, and play together, but in the end the game will come down to luck of the draw. And that is perfectly fine by me as it is a fun game and I enjoy what is trying to be done during it.

If you are interested, we posted an interview with the designer Alex Knight and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2023/02/06/interview-with-alex-knight-designer-of-land-and-freedom-the-spanish-revolution-and-civil-war-from-blue-panther-llc/

We also posted our video review of the game and you can view that at the following link:

Finally, the game can be ordered for $65.00 from the Blue Panther LLC website at the following link: https://www.bluepantherllc.com/products/land-and-freedom

-Grant