Black Orchestra begins with each player choosing a historic figure involved in the conspiracy against Hitler. In this dark and dangerous pursuit, motivation is perhaps your greatest weapon. If you can stay true to your convictions in the face of overwhelming threat and inspire your comrades, then you will be able to use your special ability, attempt plots, and even become zealous (necessary for some extremely daring plots).
But every move you make may also increase the suspicion of the authorities. The Gestapo will make routine sweeps, and any players with high suspicion will be arrested and interrogated (possibly resulting in other players being arrested). If you are all arrested or if the Gestapo finds your secret papers, you lose. And the suspicion placed on each conspirator will increase the chances their plots are detected.
On a turn, players may take three actions, such as moving, searching for an item, or drawing a card; or, at the cost of one action per die, roll the dice in an attempt to gain even more actions — at the risk of attracting the suspicion of the gestapo. This dice rolling “Conspire” action allows players to make bold moves when most needed.
-Grant
We make it a point to play Black Orchestra at every GMT Games at the Warehouse. We play the Standard game, usually because our core of 2 players is teaching 1-2 newbies. Our current record is 7 wins and 7 losses. (or 8-7 — my feeble memory is working overtime this morning) We have only lost once when the “evil endgame card” comes up — the rest of the times we’ve all been arrested. Two of our wins (including the most recent) came with the “evil card” next in the stack. One amazing win occurred in the 3rd round of cards. Great, fun game.
We played one game at SDHIstCon a year ago, and the game on hand was a first edition. We do NOT recommend playing with that one. The later version is a much improved game. jP
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That’s awesome! It is such a great game. I try to take it with me to all conventions looking for a chance to play it if people are willing.
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