At Your Orders, is the first expansion for The Grizzled, a cooperative card game for three to five players where you and your friends are trying to physically and mentally survive the horrors of World War I. If you would like to learn more about The Grizzled, I suggest you read about it in another one of our article — The Grizzled: 5 Reasons To Play This Game About Empathy, Cooperation And War.
The base game of The Grizzled was already quite successful in creating camaraderie among the players, but even more so in creating a rising tension as the game progresses. So what could this expansion bring to the game that it didn’t already have?
The new character standees for At Your Orders.
Some of the original game’s rules have been modified due to feedback from the community. This includes removing the limit on the number of Speeches players can acquire during the game, as well as always restoring a player’s Good Luck Charm when have player has the majority of the Support. They have also revised the two and solo-player rules, for those who wanted to have that experience. But probably the most notable difference is the addition of Mission cards.
Mission cards augments each round beginning with the Leader. Instead of simply choosing the number of cards each player will take during a Mission, the Leader will draw two Mission cards and choose one to play returning the other card to the top of the Mission card deck. The chosen Mission card defines the minimum number of cards each player must draw, but the Leader may still choose to deal additional cards if they would like.
The new Mission cards between the Moral and Trials deck.
Furthermore, each Mission card will change the way the mission may be played, for example; some missions act as one of the symbols that players cannot exceed during the mission, or force each player to play an additional card on their turn if able. Depending on the difficulty level of the mission, some can be very mild, while others can be quite devastating. Most of these effects only persist for the duration of the mission, but some will remain until discarded, adding a whole other level of difficulty.
The addition of the Mission cards makes a huge improvement on the original game. For new players, the Mission cards give more direction to consider each round, and creates a better story arch. For seasoned players, it adds a new level of difficulty that may have been lacking for them in the original.
An easy, normal, and hard level difficulty Mission card.
In addition to the Mission cards and revised rules, At Your Orders adds character standees for each of the characters to be used to better track whether or not you are in or out of a mission. The two and solo-player rules do the trick, but are greatly lacking the suspense and drama that comes with playing with other players.
In short, if you enjoyed The Grizzled in any way, this expansion is a must. If you were unsure about The Grizzled, this may be the necessary change to make you a believer. It is no less unsettling, in fact it may be more so, but the addition make this a more complete game that I am not thrilled to bring back to the table.
Feature Image Credit: Cool Mini Or Not