Harrow County: A Game of Gothic Conflict Board Game Review

The Halloween season is upon us, and that means an uptick in Halloween themed board games for our gaming group to enjoy. We generally are playing games for 4 to 5 players, but recently a little 2-Player (and three player if you so choose) game has been hitting the table a lot. Yes, part of that is because we need to review it, but it’s getting back to the table again and again because it’s really fun!

Two player board games can be tricky to find, and most don’t have a lot of insane depth. It’s not that light two player games aren’t fun or fantastically created, but sometimes you just want that deeper, more complex small player count experience. Thankfully, Harrow County: A Game of Gothic Conflict does that well. This action selection game pits players against each other, one looking to wipe out the town while the other attempts to save the townsfolk.

During the game, players will be selecting actions which are tracked by little jar tokens. When an action is taken, it is flipped face down, and once three actions have been taken by each player, the round is over and things reset. Each player is attempting to score points, and points are scored differently depending on which character you are playing as. That being said, all players can score points by defeating enemy minions, although as you defeat them, more minions will need to be killed the next time to earn an additional point. The game comes with a really cool dial for tracking points – thematic and useful, so it’s something I obviously like.

One thing I really enjoy about how Harrow County is presented is that the game introduces various concepts to you over a 5 chapter “campaign.” I use that word loosely as I feel it’s simply a way to slowly introduce you to more and more complex ideas and concepts, but over a period of time and a number of games. This is a VERY good idea for this game – if you attempt to jump into all the concepts used in Scenario 5, you are going to be overwhelmed, VERY quickly. It’s like the designers realized, “we have a deep game here, and we need to ease them into it.” It’s a very aware sort of mentality, and one I applaud. More designers should use this approach.

The game does revolve around a few key actions such as movement, placing minions, and fighting. There is also a cube mechanism that tracks a player’s might relative to the other players. The concepts here aren’t anything new, but when all blended together they create a really great gameplay experience. The thing is, you need to enjoy asymmetric games. Sure, some of the scoring mechanisms are the same for both players, but they also have unique scoring mechanisms, either protecting the families or destroying homes. Further to that, each team also operates differently as well.

When attempting to destroy homes, the family is looking to build storms. Not only does this continued connected line of storms help them destroy homes on the board, it also forces other players to use an extra movement point to go through them. The protectors, on the other hand, attempt to avoid these storms and chain-move their villagers back to a spot on the board to save them. The differences extend further than this as well, which is why having a GOOD understanding of players abilities is pretty important, and perhaps something that some players won’t want to spend time investing in.

Asymmetric games require investment in learning all aspects of all characters. I said this with Root, and I’ll say it again – the more you put into Harrow County, the more you get out of it. But for those willing to put in the effort, the payoff is outstanding. Personally, I love asymmetric play. Building a bag of tokens as the Family is a lot of fun, and also requires a decent amount of decision space when you decide how to use them. At the end of the turn, you decide whether to use those to upgrade your player board, losing them from your bag, or keeping them for your bag! I love that decision making space.

The protectors work differently, choosing one specific action each time which can get stronger over time. Kammi, the third player you can introduce into the game, uses a “conveyor belt” action system where a tile gets moved to a new row, pushes the further tile off, and then allows the player to use those actions in the row they just inserted a tile into. Both can upgrade their abilities by picking up tiles from the board. All have unique action choices, and all require a slightly different strategy to excel. AND I LOVE IT.

Thoroughly confused yet? So was I. See everything I just explained is what you can do with ONE of your 4 jars, the Abilities Jar. Other jars – Wild Jar, Legend Jar, and Attack Jar – allow you to take other actions like activating player powers based on the characters you have in play that game, which adds another level of complexity, but also another level of fun, to the Harrow County experience.

And we haven’t talked about combat yet, which is another unique element. There is no dice here to resolve fights, but instead you will use the strength you have accrued. Cubes are dropped into the cube tower – built into the box itself! – and some (not necessarily all) will fall out and allow you to start to remove enemy minions from the board. Interesting and different, which gives this game a leg up on other two-player experiences. It’s unique, and it sets Harrow County apart.

I could continue to wax poetic about all the cool and unique things I believe this game is doing, but let’s get down to whether you should get it or not. We don’t give games review scores here because we feel that review numbers are VERY subjective. Honestly, I highly recommend this game, but there are a few things you need to be aware of.

First, if you don’t like asymmetric games, Harrow County is not going to change your mind. You might all be rushing towards the same goal of 7 points, but how you go about getting those points requires different strategies. And half the battle is understanding how other characters work, which means to be good at Harrow County means understanding ALL the available factions and characters.

Second, while I love that the game uses chapters to slowly introduce the various complex systems in play, I can see returning to this game next Halloween season a bit of a challenge and a chore. An updated rule book does make looking up rules a bit easier, but trying to remember everything 6-8 months after your last play of the game could be a challenge. This is more of an observation as opposed to a proven fact, because as of today I’m very familiar with how Harrow County plays – but how well will I remember in 12 months?

Ultimately, this is a game that requires some level of investment to be really good at, and if you have an imbalance of players – those who have played and those who have not – I don’t give new players much of a chance. But playing again and again with the same few people has resulted in some very strategic, yet incredibly quick, gameplay experiences. This might be our go-to game this Halloween season. It is phenomenal in our books!