I’m always on the lookout for interesting twists on action selection mechanics. From the most basic systems to interesting worker placement mechanics, to rondels, and everything in between, I find the way that games let you take actions to be a fascinating puzzle. Sometimes, when it’s too restrictive, I feel frustrated. But when there’s tension and trade-offs and I get to make interesting decisions, that’s when I feel the joy for board games that really hooked me into this hobby in the first place.
Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done is a 2018 game by Seth Jaffee, and originally published by TMG (RIP). In Crusaders, players embody an order of knights that have a call to spread their influence across medieval Europe.
The theme is kinda weird. The crusades are a dark subject, considering the tragedies that were wrought at the hands of knights in the name of religion. It’s also weird that the holy lands aren’t even on the board, which was kinda the point of the crusades. Not to mention that the “crusade” action on the rondel is to crush or eliminate your enemies so you can build your house on their land. On one hand, I’m woefully ignorant of the historical nuance of the crusades, but when you name and theme your game after religious wars, but then do nothing to address the history of the event, it just feels a bit weird.
That’s all that I really have to say on the subject. As far as a euro style board game goes, Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done holds a pretty satisfying puzzle. Each player has a rondel of actions on their personal board, and a number of action tokens. When you want to take an action, you choose one of the rondel wedges, take the action with its strength based on how many action tokens are on that action, then, you distribute the action tokens clockwise from that action wedge.
Alternatively, you can choose to upgrade any of your wedges, which lets you flip it over and reveals a second action available for that spot. Now, when you take that action, you get to split the action points between those two actions. When you upgrade a wedge, you may choose to distribute the action tokens from any of your wedges, which is real handy when they’ve all bunched up on an action that you don’t want to take yet.
If there’s something Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done is lacking in, it’s player interaction. You can get in each other’s way by being the first to build in a spot, as each hex can only hold one building, and in the higher player count games, real estate is at a premium. The other way to interact with your opponents is by crusading before they do, as a successful crusade makes the respective tribe stronger. There’s nothing pushing back against you, nor is there any mechanism to thwart someone who is starting to run away with the game. The most you can hope to accomplish is to sidle in and accomplish something before they can.
I’ve found Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done to be wonderfully replayable. Each player gets dealt two of the knight orders, each one with their own special ability and different number of starting action tokens. In addition to that, your action wedges have a randomized location each game, making certain synergies easier or more difficult to achieve.
The gameplay and flow is really smooth. Unlike another popular mancala game, Trajan, Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done has you choose the action, then you move the action markers, making it really easy to see at a glance how strong your actions are as opposed to moving markers and taking the action where the last pip lands. Each of the actions on the rondel are straightforward and easy to execute, and you only get to do one action per turn until you upgrade your action wedges, then you get two. This does make it difficult to pull off a cool or amazing combo, but it also means that it doesn’t take very long for your turn to come back around to you. It’s only slightly frustrating when you see someone about to do something before you, but you don’t really have a way of accelerating your engine to beat them to it. Just play better, I suppose.
My real gripe with Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done is the fact that one of the actions on your rondel is literally “take victory points”, which is just boring. And what’s worse, some reports on BGG say that really focusing on that action is a reliable strategy. I hate it when the boring play is the good play. Building buildings offer you some points, as does crusade, but the ratio of action points spent to victory points earned isn’t equal, suggesting that almost always, taking victory points is the right thing to do. I want the victor to be the one who built the most, or travelled the furthest. Not the player who sat at home and just raked in the points (I know this is addressed in the expansion).
Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done is full of choices, but limits what you can do on your turn. The only interaction is someone getting to a spot before you, which is usually well telegraphed in advance. It’s an efficincy puzzle that I love to get behind. The gameplay flows well, and as you build your buildings, your actions get stronger, and you start to really rake in the victory points, creating a satisfying feeling of momentum. While some of the actions could be more exciting, I still easily recommend Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done. It’s a fast play for a medium weight euro, and the action selection mechanism is a fun puzzle to play with.
