Sangram

Sangram is a Hindi word, often used to refer to India's 'struggle' for freedom against colonisers. This game gives players a taste of that struggle through simple mechanics, in just 30 minutes of game time. The aim is to build the strongest army out of all competing kingdoms. But beware....as history has shown us, infighting between the kingdoms makes it easy for foreigners to enter in the name of trade and slowly take over the entire subcontinent. Players start with 3 warrior cards, each having a 'strength' number which they contribute to the kingdom's army. In each round of the game, first, players send one warrior each to battle, activating the special power of that card. Then, in the order of motivation of those cards, players can recruit 1 extra warrior from the market of volunteer warriors. Unfortunately, these recruited warriors attract some coloniser tokens. So the choice of recruited warriors depends on multiple factors - the coloniser count, motivation, strength and the special power of that card which could be useful later. Finally, in the training phase, all players gain 1 Army strength. However, if players have more than 4 coloniser tokens, they are weakened from within and don't gain that extra 1 Strength in that round. This mechanic creates a constant tussle between choosing to activate warriors which attack other kingdoms, or warriors which keep the Coloniser tokens from piling up. This was a dilemma that rajas often faced at that time in India. Ultimately the winner is one who finds the fine balance between both paths. The first player to reach an Army Strength of 18, through smart recruitment, attacking opponents and consistent training, becomes all-powerful - the ruler of the entire subcontinent of Bharata! —description from the publisher