Oh Britannia’s Blitz. I’m not angry, I’m disappointed. And while you can roll out ‘It’s just a joke’. I’d honestly rather spend my time playing a game that respects my culture and heritage. I don’t think I’ve told a board game to bugger off when I first saw it, but well done team, you managed not only to make me place this rather harshly on the review pile, but then you’re already starting on negative points before we even begin.
I get it, and also as a Scottish person I’m used to it by now. As everyone is well aware, every single person that lives in Scotland has ginger hair, wears a kilt and constantly has a bottle of alcohol in their hand ready to go. We run around the hills roamin’ in the gloamin’ and never sharing so much as a fart with anyone on the account of being tight fisted. Its also disappointing because if it decided to lead with something slightly less stereotypical then I would be more willing to give it more of a chance. The simple fact is this game has some clever tributes to each of the countries but has decided to hide punch itself in the face with how it decides to represent each of the British Nations. You’ve got Gareth the Rubgy player from Wales, Arthur the top hat and monocled wearing English man, and finally Hamish, red haired, kilt wearing and downing a bottle of whisky. These are all highly hilarious of course and me complaining about them shows how little of a sense of humour I must definitely have. So lets crack on.
Britannia’s Blitz is a set collection game, based around the three flags of England, Wales and Scotland, or the three categories of invention, food & drink or landmarks. On your turn you’ll try to play sets based on a combination of flags and special categories, trying to play the same category but of different origins. Alternatively playing different categories but the same flag type and those successfully managing that will gain points based on the combination played. There are some special sets that can be played that will allow you to fulfil specific challenges, and special event cards that are played at the beginning of each round that will effect how that round will play out. Some will force players to lose or sacrifice cards. Some will allow you to gain cards from the central Blitz pile, to allow you to hopefully create more sets that you can score.
The role of the central Blitz pile is for when you are not able to play a set of cards, or unwilling to. You then become the ‘Blitz Master’ and then are allowed to decide which of the other players are allowed to gain the card you’ve sacrificed on your turn. It helps with the overall recycling of the deck and creates vendettas between players that can be remembered and acted on further down the line. Play continues until players reach a set number of points and you won’t expect a game to last anything more than half an hour to forty five minutes. Its simple enough to involve the non board game family members, and competitive enough that the interaction between players will likely change who is going to win the game overall.
There’s a fair amount of imagination that has gone into each of the categories, artwork and special event cards. In its favour Britannia’s Blitz doesn’t give the impression that it has been thrown together as a simple hopeful cash grab. Each of the invention cards has been given some kind of illustration brief and it would have been nice to maybe mention who invented the item as well. Its just a bit tone deaf in its self declared celebrations of ‘British Brilliance.’ It’s one of these games you’ll give potentially as a gift to the family members who watched the King’s speech on Christmas day with tears in their eyes. It’s fine at what it does and will probably sit on my shelves for a while before it sees another airing. It’s not terrible, it is kind of like you’re sitting in your favourite restaurant about to have your starter and someone farted and the smell fades over time, but it ruins the overall mood.
This first impression piece is based on the retail version of the game provided to us by the designer and publisher. We were not paid monetary compensation for this review. We give a general overview of the gameplay and so not all of the mechanical aspects of the game may be mentioned. As with most first impressions, we try to capture how we felt after playing the game a couple of times. The majority of the games that we are play are going to take a reasonable number of sessions and playthroughs to fully understand every possibility that they offer. We hope this write up gives you an idea of whether or not this game is something that you will consider playing or even add to your collection. Even if we don't like something, hopefully it helps you to decide if it is something that you should find out more about. We always suggest you check out a gameplay video to give you a better understanding of the game as it is played. If you would like to support more content on the blog then please consider backing us on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/werenotwizards
