Osprey Games OSP8935 Escape from Colditz 75th Anniversary Edition Game for 14 years to 18 years,Multicolor,11.6 x 2.8 x 426.72 inches

Product Information

Osprey Games remastered the game, improving the quality of the components and offering a more streamlined and polished version of the rules. A PoW, when released from the outer cells (Section 4 of the board) may only re-enter the Prisoner's Courtyard through the 'Pass' circle. Starting from anywhere within the light grey coloured prisoners area, including rooms and requiring no equipment, the PoW runs out through the Garrison Courtyard and buildings crossing the moat. What seems to me the strangest tweak is that each player is given a complete Escape Kit card to begin the game. To be honest, the basic nature of the game is rolling two dice, moving your pieces around to collect all the necessary cards to attempt an escape, sometimes cooperating with the other Escape Officers, sometimes not, all the while being repeatedly frustrated by the German Security Officer player's actions and card play.

Once players have settled on a few ideas to outwit the German Security Officer, they begin collecting Escape Equipment by visiting various rooms inside the prison. Complicating our answer to this question is the Quick Reference sentence that states, “Neither [guards or POWs] can end their movement on a tunnel space unless they are a POW (no mention of guards here) making use of the tunnel card.

Decks of lovingly-illustrated cards for the escaping Allies and German security officer (the first edition of the game featured Nazi swastikas, which were later replaced by an Imperial eagle) attempting to stop them are packed in similarly quality cardboard sleeves.

I was very excited to play this game after seeing it at Gen Con 2016, and honestly, I’m enamoured by what the product is. Each player can only hold three cards at any time, though, which creates plenty of moments where you have to carefully choose what to use and what to discard.We even saw 2 POWs follow the same route, with the first one being a distraction to get captured, requiring the guard to take him back to the prison, therefore freeing up the path for the 2nd POW to make a run for it. Clearly, a lot of care and attention has been paid to respecting the original game and its real-life muse, while also making smart changes to help find a new audience today. They may also be exchanged for an Escape Kit Card if all four components of the Escape Kit are held.

The interaction between the different nationalities of POWs can be really interesting as each might be focused on ‘farming’ a different piece of equipment and then using their surplus to trade with the other groups to get the items they are unable to produce. The card decks are wrapped in heavy cardboard sleeves and tucked into recessed storage areas to keep the surface flat for the storage of your game board.Read other reviews of great Osprey Games titles, such as Agamemnon, They Come Unseen, The King is Dead and Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space! In this picture, the Guards played the ‘Shoot to Kill’ card to eliminate a prisoner that was oh so close to getting out! The logic of this seems slightly odd, as the major part of the game used to be spent in gathering the requisite four items [food, documents, disguise and a compass] to create an Escape Kit, as well as items such as wire cutters, rope, keys and passes to use on your route out of the castle. The game has a fixed amount of turns depending on how new you are to the game, or based on a mutually decided length. It seems fairly clear that the original designers had in mind that recreating the experience of being a POW of Colditz was the real appeal.