Wargames and Railroads: Clue

Really, you just can't have enough Clue games. This is the Game of Thrones edition which offers a couple of variations to the standard themes we have been seeing lately. The first difference is the board. This is a two sided board allowing you to play in the Red Keep or a second location called Meereen. I'm not a Game of Thrones fan so I don't know the significance of these two locations. I don't watch the HBO show and I don't read the books. But now there is a Clue game so I had to add it to the collection.

The Meereen side is closer to a standard clue game with 9 rooms, 6 characters and 6 weapons. The Red Keep side is a little different, it has 11 rooms, 6 characters and 6 weapons. This is a similar to the old Master Detective Clue variation from the 80's. In addition to having the two board sides the characters are different for each location so there are 12 characters in the game, six for each local. Like many of the current variants each of the characters has a "power" that they can use once per game. This is almost becoming a standard in games published by USAopoly. The only thing that remains the same between the two sides are the murder weapons. You end up with two decks of cards, with each card having a symbol on it so you know which side of the board it belongs to with a common set of weapon cards.

On top of that it includes the other more or less standard variation; the intrigue cards. Like the other variants (except Star Wars, which requires you draw whenever you end your movement in a corridor) if you end up on the marked spaces on the board you draw an intrigue card. Typically they are good, but you need to watch out for the White Walkers (at least in this game). If you are the unlucky player to draw the 8th White Walker then your character is killed!

Apparently an alternative set of weapons were released as a Comic Con exclusive. Although I would like to have them, just to be complete, I'll probably skip them for now. I don't know if they are selling but the few that I have seen come up on eBay have started bids of $75 plus. That's just a bit much for me. Someone asked about how many Clue games I actually have in the collection and it lies somewhere between 36 and 40. They are scattered in a couple of different places in the house which is not the best way to maintain an inventory.

A try full of the basic pieces and materials,

Unlike some of the other editions, these are printed on a thick cardboard and are inserted into slots on the columns (see below). Most of the current variants print these on thin cardstock and you slide them into the movement markers