By: Jason McKelvey
The Resistance: Avalon is a great strategy game for a bigger group. This game allows for 5 to 10 players, but is best with more than 7. There aren’t a lot of games that take thought and strategy that allow for this many players, which makes this game a lot of fun and totally worth the purchase. This is a sequel/extension to The Resistance, but with a thematic change, and does not require the base game in order to play. Therefore if purchasing one or the other, get Avalon, as you can play the base game as well as the many variations it offers.
Avalon is very similar to the old classic card game Mafia, where each player secretly gets a card, which determines if they are a sheriff, towns’ people, doctor, or part of the mafia. However Avalon doesn’t require a narrator to make up crazy stories about how the Mafia took one of the towns’ people, and then everyone has to randomly vote to take another person out of the game.
The game offers a great theme based on King Arthur and Merlin, as well as characters such as Percival, Mordred, Oberon, and more. Each player will secretly get a card and become part of the good team or bad team, and then it’s good vs. evil during this player deduction game in which it is each player’s individual task to figure out who is on their team, and then work together towards victory.
There are some catches though. Based on the setup of the game, there will be some hidden knowledge in the game, such as Percival knowing all the evil team, and the evil team knowing who else is on their team. This leads to some interesting dynamics which makes it harder for good to win, but when they do, it’s a wonderful victory.
I had the privilege of playing this game with 10 guys from low-experienced gamers to mid-range experience, and everyone had a blast. The game encourages conversation, so people were speaking up and accusing miscellaneous guys of being good or evil, but in the end, people were merely accusing their own kind.
I recommend this game to add to your collection, especially when you’re in a bind of having 6-10 people and you don’t want to split apart into two separate games. It’s a great price and the replay ability will encourage many games in one sitting.
• Overall rating - 7
• Non-gamer – 6
• Ease of rules – 7
• Replay ability – 8
• Length 30 minutes
You can follow Jason on Twitter: @mckelveyj37