I first came across Causeway via an online video by its creator, David McCord, where he delved into the amazing story behind the game. The story is also featured on McCord’s blog.
“There were giants in the earth. According to Irish legend, the Fomorian Giants were large, grotesque, semi-human creatures. Some descriptions say they had humanoid bodies with goat heads. Before the Celts arrived on the island, this race of beings inhabited the Emerald Isle.
“One of these giants, who hailed from Ulster in the north of Ireland, was called Finn MacCool, and one of his adventures inspired our new board game, Causeway.
“The story goes like this — another giant named Benandonner lived across the Irish Sea in Scotland. Benandonner was planning to invade Ulster, and when Finn caught wind of this, he flew into a rage (as giants are known to do).
“McCool hurled great chunks of rock into the sea to build a causeway across to Scotland to stage a preemptive attack. When the land bridge was completed, he charged across the rocks at the head of his army, ready to thrash the upstart Scot.”
The pictures of the actual causeway are dramatic, and as it happened, the night we got the game to the table, one of the people who showed up had visited the locale. He was clearly in awe of it as he described it to us.
The site is on the north coast of County Antrim, a rock formation popularly known as the Giant’s Causeway. “That geological phenomenon is the result of volcanic activity over 60 million years ago, fascinating hexagonal pillars of crystalline basalt,” notes the blog.
Ah, but what of the game?
Causeway is a quasi-abstract strategy board game in which each player commands a troop of “giants” on the battlefield.
OK, so the pieces are just that — plastic pieces — but you can imagine them as giants if your imagination is strong enough.
And it’s “quasi,” at least in my mind, because abstract strategy games typically involve perfect information. Here, you don’t know what movement cards your opponents have, nor what you might draw yourself.
The cards are the core of the game. You have a hand of five, and on your turn, you select one, using the movement indicated on the card to shift your pieces, one piece or up to all 10, using the same movement pattern.
Your goal is to capture your opponents’ pieces; destruction is required to win.
The game accommodates two to six players, but ideally four seems to be the sweet spot. In odd-numbered games, someone will almost assuredly be ganged up on.
Two-player games are a little slow to develop, especially since some manoeuvre cards may move you away from battle.
And while we haven’t played with six, we suspect that player count would feel more chaotic than strategic.
That all said, Causeway offers a host of variations, including team play, multiple colours per player, freeа free-for-all, variable hand sizes, and more, so there is versatility here.
Overall, the game is somewhat reminiscent of Lancer, released in 1973, although that title plays best with two players.
McCord is a prolific designer whose games are typically mechanically solid and fun without a huge learning curve or lengthy time investment, and Causeway is another example of that. It’s a blitz-style battler that often goes down to the wire, I won a four-player battle with a single piece remaining.
Check it out at newventuregames.com.
About Author
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
Battling giants just works as fun game
“There were giants in the earth. According to Irish legend, the Fomorian Giants were large, grotesque, semi-human creatures. Some descriptions say they had humanoid bodies with goat heads. Before the Celts arrived on the island, this race of beings inhabited the Emerald Isle.
“One of these giants, who hailed from Ulster in the north of Ireland, was called Finn MacCool, and one of his adventures inspired our new board game, Causeway.
“The story goes like this — another giant named Benandonner lived across the Irish Sea in Scotland. Benandonner was planning to invade Ulster, and when Finn caught wind of this, he flew into a rage (as giants are known to do).
“McCool hurled great chunks of rock into the sea to build a causeway across to Scotland to stage a preemptive attack. When the land bridge was completed, he charged across the rocks at the head of his army, ready to thrash the upstart Scot.”
The pictures of the actual causeway are dramatic, and as it happened, the night we got the game to the table, one of the people who showed up had visited the locale. He was clearly in awe of it as he described it to us.
The site is on the north coast of County Antrim, a rock formation popularly known as the Giant’s Causeway. “That geological phenomenon is the result of volcanic activity over 60 million years ago, fascinating hexagonal pillars of crystalline basalt,” notes the blog.
Ah, but what of the game?
Causeway is a quasi-abstract strategy board game in which each player commands a troop of “giants” on the battlefield.
OK, so the pieces are just that — plastic pieces — but you can imagine them as giants if your imagination is strong enough.
And it’s “quasi,” at least in my mind, because abstract strategy games typically involve perfect information. Here, you don’t know what movement cards your opponents have, nor what you might draw yourself.
The cards are the core of the game. You have a hand of five, and on your turn, you select one, using the movement indicated on the card to shift your pieces, one piece or up to all 10, using the same movement pattern.
Your goal is to capture your opponents’ pieces; destruction is required to win.
The game accommodates two to six players, but ideally four seems to be the sweet spot. In odd-numbered games, someone will almost assuredly be ganged up on.
Two-player games are a little slow to develop, especially since some manoeuvre cards may move you away from battle.
And while we haven’t played with six, we suspect that player count would feel more chaotic than strategic.
That all said, Causeway offers a host of variations, including team play, multiple colours per player, freeа free-for-all, variable hand sizes, and more, so there is versatility here.
Overall, the game is somewhat reminiscent of Lancer, released in 1973, although that title plays best with two players.
McCord is a prolific designer whose games are typically mechanically solid and fun without a huge learning curve or lengthy time investment, and Causeway is another example of that. It’s a blitz-style battler that often goes down to the wire, I won a four-player battle with a single piece remaining.
Check it out at newventuregames.com.
About Author
Calvin Daniels
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
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