Homeland: The Game

It is a fun game with a few unique mechanics.I'm always a little skeptical about games based on TV shows, but Homeland is a pretty good game.The play begins with each participant drawing a role card. There are three roles that players can assume, loyal homeland security agent, political opportunist, and evil terrorist mole. The winner is determined in one of two ways. If the terrorist organizations win then the mole wins flat out. If the Homeland Security folks win then you score points.Each round, the lead player (this rotates from round to round) draws and assembles as many new cases as there are players.The cases have some visible information, e.g., what level of threat they are, and some secret information, e.g., how complex the case is.The cards are designed to fit together in two ways, one way when much of the information is hidden and one way once the case is flipped over to be resolved.The rules are relatively simple. I playtested this with an experienced gaming group, and we all picked up the rules in less than 30 minutes.The play is quick, and even as total novices we were able to complete a whole game in less than an hour.The game materials are all first rate.I do have a few caveats though.First, it is very, very easy for the terrorist organizations to win. I recommend playing progressively difficult versions by starting with all of the threats being low level and giving the players more chances to analyze, intervene, and potentially win. Every time my group played the game, the terrorist organizations won.Second, there is a mechanic where, if the Homeland Security folks win, each player *must* name one player he or she thinks is the mole. If you pick correctly, the mole loses.Guess what. With less than six players, the mole is almost always outted no matter how well he or she played.We made up a house rule that you could name the mole (taking the suggested "minus victory points" if you chose incorrectly) or you could pass on guessing (like the SAT where you get some points for not guessing). This gives the clever mole some chance of escaping - not much, but some.All in all this is a good, quick, fun game for the 12+ age range.

A hidden role game that is okay. The card placement is a bit fiddly, and you cannot really figure out who is what role very easily. The game is a semi-cooperative game that requires real balance to keep from losing the game. Game breakdown, players take turns playing positive, or negative, cards on two locations that will either help or fail missions. When each round starts the threats may become active or move forward on the threat track until the game ends. The game did not feel like any information was being shared, or that the goal even mattered. Its an okay game for the $19.50 I paid for the game. I'll try to find others to pay this game to make sure it was not my gaming group, but pretty sure that the gameplay does not have enough legs to come back to the gaming table.

Maybe I'm biased since I love the show, but my other board gaming buddies who've never watched the show also really look forward to playing it. It's exciting since stuff is always happening and it's fast (under two hrs for a game easy... usually much faster since we're still trying to figure out how to stop plots). And the introduction of a "Political Opportunist" is so cool. While similar to the Terrorist loyalty (like the traitor in Shadows Over Camelot and the Betrayer in Dead of Winter), the Opportunist only wants some plots successful to get more clout. But they also want to stop bigger plots so the nation isn't destroyed. And then there's the Allies you recruit (characters from the show) that have abilities, which are cool.I love big, drawn out games with beautiful artwork and lots of figures like the LOTR & Star Wars games (Hunt for the Ring, War of the Ring, Imperial Assault, Rebellion, etc.)... but this is a refreshingly fast game that has cool cards with plenty of mystery and intrigue and distrust just like the show & the subject matter overall.

The going prices for this game are out of this world. I really appreciate that most of the components (including the board) are really big and chunky compared to most other games. So many games have tiny little cubes and chits that are hard to manipulate for full-sized men, but for the most part, that's not a problem in this game. The one component that does feel quite small and difficult to handle are the small intel and case lead cards, because they need to fit over part of the standard cards. But really, there doesn't seem to be any way around that when considering the design of the game.The gameplay is extremely fun. It doesn't require any knowledge of the show whatsoever to understand. Sure, there will be characters from the show referenced in the artwork and card titles, but the effects on gameplay are all generic in nature. A game I really enjoy is The Resistance, and I feel like this one is a really solid middle ground between smaller party games like that and the much meatier hidden role games like Battlestar Galactica. At the current price, you get a mountain of content which provides a lot of variety and unexpected outcomes. The randomly drawn intel cards do a good job of hiding everyone's true intentions.

I really don't know why this game doesn't get more love. Not to hard to learn, more depth than you initially think, and the price is ridiculously low. And, YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE SHOW. Maybe that's what has kept it from gaining more recognition. Anyway, we are very happy we picked this up so cheap. Quality components, easy to learn, rising tension as game goes on, easily worth the asking price. No disappointments here.

We need more adult games. Yes, you have to take the time to "learn the rules." once you invest the time, it's great. And if you love the homeland series, this will be a great game/discussion and group activity given the events in today's news.

I like this game but I don't know how often I will be able to get it to the table. I like how you have to balance your personal agenda against the goals of the group. I wonder if the game would be better if players were forced to keep their tokens hidden.

For that price this is an AMAZING deal. Game is not very popular or known but it is tons of fun and strategy. I'm actually surprised why it is not ranked higher on boardgamegeek. On top of that for that amount of money you can get some cheap party game maybe and this is a good, well made game.

Good game excellent components, great value

Is as described. Arrived in good time.

Excellent game, rather tense. Can’t believe the low cost.Highly recommended.

Love it