Valkyrie – A Black Orchestra Game

Game summary

👥 A game for 1 to 4 players
⏳ Play time is around 30 minutes
🏢 Publisher is Tycoon Games

Introduction

In Valkyrie – A Black Orchestra Games you focus on assassinating Hitler with explosives, completing Operation Valkyrie with the Gestapo always close at hand to pull you in for questioning. Stay one step ahead of the Gestapo and defeat Hitler before they collect enough evidence to have you tried for treason and executed.

Let’s get it on the table

Place the board in the middle of the tabel and place the dice and file tokens nearby the board.
Each player receives a conspirator board and place the remaining board back in de box. Place the matching player pawns on the Bendlerblock location in Berlin. Place reroll tokens on the conspirator board, 1 token for hard, 2 tokens for Standard, 3 tokens for Easy. But when you play with 1 or 2 players, you can place one additional token.

Place the 7 location tiles on their locations, with the A-side up. Place Hitler on Berghof, Himmler on Wolfsschanze and Goebbels on Wilhelmstrasse.

Shuffle the item tiles and place 6 facedown tiles in each item crate on the board. Shuffle the Ally tiles and reveal the first 4, placing them in the recruitment area. After that you shuffle the interrogation deck and place it by it’s slot.

Let’s play

Valkyrie is played over a serie of turns until the end of the game end. On your turn, you will complete two step:

1. Resolve an interrogation if there is at least one of the 3 enemies in your location
2. Roll 3 dice, You may keep the results or spend a reroll token. If you do, you must roll all 3 dice again.
   • each die may indicate one of three results and resolved in this order
     • Eagle; draw and resolve an interrogation card
     • Target; if there are 3 dice, remove them and place on of the available Ally tiles in any open Ally space on the board. Any additional targets rolled may then be placed on the track, instead of placing a die on the track, you may also switch the die to an arrow
     • Arrow; take 1 action for each arrow rolled

Reroll tokens
These tokens may be used only during the action roll, they may not be used to reroll an interrogation card or during a plot. All dice must be rerolled!

Arrow actions:
These actions may be taken in any order and may be taken multiple times, one per arrow rolled.

Move; move your pawn to an adjacent location, locations in Berlin are all adjacent to each other.
Search; pick up the stack and search through the whole deck, everyone can see the tiles in this stack. Shuffle it when you’re done and place it back.
Collect; take a random item tile from the stack and place it on your conspirator board
Share; give or take a single item tile to or from a co-conspirator in your location
Utilize; use the action of an Ally in your location, the Ally that you can use has a white arrow on it
Initiate; carry out a plot against Hitler

What are interrogation cards?
Each time you start your turn with an enemy on the same location, and for each eagle that you’ve rolled, you draw an interrogation card and resolve it.

Draw the top card from the deck and read it silently, you must choose one of the 3 options on the card without saying these options to the other player(s).
Option A or B would resolve in mostly all the times in negative results, but you can also choose for option C. Option C allows you to roll a die but you also risk by having to resolve both actions.

Items
Finding items in the game will be crucial to succes, each location requires the matching item to carry out the plot. Items with a target can be used during a plot, explosives must have a detonator under them and count like one item. Items with the lightning symbol can be used once and doesn’t count as an action, after using they are discarded.

Carry out a plot
to carry out a plot, for one action, follow these steps.

1. you must be in the same target as Hitler and with the required access item
2. discard the access item and other items that you want to use during this plot. Set aside the dice you will use indicated on the items or Allies. No dice are available by default so you have to built your pool with items and Allies, you can use any item/ items that you want to use. Allies are not discarded, unless the plot fails in their location.
3. Save the total number of hits rolled
4. Roll one die for each for Himmler and Goebbels, unless neutralized by an Ally. Substract 1 hit die from your total for each hit and eagle rolled this way

The total hits remaining has to be equal to or greater than the quantity shown on the location to be succesfull and win the game!

If you don’t meet the required total, the plot ends in failure. Remove all the ally tiles at this location, add a file token on the Gestapo track until the next locked space if filled and immediately draw and resolve an interrogation card. When the Gestapo track has filled the current difficulty level or when there are no interrogation cards left to draw, you lose the game

Final Conclusion & rating

Weight: 2.00/ 5
Replayability: 7
Our rating: 7,5 out of 10 dices

Operation Valkyrie is known as one of the most famous acts of resistance within Germany during the Second World War. The operation was originally a German army emergency plan meant to maintain order during internal uprisings. A group of officers adapted this plan to remove Hitler from power and take control themselves.

In Valkyrie, your goal is to work together with the other players to carry out an assassination attempt on Hitler and make it succeed. If you manage to pull it off, you win the game.

When you first look at the board, it seems easy, but appearances are deceiving. To execute a plot at a location, you must first have the correct access item and enough dice. This already makes things more challenging, and some locations even require 4 or 5 hits to succeed. Luckily, you can also use Allies to support you during the game.

Collecting items is a really fun part of the game. You can spend an action to search through an item stack, but you’re not allowed to take anything while searching. After looking, the stack is shuffled again. Taking an item costs a separate action point.

Sometimes the game feels like a race chasing Hitler, but you can also approach it as a tactical puzzle, trying to maneuver him to a location that works in your favor. It can be a bit luck dependent, yet the chase becomes more exciting because of it.

If you start your turn on the same location as one of the villains, you draw an interrogation card. These cards offer two choices, and neither of them is pleasant. You may pick one option or you can roll a die. If you roll a white arrow, you avoid both actions. If you roll one of the other two results, you must perform both actions. That last outcome is something you really want to avoid, but sometimes you just have to take the risk.

The game contains a lot of luck: which items you draw, what you roll, and where you might be able to land a successful hit. For some players this may be a downside, but we think it’s part of the charm. You never truly know if your plot will succeed or if you’ll manage to change history. The artwork looks great, the components are fine, nothing too special, and overall comparable to Black Orchestra. If you’ve played that game, you’ll definitely recognize many similarities.

We think it’s a fun game, but we do fear that after several plays it may become a bit less exciting in terms of replayability. Still, for fans of this genre, this is absolutely one you should try and one that deserves a spot in your game collection.

Thanks to Tycoon Games for this review copy and the opportunity to write about it.