This War of Mine: The Board Game

The game setup begins by following the rulebook's chapter guide to draw a chapter event card, setting up the chapter goals and final objectives. Players receive three random characters: Bruno the TV cook, Katya the journalist, and Marko the firefighter. Game boards are arranged with initial resource tokens, debris, locked doors, and various decks including events, fate cards, exploratory deck, and scavenging decks placed strategically around the playing area.

The main objective of This War of Mine is to survive a brutal civilian siege over three chapters. Players must keep at least one starting character alive, manage their hunger levels down to zero by the end of each chapter, and overcome harsh winter conditions by constructing essential survival items.

Each game round is structured chronologically. It starts with the Morning phase where players draw and resolve event cards such as food shortages or cold updates. Next is the Daytime phase where characters spend actions to clear debris, unlock doors, scavenge for items, and build crafting structures. This is followed by the Evening phase where characters sleep to reduce exhaustion, and the Night phase where scavengers explore external locations while guards protect the shelter from raids.

Success is measured by fulfilling specific chapter criteria, such as maintaining low hunger levels, successfully defending the shelter, and keeping morale high. Failure to feed characters or guard properly incurs heavy penalties like increased sadness, injury, or loss of vital resources.

The campaign concludes successfully after three successfully completed chapters and surviving the final scenario goal. The game ends in defeat if all characters succumb to starvation, injury, extreme sadness, or if the shelter is completely overrun during night raids.