Escape From Colditz Board Game Review - Still Worth It?

0:00 Hello, welcome back to the board games 4K YouTube channel. And this is a channel where we give you reviews, playthroughs, unboxings, and we generally talk a load of products like tabletop gaming in general. And in this video, we're going to be talking about a venerable classic. We're going to be talking about Escape from Hold It in its coffin box, right? And in this game, you will be assuming the role of World War II PS trying to escape the castle of Culitz whilst trying to collect equipment, evade the guards, whilst trying to escape from Coldest Castle via all different manner of routes and tunnels and staff cars and over walls and all that sort of stuff. So, in this video, we're going to be giving you a very brief overview of the rules. We'll be telling you what we do like, what we don't like. Then we'll come back and we'll tell you whether or not Escape from Coldit is still worth playing. I think it's about 50 years since it was first released. So remember, if you're new here, then please consider subscribing to this channel. Leave a comment in the section down below. We'll see you after this.

1:20 board games 4K. So, Escape from Cold and you play this game. We're not going to give you a comprehensive rules tutorial here. We're just going to go over a few basics and basically give you a flavor on how to play this game. So, the first thing you're going to do is you're going to divide the players into various teams. Essentially, you're going to have the the escape officers, then you're going to have the security officers. Security officers are basically Germans. And then you can divide yourselves up into different nationalities. You've got the Dutch, you got the Polish, the British, the Americans, Belgians, all sorts of different nationalities that are trying to escape from Cold Castle. And what you're going to do, you're going to basically look at the back of the rule book and that will tell you how to arrange your PSWs in the center of the inner courtyard. So, look at the board.

2:09 You're going to see that you got the inner courtyard, you've got the rooms around the outside of the inner courtyard, you've got the outer courtyard, and then you've got the areas beyond the walls, right? So, this game is basically a roll and move game. What you're going to do, you're going to take the two dice, you're going to roll the dice on your turn, and then you're going to move that number of spaces, and you can divide up the movement points between all of your PIW. So, you might be able to move one one space, another one two spaces. You get the idea, right? If you roll a double, you get to roll again. And on a roll of a free 7 or 11, you will get to take an opportunity card. And these opportunity cards will give you some sort of random benefit. You may be able to get a move fast card that will allow you to fast track to move to one of the rooms. You might get part of an escape kit. And in order to escape, each escape must have a complete escape kit, right? You might get a key card through an opportunity card. You might be able to get a rope card, which will allow you to scale walls. You can get a diversion card which says that this card allows an escaper to divert one chosen sentry by having him return to the barracks in the common dantur and that is the German barracks that are sort of outside of the main board. So likewise on the German turn you will be rolling the dice. You'll be moving your German guards that number of spaces. And if you roll a three, seven or 11, you'll be able to take a security card and you might get the appel roll cord which means all PS will have to be lined up in the center of the courtyard as detailed in the opening diagram at the back of the rule book. You might get a shoot to

3:40 kill card. This card allows a security officer to fire on any prisoner on the run outside the castle walls. won't you may be able to get arrest cards which allow you to arrest maybe a key holder or you might be able to arrest a passholder and all that sort of stuff. So there's all sorts of different security cards that will benefit the German player. Yeah. So if you look at the board, you'll see that there's different features on the board. You've got the walls which have got a 30 or 60. And what this refers to is the amount of rope cards that you'll need to scale the wall. So if you're trying to scale a 30ft wall, you're going to need one rope card. If you're trying to scale a 60 ft wall, you're going to need two rope cars, right? If you're trying to move through a space with a key or a pass, you're going to need a key or a pass. Funny old thing, isn't it? And if you want to get through the bar wire, then you're going to have to have a pair of wire cars, right? Guards cannot make arrests in in any of the room spaces around the outside of the inner courtyard. But you if you move into a space where there's a P, then you can make an arrest and they will be sent to the cells of solitary confinement whereby they either have to play a card that will get them out of the cells or they'll have to roll a double to get out. You know what I mean? It's also the German player will be able to freely move their pawns to and from the German barracks if they want to. That will take one of your movement points, but German officers cannot block entrances to rooms or tunnels or all that sort of thing.

4:58 You know what I mean? So you'll also see that there are different icons on different rooms, right? You might have the wire cutters, you got a rope or you got a civilian escape kit and all different types of equipment, right? And what you're going to do, you're going to either have two of your pawns in one room or one pawn in each room. And that will allow you to acquire that equipment will aid your escape. And once you've taken the equipment card, then you will basically go back to the center of the courtyard. And that will sort of stop people from maybe just moving one space forward, one space back. You know what I mean? So, there's also the staff car means of escape and what this does if you reach the staff car space. This will allow you to play your staff car pass and this will mean that you won't need a pass to get out of the main gate, right? There's also tunnel cards. Tunnels can only be occupied if you've got a tunnel card, right? And you got to remember that German officers cannot make arrests inside tunnels. So, the last room we're going to talk about with regards to the rules is the do or die cards. Towards the end of the game, escape officers have the option of drawing a do or die card. And this will allow you to make a daring escape. What basically what a card does, it just gives you a maximum amount of dice rolls that you've got to make an escape. So these range from three to seven. Obviously if you take a free dual die card, you're basically stuffed. But if you get a seven, you're going to give yourself a good opportunity to get out of castle. And if you fail, then everybody loses the game.

6:16 So this is sort of a maybe a mechanism of ending the the game. Not early, but stopping it from going on for too long. You know what I mean? So you'll keep doing this. You will keep acquiring equipment. You'll keep trying to make escape attempts. And the escape officer who successfully manages to get two escapees out of Cold will be the winner of Escape from Cold. So what do we like about Escape from Cold? So the first thing that we really like about this game is the theme. It is saturated with theme. It successfully brings across that sort of World War II vibe. You know, this reminds us of that movie Where Eagles Dare where they're still in a castle when you they're inside the castle, you know what I mean? Okay, you're trying to get out and they're trying to get in, right? But it's got that really good vibe. The way the castle is divided up into different areas, you know, it makes us think that maybe like Ignasi Trevor maybe took inspiration from this game when he was designing Stronghold, you know, cuz the maps do look pretty similar. So, the theme comes across really, really well in this one. So the second thing we really like about escape and cold is that it's really really exciting sort of plotting your escape against one other player and this was probably one of the first one versus all types of games and the fact that this was made sort of nearly 50 years ago I think it was maybe older than that I don't know but something to be said for acquiring all these different bits of equipment moving your PS to different areas trying to get the German player to fia you when really you're just going to sort of divert and

7:48 go off over the wall instead of maybe cut through the wire, you know, so you can lay these sort of traps for the German player. And we really really like that about this game is the fact there's quite a little bit of bluffing in this. And there's also a little bit of buttering because the rules do say that you can auction off or you know sort of sell or gift your equipment cards to other PW. So that's that's really good as well. So the third thing that we really like about escape and cers is the amount of backstory that is included in the rule book. Goes into quite a bit of detail about the history behind the escapes from this castle. It's got some wonderful original pictures of the actual building itself. And the game looks like it was really well searched back in the day. And it goes into quite a lot of detail about how difficult it was for these people to be imprisoned in this castle. So, uh, yeah, we really do like the fact that they have included a lot of extra information to sort of anchor the theme down and to make you think about what it was actually sort of like to be imprisoned in this place. So, the final thing that we really like about Bascape from Cold is the fact this game scales really well between two and six players. It works well with two because you're going to be playing with more PS and less German guards. But when you're playing with six players, you're going to be playing with less PS and more German guys. So, it really really scales well.

9:13 It probably plays best at a higher player count, you know, but we we played the two-player. We've played it through all player counts. I don't think we played with five, but we played it with six. And it works really well because there's a different amount of pieces for each team, right? So, yeah, the game scales really well if that's what you're looking for. or if you're looking for maybe a two-player game or maybe a game that accommodates more players, don't be afraid to grab hold of this one because it works. So, what don't we like about Escape from Coldit? So, the first thing we don't like about this, and yes, you know, you know what it is, don't you? It's roll and move. Not only have you got a random chance of getting to where you want to get to in time, but you got a random chance of maybe getting out of jail because you got to roll a double to get out of a cell or you could be stuck in there for ages. But the main thing is that you only acquire opportunity or security cards on a roll of 3, 7, 11, right? Why?

10:09 Why? It's an arbitrary thing. It doesn't make any sense. I mean, if you don't roll any of them numbers, chances are you probably will because obviously, you know, the bell curve will suggest you're going to roll seven quite a lot. But if you don't, you know, you've all played kenn we know that sometimes you ain't going to be rolling those numbers. So, you're going to be stuck. You ain't going to get them wild cards. You ain't going to get enough rope to get you over the water. Just going to be wandering around scratching your nuts thinking, "What is this game doing to my head?" So, the second thing that we don't like about this game is if you're the German player, there's not really much for you to do, is there? I mean, like, aside from waiting around for a security card that's going to maybe help you break the game here, I've played this on numerous occasions as the security officer. You might roll a six and then you'll just be, well, I want to keep my men in place, but I got to move them. So, I'm going to be like 1 2 3 4 5 6. And then you you roll another three and then you're just going to be thinking, well, what am I going to why do I want to move my pieces? They're in in position. So you might spend a lot of the game just sitting there doing absolutely nothing, not knowing what to do, just moving your pieces for the sake of it. And that sucks. So the third thing that we don't like about Escape from Cold is that strangely there's no win conditions for the Germans. Right. It does say it says it says in a rule, but for new players we suggest a time limit of 2 and 1 half hours. 2 and 1/2 hours for this. You're having a laugh. It says, "With experience, players will set their own targets to suit the time available and the number playing. All players must agree a success formula before the game starts." It's basically telling you to

11:39 make it up. What a load of crap. I mean, how can you have a game where you don't know how you're going to win? You got to decide beforehand how you're going to win the game. I mean, that's insane, right? That's insane. And that is one of the major downs of this game is that any game that asks you to create the rules yourself under the guise of a tool kit, you know, that sort of thing. No, no, we ain't having that. We ain't having that. So, the final thing that we don't like about Escape from Coldest is the gameplay can be very frustrating. There's a case of one of them games where you're building yourself up, gathering all them cards that you need, just about to make your escape attempt, and then the German player will throw a card down on the table, go, "Aha, look at that. You were going to try and escape with a staff pass, and now I've played the card that basically send you to prison for trying to do it." Right?

12:28 And there's no the thing is there's no way of gathering any kind of information on what other players hold in their hands. And that's a real real problem because there's no sort of skill in judging what escape attempt is the best to make. It's really just a matter of having a go and if it fails, you have to start again. And those sorts of games are very, very, very, very frustrating. So to summarize, is Escape from Cordits still worth playing lots of years after it was first released? And we are going to say probably not. I mean, we we've owned this for decades.

13:13 Yeah. And I enjoyed it as a kid. I really really did. This was one of my favorite games back in the 70s and ' 80s, you know, and we we really did enjoy it. I mean, I remember playing this through the summer holidays when I was a kid playing it and and really looking forward to sort of getting up in the morning and and ripping this one out of the box, you know. But as time's gone on, you know, with all these games that we've got here, escape from Coldics, it basically just a luckbased mess. At the end of the day, the theme almost successfully masks the fact that this is a random luck fest. I mean, it almost pulls it off. It almost makes you think that there's actually a a sort of a a a game under here. But essentially what it is, it's basically just rolling some dice, taking that number, and then doing something with the numbers. And the die rolls dictate whether or not you are going to be able to win this game, cuz there's not really that many choices to be made in this one. So, we're going to give Escape from Cordets two out of five. We like playing this for nostalgia value, but at the end of the day, this game is a bit of a chore to play, you know. So, there you go. That's Escape from Coldest. Remember, if you're new, please consider subscribing to this channel. Leave a comment in the section down below. We'll see you next time.