Take a turn at On Her Majesty’s Service

On Her Majesty’s Service is one of the best looking board games I have seen. Cool Mini or Not has truly out done themselves with this bad boy. Not only are you drawn in by the elegant, majestic and new feel in this  steampunk world but the game is surprisingly delightful as well. The story feels dark and little gloomy without actually being dark, the MODELS are superb and the game is good at all quantities of players. All of this makes this game a must have in your collection. Now the story is that the fairy court is sort of … invading London. You and a few others selected by the queen are to go into the Shadow Market to retrieve some artifacts. No easy task… but it has a certain spin to it. Then exit the shadow market with all of the artifacts. If your friends are hesitant to play don’t worry they will come around once you show it to them. I mean come on get it in gear, its only a 60 minute game for 1-4 players and it recommends 14 or up in age group. ( Probably more due to the story verses the complexity of the game. Its rather easy to grasp.)

I am harping on the look so let’s continue on to that… By taking a look in the Box.

Its just sooooooooo good! Okay, so even the BOARD its cool looking. Its a little busy in the good way!

The board has 12 holes in it… 8 in the center and 4 on the outer ring. Now they have two sets of gears. 8 smaller ones and 4 larger ones. These are numbered and lettered and tell you how to place them inside the board. Its like the perfect match, SMART AND PRETTY!

If you take a good look at this board you see a few items next to the larger gears… These are the artifacts that I mentioned earlier.

There are 3 other types of cards in the game of a similar size.

The top left cards are the ethers that you need as well as all 4 artifacts for you to win. The top right cards are your exit. Each player will get a different combo. The last set are action cards that you can get through the game and are able to play once whenever as long as you have, but not expend, the components at the bottom. (Easy Peasy the beauty of this game makes me wheezy… I know its cheesy. )

Lets get a little closer and look at the minis!!!!

We have four Heroes… Yeah, thats what they are HEROES. Just for the fun of it lets call them spies lol.

WARNING: LARGE PICTURES FOLLOWING SO THE AWESOMENESS THAT ARE THESE MODELS HAVE TO BE APPRECIATED!

We have the walking talking and apparently sneaky fox names very originally Master fox!

We have the winged bad ass and token female, kind of a steampunk Tinkerbell, named Parvin Khan.

Now here we have the masked Sherlock Holmes… I mean, Sir Daniel Home. He is a medium of great skill.

Last and not least is the scottish soldier John Brown! Oddly enough on a brown crank…look at that face, now that is a face we all can’t help but love.

That is the good guys…

These are the shadow market agents! They have abilities, unlike our … mighty?… heroes!!!!

• The Doctor… Block, no one can buy or sell anything from a gear if he is there.
• The Witch… If you start your turn on a gear with her you get one less action. She is draining to be around.
• The Lost Boy… The gear he is on can’t be turned.
• The Dandy… He is a bit thefty and takes a coin at the beginning of your turn if you are on his gear.
• The Gate Keeper… Looking for his key master and … If you are on his gear you can spend an action to teleport to any gear.
• The Merchant… If you buy from the gear he is on you buy for one less, if you sell here you get one more coin.

Last but not least … The Shadow Master!  Now that we got my gushing out of the way we can move on to the game.

 

You first set up the board as I showed you earlier. Once that is done place all four artifact on their designated spot. Next shuffle the shadow market agents and pick four … those will go in the spots on the very outer ring of the board, like this.

Next everyone chooses their character and a side of the table. Once they have chosen add the color ethers to their character card based on their side of the board. Also draw an exit card and a key card. These are secret and shouldn’t be shown to your friends.

Give each player two hourglass markers to place  on the board. Usually these are placed in spots to hinder your fellow players.

Here are a closer look at the hourglass pieces.

also give each player two coins.

Once that is done you are ready to play.

How do you play you ask…

Well its easy, each player gets three actions to do as they wish.

Now this is what it looks like when you pay the shadow master.  Whoever has the most pay to the Shadow Master controls him.
  Now when you are in control of the shadow master you have to give him your pay ( beginning of each round you get one coin ) but once you hit five coins, you remove all the coins to the bank and it gives other players a chance to steal him.

Speaking of the shadow master… When you have control of him you control the shadow agents as well… Heres what you can do.

This game is something you have to at least try. I fully believe its worth it!

Thank you all for reading and as always, suggestions and comments are always welcome.

Have a game you want me to show? Let me know.

-WarBird signing off.
Check out the game on amazon! On Her Majesty’s Service .