Red November

 Red November was one of the first board games that interested me but I had some real problems getting hold of it.  Finally I managed to get a copy and have got it on the table enough to feel happy writing about it.

When I first tried to buy it I brought it off Amazon and it never arrived.  I contacted the seller and was refunded but there were no more copies in stock.  For months I kept looking for a copy but everywhere was sold out, or internationally based so shipping was way too high.  When I finally saw a copy for sale that I could get shipped I snapped it up.

So what is the game?  In Red November you are a group of Soviet Gnomes on a nuclear submarine that is in real trouble and you have to try and survive for one hour in order to be rescued.  Problem is not only is oxygen running out, pressure building and nuclear reactors heating but fires are starting, the ship is leaking and somewhere out there is a Kraken hoping to make to make your sub it's "special friend".

Can you keep it in tacked for an hour until you are rescued or will the ship go down? If it does all go Pete Tong will you abandon your comrades and try to make it on your own?

How Does It Work?
Red November is a cooperative game where each player controls a gnome aboard the submarine.  It plays up to 8 players.  The players will work together to try and keep a number of disasters under control until the time is up, but longer you spend more disasters spring up.

The board is split into rooms all separated by hatchways.  Some of the room have icons on them showing special actions that can be taken in those rooms, like stopping a missile launch or reducing the reactor heat.  The three tracks on the board show the current oxygen, heat and pressure levels.  If any of them reach the end the game is over and the players lose.

Around the outside is the time track.  Everything the players do moves them along the time track depending on the amount of time they spend.  Moving, opening doors or performing actions all take time.  When you perform an action you choose how much time you want to spend doing that action, that is how many spaces along the time track you move.  To work out if your action was successful you need to roll a 10 sided die and get the same or less than the number of minutes you spent.  You could spend 8 or 9 minutes for a good chance of success or risk it and only spend 3 or 4 minutes.  There are a number of item cards that players can get, these will give bonuses to these action so less time needs to be spent trying to complete them.

As players markers pass the stars on the time track they flip a new disaster card.  This makes balancing how long you spend on actions important, too long and you will flip more disaster cards for the next players to deal with.  The disaster cards can start fires or floods in rooms which need to be cleared before other actions can be taken, increase the track or start timed events.  Timed events are put 10 minutes ahead of the current player on the time track and have to be dealt with before every player has past that point, fail and you lose.

One item players can use is grog, because who doesn't need a drink when your submarine is starting to leak.  Drinking grog can give bonuses to actions and also make your gnome brave enough to go into a room that is on fire in order to put it out.  It has its downsides though, if you drink there is a chance you will pass out drunk.  If you do pass out you lose 10 minutes of time without completing any actions but still flipping disaster cards.  More you drink, greater chance you will pass out when you do.  You could always drink a coffee to sober yourself up.

If things are going badly in the last 10 minutes you can attempt to go it alone.  A gnome can try to escape the sub and swim for the surface, providing they have an aqualung.  If they do they don't get to take any more part in the game, they also no longer win as part of the team.  If the team lose and all die, the escaped player is the solo survivor and wins alone.  If the team win, the gnome at escaped is a deserter and loses by themselves.

My Thoughts
I really like the action point system in this game.  Being able to choose how long you spend trying to do something in order to give yourself a better chance is really cool especially when you have to balance that against the risk of too much bad stuff happening for your comrades.

It is a pretty simple game once your get the hang of the basics so can be taught to new players fairly quickly.  It is also a good length, this isn't a deep game and not very heavy so if it lasted too long it could overstay it's welcome but at about an hour depending on the number of player it feels about right.  It is still a challenge despite being simple mechanically.  That doesn't mean it is too hard for new players but the random event cards can really throw a wrench in the reactor at just the wrong time.

The game has a good sense of humor which I think fits the feel of the game well.  Even when people pass out drunk and cause so many bad things to happen it loses the game it still feels funny rather than annoying.

I really like the idea of betraying your team at the last minute if things are going badly.  We have never had someone pull it off in our games yet, we have either lost by then or are doing well enough no-one has risked it, but I think it adds a nice choice where unlike most possible traitor co-ops players choose to be the traitor not just dealt a card telling them they are.

Red November is a solid game that has gone over really well with my group.  It make quite a refreshing co-op with doesn't take itself too seriously and is alot less stressful then others we play like Flashpoint, Pandemic or Eldritch Horror.  It will certainly be a game I carry on enjoying and getting to the table when I can.