1212 Las Navas de Tolosa Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review 1212 Las Navas de Tolosa, published by Draco Ideas. 1212 Las Navas de Tolosa is a card-driven two player war game that plays in about 45 minutes.

Admittedly, my knowledge of The Reconquista amounts to pretty much nothing; nevertheless, as a fan of card driven games, I was intrigued by this little package (and now I know a little more about the theme).

1212: Navas de Tolosa is a two player asymmetric tactical war game, playable in about forty-five minutes, that will pit the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Navarre against the forces of the Almohad Empire.

Each of the chits in this game are marked to coincide with a space on the board. The Muslim player will set up on one side of the board and the Christian player on the other side, placing three chits into each of the corresponding spaces.

The game uses just 9 cards (plus reference cards and optional special powers). At the start of the game, each player is dealt three cards. The cards will each have two numbers between 1-6, one number in red for the Christian side, and one in green for the Muslim side. The three remaining cards will remain face-down and are used to determine attack strength later in the game. To begin, each player will play one of their cards face-down to determine initiative. Once the cards have flipped, the side that played the card with the highest number in their color will take the initiative and begin the round. They will then choose one of their two remaining cards to play face-up to the table; this will determine available action points (APs) for the turn.

The two sides are asymmetric, and each player has reference cards explaining how many points each action will cost (which is not always the same for both sides). Once you have spent your AP moving, refreshing units, and/or attacking, your turn ends and play goes to your opponent who plays a card that will determine their APs for the turn. When a player attacks, they indicate attack type, which units are attacking, and which