With cannons that actually fired and castles that exploded this game was amazing! Just good luck finding all the cannonballs when you’re done playing.
Weapons & Warriors was (and is) one of the best dexterity games out there. Is it balanced? No, of course not. Are the weapons accurate? You wish. But will you get overly giddy while you live out your dreams of besieging a castle? You know it! Since every good 90’s toy fired discs or balls anyway, Milton Bradley decided to turn that into a full game.
Weapons & Warriors is not a difficult game to understand. Both sides get rubberband-powered cannons, catapults, ballistas, and the like and attempt to hit their opponents pieces. Each turn, you’d roll the dice and advance your units that many spaces on the path between the armies. You could only move your siege weapons as far forward as your foremost infantry, so advancing made it easier to hit your opponent. And choosing to shoot at their infantry or, at their siege weapons, or the castle added a half-decent amount of decision making.
The castle, and each defense shield was essentially rigged to explode with the rubber bands. When they were hit in the right spot, they would either burst open, fly apart, or fling the hapless individuals sat upon them in whichever way physics deemed best.
It’s ACTION!
But in order to make the set pieces explode, you needed to shoot at them! And Weapons & Warriors had tons of options in that department. The base game came with a pair of catapults, a mighty crossbow (it’s just a ballista), and a cannon. But there was also plenty of expansions which added even more, like cavalry, a trebuchet, or even pirate ships and treasure!
If you called this a toy, I’d shrug, then agree with you. If you called it a board game, I’d sigh, then agree with you. If you called this a miniatures wargame, I’d roll my eyes and then agree with you. It sits in that weird vague space with the likes of Mouse Trap and Bop It.
Whatever you want to call it, I think it is safe to say that Weapons & Warriors is an utterly fantastic piece of gaming nostalgia.
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
