SPECTRE: The Board Game (Spring 2022)

Red_SnowRed_Snow Australia
in News Posts: 2,494
SPECTRE-The-Board-Game.jpg

Modiphius Entertainment invites aspiring villains to compete to become Number 1 of the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion (otherwise known as SPECTRE) in the upcoming board game of the same name. Prevent 007 from foiling your plans as you battle for control of Intel, Secret Plans, and, of course, gold.

In SPECTRE: The Board Game, which launches in the Spring 2022, players take on the role of one of the many iconic villains from the James Bond film franchise, competing with each other to become SPECTRE’s Number One.

Are you simply in the game to acquire gold bullion, or are your aspirations more philosophical, safe in the knowledge that the world would be better off with you running it? Each villain has their own plot inspired by films such as Dr. No (1962) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971), driving them along the path to becoming SPECTRE’s Number One. No matter how hard you try, 007 is always there, waiting to disrupt your plans and reveal your secrets.

SPECTRE: The Board Game features iconic weapons, locations, and characters from the James Bond films. Players will be able to assemble devices, spy on their opponents, blackmail their rivals in order to build their own criminal empire, and strategically deploy their agents around the globe to infiltrate key installations. Players will need to work behind the scenes to develop their nefarious plots and become 007’s biggest threat!

Designed by Kaedama, a team of award-winning French game designers consisting of Antoine Bauza, Corentin Lebrat, Ludovic Maublanc, Théo Rivière and the Modiphius design team consisting of Stefano Guerriero, Javier Angeriz-Caburrasi and Juan Echenique, SPECTRE: The Board Game is designed for 2-4 players, ages 10 and above.

“The James Bond film franchise is beyond iconic,” said Chris Birch, co-founder at Modiphius Entertainment. “While most fans put themselves in the role of the hero, this game puts players in the shoes of Bond villains instead. If you haven’t met the villainous Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Rosa Klebb, and Raoul Silva before, the game will guide you through their exquisite evil expertise and how to employ them against 007.”

So grab your Persian cat, call your favorite henchman as you prepare your newest monologue — it’s time to get down to business and start building that moon base and world-destroying megalaser!

SPECTRE: The Board Game will be coming to retail in Spring 2022, with a pre-order available later this year!


SPECTRE-The-Board-Game-Preview.jpg

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Comments

  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,371
    Looks very expansive but interesting, I wonder how convoluted it might be after looking at that board.
  • Posts: 14,799
    I love board games. I don't have much time or opportunities to play them sadly, apart at Christmas. I'd love to play that one just once.
  • Posts: 6,682
    Looks complicated but I'd love to play it. The board is so pleasing to the eye.
  • Posts: 615
    Groovy!
  • Posts: 14,799
    Why isn't it available for Christmas?
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 23,448
    Looks interesting. I might consider the purchase, except that I am not a boardgame guy.
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,050
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Why isn't it available for Christmas?

    Because everything James Bond related is getting delayed, for many reasons.
  • Posts: 12,506
    Certainly original! Looks fun! :D :-bd
  • Posts: 14,799
    MaxCasino wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Why isn't it available for Christmas?

    Because everything James Bond related is getting delayed, for many reasons.

    But surely Christmas would be the right time to release such product.
  • Red_SnowRed_Snow Australia
    Posts: 2,494
  • Posts: 14,799
    Is it out yet, is it out yet?
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,727
    I'm sure it only costs about £800 so quite reasonable for the average Bond fan out there.
  • Posts: 14,799
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    I'm sure it only costs about £800 so quite reasonable for the average Bond fan out there.

    Going to the bank right now to give my pound of flesh.

    On a side note, I found a James Bond Bingo in my local bookshop.
  • Red_SnowRed_Snow Australia
    Posts: 2,494
  • Red_SnowRed_Snow Australia
    edited June 2022 Posts: 2,494
    Copyof01_WhiteBackground_SPECTRE_RGB_150_dpi_500x.jpg


    SPECTRE: The Board Game is now available for pre-order with shipping expected for August 2022.

    UK: https://modiphius.us/products/spectre-the-board-game

    US: https://modiphius.net/products/spectre-the-board-game
  • Tokoloshe2Tokoloshe2 Northern Ireland
    Posts: 1,172
    Review here:

    https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2890337/initial-thoughts-after-2-sessions

    Not flattering, unfortunately, and it's hard to argue that it's vastly overpriced at £50. I'm a big board game fan but I'll give this a miss until it's in discount stores for a much lower price tag.
  • Posts: 14,799
    Tokoloshe2 wrote: »
    Review here:

    https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2890337/initial-thoughts-after-2-sessions

    Not flattering, unfortunately, and it's hard to argue that it's vastly overpriced at £50. I'm a big board game fan but I'll give this a miss until it's in discount stores for a much lower price tag.

    I love board games but the price is steep. And famous fiction doesn't necessarily adapt well into a board game or a role playing game.
  • ImpertinentGoonImpertinentGoon Everybody needs a hobby.
    Posts: 1,351
    That doesn't read very promising. I may get it as a novelty, but 60€ is indeed a big price for what seems to be an average game.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited July 2022 Posts: 17,727
    I don't really know the rules of the board game but I think it's interesting how the likes of Kristatos (and no doubt other unaffiliated Bond villains) are added in to SPECTRE's ranks. It reminds me of how in the Daily Express comic strip adaptation of Colonel Sun the villain worked for SPECTRE and not the Red Chinese as in the Amis novel. That change could have been a pllotical decision of course or maybe a desire to tie Bond's villains together more uniformly. The same could be said of the Bond films too where those villains who worked for SMERSH or the Soviets more generally in the 1950s novels (Colonel Rosa Klebb, Dr Julius No) were mostly changed to being SPECTRE agents in the films or else independent and self-employed (Mr Big, Hugo Drax, Goldfinger).
  • ImpertinentGoonImpertinentGoon Everybody needs a hobby.
    Posts: 1,351
    I think it's remarkable that they even put thought into how the villains connect to the SPECTRE organization in the films. The dev blog talks about how the player playing as Blofeld always starts out as "Number 1" (which apparently is part of a mechanic) and has access to more ressources than others, wheras Silva is more of an outsider who doesn't have as big a network, but can deceive other players in certain situations better then "boardroom members", because he isn't so closely tied to the organisation. It remains to be seen which other classically unaffilliated villains will be in this. Some of them will certainly stretch the imagination, but I would have expected just a random mash-up of villains, so I'm pleasently surprised that they seem to have put some thought into these.
    Just the fact that they have Donals Pleasance as Blofeld and not Christoph Waltz is already pretty good, in my book ^^

    Oh and reading through the material on the Modiphius page, I found a description of a funny little game mechanic:
    Apparently, each player has several "secret plans", which are player-only goals they have to secretly accomplish to gain points. It seems like there is a mechanic where players "cross paths with 007" and because they are Bond villains they can't help themselves and have to monologue about their secret plan to him. So they have to reveal their card to the other players, who of course now can more easily work against that and gives fewer points when done. That's a clever little wink, if it works as described.
  • edited August 2022 Posts: 110
    I posted this over in the Merchandise thread, but figure I'll post it here, too:

    I picked this up, as it was on sale here for $48 U.S. (the suggested retail price is $60 U.S.). It appears it is available for preorder from the publisher for those outside the U.S., and is listed as £50 GBP.

    I have yet to play a game of this with a full group, but I did a dummy two-player game solo to see how it worked. I will say the rules have various vague areas that are basically left up to interpretation of the players. But it does seem like it can still be fun.

    On the Bond fan side of things...there are no missions in the game from any Moore, Dalton, or Brosnan films. I assume this is because SPECTRE was really not featured in any of those films, but then it's very odd that Kristatos from FYEO is one of the playable villains - the other villains included are Silva, Blofeld (YOLT version), Rosa Klebb, and Largo. I think about half the mission cards in the game (8 or 9 of the 18, I believe) are from Daniel Craig's movies...and No Time to Die is not in the mission deck, either. So half of the possible missions you can play in a game of this are from CR, QoS, SF, and Spectre.

    Another kind of head-scratcher is that the box lists this as a game that can be played in 20-45 minutes. I have no idea how that would be possible. My dummy game took me almost 2 hours. Granted, it was the first time I "played" the game, but even so, you have to attempt to complete 7 missions in the game, and each mission/round has 7 steps to it. I would say this game is at least a 45-60 minute game, and will be longer if you are playing a full 4-player game.

    I need more time with this, and to do an actual playthrough, but my initial impressions are mixed on this one. I'm happy to see a Bond board game like this out there, but a few missteps may be holding it back. And I am also not sure how this game would really appeal to non-Bond fans, especially with it's relatively high price tag and confusing and somewhat incomplete rules.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,371
    My girlfriend nearly picked this up at Target the other day but looks a bit too complicated for such a price tag. Thanks for that in-depth review, @MrArlingtonBeach.
  • edited August 2022 Posts: 110
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    My girlfriend nearly picked this up at Target the other day but looks a bit too complicated for such a price tag. Thanks for that in-depth review, @MrArlingtonBeach.

    You're welcome!

    The interesting thing is that the game mechanics themselves are not all that confusing or challenging - at the heart of it, this is a simple, straightforward area control/worker placement game with some bidding/bluffing. The bigger issue is that the rule book leaves some pretty important details up in the air, and forces players to interpret and determine what they actually mean.

    For example, one of the mission failure penalties is "Name plaque abilities don't apply". This is left vague, in terms of how long the abilities don't apply. Is it just for one round? For the rest of the game? It's not made clear.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,371
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    My girlfriend nearly picked this up at Target the other day but looks a bit too complicated for such a price tag. Thanks for that in-depth review, @MrArlingtonBeach.

    You're welcome!

    The interesting thing is that the game mechanics themselves are not all that confusing or challenging - at the heart of it, this is a simple, straightforward area control/worker placement game with some bidding/bluffing. The bigger issue is that the rule book leaves some pretty important details up in the air, and forces players to interpret and determine what they actually mean.

    For example, one of the mission failure penalties is "Name plaque abilities don't apply". This is left vague, in terms of how long the abilities don't apply. Is it just for one round? For the rest of the game? It's not made clear.

    That is interesting, must look a bit more daunting than it actually is once you get down to it. The inconsistency in the rules and the amount of time it takes to finish a game that you mentioned sound like the only issues here.
  • edited August 2022 Posts: 110
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    That is interesting, must look a bit more daunting than it actually is once you get down to it. The inconsistency in the rules and the amount of time it takes to finish a game that you mentioned sound like the only issues here.

    In the first round of the first game you play, the process seems a bit much. But once you play successive rounds after that, it becomes very clear and you kind of move pretty efficiently and can come up with a plan on what to do. Still, each step does take a bit of consideration, and the bidding phase makes you really think. That's why I don't think you can get this one done in 20 minutes...you need some time to figure out how to plot and plan you turns.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,371
    And I'd imagine that adding more players into the mix would make one game last even longer.
  • Creasy47 wrote: »
    And I'd imagine that adding more players into the mix would make one game last even longer.

    Precisely. I later ran a 4-player dummy game, and it took less time to play than the 2-player game as I was familiar with the rules and mechanics.

    But it still took something like 75 minutes to play. And this was with just me, one person who was aware of every player's situation and secret plans, so I would have an idea of how each player should take their turn.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,371
    That's wild. I'm a fan of board games that I can play with just one other person so I may have to give this a go if the price drops in the future. Thanks again for the write-up! I'm glad someone got their hands on it to see how it plays.
  • Creasy47 wrote: »
    That's wild. I'm a fan of board games that I can play with just one other person so I may have to give this a go if the price drops in the future. Thanks again for the write-up! I'm glad someone got their hands on it to see how it plays.

    My pleasure! I am hoping to get a legit 4-player game of this together later this week. I can provide additional info after that play session, should anything else of interest come up. None of the others are as fanatical about Bond as I am, so it will be interesting to see how non-Bond fans enjoy the game.
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