Banish the Snakes Review

Banish the Snakes is the perfect game to play on St. Patricks Day. In it, you'll be wearing his shoes or one of his followers in an attempt to free Ireland of the pagans and convert them to Christianity. This is a mostly cooperative game but it can be played solo with the same ruleset. On your turn, you'll resolve an event card by flipping the card and doing what it says from the arrow on the previous event card. Then you'll do your actions. Each player has 4 actions. The ones you'll do the most is converting and preparing. When you prepare, you're committing action points to increase your die values. In order to convert, you must roll a number that is higher than the level needed. You'll then flip the block to its Christian side. If you roll lower, you fail to convert and lose one zeal (health). There is a hierarchy to this and you must first convert the Druid before you can do anything. You can also spend actions to build or upgrade a church or move to new regions. You also can give cards to other players and convert graves to relics if a saint dies. These help to increase the value of regions making it easier to convert. Play continues like this until an end game condition is met. If all pagans are converted, you'll automatically win but if you meet any of the other conditions, you'll need to take score and that can go either way.

The Good: This is my dream for a solo game. It's incredibly tense throughout and every action feels important. Because you can essentially die from failing to convert enough times, you must be willing to concede actions to prepare. Thankfully, once you build and upgrade churches it gets easier and some cards will give you positive effects on the dice rolls. I visibly emoted when I converted something difficult which I rarely do. For my one game I spent most of it being 2 points from death just trying my best to stay afloat. It was great.

The Okay: It almost feels like there are too many event cards. An end game condition is for that deck to deplete and I felt like I never got anywhere close to it. With more players cycling through it is probably easier to do but this feels like a game where 1-2 players is the right amount before it gets too easy almost. I've managed to win most games and I think if you add in 3+ it'll take a lot of the challenge away.

The Not So Good: The hierarchy of blocks is a huge component to the game. It's also the hardest part to follow and understand. There are charts but few examples of how to read it. I wish it was a bit simpler to follow because there were times I was a little confused. Especially when you get higher up on the chart with leaders and kings. For obvious reasons, the theme may not be for everyone but it's based on history and the viewpoints of the time.

Final Thoughts: Banish the Snakes is an excellent solo/cooperative game. There is a lot of really interesting choices during your turn and it often doesn't feel like a waste of a turn. It's tense throughout and it can be played in a fairly short amount of time which is not something that can always be said for GMT's games. Ultimately if you're in the market for a new solo experience I can wholeheartedly recommend this game.

Thanks to GMT Games for providing a review copy.