Votes for Women Review

Votes for Women is a historical retelling of the women's suffragette movement from 1848-1920. Each player controls one side of the issue. The suffragists who are trying to earn the right to vote and the opposition who wants to keep things as is. Each round begins with players drawing a hand of 7 cards and then the suffragists have an opportunity to attempt to bid on a special strategy cards by spending buttons which act as currency. However, the opposition being in control has the opportunity to match the bid to cancel the card or they can outbid and use it for themselves. Then, beginning with the suffragists, each player will play cards from their hands for 6 turns. Cards can allow you to place cubes on the map which symbolizes the states opinions. You can only have one type of cube per state so any that would allow you to add to a state with the other players cubes will force you to remove them until you can add your own. Cards can also be played for campaigning where you'll roll dice and add cubes based on where your lobbyists are on the map. They can also be played to simply gain buttons. Their most significant alternate use however is to attempt to lobby where if you roll a 6, you can add or remove a pillar from congress. This is arguably the most imporant action of the game. When all 6 pillars have been added, this will trigger the endgame. Each state that has 4 cubes on it will replace them with a checkmark for the suffragists or an X for the opposition. There is one final round to reach 36 checkmarks or 13 X's. If neither player makes it, then it's up to final voting. A die is rolled for each state and cubes are added to the value. The highest will place their token. Whenever a player reaches their total amount, they will win and the Nineteenth Amendment will pass or fail.

The Good: This is a cleverly disguised area control game. The overall cardplay may be some of the best that I have seen. Having multiple actions of varying capabilities makes for some really tight turns. While it's an uphill battle for the suffragists, it does not feel impossible to win (they won in real life, right?). The timing of getting that final pillar for Congress is huge. If it's too soon, you could find yourself way short on votes and leaving it to that final vote is purely luck but if it's too late you may hand the other player a victory. It's a wonderful balancing act. Something that Fort Circle does that I absolutely love is that they include historical reference materials in the box. Reading through them sheds a unique light on the movement that I did not know about.

The Okay: At times, the map can feel a little bit small. It's difficult to have each state be the same size and they had the foresight to use circles for some states but there were plenty that it felt tight to fit all of the cubes around. I also at times got confused when I needed to place a lot of cubes in one region. The states are numbered in the region and that's how you should add them so you can systematically place the cubes but not all events started at 1.

Final Thoughts: Votes for Women is to be frank, incredible. If I'm being honest, the game has been sitting on the shelf for longer than it should have because I wasn't sure the theme would be something that would grab me but after the first true turn you'll see the potential of the game and as it goes, it just gets better. Once votes are counted it becomes one of the coolest phases of a game that I've played in a long time. Watching as checkmarks get added across the country and hoping that the X's don't accumulate in time is like watching an election play out. Only instead of it taking hours, it takes minutes. It does feel a little strange to actively play on the side against women's voting rights but it's just a game. I genuinely cannot say enough how much I enjoyed Votes for Women.

Thanks to Fort Circle Games for providing a review copy.