In Resistance, you are either a Resistance Operative engaging in missions to destroy the empire, or an Imperial Spy trying to sabotage the efforts of the Resistance. Over the course of five missions, the first side to successfully pass or sabotage 3 missions wins. Depending on the number of people playing, you'll usually have two-thirds of the group on the Resistance Side and one third working for the Empire.
The Catch: it only takes one spy to sabotage an entire mission. Also, the Spies know each other, but the Resistance starts out blind to everyone's identity. Thus, the Resistance has to deduce the identities of the spies and pick the correct teams in order to win.
Each turn, the Mission Leader card is passed around, who is responsible for selecting a team of people to go on a mission. Who can you trust to send off on a mission? This is where your skills of persuasion (and maybe deception) come in. The leader selects a number of people to go on the mission, and everyone votes to approve or reject the team.
If a majority of the group approves the team, everyone selected receives two cards. Secretly, the selected team decides either to pass (blue card) or sabotage (red card) the mission. Once shuffled, the cards are revealed and if all the cards are blue, the mission passes. However, it only takes one Spy and one red card to cause a mission to fail.
Analysis:
This game goes by incredibly quickly. Our group has finished most of our games within 20-30 minutes. I picked this game specifically because it could handle 10 players - the more the better! I like this game a lot more than Mafia because no player can be eliminated. (This also means I don't have to worry about people raiding my fridge or standing over me awkwardly while they wait for the next game!!) Everyone can always contribute suggestions as to who might be a Spy.
Weaknesses: The game is hard for the Resistance to win. A large number of people are selected for all the missions, so it's always very likely that a Spy will get picked somewhere along the way. An expansion with special cards helps give more clues to the Resistance, which helps with this issue. Also, the game involves a lot of accusations and people trying to get their voices heard, so it helps to be more assertive than not.
I like starting my game nights with The Resistance to get everyone warmed up for the meatier games of the evening. The game is also very straight-forward, so you should have very few problems introducing the game to new groups.
What do you think? Is this game you'd like to try? Was my explanation straightforward?
You can try The Resistance at our Tuesday game nights at Fordham University, every Tuesday at 8PM. Leave a comment or PM for more info!
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CULINARY UPDATE
Did you know that freshly baked bread is readily and cheaply available on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx? I sure did, but never bothered to go out and buy some! This week, I upgraded my boring whole wheat bread to ciabatta bread. Furthermore, a sandwich press is one of the best investments you can make if you like warm fresh paninis for lunch. Watch the finished result here!
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