Description

17(21) - Kriegspiel with cards for gentlemen
A card based Kriegspiel from the game of "21"

Goal of the game: In 17(21) players will take the role of Army generals in the Age of Reason, struggling to win battles with the proper use of terrain and the capability to understand how to maximize the army the King (or the Queen) mustered to their command. Think about 17(21) as a "divertissement du Roi" where the game of "21" gives an abstraction to play and pass those boring days at Kings's Court, waiting for news from the Danube or Low Countries campaigns.

Goal of the game: players will have to battle each other with an "age of reason" army, to win the battle controlling more ground than the opponent at the end of the day of battle.
The players must achieve this through proper use of terrain and military doctrines.

How the game is won or lost: At the end of the day of battle, the players will have to check how much control their army has on the field of battle. The battle might ends in a draw, or in a minor or major victory. So the players will have to control areas of the battlefiled with relevant units to have a good ground control and so to be declared as the winner of the day.

What pleyers do in their turn: Each player will first draft an army, then each player will decide how to implement the philosophy of his army through another draft of doctrine cards.
In each battle turn the player will choose to move his units to cover empty spaces in the battlefield, to send orders activating a proper army doctrine (for example the oblique order) or to order units to attack enemy units in the battlefield.
Combat will be resolved without dice, the game of "21" will be used (the so called black jack)

In the end 17(21) would like to be a portable wargame to let the players experience a "miniatures wargame" in the mood it might be played at Kings' Court in the Age of Reason.

—description from the designer