My mother gave me A House Divided as a birthday gift (my birthday is today — I’m 23 now). It was on my wish list (AHD, Wallenstein and Battle Cry — a bit militaristic list), so it wasn’t totally out of the blue.

And it sure looks good. Phalanx Games has done a great work on the new edition. The first edition looks a bit plain compared to the new edition. But Franz Vohwinkel is good, there’s no doubt about it. The cardboard counters were very properly punched and rather gorgeous. The map is beautiful and sturdy. The rulebook is neatly divided into basic rules, advanced rules and optional rules. The dice are the final piece of evidence of quality: there’s three blue dice and three grey dice. Beautiful.

Rules were quite easy to absord, I don’t think there will be trouble playing the game as long as I forget the advanced rules. It’s possible to make the game quite realistic and detailed by using all the extra rules. I’m glad they are optional.

Hopefully I’ll be able to try it soon.