Komandosi (1990)

Overview

Original Polish game of military adventure.

Instruction's intro: "You are a young commando. This is your first stand-alone test. Found you on an unknown island. Your task is to find three important parts of the helicopter, with which you could fly away. Promotion is only for the first one. Forests, mountains, swamps, dangerous rivers, winds, strange accidents, lack of money and exhaustion are some of the adversities that you have to beat to win. Go ahead, make sure you're a true commando. Good luck!"

Each player is a commando soldier lost on mystery island. To leave the island and win the game one need to locate and gather helicopter parts scattered in the interior of the island and fly away.

Game uses simple d6 roll mechanic for movement, and monopoly styled money (Ertrob) with which one can buy different means of faster transportation (rent-a-car, train, boat ride) or pay for trespassing the forest (Sic!), medical help in hospital (where player is placed after he is defeated in combat) and various weapons and ammunitions to attack other players and steal their gathered heli parts. Money can be earned at bank. All roads, railroads, forests and buildings are neutral. Additionally, each 1 and 6 rolled for movement result in a card drawn from random events deck. Unique mechanic allows one to build a safe house for storage of found parts and possessions. Interesting system of randomly "dropping" helicopter parts and players on their starting positions on the island.

Despite poor production quality of the gaming elements (board was the exception) the game has interesting gameplay, powerful marketing campaign (tv commercials) and was very popular at the time. There was a poster included with the game (on the poster: bigger version of box cover).