War of the Buttons is based on a novel by Louis Pergaud written in 1912.

A story of 2 warring gangs who steal the buttons from each other.

In War of the Buttons, 2-4 players lead a “gang” of kids who try to build their own hut. To do this, they use both their own dice and “neutral” dice, while hoping for help from their “big brother” and for no one to tattle on them at school.

This is a quick video overview followed by my final thoughts.

War of the Buttons Summary

So the story the game is based on is interesting. Two gangs in two small French villages fight… But the goal is to not only win the fight which can occur with sticks, stones, and bare fists… But to take their laces and buttons.

This results in embarrassment and a telling-off from their parents.  I think this is a great idea for a story. One of the villages even fights naked at one point to prevent their clothes from being tampered with. Clever. Weird, but clever.

There is an English-language film set in Northern Ireland that came out in 1994. Despite it being about fighting and a bit about abusive families it is classified as a comedy.

The source material has two Villages and this is a 4 player game. So, in the game, we are to imagine a Fatal Four-Way of 4 Villages that surround a Field, Quarry, and Woods.

So, similar games… Obviously, we’re looking at Dice Placement so Bora Bora is always up there for me. Roll for the Galaxy, while not a ‘Worker Placement’ style game in the same sense does it for me too.

This is a lighter game, medium-light for a Euro. It’s much closer to a gateway game really. So maybe a closer comparison would be Stone Age?

But I really did enjoy the game. It’s a lot of fun, the story is great and the different types of placement make you think. It’s light yes but it’s not a problem for me.

However, I’ll still always want to play Bora Bora over it.

So as I said in the video, if you like the look of it, go for it. It’s a very good game it just won’t get further plays for me, unfortunately.

Jesta ThaRogue