ABC's and Sweet Tea: Commissioned by Chara Games ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

One of our favorite ways to spend time as a family is playing board games, but sometimes it's good to just play alone with my husband so that we can get some quality "us" time in. We have had the chance to review a really unique and fun board game called Commissioned by Chara Games over the last few weeks, and it's proven to be one of our favorites!

What is Chara Games?

Patrick and Katherine Lysaght wanted to design table top games with Christian themes to bring families and friends together. Chara is the greek word for JOY, and that's exactly what they want people to experience while playing their games. Pure JOY!

Lets talk about the game...

Commissioned is a historically themed cooperative deck building game for ages 14 and up. You don't play against each other, you play together against the game, and let me tell you. It's not easy, but it is loads of fun!!

First, I want to take a minute and talk about how well this game is made, because I was impressed. It is constructed of good thick cardboard, from the box it comes in to the game board itself. All of the pieces are well made, so that this game will last you for years and years. The colors are vibrant and beautiful throughout all pieces of the game.

The game is composed of quite few pieces because it's very intricate and detailed. In the game you will receive:

1 double sided game board
5 double sided scenario cards
6 unique player boards
96 faith cards
27 trial cards
4 wood missionary meeples
75 wood church member cubes
1 wood elder's staff
6 wood player pawns
30 double sided stop tokens
5 double sided extinguish tokens
1 converted city leader's token
1 Roman Legion token
1 8-sided die
1 rule book
1 Theme Appendix

Ok, so let me start by saying this. This is not a sit down and start playing in 5 minutes type of game. It's got a lot of rules, and a lot of components. My husband took one look at the rule book and decided that he hasn't ever played a board game that was so detailed.

It looks way more complicating and intimidating than it really is. We ended up watching the video that tells you how to play, because we are much more visual learners. Like I said before, it's for 14 and up, and there's very good reason for that. My daughter who's 15 wasn't into it at all, so we decided to see if the 11 year old wanted to play. He was ok at first, but ended up getting a little confused, so we will wait a little longer before he plays again. It states that it takes about an hour to finish. We have experienced that it takes longer than that for us, but my husband is a critical thinker, so he takes his time. The first time took us about 3 hours, and then we got it down to around 2.

First, there are 5 different scenarios you can play! We played "Acts of Apostles" and stuck with that one because we wanted to get good at it enough to win! The object of the scenario we played, is to build up your churches, and to have a church in every city on the map while also collecting all of the bible cards. This sounds easy enough, but there is only one way to win, and basically 2 ways to lose!

In the beginning you choose which apostle that you want to be, and grab their apostle card and matching pawn. Each apostle has cards that has his special skill on it. As you play you will add to these cards and build your deck from the faith cards.

A turn consists of 3 to 4 different stages I guess you would call it. You first ARM yourself, or in other words, draw your cards. Then you LIVE, and this stage is broken down into mini stages. After all of that you Mature. This is where you will start building your deck.

You have to have a church in every city, and you have to have all of the bible cards at the bottom of the board to win. You will run into many scenarios with those Trial cards that will try and extinguish your churches that you have already worked so hard to build. If you extinguish them all, game over.

What did we think?

Like I said, at first we were wondering what we got ourselves into, but within a short period of time, this turned into one of our favorite games! It is so much fun, and works well for us because we work together to win. I can't wait to sit down with family and friends this holiday season and play this game with more people. It will definitely remain a go to game for us!!

Stay tuned because I will also be reviewing another game by Chara Games soon called 3 Seeds!