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Quick Guide
This War of Mine: The Boardgame is more of an experience than a game, but Awaken Realms has made a hybrid that is excellent in both aspects. The game is fantastic. The experience is something I had hoped for and received in full. [Note: this site is not for the video game and is not official]
1st Edition has been out for a few years. Now Awaken Realms is preparing an expanded 2nd Edition via a GameFound pledge (due for August 2026 delivery next year).
GameFound=> 2nd Edition // previous Ukraine Cause // previous 1st Edition Kickstarter
BoardGameGeek=> 1st Edition // 2nd Edition
=> Rulebook-Journal (1st Edition)
=> Len’s 1 page Rules Summary v3
=> This War of Mine Cards Phases v2bTo see if this game is for you, watch this 13min video (one of the best game reviews I have ever seen)
=> The Lucky Roll Review
(transcript is below the video window)Then … see if the gameplay is for you… this is the best solo walk through:
=> Mountain Gamer How To Play Walk Through
These articles should help get you started and keep you going:
- Just What Is It (brief text explanation of the game)
- More Than Just A Game (revelation from designer Jakub Wisniewski)
- One Page Setup & Rules PLUS 7 Daily Phases cards
- Rubble Die Reference Card
- Sleeving Tip for Additional Characters and the 7 Gameplay Cards
- Sleeving the cards (I didn’t sleeve any other games, but I did sleeve this one)
- Part 1: Brief History of The Game (from Kickstarter Updates 1-18)
- Part 2: Brief History of the Game (Updates 19-26)
- Part 3: Brief History of the Game (Updates 27-46)
- Unboxing The Kickstarter Edition
- Original Soundtrack (on Soundcloud)
- Zlata’s Story / Roman’s Story / Katia’s Story / Cveta’s Story/ Emira’s Story
- Packing Everything Back Into The Box
- Kickstarter Editions – What’s Included (Ukraine Support Sale)!
- Games will begin shipping March 28 from their EU Hub
- 3D Character Card Holder Trays
- 100% of Revenue of Games in Their Warehouse Sent to Ukraine Relief
- One Hour Overview Video of the game by The McGuire
- Scenarios
- Video Overview of the Game
- Rolling Solo Videos
- One Stop Coop Videos
- Russian Video Review of the Prototype
Another great game with lots of narrative is coming this fall: Rogue Angels. It is a space exploration with battles game that comes with over 1,000 pages of missions, map setups and branching story. What you do in the game has consequences and often determines what will happen next! => My Rogue Angels
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Excellent walk through with explanations

I have watched a dozen (likely more) walk throughs (play throughs) and this was the best. Some of them made mistakes (actually most of them) … which is good and bad. Bad, because they showed you how to do something incorrectly. But, GOOD, because then you should not feel bad if YOU make a mistake playing the game. After all, the person making the video was supposedly an expert at the game (more or less) and they made mistakes … so you can feel better if you do too :) Even The Mountain Gamer (with the BEST playthrough) did make some mistakes (see the comments below each video for more about that)… but in my own playthrough I found that I was making mistakes too.
Now you are ready for …. the best playthrough of This War of Mine:
Some mistakes (far less than **I** make in my games :)
- Part 1 (linked in video above)
If you’d like to see how HIS game ends … here are links to the rest of the videos for this walk through:
Yeah … seeing that there are 8 parts, we kind of know that he doesn’t lose the game… at least until the eighth video! :)
And a screenshot from the first video in the 8 video series (so you can see how it looks):
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What’s Included Chart

In their official Update #4, Awaken Realms provides a chart listing all the components that are part of the 1st Edition Kickstarter, 1st Edition Retail, 2nd Edition and the Upgrade Pack. Read the full update here:
Here are the two charts … first the chart of the Core Game:
And now … the Add Ons chart:
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Is Sundrop Worth Getting

At first I was hesitant at spending money for Sundrop. After all, the miniature itself was the same! What could be the difference!?
Then I saw this as part of Marcin’s unboxing of Etherfields:
Wow … it is like one is a rough draft and the Sundrop is the final version!
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Get It NOW – Expanded 2nd Edition

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2nd Edition Coming 2nd Quarter 2025

YES! Awaken Realms is re-releasing this game as a 2nd Edition complete with a new expansion with even more stories! You can “follow” it now until it is officially on Gamefound:
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Rubble Die Card

Hopefully I may get a better image of the Rubble Die card from Awaken Realms (maybe even properly sized to print and sleeve), but meanwhile for anyone who just received their Rubble Die but did not get the Rubble Die card with it here are images of the front and back which you may be able to properly size and print … and below them is my attempt at resizing them to fit a standard card sleeve PLUS a Large Print Size Card PDF.
Front:
Back:
Here is my attempt to get the card resized to fit a standard 64x89mm sleeve:
=> Rubble Die Card resized (PDF)
And here is a LARGE PRINT version of the Rubble Die card – just print and fold the whole page in half for a half page reference card that is easier to read (for those of us with not so perfect vision):
=> Rubble Die Large Ref Card (PDF)
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Music While You Play

Here is a website with suggested background music to listen to while playing This War of Mine:
=> Melodice (This War of Mine)
Here is an example of how it looks on your computer:
You can start the music from within Melodice … or have it send the full playlist over to YouTube for you. You also can suggest a new track to add to the list (typically without words / lyrics). -
Rubble Dice Update (from Awaken Realms Q&A)
At his Monday Q&A for April 25, Marcin spoke about the issue with the Rubble Dice. It seems that there were errors in the “count” of how many there were in the warehouse, so now they are trying to track down what the issue was and to see if they are in the warehouse someplace. So, now they are discussing the errors in the files, if they want to manufacture it, or give 100% refund back if they aren’t able to ship them. Customer Support will be taking care of this.
For some reason Facebook will not allow this video to be included as a window in this article, so you will need to click their link to see it:
=> https://www.facebook.com/awakenrealms/videos/575367084046361
(then jump to timestamp 8:45) -
Shipping started last week and on into this week. Rubble Dice Delayed!
Marcin mention the shipping update for This War of Mine (Ukraine Support Campaign) in his Monday Q&A at about the 29:50 timestamp (video below). They have been shipping out the games last week and into this week. However, there are some issues in getting the Rubble dice shipped and they will be delayed. This matches up with the email that I received that included this note:
“…we would like to inform you that we will be sending out the Rubble Dice a bit later than all other components due to logistics reasons (we’ll be sending out the Rubble die card in the current shipping process though).”
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Awaken Realms Q&A April 4 (on shipping Ukraine Support Orders)
Marcin (Awaken Realms) answers questions every Monday. On April 4 one of the questions was regarding a shipping update for their Ukraine Support Sale of This War of Mine Kickstarter Edition. See time stamp 10:15 in the video below (answer under the video):
A: Shipping is happening this week. They are having issues with the Rubble Dice though and those orders will take longer.

