Post by Whiterook on Apr 25, 2022 7:44:55 GMT -5
My wife and I played an old gem this weekend. I recently bought from someone that knew I wanted this game for a long time, and was selling off his father’s collection and wanted it to go to a good and appreciative home. I am extremely appreciative to own it finally, and completes the 4-game collection I’d been amassing over the years. It was a close race to the finish, but I just beat out my wife for the win; she loved activating the Ray-Gun, which backfired on her enough times to let me squeak by her!
Being a child growing up in the 1970’s, right within the turbulent times that was the Cold War, everything was pretty much astronauts, spies, Sci-fi, and WWII! There was no shortage of shows on the television featuring all of these subjects, both serious and comedy. I loved all of those topics and still do!
One of the aforementioned subject shows dealt with spies at the height of the Cold War, who fought in the shadows in the groundbreaking show, The Man form U.N.C.L.E., of which I was a HUGE fan! The series centered on a two-man troubleshooting team working for multi-national secret intelligence agency U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement): American Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn), and Russian Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum).
The series featured the adventures of these two enforcement agents, within a multinational law enforcement and intelligence organization: the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Their mission: an ongoing struggle against wrongdoers who threaten world security, especially their recurring nemesis, an organization known as THRUSH, which strives for world domination. The series's unique gimmick was that just about every episode involved an "innocent civilian" in the week's plot. Sometimes the civilian was a willing volunteer in U.N.C.L.E.'s machinations against its opponents, but other times the innocent was merely a passerby who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and thereby became involved in the plot (i.e., a Heroic Bystander).
Robert Vaughn was billed as the star, cast as the American, Napoleon Solo, U.N.C.L.E.'s top enforcement agent. His sidekick, Russian native Illya Kuryakin, was intended by the producers to be merely an occasionally recurring minor character, but fans became so smitten with David McCallum's portrayal of Kuryakin that he almost immediately became a series regular, was billed as a co-star early in the first season, and rose to equal billing with Vaughn by the second season. Completing the regular U.N.C.L.E. contingent was veteran character actor Leo G. Carroll, cast as Alexander Waverly, U.N.C.L.E.'s chief in their New York City headquarters.
Almost as popular as the stars were the various items of high tech (for the early-to-mid-60s milieu of the show) spy equipment used by the U.N.C.L.E. agents in their various missions; the most iconic of which became their communications devices (disguised as cigarette cases in the first season, changing to pens in the second through fourth seasons) and their pistols, the "U.N.C.L.E. special," which by the addition of a barrel extension, stock, telescope, and extended magazine could be converted into a cool looking carbine. (It's famous today as the alternate mode of Megatron from Transformers. The gun itself was so popular it actually got its own fan mail, up to 400 pieces per week - many addressed to "The Gun" - at the show's height of popularity.)
I don’t remember the Ray-Gun tie-in on the show, if there actually was ever one — it’s representative size within the game would indicate it’s a massive weapon; the Ray-Gun as a game component is brilliant, though, as it has the potential to set your U.N.C.L.E Agent token back at a disadvantage.
The Premise of the Show
U.N.C.L.E.'s primary adversary was THRUSH (WASP in the pilot movie). The original series never divulged who or what THRUSH represented, nor was it ever used as an acronym. In the U.N.C.L.E. novels written by David McDaniel, it stands for the Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity,[8] described as having been founded by Colonel Sebastian Moran after the death of Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in the Sherlock Holmes short story "The Final Problem". But in a second season episode, guest star Jessie Royce Landis plays a character who claims that she founded THRUSH.
THRUSH's aim was to conquer the world. THRUSH was considered so dangerous an organization that even governments who were ideologically opposed to each other – such as the United States and the Soviet Union – had cooperated in forming and operating the U.N.C.L.E. organization. Similarly, when Solo and Kuryakin held opposing political views, the friction between them in the story was held to a minimum. Although executive producer Norman Felton and Ian Fleming conceived Napoleon Solo, it was the producer Sam Rolfe who created the global U.N.C.L.E. hierarchy, and he included the Soviet agent, Illya Kuryakin. Unlike the CIA or the British SIS (Secret Intelligence Service), U.N.C.L.E. was a global organization of agents from many countries and cultures.
The Premise of the Game
It’s a very elegant game and insanely fun! There are four U.N.C.L.E Agents (different colored figure tokens) that start in their color’s Headquarters square (at the corners of the board), and they have to maneuver through the board in a clockwise fashion, only moving horizontally or vertically (no diagonal movement allowed). They move by die roll result, within the light colored movement squares (red, yellow, blue, and green); each colored quadrant has a building on it, which represents a THRUSH hideout (seaport, jetport, barn, and garage)…on one side of the building in the color quadrant you’re leaving is a “Challenge” square, which you need an even die roll to make it past and through the hideout, emerging on the other side of the hideout on a “Safe” starting square for the next quadrant color area.
In each of the colored quadrants are three columns of white squares with letters…that’s a minefield, in which you secretly designate on a Decoder Card (you mark an ‘x’ in crayon, provided with the game; keep face down) for three squares per column as mined (two being not); as you move a figure on a mine square, you ask if you’re blown up…if so, you move back one square you came from into that minefield.
There is also a darker color track in each quadrant; when you roll for your U.N.C.L.E Agent movement, you then move a THRUSH token (tank, plane, boat, and car) of any choice along it’s track, but it can only move one direction per turn and you can’t split between different tokens. On that dark track is a “Start Ray-Gun” square; when you land a THRUSH token on that, you wind the top of the Ray gun in the center of the board and if it stops, whatever colored quadrant it’s pointing blasts the U.N.C.L.E Agent(s) in that quadrant, which results in their having to go back to the nearest Headquarters box… unless the U.N.C.L.E Agent is in a “Safe” move space (the aforementioned Safe spot exiting a hideout, or a square with the U.N.C.L.E Emblem. First U.N.C.L.E Agent to make it back to their starting Headquarters wins!
I love this game!
Being a child growing up in the 1970’s, right within the turbulent times that was the Cold War, everything was pretty much astronauts, spies, Sci-fi, and WWII! There was no shortage of shows on the television featuring all of these subjects, both serious and comedy. I loved all of those topics and still do!
One of the aforementioned subject shows dealt with spies at the height of the Cold War, who fought in the shadows in the groundbreaking show, The Man form U.N.C.L.E., of which I was a HUGE fan! The series centered on a two-man troubleshooting team working for multi-national secret intelligence agency U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement): American Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn), and Russian Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum).
The series featured the adventures of these two enforcement agents, within a multinational law enforcement and intelligence organization: the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Their mission: an ongoing struggle against wrongdoers who threaten world security, especially their recurring nemesis, an organization known as THRUSH, which strives for world domination. The series's unique gimmick was that just about every episode involved an "innocent civilian" in the week's plot. Sometimes the civilian was a willing volunteer in U.N.C.L.E.'s machinations against its opponents, but other times the innocent was merely a passerby who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and thereby became involved in the plot (i.e., a Heroic Bystander).
Robert Vaughn was billed as the star, cast as the American, Napoleon Solo, U.N.C.L.E.'s top enforcement agent. His sidekick, Russian native Illya Kuryakin, was intended by the producers to be merely an occasionally recurring minor character, but fans became so smitten with David McCallum's portrayal of Kuryakin that he almost immediately became a series regular, was billed as a co-star early in the first season, and rose to equal billing with Vaughn by the second season. Completing the regular U.N.C.L.E. contingent was veteran character actor Leo G. Carroll, cast as Alexander Waverly, U.N.C.L.E.'s chief in their New York City headquarters.
Almost as popular as the stars were the various items of high tech (for the early-to-mid-60s milieu of the show) spy equipment used by the U.N.C.L.E. agents in their various missions; the most iconic of which became their communications devices (disguised as cigarette cases in the first season, changing to pens in the second through fourth seasons) and their pistols, the "U.N.C.L.E. special," which by the addition of a barrel extension, stock, telescope, and extended magazine could be converted into a cool looking carbine. (It's famous today as the alternate mode of Megatron from Transformers. The gun itself was so popular it actually got its own fan mail, up to 400 pieces per week - many addressed to "The Gun" - at the show's height of popularity.)
I don’t remember the Ray-Gun tie-in on the show, if there actually was ever one — it’s representative size within the game would indicate it’s a massive weapon; the Ray-Gun as a game component is brilliant, though, as it has the potential to set your U.N.C.L.E Agent token back at a disadvantage.
The Premise of the Show
U.N.C.L.E.'s primary adversary was THRUSH (WASP in the pilot movie). The original series never divulged who or what THRUSH represented, nor was it ever used as an acronym. In the U.N.C.L.E. novels written by David McDaniel, it stands for the Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity,[8] described as having been founded by Colonel Sebastian Moran after the death of Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in the Sherlock Holmes short story "The Final Problem". But in a second season episode, guest star Jessie Royce Landis plays a character who claims that she founded THRUSH.
THRUSH's aim was to conquer the world. THRUSH was considered so dangerous an organization that even governments who were ideologically opposed to each other – such as the United States and the Soviet Union – had cooperated in forming and operating the U.N.C.L.E. organization. Similarly, when Solo and Kuryakin held opposing political views, the friction between them in the story was held to a minimum. Although executive producer Norman Felton and Ian Fleming conceived Napoleon Solo, it was the producer Sam Rolfe who created the global U.N.C.L.E. hierarchy, and he included the Soviet agent, Illya Kuryakin. Unlike the CIA or the British SIS (Secret Intelligence Service), U.N.C.L.E. was a global organization of agents from many countries and cultures.
The Premise of the Game
It’s a very elegant game and insanely fun! There are four U.N.C.L.E Agents (different colored figure tokens) that start in their color’s Headquarters square (at the corners of the board), and they have to maneuver through the board in a clockwise fashion, only moving horizontally or vertically (no diagonal movement allowed). They move by die roll result, within the light colored movement squares (red, yellow, blue, and green); each colored quadrant has a building on it, which represents a THRUSH hideout (seaport, jetport, barn, and garage)…on one side of the building in the color quadrant you’re leaving is a “Challenge” square, which you need an even die roll to make it past and through the hideout, emerging on the other side of the hideout on a “Safe” starting square for the next quadrant color area.
In each of the colored quadrants are three columns of white squares with letters…that’s a minefield, in which you secretly designate on a Decoder Card (you mark an ‘x’ in crayon, provided with the game; keep face down) for three squares per column as mined (two being not); as you move a figure on a mine square, you ask if you’re blown up…if so, you move back one square you came from into that minefield.
There is also a darker color track in each quadrant; when you roll for your U.N.C.L.E Agent movement, you then move a THRUSH token (tank, plane, boat, and car) of any choice along it’s track, but it can only move one direction per turn and you can’t split between different tokens. On that dark track is a “Start Ray-Gun” square; when you land a THRUSH token on that, you wind the top of the Ray gun in the center of the board and if it stops, whatever colored quadrant it’s pointing blasts the U.N.C.L.E Agent(s) in that quadrant, which results in their having to go back to the nearest Headquarters box… unless the U.N.C.L.E Agent is in a “Safe” move space (the aforementioned Safe spot exiting a hideout, or a square with the U.N.C.L.E Emblem. First U.N.C.L.E Agent to make it back to their starting Headquarters wins!
I love this game!