This War of Mine is a vast and immersive game. Set in a country, torn apart by war, This War of Mine sees players acting on the part of survivors, looking to just make it through the war alive.

For those familiar with the video game, This War of Mine is a well known concept. For those who are unfamiliar, This War of Mine is built on the idea that:

“In war, not everyone is a soldier.”

A couple of weeks ago, we started looking at This War of Mine in some detail, and picked apart the characters in the game. Today, we are going to look at another aspect – the exploration, and in particular the locations involved.

Now, in This War of Mine, locations are dealt out randomly (representing the city around you), and on top of that, they can kick off all kinds of special events based on the Book of Scripts. Today, we’re not going to dive into what each one of those can be. Instead, we’ll keep this spoiler free, and we will only look at what we know as open information to players of the game – the Map Card Locations and the Special Findings.

This means we are going to look at two elements. The first element involves a very simple “what is there at each location?”. These are special prompts that can trigger additional events when exploring, or even obstacles you need to get past. These are called Map Cards or Map Card Locations.

The second element involves Special Findings. When exploring, Special Findings are exactly what they sound like. Most of the time, when you find something, you get to roll an additional die. That die refers to the Special Findings table, which can sometimes result in an additional resource. As we will see though, it is far from guaranteed.

So, with that in mind, let’s delve deep into the world of This War of Mine, and to the centre of the city the game takes place in. Let’s look at the locations in This War of Mine.

What are the Locations in This War of Mine?

Okay, so before we start looking at numbers, let’s look at what the locations are in This War of Mine: The Board Game. The locations are:

• Abandoned Cottage
• Central Square
• Church
• City Hospital
• Construction Site
• Derelict Squat
• Garage
• Hotel
• Military Outpost
• Old Town
• Quiet House
• Ruined Block of Flats
• Ruined Villa
• Shelled School
• Small Apartment Building
• Sniper Junction
• Supermarket
• Warehouse

Those are in alphabetical order, just to make things easier.

What are the Location Triggers, Map Cards and This War of Mine?

Okay, so now we need to look at the Map Cards.

“What is a Map Card?”, I hear you ask.

A Map Card is a trigger that causes something to happen within the game. They exist within the Exploration deck, and they trigger an event if that Map Card is represented on the Location. for instance, the Bars Map Card will trigger an event if there are Bars at the location.

There are, in This War of Mine, six individual Map Cards. Those are:

• Basement Entrance
• Closed Door
• Open Space
• Rubble
• Jammed Door
• Bars

Those can be different things, but certain tools help with certain scenarios, and these can give you a hint of what you’ll need if you want to fully explore a location. For instance, bars require a sawblade. Rubble requires a shovel to shift. Closed Door needs a lockpick. Jammed doors can be kicked in. Open spaces can cause a lot of noise. Basement entrances are one of the most varied triggers as it moves cards from the Exploration deck to the Unknown deck.

Now, although almost pointless to look at due to the nature of the cards being out in the open (and thus, you can kind of see what you need), it is interesting to see if there is an inclination towards one Map Card over another.

Now, this tells us something; however, it isn’t the easiest to read. Instead, let’s put it in a graphical format.

As you can see, Basement Entrances are the most common location Map Card. Out of the Map Cards that require resources to surpass, Closed Doors (lockpicks) and Rubble (shovel) are the most common.

Meanwhile, the least common Map Card to come across is a Jammed Door. Interestingly, that doesn’t require a tool to overcome. Bars, Rubble, and Closed Door – the Map Cards that require resource to make the most out of – are fairly evenly split.

Special Findings in This War of Mine

The other aspect to locations in This War of Mine are the Special Findings. Now, Special Findings are determined by the roll of a D10 whenever a findings card is found. There is one example where that doesn’t happen, called a Reality Impact, but other than that the findings cards result in the roll of a die.

Now, this is where things get interesting. First, the table is way too big to paste into this article, and it becomes unintelligible. Secondly, by looking at these Special Findings it is possible to see if there is an inclination for any specific type of resource.

There are, to begin with, 28 different resource that can be gained by the Special Findings cards; however, not all are treated equally. On a D10, for instance, some are collected on just one number, some on two numbers, some on three. There is also a high possibility of getting nothing.

Now, there are a few ways of breaking this down. For the sake of not having to post 18 graphs in this article, we’re not going to break the resources down by location. Instead, we are going to look at the larger numbers.

Understanding which Resources are most common by probability of being rolled

For instance, the first way we can break down the different resources is by looking at the distribution across the die. There are 18 locations, with 10 potential results on each one. That leads to 180 potential results. We can break those down, to see which resources are most common.

The resources (or available Special Findings) are, before we start:

• Nothing
• Book
• Cigarette
• Coffee
• 100% Alcohol
• Jewellry
• Chems
• Moonshine
• Vegetables
• Sugar
• Mechanical Parts
• Weapon Part
• Raw Food
• Knife
• Herbal Meds
• Meds
• Bandages
• Shovel
• Shell
• Canned Food
• Electrical Parts
• Ammo
• Hatchet
• Herbs
• Broken Pistol
• Broken Assault Rifle
• Pistol
• Sawblade

Now, there are multiples on some of those; however, those multiples (for instance 2x Electrical Parts) doesn’t edit the chance of getting that resource. Instead, it just edits the amount received.

Now, that graph may seem a little bit small if you are viewing it on a mobile phone (apologies for that), but the findings are clear. The most common resource to get from a Special Finding is…nothing.

Yep, absolutely nothing. This ranged from locations that have a 3/10 chance of drawing nothing, to the Church, which has a 7/10 chance of getting nothing.

On the flip side, Vegetables are the most common resource to get when you actually get a resource, followed by Mechanical Parts and Chems.

Which Resource Types are Most Common

Resources, in This War of Mine, are split into four basic types. There is food and consumables. These are green. There are weapons and weapon parts, which are red. There are medical components, that are yellow. Finally, there are mechanical parts and miscellaneous bits, and those are grey.

If we categorise the data, we should be able to break it down by the core types.

So, as you can see, it is still most likely that you will get nothing – however, it is second most likely that you will get a consumable of sorts. Most likely, that could be a Vegetable.

You are least likely to get Medical supplies.

This War of Mine: Findings and Map Cards

Okay, so throughout this article, and the past 1,300 words (ish) we have looked at various different points about the Map Cards and Special Findings in This War of Mine. Most notably, we’ve been looking at which ones are at which locations. What is available where?

All that is well and good, but it does lead to an important point, and that is – what does all this mean?

Well, there are two schools of thought here. The first is to say that this doesn’t mean anything. Since the locations are visible at all times, then you can see what you can get as and when it comes out. You don’t need to know what you can get in advance, and that is a more than fair opinion.

The other way of looking at this; however, is to say – right, I know I need food so is it best to scavenge for food or grow it? I know I need weapons, so should I build some of go out looking for some? I know I need medical supplies, should I…no…wait…medical supplies you should get any way that you can.

This is not the be all and end all, as they are several ways of getting resources each night, but it helps build the wider picture of the game…whatever that picture may be.

With that in mind, I’m actually going to draw this look at the locations to a close. If you haven’t played This War of Mine, then I do recommend it as a game. It is hard, but it is a rewarding experience. If you have played it, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

You can read our review of This War of Mine here, and our Character Analysis here.

Published by Luke

Board game nerd, comic book geek, Rubik's Cube solver, Splendor player, and Blogger. View all posts by Luke