Public domain Flintstones comic
War Chest (2 or 4 players) is strategy game where you’re deploying troops to control spots on the board. But you do that by drawing chips from a bag. So it’s a deck-builder mixed with games like The Duke.
Each player has 4 different types of troops (chips). Each round, you draw three chips from the bag. On your turn, you can either play one of those chips to the board (if one isn’t there already), discard a chip face down to add a new chip to the bag, place a chip on top of an existing chip to increase its strength, or discard a chip face up to move a matching chip on the board. The round is over once all three chips have been played. Then players draw again. Once the bag is empty, you refill it with your discarded chips.
There’s a ton of strategy to this game. Every combination of troops makes for a different synergy. Adding more to the bag gives you options, but makes it harder to pull the chips you need. As chips are attacked, they’re removed from the game. Soon your options dwindle, so you must hurry. The first player to control six of the green spots wins.
The production on this game is great. The chips are really hefty, the embroidered bags feel luxurious, and the iconography is clear and clean. It excels as a 2-player game, but you can play in teams of 2 if you must. If you’re a fan of these type of chess-y games, check it out.
