h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I had a game called Crossbows and Catapults as a child, but the rules were somewhat different. Perhaps things were changed for the 1990s relaunch.

As before, there were two armies. The white guys, who also had white fortifications, were known as the 'Doomlord of Gulch;' their brown enemies, with grey fortifications, were called the 'Impalers of the Clannic Shelf.' I'm guessing there were just renamed Vikings and Barbarians.

Each player got eight warriors and assorted fortifications. The warriors were placed around your own base (there were no game mats), and the aim was simply to knock over all your enemy's warriors using caroms. There were no hidden treasures or spies.

In this version, you could only fire a weapon if you had a warrior next to it. As well as the crossbow and catapult, each player had a catapult tower, which was basically a much bigger, more powerful, and more inaccurate catapult. There was a platform on top, which required a warrior to stand on it to fire. Hitting the door of this tower would cause the warrior on top to fly off and die.

There were flags in the game, but I can't remember what they were for.

Each player had three special caroms, with stickers showing avalanche, fire, and oil. When one of these was fired, a wide cardboard ring was placed around it wherever it landed. The avalanche and fore rings destroyed everything under them, except for the catapult tower. The oil ring would also destroy whatever fell under it, but only if it was touching the fire ring.

One warrior on each side was nominated as a leader, who had three lives. He stood on top of a pair of cardboard discs, and when he died, he was brought back to life and one disc removed.

It was possible to cast one of three magic spells per turn instead of firing caroms. Each could have either a good or a bad effect. I don't remember what the good effects were, but the bad effects all seemed to be that your leader died completely, losing all his lives in one go.

Each player's turn consisted of firing two caroms at the enemy. However, when I played it, I usually used True Warfare Rules: just keep firing until you win, no respite. Good times...