Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Escape From Colditz is a 1-vs-many semi-cooperative game where one player is the Security Officer of the German forces, and the others are Escape Officers for various nationalities or prisoners of war (POWs).
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Grid Movement
Move pieces between adjacent spaces on a regular grid.
Open Drafting
Select cards or items from a shared face-up display.
Roll-and-Move
Roll dice or spin a dial to determine how far a piece moves.
Timed Ending
End the game when a specific timing or state condition is reached.
Hexagon Grid
Use a hexagonal map where each space connects evenly in six directions.
Read the full game description
Escape From Colditz is a 1-vs-many semi-cooperative game where one player is the Security Officer of the German forces, and the others are Escape Officers for various nationalities or prisoners of war (POWs). Escape Officers try to acquire the equipment they need for a successful escape (rope, wire cutters, etc.), while the Security Officer tries to hinder them by putting them in solitary confinement and consficating their equipment. Play lasts for a pre-determined length of time or number of rounds. If an Escape Officer can free a pre-determined number of POWs (usually 2) before then, they win. Otherwise the Security Officer wins. The game was co-designed by Major PR Reid, a British soldier who was one of the few to actually successfully escape from Colditz during the Second World War.