GW's Weirdest Ever Release - Calamity!

 Here's an interesting one for you, what I consider to be Games Workshop's absolute weirdest release ever, a board game called Calamity! (with the exclamation mark!) 

Not only was it a game based in the world of insurance, it was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and also contained multiple suicidal insurance brokers on the front!

More info after the cut....

So, 1983 was clearly a strange Year for Games Workshop, as this wonder came out. Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and released as part of the series of licenced A4 box games that came out throughout the 1980s, it really stood apart from all of the other games they were putting out at the time, like Talisman, Battlecars, Judge Dredd, Doctor Who and even 1st Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle. 

(yes, that Andrew Lloyd Webber!) 

As you can see from the blurb, it's a 'fun' game based in the high stakes world of international Insurance, where you get to risk shareholder's money by insuring shipping, legs or even penguins! Who knew the world of insurance underwriting was so wacky! 

The game itself has your fairly standard contents of a foldable board, a bunch of cards, some fake money and a few counters.  

However, the rules themselves are something else. Turns out old Andrew (young Andrew back then, I suppose!) was a bit of a rules demon, and knocked out a set of rules so complicated that it needed it's own flowchart just so you could work out how to play it:

Simple, and fun! If you find this sort of thing exciting. 

I must admit, I have actually tried to play this at least twice, and it is without a doubt the most boring game I've ever had the misfortune to play. And I've played a full game of Empires in Arms. It's overly complicated, has very little actually happening, and is basically a game of gambling and chance with no real tactics or any real redeeming features. It's only in my collection for completion's sake, and the fact that you can currently buy a copy on ebay for under £10 seems to suggest I'm not alone in my assessment of it being, well, a bit crap. 

One final weird part about the game was that it was actually a tie in with an insurance company, the Sentry Group of Insurance Companies, and if you really wanted to insure your legs, penguins or oil tanker, they included their phone numbers in the rules! They actually sold up all their UK holdings and went back to America in a bit of a cloud of litigation and financial irregularities a year or so later, so this entire thing could well have been a very strange attempt at a tax dodge or something. 

As a final thought on this game, on the back it says it's suitable for ages ten and over, and I wonder just how many ten year olds got a copy of this for Christmas 1983 instead of Talisman or Warhammer, after the shop managers hoisted it on unsuspecting parents to dump the stock, and they spent the rest of the holidays thoroughly confused and depressed. 

Anyway, there you go, definitely GW's weirdest excursion in my opinion, especially in light of the fact the Dark Future LARP event with real cars sadly never happened...