On the Net by Alan PoulterOriginsAt the recent Origins in July the award for ‘Best Historical Board Game of 1999’ went to ‘Great War at Sea: 1904-1905, The Russo-Japanese Naval War’ from Avalanche Press. Of the games nominated this was a worthy winner (but see my comments on nominations in the previous Despatch). By all accounts this recent Origins was a success as far as board wargaming was concerned. There were complaints about its lack of organisation overall but for me the attempt at putting Origins online while it happened (http://www.wizards.com/origins/ORG2K/virtual.asp) was a notable first, despite the occasional broken link and incorrect comments and somewhat eccentric coverage. Wargames released there or released just before Origins are covered below but a number of upcoming wargames were previewed or promoted at Origins. These were the next in the La Bataille series of tactical Napoleonics from Clash of Arms, ‘La Bataille D'Orthez (a Wellington victory in southern France), a block game from Columbia called ‘Hammer of the Scots’ (on William Wallace’s rebellion), GMT’s ‘Army Group North’ (Eastern front) and Avalanche’s ‘SOPAC’, another tactical naval game (in the south Pacific) in the ‘Great War at Sea’ mould. Notable were ‘Rome at War I - Hannibal at Bay’ from Avalanche, the first in a series of tactical Ancients games, with a mounted map and counters with overheard views of troops giving a miniatures feel and the new version of ‘Cosmic Encounters’ from Hasbro with a re-designed spiral galaxy board.Columbia GamesTheir new ‘Pacific Victory’ was on show. ‘Pacific Victory’ applies the ‘Victory’ system (generic World War Two combat, forces are hidden by means of blocks) to the Pacific theatre in World War Two, from 1941 through to 1945. All combatants have forces represented as carriers, battleships, cruisers, air forces and armies. The map covers the Pacific seaboard east to west from San Francisco to Bombay and north to south from Anchorage to Sydney. The entire campaign apparently plays in 2-4 hours, which must make this the quickest playing strategic Pacific game to date. Shorter scenarios are available.Critical Hit/MIHOrigins was a success for CH/MiH. They sold out of their new release ‘Velikye Luki’ by the third day of Origins. This game covers the Soviet offensive against the city of Velikye Luki, intended to pocket the German forces there and divert German reserves from the defence of Stalingrad. ‘Velikye Luki’ uses an updated game system from the games ‘Turning the Tables’ (Kharkov 1942) and ‘Drive to the Baltic!’ (Army Group North 1944). All these games were designed by Dirk Blennemann. The situation gives both players opportunities to attack and defend. The game system attempts to integrate various important aspects of combined arms warfare with a strong emphasis on uncertainty, by a combination of tactical superiority determination, random events and combat chits. The game has a standard sized map and 280 counters.Not a million miles away from ‘Velikye Luki’ in topic is ‘Combat! Stalingrad’
which applies the Combat! system from the original ‘Combat! Normandy’ to the
battle of Stalingrad, covering the battle from the perspective of the individual
soldier and NCO. The Combat! system has benefited from a thorough overhaul and
the latest rulebook (version 1.55) which comes with ‘Combat! Stalingrad’ is
available for those with ‘Combat! Normandy’ (http://www.CriticalHit.com/ComStal.html)
Finally CH/MiH have appointed Masahiro Yamazaki (a professional mapmaker) as
their new Art Director. He is experienced in game art and production, having
produced board wargames in Japan. Decision GamesAt Origins Decision Games was offering all three games in its ‘Der Weltkrieg’ series for a bundle price. This was the first two games (‘Schlieffen Plan’, and ‘Tannenberg and Galicia’) with the latest, ‘Serbia and Romania’. The ‘Der Weltkrieg’ series covers World War One campaigns at the operational level and the games are not only mateable to cover the entire war but will also be extended to World War Two, using the same maps but new rules and units. This offer will be available outside of Origins.They also released ‘Battles of the Ancient World, Volume 3’. This is a set of
very simple games covering the battles of Meggido, Qadesh, Lake Trasimene,
Munda, Boudicca, and Adrianople. The GamersAt the other end of the size and complexity scale, The Gamers released ‘This Terrible Sound’. ‘This Terrible Sound’, covering the American Civil War battle of Chickamauga, uses the The Gamer’s Civil War Brigade Series rules with a set of specially adapted extension rules for Regimental scale action, as did the earlier game, ‘This Hallowed Ground’, which covered Gettysburg. ‘This Terrible Sound’ uses 6 maps, nearly 2000 counters and a host of special rules for Major John Mendenhall, Wilder's Brigade, The Reserve Corps Ammunition Train, General Bragg, Wing Commanders and more to recreate the battle. There are lots of scenarios from small one map actions to the entire battle itself. Further games are planned on Shiloh and Antietam. ‘This Terrible Sound’ is a limited edition game, with 2000 copies being printed.Also from The Gamers was ‘Sicily’, the seventh and latest game in their Operational Combat Series (OCS). This game features the revised v3.0 Series rules, the first major revision of these rules since 1994. For a look at these rules see http://www.tgamers.com/ocs/OCSRulesv3.zip 'Sicily’ is on the invasion and capture of this strategic island in World War Two. It is the first OCS game to deal with amphibious operations and covers a fascinating campaign. The whole campaign starting with the landings takes 30 turns but also included are post landing starts for shorter games. Like ‘This Terrible Sound’ this is a limited edition game, with 2000 copies being printed. It has two maps and over 1200 counters. The Gamers have been eclipsed over the past year by other companies like GMT, Clash of Arms, Avalanche and MMP, who are reprinting classics, producing excellent new wargames and attempting to branch out into mainstream, German-style, games. The Gamers strategy of developing a few game series and producing instalment games in those series which sold to the faithful was safe but un-adventurous in comparison with the rest of the pack. Until recently that is… Inspired by the old Avalon Hill game ‘Circus Maximus’, ‘Circus Minimus’ uses the "design for control" theory designed by Dean Essig, chief designer at The Gamers. As the name implies, it attempts to model chariot racing with a minimal amount of rules or complex procedures. Players each man a chariot that they can outfit with additional equipment before play. They control their chariot using a small control display that accounts for fatigue, damage, desired whip or reins controls and slowing from turning. They then move their chariots as desired given the speed they have available, swerving and turning as desired, as well as making any ramming or weapons attacks along the way. Players can also follow a campaign in which they attempt to earn their freedom from slavery. ‘Circus Minimus’ is designed to be intuitive to play and accessible to gamers of all types, especially those who would never look at a regular wargame. It makes for a great easy to play game for up to 7 players (the more the better). Game components will include a single map, 140 counters and an 8 page rules booklet. More series games will still appear in the future but work on the proposed
new ‘Age of Rifles’ series of tactical level games has halted and Dean
Essig has hinted that other ‘projects’ like ‘Circus Minimus’ are under way.
GMTGMT released two board wargames. ‘Ukraine '43’ from designer Mark Simonitch attempts to simulate at a divisional level the Russian breakthrough near Kharkov in August 1943 which saw them eventually recapture the Ukraine from the Germans. It uses a moderately complex game system based around a conventional move-fight-exploit sequence of play and zones of control. There are special rules for Soviet massed artillery, German tactical proficiency, Soviet sappers and more. Both sides get to attack with large tank formations. The game has 280 counters. Originally slated for one map, it now contains an extra small map to allow more room for manoeuvre.‘Risorgimento 1859’ covers the Second Italian War of Independence in which Garibaldi’s partisans, the French and the Austrians clashed. It is an unusual game in that it works at two levels, each using different game systems. There is a campaign game (using divisions and corps) which has a point-to-point map and a battle game (using battalions and regiments) on the two major battles of the campaign, Magenta and Solferino. Richard Berg designed the battle game while Peter Perla designed the campaign game. The campaign game uses innovative mechanics to capture the cut and thrust of the one of the first rail-based wars. The battle games use very short and succinct rules descended from Richard Berg’s self-published DTP games. The game has over 1000 counters and two back-printed maps. GMT also offered a surprise game designed by Reiner Knizia, ‘Battleline’. It was a surprise game in that both ‘Ukraine '43’ and ‘Risorgimento 1859’ went through GMT’s P500 pre-publication purchase system but ‘Battleline’ did not. ‘Battleline’ is a two-player card game based on warfare in the age of Alexander the Great. ‘Battleline’ has 60 ‘unit’ cards depicting war elephants, heavy cavalry, phalanxes etc and 10 ‘tactics’ cards offering extra flexibility and choices in the deployment of units. A short game, to win you must overwhelm the enemy either by envelopment (capturing any 5 of the 8 battle flags held by the enemy) or breakthrough (capturing 3 adjacent battle flags held by the enemy). ‘Batteline’ is descended from Reiner Knizia's earlier design ‘Shotten-Totten’ on Scottish clan warfare. Delayed by printing problems was another Reiner Knizia design ‘ Galaxy’, this time in tandem with Don Greenwood. This one did go through P500. In ‘Galaxy’ three to five players struggle for control of the galaxy with bases defending homeworlds and fleets of spaceships. Each of the eight races (suits of cards) represented have different special powers. Bases can be reinforced or damaged by transports or assault craft. Fleets contain spaceships with unique capabilities, from simple probes to large battleships, with strengths ranging from 0 to 10. Cards representing technology advances allow bases and ships to be improved, adding further levels of complication. At the end of each of the game's five rounds of play, the most poorly-defended home world is eliminated and the most powerful receives a bonus. Last race left standing wins. The same design team (Don Greenwood and Reiner Knizia) created Avalon Hill's critically acclaimed ‘Titan: The Arena’. Although the mechanics of play of ‘Galaxy’ are similar to ‘Titan: The Arena’, there are many subtle changes. An Origins miss caused by printer delays, ‘Austerlitz: Napoleon’s Greatest Victory’ is finally shipping. Designed by David Fox, this is a detailed tactical-level simulation of the Battle of Austerlitz, at the same level of detail as the ‘La Bataille’ series of games and ‘Wellington’s Victory’ and ‘Ney vs. Wellington’ from SPI. In ‘Austerlitz’ The scale in this game is 150 yards per hex: each turn represents 20 minutes. The game has four maps and around 1100 counters. Like the other games at this level, command control and the proper tactical integration and deployment of different forces are the focus. A chit-draw system activates divisions and corps but commanders must roll against their command rating and a failure will lead to a potential command breakdown (a suicidal charge, a retreat or passivity and an activation for the enemy). Once activated units must be used appropriately (e.g. wear down the enemy with artillery and infantry in line, close home with infantry in column or a cavalry charge). There are plenty of special units and rules (e.g. early morning fog) to capture the flavour of the battle. Apart from two scenarios on the full battle using all four maps there is a learning scenario and three smaller one or two map scenarios. GMT are planning to reprint their award-winning ‘Paths of Glory’ sometime later in the year. The two main differences from the original edition will be a slightly changed map and the inclusion of the latest rules set, available online at http://www.gmtgames.com/living_rules/pog_rules.pdf Cards and counters will be unchanged. It is very likely that a separate update kit, containing just the map and rules update, will be available for owners of the original ‘Paths of Glory’. Another notable first for GMT is a preview of their forthcoming ‘Army Group:
North’ game on campaigns on the Eastern Front in World War Two. Rather than just
post rules and a map they have posted an entire scenario on the battles around
Tallin at http://www.gmtgames.com/bagn/tallin.html
MMPMulti-Man Publishing will be announcing at the World Boardgaming Championships the 'G.I.'s Dozen', a collection of classic ‘G.I.: Anvil of Victory’ and Series 300 scenarios adapted for Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) play. These scenarios contain chestnuts like Climax at Nijmegen Bridge, Weissenhof Crossroads, Thrust and Parry, The French Decide to Fight, and more. There are thirteen scenarios in allNews is that Curt Schilling, baseball star and owner of MMP, will be
transferred to another team in Arizona. This may have an impact on MMP’s
activities. UGGUdo Grebe Games have announced ‘Cold Days in Hell: Eastern Front 1939-1945’, the third and final game in their ‘Empires of Apocalypse’ series. This game covers not only the Eastern Front, but all the rest of Europe that was not covered in either of the earlier two games ‘Morsecode’ or ‘Triumph and Fall of the Desert Fox’. Using revised standard rules covering grand-operational level warfare plus rules for production, research, diplomacy etc, these three games can be combined into one big one covering the entire War in Europe. ‘Cold Days in Hell’ has 1400 counters and 6 maps covering an area that stretches from Eastern Germany to the Urals, from Turkey to Northern Scandinavia. ‘Cold Days in Hell’ contains 4 scenarios and 1 campaign game and every scenario can be extended to the end of the full campaign game in May 1945. The maps have start lines for an additional 5 scenarios to be published in a later special scenario kit.Magazine GamesThe latest issue of ‘Vae Victis’, 33, contains the game ‘Dien Bien Phu’, a area-movement game on the French defeat in Vietnam in 1954. This issue has the usual sumptuous production with reviews of a number of board and miniatures games and is bigger than usual as it now contains computer game reviews slated for a now-defunct sister magazine, ‘Cyber Strategie’.Issue one of ‘Against the Odds’, a new magazine with a game in it, is on the slipway. It is being produced by Steve Rawling who used to be with Clash of Arms. The game and lead article is ‘Hegemon 338 BC’ by designer Thomas Sundell. This game covers Philip II’s campaign to take control of the remaining free Greek city states. A web site has just appeared at http://home1.gte.net/cgrando/ato.html Ty Bomba, publisher of ‘Command’, reports that he has signed a deal with a company called ‘Historical Studies Group’ (HSG), who intend to re-publish four or five ‘Command’ backlist games each year as computer games. The first will be out in the New Year. To quote Ty “While the royalties we'll be earning from this won't make us instantly "fat and healthy" again, they will certainly go a looooooong way in that direction. I don't have any more details right now, but rest assured I'll pass them along as I get them.” The hobby flagship, the venerable ‘Strategy and Tactics’ has reached its 200th edition. Jim Dunnigan, its most notable editor, returns with a look back at game design. There is an index of all previous 199 issues. If this was not enough this is a special-sized issue containing the game ‘French Foreign Legion’ with three maps (on two full-sized sheets) rather than just the normal one. The game covers French colonial incursions in North Africa (Algiers 1830's-40's), Western Africa (Dahomey 1892) and Vietnam (Tonkin 1884-5). The game system is that from the earlier 'Sun Never Sets' series that began with ‘First Afghan War’ in ‘Strategy and Tactics’ issue 179, which, though relatively simple, gives an excellent flavour for supply, guerrilla warfare and combat against 'native' hordes armed with everything from spears to rifles. One very positive difference from previous issue games is that the maps are printed on quite heavy stock, which should help them to last significantly longer. One not so positive difference is that rules for siege, atrocities and assimilation and attack from march appear to be missing. It seems as though they were cut to save space and can be gleaned from other series games but this is still a blemish on what would have been a superb issue. Issues 201 and 202 of ‘Strategy and Tactics’ are out. 201 contains two battles reprinted from the SPI Crimean war quadrigame, ‘Alma’ and ‘Tchernia’. It also has errata for the previous ‘French Foreign Legion’ issue. 202 contains ‘Taipei’ on the invasion of Taiwan by Chinese Communist force. Finally, ‘Gamefix’ issue 10 is out, featuring a new grand tactical World War
Two game ‘Foxhole’. Rules for Foxhoe are online at http://ossgames.com/playtestfiles/foxonev2.doc
DTP gamesWelcome to two new DTP publishers! The first is Peter Schutze who has just finished a small print run of 4 new DTP games all designed by Brian Train. They are ‘Pusan Perimeter’, ‘Somalia’. ‘PowerPlay’ and ‘Tupamaru’. Details of these games are sketchy. ‘Pusan Perimeter’ is on the defence of the Pusan Perimeter in August and September 1950. ‘Somalia’ simulates the US and UN intervention in Somalia with one side controlling UN and US units and the other side 3 Somali bandit factions. ‘Powerplay’ is a game about organising and running coup-de-etats. ‘Tupamaru’ covers the Uraguayan government's victory over the Tupamaru guerrillas. All these games have small maps and around 100 un-mounted counters. Schutze Games has a web site at http://www.geocities.com/schutze_gamesThe second newcomer, Khyber Pass Games, has issued its first game, ‘The Jewish War’. This game is on an unusual topic, the rising by the Jewish Zealot (Independence Party) against the Arab Foederatii garrisons in Galilee and Judea in 66 AD. While initially successful against the Arabs, the Zealots were eventually defeated by the deployment of four Roman legions and their allies. The game is strategic, with turns representing years while the game system itself looks rather conventional. It has a small map and one sheet of counters. Khyber Pass games: are at http://usuarios.iponet.es/gehiegi/kpg From BSO Games, Richard Berg’s DTP outlet, comes ‘The Last Raid’, on the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 AD between Otto I, King of the Germans and Lele, King of the Magyars. ‘The Last Raid’ pits Otto’s Western-style heavy cavalry against Lele’s Eastern-style hit and run mounted archers. The game system is descended from that used in the earlier BSO games ‘Simon Says’ and ‘Kingdom for a Horse’. There are no turns as forces move until losing the initiative, combat resolution is a single die roll, and playing time is short. Historically, the game favours the Germans, but optional rules adjust this. The game has one map in two sections and 200 counters. Rob Markham, under his Markham Designs label, has produced three new games. ‘Rolica’ is the second game in the ‘La Guerra de la Independencia’ series, following ‘Vimiero’. The other two games are ‘Hobkirk Hill’ and ‘Cowpens’. These are the first in a new ‘Battles of the American War of Independence’ series all using a common game system which is based on the ‘La Guerra de la Independencia’ game system. At battalion level, the game system is based around play of initiative cards. Winning the initiative in a turn allows a player to perform actions (bombardment, movement etc). There are restrictions on cards and once used they are discarded. There are also reaction cards for the player without the initiative. Leaders, morale and unit effectiveness are also prominent. There are plans for future games on Camden, Guilford Courthouse and King's Mountain. Markham Designs now has a web site at http://markhamdesigns.tripod.com/ A new game from Simulations Workshop is ‘Solomon Sea’, designed by Markus Stumptner. It simulates the World War Two carrier battles for control of the Solomon Islands, from May to November 1942. ‘Solomon Sea’ is a double blind game, which means each player moves his task forces, air strikes, and search planes on his own map, and tells the other player about the hexes he searches. Each hex represents 100 nautical miles, and each turn 3 hours. Each counter represents 6 to 10 planes, individual carries, or groups of smaller ships. Four scenarios are included: Coral Sea, Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz, and Guadalcanal. Simulations Workshops is at http://members.tripod.com/SimulationsWorkshop/index.html Finally Perry Moore has released ‘Tank Action in the Russian Civil War, 1919’
(not too catchy a title there). The game is tactical with individual MkV,
Whippet and Renault tanks, plus the Austin, Garford and Lanchester armour
cars. DH9A aircraft will also be depicted. Perry’s web site is at http://www.jps.net/perrya 1999 Charles S. Roberts AwardsThe following were the official nominees of the 1999 Charles S. Roberts Awards, listed in alphabetical order for each category below:-Best Pre-World War II Boardgame Best World War II Boardgame Best Wargame Graphics Best DTP-Produced Boardgame Best Magazine-Published Boardgame James F. Dunnigan Award Clausewitz Award HALL OF FAME Best Professional Wargame Magazine Best Amateur Wargame Magazine Unsurprisingly ‘Paths of Glory’ (GMT) romped home to be Best Pre-World War II Boardgame. ‘Burma’ (The Gamers) won Best World War II Boardgame, against a strong field. ‘River of Death’ (GMT) got Best Wargame Graphics: not surprising as GMT have been putting a lot of effort into graphics recently. ‘Bloody Beach - Omaha’ (Bill Ramsay) and ‘Chantilly’ (Ivy Street Games) tied for best DTP game. I am surprised that ‘Vimeiro’ (Markham Designs) got nothing. The sad news is that Ivy Street Games are no more. Perhaps the most controversial winner was ‘Borodino & Friedland’ (Decision/S&T No. 195) as Best Magazine-Published Boardgame. It is unfair that Vae Victis games seem not to have been considered at all. Two very deserved awards: Ted Raicer got the Dunnigan Award for ‘Paths of Glory’ while Gene Billingsley got the Clausewitz Hall of Fame Award. Unsurprisingly since the halt in Command’s production, Strategy and Tactic got best professional board game magazine while The Boardgamer picked up best amateur wargame magazine, probably because of its focus on classic Avalon Hill games. Last update 07/10/07 by Paul
Barrett |