On the Net by Alan PoulterNews: Strategy Gaming Society Gamer’s Choice Award for 2001From a very strong field this year a worthy winner in the Historical Simulations category emerged in GMT’s Wilderness War. The other contenders were: Barbarossa: Army Group North (GMT) Boer War (Strategy & Tactics #205, Decision Games) Clash Of Giants (GMT) Fallschirmjaeger (The Gamers) Grant Takes Command (Multi-Man Publishing) Highway to the Kremlin (Operational Studies Group) Red Badge of Courage (GMT) Thirty Years War (GMT) Zero! (GMT) Just to recap Wilderness War is a two-player game on the French & Indian War, 1755-1760, in which Britain wrested control of North America from France. Commanding French or British forces in North America, a player must defend their frontier, raid their enemy's frontier, build chains of forts to extend their control into the wilderness, besiege and assault enemy forts, recruit Indian allies, fight and win land battles all while dealing with events occurring in Europe that affect the war. The full war or shorter sections can be re-fought. News: Origins AwardsThe Best Historical Board Game Award went to Axis and Allies: Pacific from Avalon Hill/Hasbro. There is nothing wrong with this game winning but it is hardly a major breakthrough in game design. Fear God & Dread Nought from Avalanche Press won the Origins Award for Best Historical Miniatures Rules. News: Charles S. Roberts Awards The Charles S. Roberts Awards are a lot more representative than the Origins Awards as for a start they allow public voting. See the form at: http://www.consimworld.com/community/csr_awards_form.html Up for awards under the main categories are: Best Pre-World War II Boardgame: Clash of Giants (GMT Games) Grant Takes Command (MMP) Highway to the Kremlin (OSG) Red Badge of Courage (GMT Games) Wilderness War (GMT Games) Best World War II Boardgame: Barbarossa: Army Group North (GMT Games) Fallschirmjaeger (The Gamers) Guderian’s Blitzkrieg II (The Gamers) Pacific Victory (Columbia Games) Zero! (GMT Games) Best Modern Era Boardgame: Back to Iraq (Decision Games/Strategy & Tactics #208) When Dragons Fight (XTR/Command #54) Yom Kippur (Vae Victis #37) All three categories above have very strong lists. My guesses would be Clash of Giants, Fallschirmjaeger and Back to Iraq respectively. Other game categories are: Best DTP-Produced Boardgame: Arginussae (Markham Designs) Confederate Rails (BSO Games) Guadalajara 1937 (Markham Designs) Longbow (BSO Games) Patton's Finest (Microgame Design Group) Best Magazine-Published Boardgame: France 1940: Plan Yellow (Vae Victis #37) Twilight of the Hapsburgs (Strategy & Tactics #204) War of 1812 (Strategy & Tactics #207) When Dragons Fight (XTR/Command #54) The DTP award could go to any of the above. I think War of 1812 will win the magazine game category. There are two awards for magazines: Best Professional Wargame Magazine: C3i (GMT Games/RBM Studio) Operations (The Gamers) Paper Wars (Omega Games) Strategy & Tactics (Decision Games) Vae Victis Best Amateur Wargame Magazine: The Boardgamer, Bruce Monnin Line of Departure, Jim Werbaneth Panzerschreck, Minden Games Simulacrum, John Kula I would like to see Vae Victis win the first category but expect the much-revived Strategy & Tactics to win again. Simulacrum I find the most enjoyable of the amateur magazines. Finally, there is an exceptionally strong field of candidates for the James F. Dunnigan Award: Ted Raicer, Game Designer Mark Simonitch, Game Designer and Graphic Artist Volko Ruhnke, Game Designer, Wilderness War Joe Youst, Graphic Artist News: seen at OriginsOrigins, which took place over the July 4th weekend, is traditionally used for showing games to be available very shortly. Seen this year were (in alphabetical order): Advanced ETO, from Decision Games, is an update and expansion of the old SPI/TSR game European Theater of Operations, on World War Two in Europe. It is a big game, with two maps, over 2,000 counters, and two bulky rules books. Advanced Tobruk, from Critical Hit, is an update of the Avalon Hill version using their Combat rules system. The original Avalon Hill game was legendary for the number of die rolls needed. The new version has had its gameplay streamlined, and has excellent components, large, detailed counters and two nice maps plus a sealed plastic bag full of map sections to be used as overlays. Afrika Korps, from Avalanche Press, is the latest entry in their Panzergrenadier series on tactical World War Two land combat. It has three large geomorphic desert terrain maps (paper, not mounted), five counter sheets, the second edition series rules; and 50 scenarios, from mid-1940 through mid-1941. No other maps or counters are needed; this is a stand-alone item. Arctic Front, also from Avalanche Press, is a scenario book in the Panzergrenadier series containing counters and rules for battles of the Finnish Army, from 1939 to 1944. It requires maps and counters from Panzergrenadier and Heroes of the Soviet Union. Civilization, from Eagle Games, is a rare avis; a board game based on a computer game! It has over 800 plastic pieces representing armies throughout the ages as the game progresses through history. With cards to drive it the game apparently moves along and looks great. Drive on Stalingrad, from Decision Games, is an update of the old SPI game on the famous World War Two campaign. Note that the game does not depict the full campaign during the second half of 1942; instead, there are scenarios for Operation Blue, with the Germans on the offensive, and then Operation Uranus, with the Soviets counterattacking. Europe Engulfed, from GMT, is a block game (units are blocks, whose details are hidden from the opposing player) on the Second World War in Europe. Similar to the series of block game from Columbia it uses a simple but subtle game system to recreate the war at a strategic level. AvalancheNew from Avalanche is Soldier Kings, a multi-player game on the Seven Years War, the first global war. Two to eight players take the roles of the monarchs of Europe, trying to conquer territory and acquire resources to fund further conquests. Army and navy combat is a six to hit system with some simple modifiers to account for fortifications etc. There are several dozen event cards, which add variations to the normal flow of the play, plus specific rules for diplomacy and changing alliances for the minor countries. Overall, not many steps up from Axis and Allies but this is a noteworthy attempt to cover a new topic. The map and units look fabulous! Also just out is Great White Fleet, the first scenario book for the Great War at Sea series of games. It contains 20 "what-if" scenarios, ranging from 1898-1914, all featuring pre-dreadnought warships. So plenty here for the naval enthusiast. The only drawbacks are that some counters and an expansion map are integral to the book, the map being only in black and white. For more information see: http://www.avalanchepress.com Azure WishAzure Wish is a French wargame company who brought us Europa Universalis, covering campaigns large and small in Europe between the end of the Renaissance and the French Revolution They have recently produced a limited print-run English-language edition of their monster game on all of World War One, La Grand Guerre, unsurprisingly entitled The Great War 14-18. For those with plenty of time on their hands a special pack with this game, Europa Universalis, Hispania (a Britannia clone) and Xhenor (a fantasy battle game) is available exclusively from Home Games: http://www.homergames.com Note that this offer will be over by the time this is published. Copies of La Grand Guerre alone though should still be for sale. Azure Wish does not have a web site yet but can be emailed at: Azure.wish@wanadoo.fr Decision GamesPacific War Battles Volume I is shipping. It contains three games on land battles of the pacific theatre in World War Two. Its battalion level game system shows the evolution of tactical doctrine in both the Japanese and Allied armies with Banzai charges, superior U.S. fire co-ordination, naval bombardment, airpower, amphibious landings, and engineer operations. Games in this volume are The Fall of Singapore on the British defeat in 1942, Struggle on Bataan on the Allied defence of the Bataan Peninsula in 1942 and Turning Point: Guadalcanal on the seesaw contest for Guadalcanal which ended in 1943. See: http://www.decisiongames.com/ Eagle GamesThe latest addition to Eagle Games’ line is Napoleon in Europe, which comes in a weighty 4-inch deep box. Once you have sorted out the hordes of little figures (all 564 of them!) it looks to be the best game yet from this company. The addition of random event cards (in a real card deck – no assembly needed!), many historical scenarios and a battle board correct elements that detracted from previous games. The map still has not enough space to pile units though, big though it is. See: http://www.eaglegames.net/ GMTThe latest P500 graduate is Across the Rappahannock, the second game in the Glory series on battles of the American Civil War designed by Richard Berg. It has new command and combat mechanics that not only can be retro-fitted to the original Glory, but Across the Rappahannock provides all the counters necessary to play the battles in the original Glory with the new rules. Across the Rappahannock covers Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the biggest battle in the entire war. While the full game of the latter battle uses 3 map, there are one-map battles and smaller scenarios for those wanting something quick to play. Also just out from GMT is Napoleonic Wars, the latest in their line of card based games. Designed by Mark McLaughlin this game has been around since the days of old Avalon Hill, so it has seen plenty of development. The components include stand up leaders, two packs of cards, four counter sheets, a rulebook and campaign/scenario book. Although it can be played two-player it is intended for multi-player action. See: http://www.gmtgames.com In an attempt to break into the collectible card game market, with a card game that is not really collectible (but will have add on sets) GMT has released Flagship, a new tactical space combat game system. The first two sets in the series are Prometheus Unchained and Coyote Stands. GMT is gearing for a bug promotion effort here. See: http://www.gmtflagship.com/Flagship/ GRDGRD recently released Over There. The second game in their World War One series, it contains eleven maps and thirteen counter-sheets, and covers the war on the Western Front from 1917-19, plus the war in Africa, in a multitude of scenarios. It mates with the earlier March to Victory but ownership of this game is not necessary to play Over There. All in all a massive game. See: http://www.grdgames.com/ LudopressLudopress is a Spanish company and they have recently issued Iberos on the Roman conquest of Spain. The game has an area map, 240 counters, and two booklets, one with historical background and rules (in Spanish and English), the other with the scenarios. Game turns are one year in length with nine scenarios ranging from 3 to 17 turns; with most in the 10-15 turn area. Ludopress do not have a web site. New England SimulationsNot a company you hear a lot about, New England Simulations take their time about designing, testing and producing games. Their philosophy is the market can wait. Their latest release is The Killing Ground on the campaign in Normandy in World War Two. The map and counters look great and the game system is a modified Victory in the West system developed by SPI. See: http://www.carpatina.com/nes/ Magazine gamesIssue #210 of Strategy and Tactics contains Belisarius, on the campaigns of the famous Byzantine general who enabled the Emperor Justinian to regain the western part of the Roman Empire. The game system is based on that used in popular earlier games like Xenophon and Charlemagne. See: http://www.decisiongames.com/ Vae Victis issue#44 contains Batailles pour le Canada, on battles from the Seven Years War in Canada (Fort Carillon, Les plaines d’Abraham and Sainte-Foy) while issue#45 contains Au Fil De L'Epee, on the medieval battles of Bouvines, Benevento, Lac Peipous and Muret. See: http://www.vaevictis.com/ Issue #2 of Against the Odds contains a John Prados game design, Khe Sanh 1968 on the Vietnam War battle. See: http://www.atomagazine.com/ Issue #5 of the Italian magazine Alea Iacta Est contains Pavia 1525 on the famous decisive battle of the Italian Wars, which raged almost continuously between 1494 and 1529. The French under King Francis 1st were smashed by the Imperial army swinging the balance of power in western Europe towards the Holy Roman Empire of Charles V. Pavia also saw the demise of the armed man-at-arms and the rise of hand held firearms. An English rules translation will be available by the time to read this. The game re-uses rules concepts seen in earlier games. Production quality is top notch. See: http://www.aleaiactaest.it/ Finally issue #8 of Panzerschreck from Minden Games is out. It contains three games: St. Georges Valour: The British Raid on Zeebrugge, a solitaire game designed by Paul Rohrbaugh on the First World War raid; The Fall of Rohm, a solitaire political game covering Hitler’s rise to power and Gorings War, on World War Two dogfights. The latter two games are both designed by Gary Graber (Panzerschreck’s publisher) and both use packs of cards as part of their game systems. See: http://www.homestead.com/minden_games Desktop Published WargamesA newcomer to the DTP scene, Roberto Chiavini’s first commercial design, Innocence Lost on the battle of First Bull Run, will be out in September under his TCS company label. The game is a brigade level simulation with a game system related to that used in Ivy Street’s Stonewall at Cedar Mountain. For more information see: http://www.tcs.web1000.com/bullrun New from Microgame Design are two games. Across the Piave is a Hjalmar Gerber design on two 1918 battles on the Italian front: the Battle of the Piave and Vittorio Vineto. This game has got a very novel system with large hexes and contact boxes between them, an interactive movement system and a very bizarre CRT. Early reports are that it all works. The second game is A Mere Matter of Marching, designed by Bruce McFalane, on the Niagara Campaign of 1812. It is a point-to-point movement biased against larger groups moving, combat being handled on a battle board. It is faintly reminiscent of A House Divided. See: http://www.microgamedesigngroup.ca/ Randy Heller has produced a third edition ‘upgrade kit’ for his game Bitter Woods, on the Battle of the Bulge. The kit consists of an all new unit counter sheet and players' booklet. See the Bitter Woods home page at: http://members.aol.com/bobmryan/BWHome.htm Perry Moore's newest game is Operation Grozny on the last ditch German offensive to breakthrough the Soviet's final defensive line to the Caucasus oilfields in World War Two. The game has one 11 by 17 map, 1 players' aid chart, 2 sheets of tables, and 280 single-sided counters. The graphics for the counters are superb. See: http://pweb.jps.net/~perrya/ New from BSO, Richard Berg’s DTP self-publishing outlet are two games. The first, The Last Crusade, covers the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 (Christians versus Ottomans) using the Longbow system. The maps are a little drab. The second game, Greek Tragedy, on the Italian Invasion of Greece in 1940, has an excellent map. Using a system based on that in Berg’s previous design for GMT, June 6, this game offers an historical scenario and several what-if scenarios. The Italians have lots of everything but find campaigning hard to get going while the Greeks have weather and the mountains on their side. The game scale is divisional, with some regiments and battalions. Support for BSO Games comes from Richard’s new web site: http://www.richardberg.com Web sitesConsimworld (http://www.consimworld.com) continues to go from strength to strength. Its maintainer, John Kranz, recently ran a second Monstercon, this time entitled Consimworld Expo 2002, where a hard core of wargamers get together to play monster games. For reports and links to pictures see: http://grognard.com/convent.html John was also looking for donations to help fund his very popular site. In a similar vein, Boardgamegeek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com) which covers all sorts of strategy board games also ran a donation drive. On my web site, Web-Grognards (http://grognard.com/) I am running a free weekly competition called the SPI Challenge, to win copies of old SPI games. I was very kindly given a collection of mainly SPI games by a local gamer and, since I have many of them, it seems only fair to pass them on to those that do not have them. See: http://grognard.com/spi.html On the subject of SPI games you might want to check out a new web site which, under license from Decision Games, is promising to make lots of SPI games playable over the Internet: http://www.hexwar.com Finally you may remember in the last On the Net I covered Rochard Berg’s idea to move online with his magazine Berg’s Review of Games (BROG). A web site is now up at: http://www.richardberg.com and it contains a substantial archive of old reviews from past printed BROGs. It seems though the idea of getting people to pay for emailed reviews has not taken off. Blue Guidon Games have placed issue No. 1 of Advance & Retreat, their company newsletter on the web. See: http://www.consimworld.com/newsroom/story/0402/ar01.pdf And finally… Can you believe that you can get errata for an unpublished game? You can! Advanced European Theatre of Operations, forthcoming from Decision Games, has had errata available since late May at: http://grognard.com/errata1/aeto.doc When I queried the reason for the errata this is the answer I got: “Well, the game was actually due to published last year, and so the components were already finished; it was primarily the attacks on 9/11 that delayed the game's actual publication. In the mean time, we got a chance to find all of the mistakes and little flaws here and there, but the game has otherwise been 'done' for some time. Believe-you-me, no one is more annoyed at the errata issues than I. But, with a game of this size (2,200 pieces), I suppose it's inevitable. Anyway, that's why I wanted to get a solid errata list on Grognards, so everybody is up to date when the game starts shipping in a couple weeks.”
Last update 07/10/07
by Paul Barrett
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