FIELD COMMANDER

NAPOLEON

Back to a leader and a period which is probably the most gamed outside of WWII: the Napoleonic wars.  Back too to a games company that I highly rate and to one of their signature solitaire series, the Field Commander series.  DVG [Dan Verssen Games] has always focused primarily on solo play and I cannot think of another company with such a consistent track record in this field.

Field Commander Napoleon is the third out of a quartet of games that began with Rommel, moved on to Alexander the Great and most recently came up to the C20th with Field Commander Nimitz that my American counterpart, Rob Peterson, is currently working on.  All employ outstanding art work, but I feel fortunate in Napoleon being assigned to me, both because of the leader himself and the magnificent treatment that this game has been given.

The cover art on the box is a sumptuous reproduction of one of the most famous equestrian paintings of Napoleon, David's Napoleon Crossing The Alps. Set against a rich, dark green frame, it provides what is for me the best box art in the whole range of DVG's games.  The box itself is just about the deepest too, a stunning 10cm or 4 inches deep and it needs to be to contain all that's inside. Namely, seven double-panel mounted map boards and a mounted Battlefield board and twelve sheets [the rulebook incorrectly lists only six sheets] of substantially thick and opulent counters.

The Russian campaign

All the games in this series are highly strategic and it may be argued that they handle their subject only lightly and with the broadest of brushes.  Here we span the whole of Napoleon's career in eleven Campaigns from the early Italian Campaign of 1796 through to the 100 Days of 1815.  En route via the various boards, we span so much history and territory, among them one of my favourites, the Peninsular, as well as the devastating Russian Campaign, two in Italy, two against the Prussians, the Egypt Expedition and more.

Though of fine quality and finish, you will see the marked similarities from this and other boards that I've included pictures of.  First of all the simple earthen hues and totally cosmetic touches of terrain that play no part in the game recur throughout, along with the repetition of the identical city icon.  Perhaps even worse is the use of much of the map to site all the critical information.  Special rules, starting forces and their location along with reinforcements, tables for rolling enemy orders and even the simple sequence of play cluster in the outlying geographical regions.

A favourite period, the Peninsular campaign

This makes for ease of play, but is offset by a uniformity and conformity that cannot help but make you feel that you are playing a very similar situation whatever country, whatever campaign, whatever year and even whatever the enemy.

Fighting in Russia, fighting in Spain or fighting in France and so on seems to make little or no difference.  I began to feel that I was solving a puzzle and learning very little about each Campaign.  Yes the Russian campaign has some very basic special rules about weather [and so it should], but by and large over the range of campaigns, Special rules are minimal.  

Other than the names changing and the configuration of where cities are, you gain no knowledge of why the campaign took place here.  Nor will you even follow anything like the path each campaign took, as will become clear when I deal with some of the basic rules.

Victory is almost entirely governed by city control and - to add to the lack of variety - all battles are played out on the one and only battle board.

The one and only battle board.

Attractively done, but no room for variation.  This aspect is for me the downside of the inherent and obviously intended simplicity of the whole game.  Visual compensation lies in the 512 military units.  So many, because each campaign has its own set of units marked with the campaign year.  

Half of the many hundreds of unit counters

They are the standard [and what a standard] thick, gleaming product with rounded corners that press out so easily, with none of the potential to leave fragments behind mentioned by Mark Hathaway in his most recent review.   These counters are characterised by their clarity of image and lettering/numbering: a letter for the Skill level and two numbers, one for Activation, the other Combat value.  Even to my aging eyes, these can be read across the table with absolute certainty in whatever light. 

A very small number of the counters all cleanly pressed out.

I particularly like the cavalry units that have a superscript Combat value, which means that if you roll low enough to equal or be lower than the superscript value you score two hits instead of one.  Added to the main forces of infantry and cavalry are static garrisons, fortifications and cannons.  

Arriving at the rule book, you'll find that the overall simplicity of design is mirrored in the rules.

I have no hesitation in saying that this is the most straightforward of all the rules sets not just for this series, but all the other series in the DVG canon.  The turn sequence is French Movement, resolve battles in all areas where there are Friendly and Enemy units, 2nd French Movement [but paying 1 supply point per Force, where Force means a single unit], resolve any battles resulting from this 2nd Movement, French Resupply and purchase of new units then Enemy units Movement, resolution of resulting battles and Enemy Resupply.  Even that list of steps makes it sound more complex and detailed than it is.

Of the 20 pages of basic rules, 10 are taken up by the Battle sequence.  Sounds as if it's going to be complex, but the length is largely because slightly more than half of them explain very clearly every single battle plan counter and insight counter used by you the French player or drawn by the solitaire system for the Enemy.  The game's strength does lie in this highly accessible and easy system, but so too does much of its limitations.

First of all tying victory almost wholly to city control means that history tends to fly out of the window, as bringing the enemy to battle and destroying the enemy army tended to be the goal far more often, especially for Napoleon. 

Mapboard for both the 1814 & 1815 Campaigns

Next the AI system for Enemy Movement produces a wholly arbitrary and random set of results.  All the units in one area have to be divided into stacks of three units and then each stack of units is rolled for separately.  The outcome - some stay put, some wander off away from the French and some advance towards the French.  This system is vital to break up the, at times, large and powerful enemy forces at start and, as we know from history, the various coalition forces that faced Napoleon were prone to some calamitous errors, but this is verging on the ridiculous.

In its way it does simulate the fact that Napoleon would manoeuvre to defeat his enemies piecemeal, but in many cases that would be achieved by his speed and use of interior lines to meet and overwhelm one force before it could unite with another.  Here it seems almost the reverse, that Napoleon waits to pounce when the united forces decide [on the roll of the dice] to wander away from each other.  Not to say that it doesn't make for an intriguing and interesting situation at times, but [to take a quote out of context] "Ce n'est pas la guerre!" 

Nor is battle very convincing on discovering that you, the French, can set up units in Line or Column, while the Enemy must always set up in Column [often a disadvantageous formation].  This may be intended to represent greater French flexibility, but as the Napoleonic army was famed for attacking in column, it is another point at which I scratched my head and wondered!

As always the rule book concludes with a very good, lengthy example of play.  With the simple set of rules, perhaps this is one occasion when it is less necessary, but still very welcome.

So, as I think you should be expecting, my conclusions are mixed.  Physically, a near perfect presentation.  Straightforward and fairly short rules.  Low complexity.  Ease of play.  But for me too random and, whether you start at his opening campaign or his closing one, too lacking in the feel of being either the Little Corporal or the Grand Empereur!

Box front

Sovereign of the Seas is a strategic 2 player naval wargame set during a 50+ year period of almost continual European and British conflict. Naval power was the ultimate weapon and a large slice of British pride and its' maritime tradition was laid down during this era. I have never tackled the age of sail in a boardgame and I was very much looking forward to reviewing Sovereign of the Seas.

The first thing that struck me upon receiving Sovereign of the Seas was the weight of the box, or lack thereof. It retails for £124.99 and it would be remiss of me not to say up-front that this game, the components, their quality do not make up a 125 pound game. I think I appreciate the fact that Compass Games - the publisher, serves a niche market within a niche hobby, which serves to make their per-unit costs much more expensive than other publishers. However, I cannot justify the RRP they're asking for it in Britain. Apparently it's ~ $85 across the pond and even then it's a tough sell.

For your money you get 1 rule book, 1 paper map (split into 2 tri-fold sheets), 6 sheets of counters, 7 sheets of card and 2 five millimetre dice. I am no stranger to paper maps or counter sheets but at this price I would expect mounted maps that butt up against each other and counters that come out cleanly. What you get instead, is two overlapping maps that need to be laid just right, and some pretty tough counters to push out cleanly. After the first counter sheet with a few tears, (that's tears of paper, not tears of anguish) I decided to pull out my rotary cutter.  No more chit tags for me (^_^)

I never thought I would comment on the colour of a games dice but here they're red and purple and to me they clash badly - white and red dice would have been a much better (and nearly thematic) choice. You'll also quickly realise that you'll need about 12 d6 extra to play this game. Why they couldn't have included an extra 10 5mm d6 at this price is beyond me.

Prior to punching out the game I would recommend reading the rules and just punching out those necessary for whichever scenario you choose first. The rule book has 3 scenarios whose counter mix will be different per scenario. I made the error of initially sorting the counters according to nationality, I think a more efficient method would be by scenario, then nationality, YMMV. I've ended up completely filling the box up with plastic bags trying to come up with some sort of sensible mix of counters to ease the set up time; which could easily be upwards of 30 minutes.

First scenario. Setup, finally!

The game, like all Compass Games I have played, strives for historical accuracy. The counters are all, as far as I could tell using Wikipedia and my general knowledge, historical leaders and ships. I don't doubt that the relative strengths of the units are historically accurate as well. This was a nice touch and the scenarios themselves have specific rules (the scenarios call them conditions) that slightly tweak the game to reflect the historic situation. This attention to history helps to immerse the player in the game and the period, but unfortunately you're pretty cruelly ripped out of that immersion by the amount of counter handling, you need to do. 

Your starting count of anywhere between 20 and 60 ships, not to mention leaders and control markers, are divided amongst up to 6 squadrons. When those squadrons enter the same sea space they combine on the Squadron Disposition chart - a feat that requires you to move and reassemble your affected ships into the new Squadron and reassemble the stacks. When a squadron enters a sea space with an opposing force and successfully engages the enemy, you form a line of battle with your units opposite to the opponents line. This occurs off map and off any provided board. The scope for accidentally dropping or mis-stacking the units is, from personal sausage-finger experience, very large.

British and French line of battle

That re-stacking of counters doesn't include the amount of counter flipping you need to do. The game recreates the fog of war by allowing dummy squadrons and a hidden-until-successfully-found mechanism which means that during the course of your turn, if you're like me, you're going to forget which Squadrons have moved already and what Squadrons are where. I was constantly picking the counters up to inspect the Squadron name then its' stacks, at times it felt more like a memory game.

The rule book suggest sitting at opposite ends of the short length of the map. The distance between players doing this was large enough that my playing partners all agreed to not bother keeping our Squadron Composition stacks face down. There was no way we could have read the details on them at that distance; although we did sacrifice some intelligence of the possible size of your force; given away by the sheer number of units in a stack and the amount of stacks in your squadron.

The designer has kept most of the bigger ship counters off the map during play but there is still the potential for the sea spaces, particularly around the home ports to get very congested with counters. After three long plays of the game I still haven't found a suitable way to squeeze the necessary counters into the coastal sea spaces. Especially at the beginning of the scenarios when you purposely are starting in your home ports.

Average counter density

When you have the additional Force-pool and Squadron Disposition cards all laid out it starts to take up a tremendous amount of table space. Your arms will be flailing over the table reaching for counters a lot ... a war-gamers best friend, the trusty sheet of Plexiglas is, I'd go far to say, an essential bit of kit to play this game.

With all that said, I found myself impressed with the elegance of the core mechanics. This may not sound like an elegant game at all, but the core of it is very simple. Move, Search, Fight, Resupply, repeat. And yet in this simplicity it does feel like a grand strategic naval ship of the line game. (Over-stacking your line of battle against the enemy is a beautiful feeling) The rule set for all of these actions can be learnt in about 15 minutes and during the course of a game you follow the very good player-aids' flow chart so often it is quickly burnt into your brain. If only someone had taught it to me instead of trying to understand the rule book. 

Dice not included...Cdre Rodney aboard HMS Royal George is seriously injured but claims a resounding victory for British naval power.

The rule book attempts to follow the traditional wargame rule-book layout with numbered and nested paragraphs that we're usually so fond of. This rule-book sometimes leaves the reader with entire columns of text to explain a simple rule and it left me exasperated on several occasions when playing through solo. I'm sure there are much more simple ways to explain these rules. The 2 people I have taught this game too had no such difficulty with the rules (maybe it's just me), but I found the rule-book to be incredibly opaque for what is a simple and elegant game mechanic, despite the counter management issues.

You may think that I hate this game, but that is not the case. I really want to like it more and I did enjoy my time with it, but it feels more like a prototype than a fully fleshed out and honed design. I will play it and teach it to anyone who asks and I would suggest it to a Napoleonic wargamer who wants to try strategic sail ... but that's about as far as I can go. 

I don't think that a board game is the best medium for the designer's vision to shine. A computer version for example, would automate counter management and help with several graphic design issues. Around the map are Port Control Boxes, they are broadly adjacent to their geographic location but I found myself searching for the Port Control Box on the wrong side of the map on many occasions. Also, the French and Dutch flags are so similar yet the artist has decided to vertically align text on some of the games control markers that make distinguishing the two nationalities tiresome.

If you're curious and have a pocket that is no longer effective at holding money Sovereign of the Seas is available in the UK now. Online will be the easiest place to buy this game as it will not receive a large distribution... 

store locator to find your nearest board game retailer.

Ogre from Steve Jackson Games is coming to the computer

 

 

Key Info

Title: Ogre
Platform: PC via Steam
Steam Page: store.steampowered.com/app/517780/
Release Date: October 5th, 2017
Official Website: sjgames.com/ogre/products/ogrevideogame/
Developer: Auroch Digital & Steve Jackson Games
Publisher: Auroch Digital

All Trailers, Videos, Images, GIFs, and Press Releases

Everything we’ve released to support the game so far is kept here.

What is the Ogre video game?

Made in partnership with Steve Jackson Games, Ogre is Auroch Digital’s digital adaptation of the classic tabletop wargame.

Ogre is a turn-based strategy game set in the near future, where infantry, hovercraft, tanks, and deadly cybernetic behemoths called Ogres, do battle.

Ogre requires tactical precision and strategic planning, whether in the single player Skirmish and Campaign modes, or against opponents across the world in asynchronous multiplayer.

How does the game play?

Ogre’s straightforward rules and strategic depth are part of its genius, and the reason for its lasting appeal.

If you’ve ever played the original game, then rest assured that this video game adaptation is faithful to it. For those new to the Ogre universe, the basic structure is as follows:

Movement Phase
A player moves their units up to their maximum movement allowance, taking into account the various types of terrain hexes on the map such as craters, forests, towns, and so on. In this phase players can choose to perform Ram and Overrun attacks with their vehicles.

Disable Check
Units that are in Swamp, Rubble, or Forest terrains check to see if they have become immobilized. If so, they are unable to take part in attacks.

Fire Phase
All player units may attack their chosen targets. Players attacking with an Ogre choose which tanks, infantry, or other targets to fire upon; those going up against an Ogre unit attack certain parts of the Ogre such as the tracks or guns. Whether the attack is successful or not is determined by a table of possible results based on a die roll, modified by vehicle type, weapon class, and more.

Second (G.E.V.) Movement Phase
Speedy units called G.E.V.s (ground effect vehicles) then get to move again, making them nimble opponents.

Turn Ends
The player then passes the turn over to their opponent.

Recovery
At the beginning of the player’s next turn, Disabled units have the opportunity to recover. The game then returns to the Movement Phase.

How faithful is this adaptation?

Very faithful! In 1977, Ogre’s clear rules made wargaming accessible to a wide audience. This digital adaptation takes that approach even further by automating a number of the processes and elements of administration in the physical game.

These changes increase the pace of the experience and make turns quick and effortless even for new players, while keeping the rich strategic choices that Ogre veterans expect.

 

What content can players expect to see?

The digital adaptation comes with a wealth of units, including: Light, Heavy, Superheavy, and Missile Tanks, G.E.V.s, Infantry, Marines, Howitzers, and Ogres (Mark I through Mark VI), plus Trains and Command Posts.

Players can play as either The North American Combine or The Paneuropean Federation, upon a variety of maps bursting with tactical opportunities.

A generous Campaign called Nightfall, specifically written for the video game, awaits commanders in single player, as does a Skirmish mode that allows players to setup games of Ogre with specific conditions. A tutorial is on-hand to teach new players the fundamentals of the game as well.

And when ready, players can take their skills online to compete against people around the world.

About Steve Jackson Games

Steve Jackson Games publishes Ogre, Illuminati, Munchkin, Zombie Dice, Chez Geek, and a lot of other board and card games. Its big upcoming project is Car Wars on Kickstarter. Follow us on twitter.com/sjgames, like us on facebook.com/sjgames, visit us on instagram.com/stevejacksongames, and check out our game forums at forums.sjgames.com

About Auroch Digital

Auroch Digital is the acclaimed Bristol-based games studio founded by veteran game designer Dr. Tomas Rawlings. For more information, visit aurochdigital.com, follow on twitter.com/AurochDigital, and like us on facebook.com/AurochDigital​

Grouchy's Waterloo

The Battles of Ligny and Wavre

By

Andrew W. Field

 Marshal Ney, ('The bravest of the brave', Prince of Moscow, Le Rougeaud) was a singularly unlucky man. In 1813, he had the chance to fall upon the Allied rear at Bautzen. If he had, history might have been changed. In 1815 he was again responsible for letting an Allied army, the Prussians, off the hook at Ligny. He was also the only Marshal to be shot for treason for joining Napoleon in 1815. Ney ordered d'Erlon's corps back to Quatre Bras just as it was about to fall on the wavering Prussian right flank at Ligny. If d'Erlon was able to attack the Prussians, it may have sent their army fleeing. Instead, the Prussians were able to retreat in a more orderly fashion.

 Napoleon blamed Ney and the newly created Marshal Grouchy for his loss at Waterloo, and so have many historians. This book follows Marshal Grouchy through the battle of Ligny under Napoleon's watchful eye, and the battle of Wavre where he was left to his own devices. The reason I mention Ney is that his blunder had a tremendous effect on Grouchy's subsequent orders and mission. Napoleon's 1815 campaign was full of what ifs. He was able to drive a wedge between the the Anglo-Allied army and the Prussian one. Then he defeated the Prussians at Ligny on June 16th 1815, only to lose at Waterloo on June 18th. Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo was mainly caused by the Prussians being beaten at Ligny, but not routed. This is where the part of Grouchy in this history becomes so important. Grouchy was ordered to follow the Prussians and keep his sword in their back.

 The author, Mr. Field, has published three books (with a fourth on the way) on the 1815 campaign from the French perspective. They are:

Prelude to Waterloo: Quatre Bras
Waterloo: The French Perspective
Grouchy's Waterloo (this book)
 
 This is the third in the series. The author gives us an excellent account of the two battles of Ligny and Wavre. If that was all a book on the subject had to do, it would probably would have been a much easier task for the author. Unfortunately for him, this campaign has been written about probably more than any other campaign in history. The arguments over this campaign and its battles and personalities have raged over the last two hundred years. The list of should, could, and would haves are almost endless.

 As mentioned, Ney and Grouchy are the favorite punching bags of historians and armchair generals. As the author shows, the questions about Grouchy start even before the campaign in Belgium began. Many, even at the time, questioned Grouchy's elevation to the Marshalate. We have, or at least we believe we have, all of Napoleon's orders to Grouchy. The book clearly shows them and what it entailed because of them. 

 The author shows that Grouchy did exactly as he was told per his orders, nothing more or less. The point of conjecture here is what Napoleon ordered compared to what Soult, his then chief of staff,  sent. Soult, although a fine general, was no Berthier. Why do accounts show Napoleon expecting Grouchy to show up on his right? Why did so many French officers on the right believe they were there to make contact with Grouchy? Was it all just wishful thinking? To me, the most telling part of what was expected of Grouchy is in the absence of a negative response from Napoleon, chastising Grouchy when troops showed up on his right at Waterloo. In the beginning, no one could tell if they were Prussians or French soldiers.

 As the author shows, the 'Grande Armee' of 1815 had nowhere near the mettle of the armies during the year1805 and others. Its  morale was actually brittle.

 Mr. Field contends that you cannot judge the orders and actions of officers of the 19th century with 21st century thinking. He asserts that in 1815 there was no leeway in orders. I am not wholly convinced by his arguments that this was unilaterally true. Napoleon's and Jomini's writings suggest otherwise to me. However, this might me be their own Monday morning quarterbacking. It is quite possible that Napoleon's undoing was his inability to clone himself when armies and battles grew larger. 

 This book, when taken by itself, is a great addition to the history of the campaign. When looked at in conjunction as the third volume of four on the campaign, these books are a treasure trove of information from the French perspective.

 I for one believe the 1815 campaign was decided, along with Napoleon's fate, when Marshal Berthier refused to rejoin Napoleon. If Marshal Berthier was chief of staff most, if not all, of the errors on the French side would never have been committed.


 Robert


Book: Grouchy's Waterloo: The Battles of Ligny and Wavre
Author: Andrew W. Field
Publisher: Pen And Sword
Distributor: Casemate Publishers




 


 

Today I have a special treat, an interview with Johan Nagel, founder of Every Single Soldier, a studio which has brought us several high quality games in the last few years. Vietnam '65, Afghanistan '11, and Carrier Deck. He discussed with me the past, present, and future of his company. Enjoy!


AWNT: Tell us a bit about yourself, what was the path that led you into playing wargames and eventually into producing your own games?

I come from a military family, my father was a submariner, my brother an officer in the Army Special Forces and I was a Lieutenant in the South African Marines. I have been playing wargames and generally all sorts of board games since my early teens. I started with Squad Leader and progressed from there. I decided to leave the military as we were always going to win the battle war but lose the political war.

I am a lawyer by degree and went into banking, all the while keeping my interest in military history and especially strategy. Vietnam '65 was actually designed and played on a Commodore 64 (GWBasic) and then later on PC (using the Operation Flashpoint editor) as finding an opponent was always a challenge, especially with such a small community in South Africa.

A few years ago I decided to actually publish V65 and thoroughly enjoyed the whole process from design to actual development and decided to make banking part time and making military games full time.

AWNT: Could you tell us about the founding of Every Single Soldier? Did you and your team have a clear vision of what kind of games you wanted to make from Day 1?

ESS is actually just myself, I design, finance and produce the titles, all outsourced to studios both locally and internationally. ESS was actually created in the early 90's and was another military hobby of mine, casting and painting military chess sets and Anglo-Boer war artillery sets. Literally, every single soldier was handcrafted and painted by me, hence Every Single Soldier. I just kept the brand.

I always wanted to make games post WW2, I have played every battle in WW2 so many times I gravitated to modern conflicts , especially counter insurgency wars, having served in the SADF in the Angola border wars in the mid 80's. I was always very interested in the Vietnam war, partly because of the counter insurgency nature and the fascination with the development of airmobile warfare.

AWNT: Is there a dream game you would like to make one day, that you simply don’t have the resources for right now?

Fortunately after a successful 20 year career in banking, I have the resources to make the games I really want to without the fear of not being able to pay the bills :) I have so many games I would like to make, it's a matter of priority and finding the resources to make them that's the challenge.

Making games about the South African conflicts both in the 19th and 20th century doesn't make immediate economic sense but are what I really want to create, but [I] will save them for later, leaving the best for last, as I learn the trade of making and publishing games.

AWNT: What was the inspiration for Vietnam ‘65, specifically in terms of making a game that wasn’t just about combat, but required the player to focus on the Hearts and Minds aspect of the conflict?

The traditional, conventional wargame methodology of building up your army, crossing a border and then destroying your opponent was becoming a bit stale for me as well as being a model that could never realistically model modern conflicts. Not only did I experience counter insurgency war first hand, but have studied it, and the hearts and minds of the local population had to be a factor in the new model. Also a war without borders, Intel taking center stage and political objectives needed a new model. V65 was really a baby step in this direction, A11 expanded on it adding many new levels of complexity, it [is] still a part of the journey, there is a lot that can be added to the future.

AWNT: After developing Vietnam ‘65, how close was the original design to the final result?

Pretty close, but the original V65 (1990) had a lot more elements and was also played on a strategic map but then the player could assume the actual FPS character of any action at any time, thanks to the great Operation Flashpoint Editor, I still view this as the best version of the game :) The hard part was deciding what to leave out and how to keep as much simplicity in the model whilst capturing the essence of the conflict.

AWNT: After Vietnam ‘65, what led you to choose Afghanistan as the next conflict to explore with this system?

Afghanistan was a natural choice following Vietnam, the parallels are very apparent, albeit the terrain very different. This also gave me the opportunity to include elements left out of V65, for example the whole nation building (Vietnamization policy), political variables (elections and global events) etc.

AWNT: Was there any feedback that Afghanistan was too recent of a conflict to turn into a game?

Surprisingly no negative feedback on any scale was received, we had no more than a few posts in a few threads , so was very happy about that. I took great care to ensure the credibility and authenticity of the conflict was properly represented, being ex military myself I understand this, and had constant input from a number of serving US Army officers and NCO's throughout the process. The feedback for vets and serving has been overwhelmingly positive and this has really been the most gratifying part of the whole process.

AWNT: Afghanistan ‘11 expanded upon most of the mechanics in Vietnam ‘65. Were there any features or mechanics that you wanted to add but didn’t make the cut for whatever reason?

So A11 was an opportunity to evolve the model but certain elements were left out, mostly to keep the evolution of the model at a steady pace, as the model has a relatively steep learning curve and we need to keep this in mind when trying to get a larger audience. The civilian population and the subsequent interactions with them needs expanding, Intel needs to become more 'nuanced', unit experience needs to play a larger role.  The tactical part of the game, etc.

AWNT: Are you familiar with the COIN series of board games from GMT Games? The games Fire in the Lake and A Distant Plain are similar in some respects to Vietnam ‘65 and Afghanistan ‘11, respectively.

Very familiar with the series, in fact, I contacted them a while back offering to take the series to the computer realm, time will tell. Enjoy the series as it too is abstracted, just like my games are.

AWNT: After visiting Afghanistan and Vietnam, what is the next stop in this series?

Right now we are porting A11 to the iPad, then we will be publishing the British Army DLC for A11, new vehicles, campaign, uniform etc. Thereafter we are planning a USMC DLC and finally an ISAF DLC which would include a few vehicles from most of the top contributors to the conflict.

The potential for future stops could include an ISIS adaption and our very own Angola Bush war :)

AWNT: What was the spark that led to Carrier Deck? While still war-themed, it is a very different sort of game from your other titles.

As mentioned earlier, my interest in game development is not linear to counter insurgency wars, I have a number of game designs that have been 'percolating' in my head for many years, I was always interested in the battle of Midway and especially the finding and destroying opposing carriers. This coupled with my preferred style of making abstracted games as opposed to purely historically accurate games and that I prefer developing systems rather that recreating events in my game designs, CD was born. It's perfect for a game, it is process driven, involves awesome tech and is relevant.

AWNT: Do you have plans for more light, fast paced games in the vein of Carrier Deck?

Indeed I do, currently in development is His Majesty's Ship (HMS), completely different to all my previous games. Being raised as a Navy child, Captaining a ship was always going to be a boyhood dream. Once again, looking for a game that catch the's essence of commanding a vessel has proved hard to find, most 18th century games currently focus on 'sailing around your opponent trying to discharge cannons', similar to the traditional WW2 games where you stack your infantry ( Stregth 5 ) + armor (strength 8) and attack the enemy infantry (strength 4) apply modifiers etc, this is so not my type of game! I have played them to death and rather prefer to try capture the essence of the theater, including logistics, morale, etc. in an abstracted form. I create systems as opposed to outcomes, and when I get that unintended/unexpected result, I still smile (sometimes not) when I unexpectedly experience a crossover of a few of the systems in A11 and the result is both credible, plausible and entertaining.

As development of HMS has already commenced, I am currently working on a new fast paced game abstracting the present/future conflict for the dominance of the Arctic Circle. The game is currently in prototype and coming along nicely.

I have not totally forsaken the TBS genre and have completed a design doc on a game that captures the essence (abstracted of course :) of the period of 1860-1900 in South Africa (Anglo-Zulu + Anglo-Boer) and hope to get this into production before the end of this year.

I am really enjoying my new 'career' in game development and am aiming to publish around 3 titles a year, after so many long years in Financial Services, I have ton of games stored since my youth and now have the time and resources to actually realize them.

AWNT: Well, you sound like a very busy man, so I'll let you go. Thank you for your time!



ESS Official Website: http://www.everysinglesoldier.com/

All of the games discussed can be found on Steam, the Apple App Store, and on http://www.matrixgames.com/


- Joe Beard

The Siege of Tsingtau

by

Charles Stephenson

First things first, the campaigns of WWI are not very familiar to me. This book covers, what I originally thought, a very obscure battle of the Japanese attack on German Tsingtau in the Pacific (current day Qingdao). Although the name 'World War One' implies a global conflict my naive understanding is limited to the Somme, Verdun, Gallipoli et al. It should be no surprise that the colonial subjects across the Pacific were drawn into the war just as their primary state decreed.

The book starts with several chapters that detail the geo-political environment of all the main belligerents. In these formative chapters there is a large reliance on direct quotes from source material. This leads to some dense sentence construction, of which the author excels throughout the rest of the book, even when source material is not being referenced. 

In the introduction to the book, the author himself states that if you want to get to the actual fighting, i.e. to skip the politics, then skip the first couple of chapters. I might be doing the book an injustice, there are a few skirmishes in the previous chapters, but the actual battle, from my understanding started in Chapter 7, the penultimate chapter of the book.

Again in the introduction, the author states that the book is not aimed at the academic audience. I think he is doing himself a disservice as the book is, to my mind, thoroughly researched and includes 66 pages of notes and bibliography to the 8 chapters, that comprise nearly 40% of the book. Any student of the theatre, at any level, would do well to pick up this book and read this narrative history of the battle.

All that being said, I was continually surprised by this account of an 'obscure' battle. I wasn't aware of the extent of German colonisation in the Pacific, nor the different military's nascent air power capabilities. However what initially piqued my interest with this book was the fact that two infamous WWII allies were, adversaries just 25 years earlier. I personally would have liked to see more analysis of how that came to be, but that is unfair to the author and his work, as that would warrant an entirely different book outside this scope.

The book includes the standard middle glossy insert of photo pages. The scale and size of the equipment shown in these photos somehow seemed incongruous to the text I was reading. This is no criticism of the text rather a new-found admiration and awe of the bravery of soldiers from both sides, with the most rudimentary of equipment, going against massive siege artillery.

I particularly enjoyed the account of SMS Emden's (a German light crusier) exploits in the Indian Ocean against the Entente Powers' shipping. A nugget I will take away from that account is the importance of logistics and command and control (C2) support; often decried as boring and glossed over in many historical war-games, yet it is essential. The German East Asian (naval) Squadron was bereft of a re-supply base and had to split into both the Indian Ocean and round Cape Horn into the Southern Atlantic to find fuel and repairs.

As a precursor to the battle the British and Japanese forces destroyed the radio masts of the German occupiers. This, I imagine, is still employed today as a viable military tactic i.e. denying the enemy C2 channels, but in 1914 the German colony was left with no communication ability to the outside world. From a modern perspective that seems scary and almost impossible to achieve today.

The other aspect, which I found noteworthy, was the effect and experience of aeroplanes in this battle. The author, at some length, explains a few of the aviation firsts that occurred during and in the events preceding this battle. I was very grateful for the detail he included and I would have liked another chapter or so dedicated to the air environment. 

The author loosely follows the exploits of a couple of pilots from both sides as they built, and fixed their aircraft to fly reconnaissance or strike missions. Yes you read that right - 'strike' missions. I was particularly intrigued with a pilot who was given his license, his 'wings' if you will, after 2 days training and how his propeller would disintegrate during flight as the right type of glue wasn't available! I can't imagine flying in a self-destructing aircraft.

Overall this book opened my eyes to the global scale and scope of WWI and I am grateful to have read it. My personal experience and interests include military aviation and the pacific theatre from WWII to today and so this book was interesting to me. I couldn't recommend it to the casual reader unless they have, at the very least, a peripheral interest in the topic. However, if you are in the latter camp then pick it up and you may be as surprised as I was.

The Siege of Tsintau is available from Pen & Sword Books for £20.

TERRAFORMING MARS

Well from modern urban warfare to the future.  Quite a journey and, in this case, not a military one.  Here we're solidly into Eurogaming mode - my other major gaming preoccupation. 

Quite some time ago, when invited to take part in my first game of Terraforming Mars, I was willing, but less than enthusiastic.  For someone who thoroughly delights in establishing cotton mills and iron works in Lancashire [Martin Wallace's Brass - currently reissued as Brass: Lancashire, along with its sequel Brass: Birmingham], undertaking the task of transforming an alien world should surely have had more appeal.  It didn't.  Thankfully, being willing to try anything once paid off! 

It's my most played game in the last six months and since first being introduced to the game I've played it with the whole range from 2-5 players.  Most recently a 3 player game a few days ago.   I can strongly recommend all number of players [5 perhaps not so wholeheartedly.]  But, I didn't have my own copy.  Sold out!  Yes, for an eye-watering sum  a second-hand copy might have been possible.  Just as reprints were starting to be advertised as available soon, I was given the opportunity to receive my own mint copy to review.  Bliss!  Seventh heaven! Pigs in muck!

So, you can tell ... I like this game.  I hope I can infect you [no, there are no alien parasites or chest-bursters in this game] with my enthusiasm.  You are the head of a gigantic corporation undertaking projects [no, you can't undertake a project to acquire and research an alien creature and turn it into a biological weapon/soldier], mine resources, construct oceans and cities, undertake a sort of afforestation to increase oxygen levels and develop plant life and produce energy and heat to raise temperature levels.  Oh , and by the way produce lots of money which can be ploughed back into all these activities and make more money and fund awards and pass milestones and emerge as the most influential force behind [fanfare of trumpets] the terraforming of Mars  ... and win the game.

Having read a very wide range of views and reviews of the game, it does seem personal taste may play more of a part in your reaction to some aspects than with many games.  Take the playing board, not surprisingly a schematic of the planet, Mars.

As you can see, it's surrounded by a track on which you record your Terraform rating [which indicates both your base income for each turn and VP score].  The curved track above the planet charts the increase in oxygen, the temperature gauge to the right records ... well, the temperature.  Beneath the planet, are two sets of VP awarding objectives that you can achieve - even the potential to achieve them will cost you money.  To the lower left is a table of basic actions and their costs that you will probably be in dire straights if you need to utilise them.

Mars itself is covered in those good old hexes where you will place lovely thick cardboard tiles as you acquire cities, oceans and what, for want of a better word than that used in the game, are called greenery tiles.

Loads and loads of ...err ...greenery tiles!

Well, you are transforming Mars by your actions into a green and pleasant land fit for humans to inhabit without the sealed domes beloved of SF.  Currently, it is a bare landscape, with some hexes outlined in grey/blue where you can place ocean tiles and a scattering of symbols that indicate bonuses when you place a tile there.  Mars is a sort of pinkish ochre in colour - definitely not a strongly Red Planet!

For me it works well.  All's clear and, I would say, a good sized board, appropriate and very functional, which my very average camera skills don't do full justice to.  In come other views and questions that I've seen.  My favourite was why was the board when folded down for storage made smaller than the box it comes in. As if the questioner had been cheated because there is room for the board to be bigger!  It serves its purpose perfectly.  I've never heard anyone I've gamed with complain that it is too small or there's not enough room and so on.

Here it is set up for three players, never mind five.  As the game progresses, the whole layout takes up quite a bit of my gaming table even despite my OCD as you can see for producing neat piles and containers for resources.

Next comes your player mat.  Attractive, colourful and well organised, but lacking the two key words that, if you read my reviews, feature repeatedly: sturdy and strong.  

They are thin and I would agree would benefit from being larger.  The reason you will see below.

You place nice little plastic cubes in your player colour on each track to show your current number of each resource available to be produced and collected at the end of each turn.  The display above shows 1 resource of each type at the set up of the game.  This is one of the main complaints, as it's all too easy for a marker cube to get accidentally misplaced... a trailing sleeve, a heavy sneeze and curses on the one who jolts your table!  As for anyone who you have the slightest suspicion might stoop to underhand practices - just don't let them near this game.  Oh for the lovely thick, strong, sturdy [there I go], recessed player mats of Scythe!

And so you shall have it! Or something very like it.  A special set of overlays for your player mats, along with a whole lot more to organise the game.  Not essential, rather pricey, but when available that's what I've ordered.

On to the major gripe from players, the resource cubes, also done in neat plastic cubes, but coated in bronze, silver and gold for denominations of respectively 1/5/10.

Complaints have come in of some of the cubes' coatings already being chipped at the corners when the game arrives.  Got to say that mine were all fine, but I've already started to see the problem starting to appear with friends' copies of the game and I know that at some point it will start to happen with mine.  If the state of my cubes gets so bad that I can't stand it any longer, I know that I'll simply substitute small wooden cubes in three different colours that I possess in abundance.  I agree that the quality should really be better than this, but the way this game sells like hotcakes indicates that it's not a killer problem.  Oh, and nearly forgot, there are3 slightly larger white cubes for use on the Oxygen, Temperature and MC tracks.

Apart from the rulebook, the other major component are the cards which are the heart of the game and drive the whole process.  There are lots and lots and lots of them: 208 to be precise.  So many that shuffling is a skill in itself and considering the amount of use they are going to get if you like this game, then sleeving them produces a real Eiffel tower's worth that needs to be piled in at least three stacks.  In the picture I have not yet sleeved them, because I don't have enough sleeves left to cope with all them!

Good quality, plenty of colour and a range of art work.  I'll say more about the meaning of the symbols, when I discuss game play later.

There are also 2 sets of 4 references cards, which after your first game should largely be redundant.  For a seemingly complex game, once you've experienced a single game, I doubt you'll need these at all and finally there are 17 corporation cards.

There are 5 identical copies of the top Corporation card, which as the heading suggests are designed mainly for if you are very new to the game.  It means that you start the game with 42 "money" or, in game-speak MC [MegaCredits] and 10 Project cards that you don't have to pay for at the start of the game. 

Once you're familiar with the game or, if you prefer even on your first game, you will be randomly dealt two of the individual Corporation cards [PHOBLOG being one such example].  You choose one of them as your Corporation card for the game, receive the appropriate amount of MCs and a specific number of resources, in this case 10 titanium and a bonus ability framed in the oblong box.  Also you receive 10 Project cards, but now you only get to keep as many of them as you are willing to pay 3 MCs for each card chosen.

The rulebook is a slim 16 pages of fairly thin glossy paper.  Again not the most durable item; mine had a slight tear in the back page when I unboxed the game and I shall have to handle it with care.  But the rules themselves are abundantly clear and thorough.  I found no ambiguities nor uncertainties at all.

So, regarding total components, I'd rate them in the main as good quality with the key question mark for some people hanging over the resource cubes.  For a typical price of at least £49.99, perhaps you might expect better, but again no one I know has been put off buying or has been disappointed with the game.

For me, the compulsive element of the game is its mechanics of play.  Like many games of this type, it is a question of building a smoothly working games engine, increasing as many of the different types of resource as possible, increasing your terraform rating, acquiring cards with VPs on them, achieving bonus VPs ...

The game ends when three goals have been achieved: all the ocean tiles have been placed on the board,  the Temperature track is at maximum and the Oxygen track is at maximum.  At this point players conduct one last Production Phase and place any greenery tiles that their supply of plants allows them to.  Then work out your scores.   

Game play is in essence very straightforward.  First player moves clockwise at the start of each Round.  Next is the Research Phase, where players are dealt four project cards and simply to add them to your hand costs 3 MCs per card retained.  A variant is offered where you first draft the four cards you have drawn.  According to the rules this is for greater interaction, but personally I feel that the main reason for using this variant [which I strongly recommend] is more to reduce the luck element.  

My most recent game illustrates perfectly what I mean.  When gaming with a group who favour not drafting, I drew only four cards in the whole game that directly improved the levels of some of my resources, while the others drew more than double the number of such cards.  I've found this one area of drafting/not drafting to be the main one that players disagree over.  It adds only slightly to game play time, unless you have players who suffer from analysis paralysis and as I've said I strongly recommend trying.

Nor do I think it adds much to aiming to thwart other players from obtaining a card they need, as some have claimed.  Each player will build up so many cards that are upside down from where you are sitting, so if you can see what they might especially need you must have special inverted x-ray vision.

Once you've paid for the cards you are keeping, you take them into your hand and then the main Phase of the game begins which is taking Actions in turn order.  On your turn, you can take one or two actions and this opportunity continues until you pass.  At this point, you can no longer take any further Actions and the Phase continues until every player has passed.  Occasionally this may lead to an individual player having a little downtime, but I've never felt that it has occasioned anyone major delays.

Most Actions will probably involve you paying to play a card down in your play area of the table.  At this stage, it starts to become very important to know the meaning of the symbols on the cards.  When you explain this can be critical.  I've experienced those who like to try and explain every symbol to newcomers before play starts and I think for some beginners this can be a significant deterrent to them enjoying and coping. 

Two of the three types of cards that can be played.

Personally, I tend to point out that there are three types of card; with either a red/orange band, a green band or a blue band across the top.  The first are Events that are one-off happenings that are then turned face down; the second again have an immediate effect, but need to be kept face up in a pile so that the symbols at the top of the card are visible and the third type also need to be kept face up because they either have an effect that can recur or that you can activate as one of your Actions once per Round.

The reason why you need to be able to see the symbols is twofold.  Some cards have instructions on them that they can only be played, if you already have a specific number of the appropriate symbols in front of you.  Some cards can be paid for using not just MCs, but in resources too.  For example, a card that has a brown circle with a building inside the circle can be paid for in steel resources and/or MCs.  Or a card with a black circle with a golden star inside can be paid for with titanium resources.  So, the card above on the right that costs 11 MCs could be paid for using MCs and/or steel resources and the card below on the right costing 12 MCs can be paid for using MCs and/or titanium resources.

Apart from paying to place a card in front of you, there may be other requirements.  Again a typical example is on the left-hand card above.  The requirement is given both symbolically and also in words - the oxygen level must have reached 11% on the Oxygen track to allow you to play the card.  So, good news, all these types of symbols don't need to be known or remembered!  Just read the words!

Other Actions you can take are the basic ones, that I mentioned early in my review, for which there is a table to explain them on the game board.  These allow you to do things like pay to place a city or a greenery tile, but they are the most expensive way to accomplish anything in this game.  So, try to achieve them by playing cards rather than purely spending MCs.

As the game progresses, you and the other players will slowly at first, but with rapidly accelerating progress towards the end be filling the map board with cities and oceans and greenery, until ultimately Mars will have been appropriately terraformed.  In the process, you will pick up a lot of information about that process and every aspect of the game from actions to cards to game board reinforce the theme.

For you, that may play a part in the enjoyment of playing Terraforming Mars, but for me that is wholly peripheral and that is not a complaint or criticism.  I am wholly immersed and taken up with the sheer delight I get from trying to make the most of my every card and action, trying to create a smoothly effective process, to build up my terraforming rating and to acquire VPs in as many ways possible.

Rarely has the winner been clear until the very last totting up of all the different ways to score VPs.  And if you're really desperate for a game, it can even be played solo and just as all the other numbers of players provide a fantastic game, so does the solo experience.

RRP – £64.99
Online Retailer – 365games.co.uk

Store Locator - http://www.findyourgamestore.co.uk/