Immortal Fire a DLc for Field of Glory II

by

Slitherine

 

 This is the first, hopefully in a long line, of DLCs released for Field of Glory II. For those of you living in a cave, Field of Glory II is the newest ancient battle game released by Slitherine. I am a ancient history nut, and to me and many others, Field of Glory II  has really hit the sweet spot. Please see my review of the base game here:

http://www.awargamersneedfulthings.co.uk/2017/10/field-of-glory-ii-by-slitherine-and.htmlhttp:

 This DLC goes back in time to the first battles between the Grecian city states and the Persian Empire. Then the DLC continues to Alexander's battles and the ones of his successors (the Diadochi). The earliest epic (historical) battle is Thymbra in 547 B.C., and the latest is Raphia in 217 B.C. Here is a list of what comes with the DLC:

• 8 new factions: Achaemenid Persians, Etruscans, Antigonos, Lysimachos, Spartans, Latins, Lydians, Kyrenean Greeks, Thessalian Greeks.

• 10 new units: Persian Immortals, Persian sparabara foot, Persian armoured cavalry with bow, Persian improvised camelry, armoured citizen hoplites, armoured veteran hoplites (with Spartan variant), shallowly formed armoured citizen hoplites, Lydian cavalry, Carthaginian chariots, Macedonian prodromoi.

• 30 new army lists (expanding the total number of army list to 105):
  - Achaemenid Persian 550-546 BC
  - Achaemenid Persian 545-481 BC
  - Achaemenid Persian 480-461 BC
  - Achaemenid Persian 460-420 BC
  - Achaemenid Persian 419-329 BC
  - Antigonid 320-301 BC
  - Carthaginian 490-411 BC
  - Carthaginian 410-341 BC
  - Carthaginian 340-281 BC
  - Etruscan 490-331 BC
  - Etruscan 330-280 BC
  - Gallic 390-301 BC
  - Greek 550-461 BC
  - Greek 460-281 BC
  - Kyrenean Greek 550-461 BC
  - Kyrenean Greek 460-322 BC
  - Latin 490-338 BC
  - Lydian 550-546 BC
  - Lysimachid 320-281 BC
  - Macedonian 355-329 BC (Philip and Alexander)
  - Macedonian 328-321 BC (Alexander and first phase of the wars of the Diadochi)
  - Roman 490-341 BC
  - Roman 340-281 BC
  - Seleucid 320-303 BC
  - Seleucid 302-301 BC
  - Skythian or Saka 550-301 BC
  - Spartan 550-461 BC
  - Spartan 460-281 BC
  - Syracusan 421-281 BC
  - Thessalian 404-353BC

• 10 new Epic Battles: Thymbra 547 BC, Marathon 490 BC, Plataea 479 BC, Cunaxa 401 BC, Chaironeia 338 BC, Granikos 334 BC, Issos 333 BC, Gaugamela 331 BC, Hydaspes 326 BC, Raphia 217 BC (all playable from either side). Five of these track the career of Alexander the Great.

• 24 new Quick Battles (each playable from either side).

• Expanded Immortal Fire Custom Battles module includes all 105 army lists from Rise of Rome and Immortal Fire.

• Expanded Immortal Fire Sandbox Campaigns module includes all 105 army lists from Rise of Rome and Immortal Fire.

• 4 new historically-based campaigns: Xenophon, Philip of Macedon, Seleukos I Nikator, Seven Hills of Rome. (Alexander the Great's battles are covered in the Epic Battles).

• 1 what-if campaign: Alexander the Great (what he might have done next if he had not died in 323 BC). (His historical battles are covered in the Epic Battles).

  

  With the armies that come with the DLC, your ancient wargaming is now endless. You also get a what-if campaign of Alexander. This postulates that he did not die in 323 B.C. He was already contemplating conquering at least some of Arabia.

 The Persian Immortals are here, as are the Macedonian Silver Shields. You can recreate battles between Carthage and Syracuse or Pyrrhus. The armies of Greece in the Peloponnesian War are also here for your gaming pleasure. 

 The base game Field of Glory II is so versatile that all of the DLCs that came with its older brother Field of Glory I can, and probably will, be added to its portfolio. As you can see, the ancient army list is now up to a whopping 105. For various reasons, I did not play Field of Glory I much at all. This is not the case with Field of Glory II, and now with the DLCs starting to come, it will be hard for me to tear myself away from the game. 

  The AI in the game is as good as the one in one of their other titles 'Pike and Shot'. The graphics in Field of Glory II are amazing. Field of Glory II is driven by a long standing table top miniatures set of rules. So it not only looks like you are playing miniatures, you really are. I just lost a game of the battle of Raphia to the AI. 

 Playing as the Seleucids, who are on the right hand side of these pictures, I thought that I could crush the Ptolemy left flank before my left would be in too much trouble. What I should have done was to refuse my left and let the Ptolemaic right hook catch nothing but air. I did somewhat destroy their left flank, but not before they had inflicted more casualties on my left. I would like to show you pics, but I had a senior moment and was using the print screen button instead of F12. Sorry, I didn't have time to re-fight the battle. So I just took some shots of the setup of the forces once I realized my mistake.

 With the release of The operational Art of War IV and Field of Glory II, among others,  Slitherine/Matrix certainly have given us wargamers a plethora of gaming. Now, their sister company Ageod has to get going and release 'The Wars of Succession' so I can get my early 18th century itch scratched.

 This just went up on the Slitherine website. It is an announcement about the new field of Glory II 'TT' mod. The 'TT' stands for table top. This adds an immense amount of units etc. to the game. It is not necessary to own 'Immortal Fire' for the mod, but it can only make this great game better.


FIELD OF GLORY II “TT MOD” - DESIGNER NOTES FROM PAUL ADAWAY
This mod greatly expands the units in Field of Glory 2. I am calling it the TT Mod. “TT” because I have got most of my inspiration from the original Field of Glory Table Top army lists. I have added back into the lists a lot of the units from the tabletop version that were left out of the PC version of the game. The mod will come in two forms, a sandbox campaign and a skirmish module (with SP and MP versions).
Nearly all nations have their own specific Pike Phalanx. I have created lots of extra Heavy and Light Cavalry units to replace the ubiquitous vanilla versions. Unfortunately I have no 3D modelling skills, but a lot can be done with new textures, new alpha layers and modding the animation/effects unit.txt files.
I have not modded game play in any way. All unit stats are consistent with the vanilla game. I was tempted to put in my Elephant mod, that I have used in some of my scenarios (i.e. Apollonia), but at the moment it is not included. If I get positive feedback about it, I may add it in later.
This is what is new in the mod:
New army lists:
"Indian (Royal) 500 BC – 180 BC",
"Indian (Royal)179 BC – 319 AD",
"Indian (Republican) 500 BC – 180 BC",
"Indian (Republican) 179 BC – 319 AD",
The vanilla Indian list has been split into 4, the Republican armies having no elephants, and the early lists having no light horse archers.
“Georgian 331 BC – 252 AD”,
The vanilla Iberian list has been renamed as Georgian to stop confusion with the “Spanish” Iberians, who now have their own list.
“Iberian 300-10 BC”,
“Celtiberian 300-10 BC”,
“Lusitanian 300-10 BC”,
The Spanish list has been split into the three main tribal groups.
"Pyrrhic (in Italy) 280-272 BC",
"Pyrrhic (in Greece) 280-272 BC",
The Pyrrhic list has been split into two.
“Achaian League 280-209 BC”,
“Achaian League 208-147 BC”,
“Achaian League 146-146 BC”,
“Aetolian 280-146 BC”,
“Boiotian League 280-271 BC”,
“Boiotian League 270-246 BC”,
“Boiotian League 245-146 BC”,
“Athenian 280-146 BC”,
“Eleian 280-146 BC”,
“Spartan 280-228 BC”,
“Spartan 227-222 BC”,
“Spartan 221-146 BC”,
The Hellenistic Greek lists have been split into several state specific lists.
“Gallic Lowland Tribes 300-201 BC”,
“Gallic Lowland Tribes 200-101 BC”,
“Gallic Hill Tribes 300-201 BC”,
“Gallic Hill Tribes 200-101 BC”,
“Gallic Lowland Tribes 100-50 BC”,
“Gallic Hill Tribes 100-50 BC”,
“Gallic Lowland Tribes 390-301 BC”,
“Gallic Hill Tribes 390-301 BC”,
The Gallic lists have been split into separate ones for lowland and hill tribes.
“Galatian 280-279 BC”,
“Galatian 278-228 BC”,
“Galatian 227-63 BC”,
The Early Galatian list has been split into three era specific lists.
“Graeco-Bactrian 250-211 BC”,
“Graeco-Bactrian 210-130 BC”,
The Graeco-Bactrian list has been split into two era specific lists.
“Carthaginian 235-201 BC”,
“Carthaginian 200-146 BC”,
The late Carthaginian list has been split into a Second Punic War and Post Second Punic War list.
“Kushan 130 BC – 24 AD”,
“Kushan 25 AD – 476 AD”,
The Kushan list has been split into two era specific lists.
“Indo-Skythian 95 BC – 24 AD”,
“Indo-Skythian 25 BC – 50 AD”,
The Indo-Skythian list has been split into two era specific lists.
"Parthian (Saka campaign) 129 BC – 129 BC",
The Parthian Saka campaign gets it's own list.
“Athenian 550 BC – 461 BC”,
“Corinthian 550 BC – 461 BC”,
“Boiotian League 550 BC – 461 BC”,
“Aetolian 550 BC – 461 BC”,
“Akarnanian 550 BC – 461 BC”,
“Phokian 550 BC – 461 BC”,
“Syracusan 550 BC – 461 BC”,
"Greek (Western) 550 BC – 461 BC",
"Greek (Asiatic) 550 BC – 461 BC",
“Athenian 460 BC – 381 BC”,
“Corinthian 460 BC – 381 BC”,
“Boiotian League 460 BC – 381 BC”,
“Aetolian 460 BC – 381 BC”,
“Akarnanian 460 BC – 381 BC”,
“Phokian 460 BC – 381 BC”,
“Syracusan 460 BC – 413 BC”,
"Greek (Western) 460 BC – 381 BC",
"Greek (Asiatic) 460 BC – 381 BC",
“Athenian 380 BC – 281 BC”,
“Corinthian 380 BC – 281 BC”,
“Boiotian League 380 BC – 281 BC”,
“Aetolian 380 BC – 281 BC”,
“Akarnanian 380 BC – 281 BC”,
“Phokian 380 BC – 281 BC”,
"Greek (Western) 380 BC – 281 BC",
"Greek (Asiatic) 380 BC – 281 BC",
The Classical Greek lists have been split into several state specific lists.
“Carthaginian 550-411 BC”,
Extended Early Carthaginian list back to 550 BC.
“Spartan 461-381 BC”,
“Spartan 380-281 BC”,
I have split the late Spartan list into two.
“Seleucid 300-280 BC”,
“Seleucid 279-206 BC”,
“Ptolemaic 320-280 BC”,
“Ptolemaic 279-167 BC”,
“Macedonian 320-280 BC”,
“Macedonian 279-261 BC”,
The early Seleucid, Ptolemaic and Macedonian lists have been split into pre and post 280 BC lists. To reflect a number of changes that happened around that date: availability of Celtic mercenaries, shielded heavy cavalry, Thureophoroi replacing Iphikratean Hoplites.
"Spartan (2nd Invasion Peloponnese) 369-368 BC",
The Spartan army at the time of the 2nd invasion of the Peloponnese gets its own list with Spanish and Celtic troops provided by Syracuse.
"Achaemenid Persian (Gaugamela) 331-331 BC",
"Achaemenid Persian (Bessos) 329-329 BC",
Two new campaign specific lists for the Achaemenid Persians.
"Syracusan (Agathokles in Africa) 310-307 BC",
A new campaign specific list for Syracuse.
“Eumenes 321-316 BC”,
A new army list for Eumenes.
"Greek (Xenophon) 401-399 BC",
A new army list for Xenophon's March of the Ten Thousand.

Some changes to vanilla side names, and 15 new ones added. In some cases giving unique side names to some vanilla armies that share with other nations in the vanilla game:
IDS_SIDENAME_36,“Skythian”, 
IDS_SIDENAME_38,“Iberian”,
IDS_SIDENAME_600,“Celtiberian”,
IDS_SIDENAME_601,“Lusitanian”,
IDS_SIDENAME_602,“Rhoxolani”,
IDS_SIDENAME_603,“Achaian League”,
IDS_SIDENAME_604,“Aetolian”,
IDS_SIDENAME_605,“Boiotian”,
IDS_SIDENAME_606,“Athenian”,
IDS_SIDENAME_607,“Eleian”,
IDS_SIDENAME_608,“Saka”,
IDS_SIDENAME_609,“Sertorian”,
IDS_SIDENAME_610,“Corinthian”,
IDS_SIDENAME_611,“Akarnanian”,
IDS_SIDENAME_612,“Phokian”,
IDS_SIDENAME_613,“Eumenes”,
IDS_SIDENAME_614,“Xenophon”,
Some existing units have been renamed, of these the two Greek cavalry units have new textures:
IDS_UNITNAME18, “Numidian Light Javelin Horse”,
IDS_UNITNAME21, “Gallic Armoured Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME34, “Iberian Scutarii”,
IDS_UNITNAME38, “Veteran Greek Armoured Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME104, “Greek Armoured Cavalry”,
New units, the vast majority with new textures:
IDS_UNITNAME401, “Italian Armoured Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME402, “Italian Citizen Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME403, “Eastern Irregular Foot”,
IDS_UNITNAME404, “Eastern Light Javelinmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME405, “Eastern Massed Archers”,
IDS_UNITNAME406, “Eastern Light Archers”,
IDS_UNITNAME407, “Eastern Light Javelin Horse”,
IDS_UNITNAME408, “Ligurian Spearmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME409, “Apulian Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME410, “Italian Veteran Armoured Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME411, “Tarantine Light Javelin Horse”,
IDS_UNITNAME412, “Illyrian Spearmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME413, “Thracian Armored Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME414, “Macedon Chalkaspides Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME415, “Macedon Peltastai Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME416, “Macedon Agema Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME417, “Macedon Guard Xystophoroi”,
IDS_UNITNAME418, “Seleucid Chalkaspides Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME419, “Seleucid Argyraspides Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME420, “Seleucid Xystophoroi”,
IDS_UNITNAME421, “Agema Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME422, “Companions”,
IDS_UNITNAME423, “Ptolemaic Regular Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME424, “Ptolemaic Agema Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME425, “Ptolemaic Xystophoroi”,
IDS_UNITNAME426, “Mercenary Galatian Warband”,
IDS_UNITNAME427, “Ptolemaic Guard Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME428, “Egyptian Levy Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME429, “Hispanic Heavy Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME430, “Hispanic Light Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME431, “Celtiberian Warband”,
IDS_UNITNAME432, “Caetrati light javelinmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME433, “Heavy Caetrati”,
IDS_UNITNAME434, “Pontic Levy Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME435, “Tarantine Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME436, “Pyrrhic Agema Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME437, “Pyrrhic Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME438, “African Light Javelinmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME439, “Libyphoenician Armoured Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME440, “Euzonoi light javelinmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME441, “Greek Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME442, “Early Cataphracts”,
IDS_UNITNAME443, “Armenian Levy Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME444, "Raw Hastati/Principes",
IDS_UNITNAME445, “Pedites Extraordinarii”,
IDS_UNITNAME446, “Roman Armoured Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME447, “Soldurii”,
IDS_UNITNAME448, “Gaesatae”,
IDS_UNITNAME449, “Bactrian Light Horse”,
IDS_UNITNAME450, “Graeco Bactrian Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME451, “Iranian Lancers”,
IDS_UNITNAME452, “Graeco Bactrian Xystophoroi”,
IDS_UNITNAME453, “Graeco Bactrian Cataphracts”,
IDS_UNITNAME454, “Spartan Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME455, “Freed Slave Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME456, “Numidian Foot”,
IDS_UNITNAME457, “Libyan Foot”,
IDS_UNITNAME458, “Civic Militia Light Javelin Horse”,
IDS_UNITNAME459, “Seleucid Cataphracts”,
IDS_UNITNAME460, “Indo Greek Armoured Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME461, “Indo Greek Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME462, “Cretan Levy Foot”,
IDS_UNITNAME463, “Nubian Mercenary Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME464, “Graeco Bactrian Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME465, “Chalybes Spearmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME466, “Pontic Chalkaspides Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME467, "Germanic Warband (Loose Order)",
IDS_UNITNAME468, "Germanic Warband (Close Order)",
IDS_UNITNAME469, “Galatian Warband”,
IDS_UNITNAME470, “Pontic Imitation Legionaries”,
IDS_UNITNAME471, “Macedonian Armoured Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME472, “Macedonian Guard Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME473, “Macedon Leukaspides Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME474, “Ex Seleucid Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME475, “Freed Helot Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME476, “Arab Light Javelin Horse”,
IDS_UNITNAME477, “Perioikoi Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME478, “Spartiatai Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME479, “Gladiators”,
IDS_UNITNAME480, “Persian Heavy Chariots”,
IDS_UNITNAME481, “Phrygian Foot”,
IDS_UNITNAME482, “Phrygian light javelinmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME483, “Raw Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME484, “Lydian Raw Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME485, “Lydian Light Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME486, “Lydian Light Chariots”,
IDS_UNITNAME487, “Thracian Swordsmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME488, “Citizen Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME489, “Greek Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME490, “Armoured Spartiatai Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME491, “Spartiatai Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME492, “Saka Foot”,
IDS_UNITNAME493, “Phoenician Marines”,
IDS_UNITNAME494, “Armoured Theban Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME495, “Theban Sacred Band Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME496, “Theban Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME497, “Theban Pike Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME498, “Carthaginian Sacred Band”,
IDS_UNITNAME499, “Poeni Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME500, “Italian Mercenary Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME501, “1st Class Roman Spearmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME502, "2nd & 3rd Class Roman Spearmen",
IDS_UNITNAME503, “Mixed Class Roman Spearmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME504, “4th Class Roman Foot”,
IDS_UNITNAME505, “Roman Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME506, “1st Class Latin Spearmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME507, "2nd & 3rd Class Latin Spearmen",
IDS_UNITNAME508, “Mixed Class Latin Spearmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME509, “4th Class Latin Foot”,
IDS_UNITNAME510, “Italian Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME511, “1st Class Etruscan Spearmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME512, "2nd & 3rd Class Etruscan Spearmen",
IDS_UNITNAME513, “Mixed Class Etruscan Spearmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME514, “Etruscan Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME515, “Devoted Foot Spearmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME516, “Etruscan Light Chariots”,
IDS_UNITNAME517, “Etruscan Axemen”,
IDS_UNITNAME518, “Crescent Shield Spearmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME519, “Greek Light Javelin Horse”,
IDS_UNITNAME520, “Iphikratean Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME521, “Theban Sacred Band Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME522, “Italian Veteran Armoured Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME523, “Italian Citizen Hoplites”,
IDS_UNITNAME524, “Guard Apple Bearers”,
IDS_UNITNAME525, “Persian Guard Lancers”,
IDS_UNITNAME526, “Illyrian light javelinmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME527, “Spartan Armoured Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME528, “Rowers disguised as Hoplites ”,
IDS_UNITNAME529, “Foot Companions Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME530, “Hypaspists Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME531, “Companion Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME532, “Agema Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME533, “Thessalian Armoured Cavalry”,
IDS_UNITNAME534, “Agrianian Light Javelinmen”,
IDS_UNITNAME535, “Accensi”,
IDS_UNITNAME536, “2nd Class Etruscan Pilum Foot”,
IDS_UNITNAME537, “3rd Class Etruscan Pilum Foot”,
IDS_UNITNAME538, “Antigonid Pantodapoi Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME539, “Lysimachid Pantodapoi Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME540, “Antigonid Veteran Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME541, “Lysimachid Veteran Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME542, “Eumenes Pantodapoi Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME543, “Eumenes Veteran Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME544, “Eumenes Argyraspides Phalanx”,
IDS_UNITNAME545, “Hypaspists Phalanx”,

  
 This is absolutely amazing.

Robert

Holdfast: Pacific from Worthington Publishing is their take on whole Pacific Theatre of Operations during World War II. It is a strategic block wargame and follows most of the previously tried and trusted mechanisms from the previous Holdfast line. I am disposed to like this game very much as it is set in the Theatre which interests me the most. 


All of the components are good. You get a full size mounted map board, lots of wooden blocks (many more than in the Atlantic game) in two colours, 6 nice chunky dice, a rulebook that consists of just 7 pages of rules and a chart of appearance for each player. I would have liked to have had a player aid with the Sequence of Play included or even printed onto the map-board itself. The graphic design on the board follows a simple and clean aesthetic and this simplicity flows into the rules as well. 

Simple and well-presented rules

In just 7 pages the totality of Holdfast system and the subtle variances each title has, is presented. There were a few edge cases which we couldn’t find in the rules but they were so ‘edge’ that I can’t remember them now. An application of common sense was sufficient to overcome my tendency to rules-lawyer.

The rule changes are what makes this Holdfast game different from Holdfast Atlantic (the only other Holdfast title I have played) and as a self-professed PTO aficionado, these game specific rules were really interesting: for example, in this game, submarines cannot be targeted. In my mind, this simple change models the relative effectiveness of submarines in the PTO compared to the infamous exploits of the U-Boat wolf-packs in the Atlantic.

Set up for the first turn

I also like the combat determination rule in this game. Prior to any combat taking place, players have to choose and simultaneously reveal whether they want air combat or surface combat first, in a contested sea zone. If the players desired combat differs each player rolls a dice, with modifiers, to determine whose goes first. In my mind, this is modelling the airborne radar and relatively poor fuel endurance (considering the size of the Pacific Ocean) of combat aircraft.  I may be stretching things here but in my mind it makes sense. 

Once combat starts in a sea zone be prepared to chuck a lot of dice. If you are familiar with most block wargames then you’ll know what I’m talking about. Individual battles often felt ‘swingy’ and sometimes after going in feeling like victory was certain, two battle rounds later you’re having to retreat, with the opponents forces largely unscathed. I don’t know how or why that happens, indeed my rational brain is telling me it didn’t happen; after all, it’s just probability. A few rounds of ‘bad’ dice can quickly curtail your plans. This swing does even out over the course of the game where you’ll have rolled the proverbial ‘buckets ‘o dice’.

Halfway through turn 5

Unusually for many combat games both the high and low dice results score. Results of 1, 5 and 6 are all good if you’ve rolled them. Normal hits that rotate a block down one strength point are 5 and 6. You disable an enemy unit on a roll of 1, forcing that unit to retreat to a friendly port at the end of a combat round. Because combat is simultaneous even ‘after’ being disabled that unit will still fire back, they just won't be firing in the next round. 

Another simple tweak to the Holdfast System in this game is asymmetric Repair Points. The Americans start slowly but receive extra RP each turn with which they can repair and replace damaged and lost units. In contrast, the Japanese player is limited to just 7 RP for the whole game. Their American player’s Order of Appearance also ramps up massively whereas the Japanese player dwindles into oblivion. As the Japanese, once a unit has been destroyed or damaged, it stays that way. 

American units sample (note the British carrier)

Japanese units sample

One thing that still baffles me about this theatre is that going into the war many senior Japanese military men believed they had no chance against the might of America. In the film Tora Tora Tora, Yamamoto delivers a famous and surely apocryphal quote:

 “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve”.

Any PTO game has a challenge to model the asymmetry between the powers and keep the game fun and challenging for both players. The asymmetry here is well modelled but in all but one of my games, the American player romped to victory. In other words, the balance is not quite right. Against two evenly matched players, the game favours the American player. However, if you like a challenge and are facing a relative Padawan in the war-gaming world, take the Japanese forces and try to eke out a victory.

 

American Order of Appearance and RP production

 

This game is a great opportunity fully explore a simple game system and be competitive without holding anything back against a newcomer, as long as they're the Americans. 

There are some optional rules which introduce Task Forces for Japanese player and Air raids on ports for both players. These rules I consider essential if the Japanese player is to be in with any chance of winning. The Task Force counters obfuscate your forces disposition and can even act as a dummy block. For me, these simple rules model the vastness of the Pacific and the relative difficulty of stumbling across your enemy (despite that happening on many occasions in real life).

 

Box Rear

I can’t separate Holdfast: Atlantic and Holdfast: Pacific in terms of my game-play enjoyment. They’re both good introductory wargames, although I think this a very small step in complexity up from Atlantic. I would choose this one over its Atlantic brother purely on theme alone.

"Pawn Takes Castle" - Tom Freeman

I can’t finish this review without talking about the box art. Pawn Takes Castle by Tom Freeman captures a brace of Dauntless SBD Bombers ripping into Akagi at the Battle of Midway. This piece dramatises the conceptual military shift, away from big battleships as the key weapon in maritime power and places it onto the tiny yet powerful aircraft.

This game is available from your Friendly Local Gaming Store, Holdfast Pacific has an RRP of $70 or £69.95 which feels a bit much considering the simplicity of the game but when you consider the amount of wood in the box that price is well justified.

Flying Circus Deluxe Bombers & Campaigns

by

Decision Games

 Jadgeschwader I (JG I) of the Imperial German World war I Luftstreitkrafte was nicknamed the 'Flying Circus', either because of its brightly painted planes, or due to the fact that it moved about the front in trains and was equipped with tents. Which of these is correct is lost to time. JG I was commanded for a while by Manfred von Richtofen, so the alternative name was 'Richtofen's Circus'. Unlike children, the Allied airmen were not happy when this circus came to town.

 Flying Circus Deluxe is the elder brother of Dan Verssen's game 'Down In Flames'. From what I have read there is very little difference in the original version of both games. Flying Circus Deluxe is actually the game 'Flying Circus', and the add on 'Bombers and Campaigns' all in one package.

 2017 has been a big wargaming year for me. It has also seen some experimenting on my part with game types I have never played. I just did a review of my first block game, and now this game is my first card game. I had thought that 'real' wargames had to contain maps, hexes, and cardboard counters. I could not have been more wrong.

 Flying Circus deluxe is listed by Decision Games as a 'fun and quick' game. This is proof positive that there is truth in advertising. This deluxe game gives the gamer the chance to play the basic or advanced games. The basic game is where the 'fun and quick' really shines. The 'Bombers and Campaigns' and some advanced rules put some meat on the bones of the basic game. It is still fun and fast. It just adds altitude and, naturally, bombers to flesh out the game. 

 The game's premise is very succinct; instead of follow the leader, it is shoot down the enemy leader. The game does not come with a play mat, but none is needed. 

 The game comes with the following:

110 Deluxe deck Cards (Bombers, Fighters, and Action cards)

Deluxe Game Rule Book

Six Full sized Campaign cards

Two Pilot Logs(you will need to make copies)

Thirty-Six Pilot and Altitude Cards

One Full Sized Die, and Six Small Die

 It also comes with a fourteen page booklet called 'The Great War & The Origins Of Aerial Warfare'. This is an excellent primer on the airwar of World War I. It also includes some plane pictures along with stats and a short history. The most recognized Allied and German Aces are also here with a picture and a short biography.

 The plane cards are stunning, and show pictures of the planes from above. They are easy to read, and the numbers that are needed for the game are plain to see.  These include performance, horsepower, and bursts. The pilot and altitude cards are much smaller, but still clear to the eye. These cards remind me of the small cards of sports figures that long ago came in cigarette packs. 

 Game play is as follows:

 Setup: You pick a year and points for each side in the basic game. Both sides secretly choose a leader, and the remaining points are used to pick one or two wingmen. Both your leader and the wingmen must be the same type of plane.

 The campaigns are:

The Battle of Messines

Passchendaele

The Battle of Cambrai

Operation Michael

The Second battle of The Marne

Meuse-Argonne Offensive

 The campaigns all take place in 1917 or 1918. The campaigns list the aircraft you can use, and also have other options for aces etc. 

 

 BoardGameGeek has a ton of resources for the game. They include a downloadable players aid card, and someone has done some rules so the game can be played solitaire.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/39650/flying-circus-deluxe-bombers-campaigns 

  

 This is just a quick example of play using two 1918 fighters, Fokker DVII and Sopwith Dolphins. I used a die roll to see who went first. The English side won. The Sopwith Dolphin wingman is attacking the Fokker DVII leader. He uses an 'in my sights' card. The Fokker leader plays 'barrel roll' to negate the Sopwith's 'in my sights' card. The Sopwith next plays an 'out of the sun' attack card. The Fokker leader does not have any cards to use against the Sopwith's 'out of the sun' card. So the Sopwith gets a hit on the Fokker leader for two points. The Fokker leader's card is flipped to its damaged side, and one of the small die is used to show it has two damage points.

 

  The game is quick and easy to play. The only complaints I saw about the game were from its original version without the 'Bombers and Campaigns' add on. This deluxe version added in altitude and some other game mechanics that really makes the game better. For someone looking for a World War I aerial game that doesn't want to look at charts and tables for an hour, this game is perfect.The rules could have been a little more clear on some points. I used the items on BGG and some videos to fill in the blank spots in my mind. Once I understood the rules (which could have been me-remember, this is my first card game), I was able to play and enjoy the game fully.

Robert

Phoenix

A Complete History of the Luftwaffe 1918-1945 volume I

 by

Richard Meredith

 This book is encyclopedic in scope. It is based upon forty years of work and research by the author. In Volume I of this series, the author shows us German military aviation along with a good bit of civilian. The treaty of Versailles forbid Germany from having any military planes whatsoever. I will quote from the book:

 "No air arm of any kind was permitted (article 198) and all stocks of air material not already handed over to the allied authorities were to be destroyed (article 201). Even civilian was to be restricted "During the six months following the date on which the present treaty comes into force, the manufacture and importation of aircraft, parts of aircraft, engines for aircraft  and parts of engines for aircraft shall be forbidden in all German territory (article 201)".

 The book shows that in practice, due to the tumultuous state of Germany at the time, that many airplanes and parts escaped the Allies. These wound up in private hands, or the Freikorps (small private right wing and nationalist armies engendered to fight Communism, and try to take back some of Germany's eastern border). 

 Volume I is split into two sections:

The Years of Secrecy 1918-32

The Rise of Hitler 1933-35

Each of these are divided into:

Strategy and Command

Ministerial Activity

Technical Developments and Production

Infrastructure and Training

Operational Activity

 The book comes with fifty-six full pages of black and white photographs.

 The Author goes into the Treaty of Rapallo. This treaty on the outside was to normalize relations between the German Weimar Republic and the Soviet Union. Secret clauses of the treaty stated that Germany could use bases in the Soviet Union to develop military aviation, among others, in secret and away from the prying eyes of the western powers. 

 The book also shows how from day one Hitler wanted to not only rebuild German military aviation, but also wanted the Luftwaffe as strong as it could be. This was to deter the western powers from interfering with Germany due to the treaty of Versailles clauses.

 The author puts in many tidbits of history to flesh out the story. One example is Erhard Milch, later a Field Marshal, in charge of production for the Luftwaffe. To get around the fact that his father was Jewish, Milch had a signed paper from his mother stating that he was actually the product of an incestuous relationship with her brother! Many such historical pieces are seen in the book.

 This is only Volume I of three and I eagerly look forward to reading the others in the series. I can easily recommend this book to anyone interested in the early and pre-history of the Luftwaffe.

Robert

Book: Phoenix A Complete History of the Luftwaffe 1918-1945 Volume I

Author: Richard Meredith

Publisher: Helion&Company

Distributor: Casemate Publishers

Over the past few years I've traveled the WW2 landscape with the Order of Battle series from The Artistocrats, and seen some exotic locales. The series, which started in the Pacific, eventually visited such rarely gamed battlefields as Burma, China, and a hypothetical expanded Battle of the Atlantic. However, the biggest, most popular battlefields cannot be ignored forever. The series from kicked off a multi-part German grand campaign with the Blitzkrieg pack a few releases back, which featured the early war conflicts in Europe and ended at the gates of Moscow. Now with the latest DLC, Panzerkrieg, we rejoin the Germans as the bitter winter of '41 sets in.

Although one might expect to play Blitzkrieg before Panzerkrieg, it isn't required. You can customize your starting force to a certain extent, or take the default army. I went with the latter option, and quickly realized it might be best to come into Panzerkrieg with a top notch army formed during a successful play through of the Blitzkrieg campaign. Which is to say that Panzerkrieg is probably among the most difficult campaigns available for Order of Battle, at least for me. I haven't played all of them, but I have finished several and rarely had much difficulty on the default settings. The challenge of the game usually came more from trying to complete all of the bonus objectives rather than winning the scenario, which was a given.

Your forces in Panzerkrieg, much like their real-world counterparts, are up against the ropes as soon as things kick off. The first few missions have you fending off Soviet offensives from multiple directions while also attempting to achieve various objectives, usually trying to save isolated German forces. Attrition will become a key concern in your campaign, just as in the real battles. While your troops are deadly, they can only fight so many battles before needing repair, but the Soviets have a seemingly endless supply of fresh units to throw at your lines. You will also have to deal with their far more effective T-34 and KV-1 tank units. I found that as the campaign wore on I simply did not have enough resource points to keep all of my units topped off and fully upgraded, as I would expect based on past campaigns for Order of Battle. About half-way through the campaign I realized my forces were just too worn out to continue, there was no way I could win the scenario I was up against.

Surprisingly, I found this to be quite refreshing. I had always considered this series to be just a little too easy on the default setting, and it fell into that trap of similar games where things snowball and tend to get easier the better you perform. I know there are several higher difficulty settings, but I personally prefer to play most games at the default setting to get the experience that the developers intended for the average player.

I had to stop and ask myself what went wrong here. Why did I lose the campaign when I have played this game quite a bit and felt very confident going through each mission? (At first). I thought back on my play and realized that I had been sending my troops out to fight battles that were unnecessary. Instead of simply accomplishing the objectives set out for each scenario, I had rather impetuously sent units out looking for fights when they should have stayed put at their post. Many of the early scenarios include numerous Soviet units that are beyond your area of operations, and don't need to be engaged. Seeking to rack up kills, and not considering the long war ahead, I had sent full strength units off to find trouble by attacking these enemy forces. Sure, I crushed them, but then I needed to spend resources repairing those units, resources that should have been saved for other units fighting to win the scenario. I also raced to complete my objectives as fast as possible, to my own detriment. Given 30 turns to complete a scenario, I had put the pedal to the metal and tried to finish it off in 20. This usually led to far higher casualties from units getting overextended or ambushed.

This is a campaign that needs to be approached with a bit more forethought than most. You need to accomplish your objectives in the present scenario, but also be looking to build up your forces, or at least maintain them, rather than grind them down in reckless battles. My defeat actually made me want to go back and purchase the Blitzkrieg DLC so that I could control my core units from the very beginning of the war and have a greater familiarity with them heading into the harsher (for the Germans) years of the conflict. Carrying a single force through what will eventually be three linked campaigns, expanding and upgrading it with better units and leaders, should be quite the experience. I can only imagine how much more difficult the scenarios could potentially be towards the end of the war.

I haven't gone into the details of exactly how the game works in this review, since I've covered that ground in previous reviews and not much has changed here on a fundamental level. All the units you would expect to see on the Eastern Front are present, from Russian conscripts to Panzer III's and Flak 88's. You'll need a balanced force to deal with all of the threats you will face on the ground as well as in the air. Losing control of the skies can make your day that much harder. In my failed campaign I simply could not afford to keep more than a couple of fighter units in the air, and the Soviet bombers took full advantage of it.

Although Panzerkrieg covers more familiar ground than most of its fellow Order of Battle campaigns, it offers up a fresh challenge to even veteran players. Of course, many players may have been looking forward to fighting through some of the most iconic battles of the war, like Sevastopol, Kharkov, and Stalingrad within the Order of Battle system. The series continues to deliver one of the best, most polished versions of the tried and true Panzer General flavor of wargaming to date. I recommend this campaign DLC for anyone who enjoys the game, just be prepared for some stiff resistance from the Soviets!


Available directly from Matrix/Slitherine through this link or on Steam.


 - Joe Beard

TO THE LAST MAN

From the modern world of Urban Operations, the most recent simulation from Nuts Publishing, we 're moving back to one of their earlier products, To The Last Man.    Unlike their recent game of tactical warfare with its significant innovations and a fair degree of complexity, To The Last Man features WWI on the Western Front and paints its canvas at the strategic level with simple broad brush rules.

The box art which is continued on the rule and scenario booklets is stylised in an appropriate poster artwork for the historical period without being hugely eye-catching.  But I have to say that for me the immediate impression of the map was one of drabness.  

I liked the area movement style, but the effect made me think that the mud of Flander's fields had been too liberally applied to the map's palate of colours.  The outlines of each area are easier to see here in my photograph than when viewing them on the gaming table.  Fortunately there is only a small amount of essential information printed on it, as I found what there is even harder to discern.  Added to that, the Army counters [the triangular shapes] are equally dark and too close in colour for comfort.

By contrast the tracks that border the edges are very serviceable and clear, though maintaining the overall dour effect.  However, just as I have found strange some gamers' criticism of maps that I have thought excellent, I know that others have praised this one.  The physical element I've most enjoyed has been the hidden Army displays, though once again the colours are very severe

The camera shot of the counters above doesn't do justice to the quality of their visual features.  Whereas these taken while still in their sheets are much more accurate.

Note how the counters have no numbers on, as each represents a single unit point.  The bottom rows of units are all infantry while the top rows hold assets such as the ones in the picture: cavalry, artillery and siege guns.  Later in the war, a very, very limited number of tank and aircraft assets start to trickle in, while some German infantry can be converted to strosstruppen. 

However, I challenge anyone to not find the cards some of the finest pictorially - in full colour, every card [54 in all] has a unique illustration.

Just a few of the quality cards

Glorious and visually individual though these cards are, do not expect a wide range of effects from them nor the historical insight that we tend to expect from the Events playable in most, if not all, CDG games.  The reason being that these cards are all generic in effect.  Many are either Offensive cards allowing you to move and attack with all units or Limited Offensive cards allowing you to move with all units but initiate only a single attack.  In fact, except for a few individual card plays, there are only two choices of Action on your turn: play one of these two types of Offensive card or Pass.

This simplicity is a keynote of the game.  Movement is almost exclusively a single area, except for cavalry that can move two areas.  Both sides have a minimal rail movement capacity - it's worth mentioning that there are no rail lines, as at the scale represented all areas are considered rail capable - which allows three areas to be traversed.  In addition, only the Entente player can move a couple of units any distance from one friendly Supply source to another.  In itself this doesn't sound much, but bear in mind that potentially this can happen every time you play an Offensive/Limited Offensive card in a turn and that the "unit" could be an Army containing up to six individual pieces!  Suddenly that opens up some interesting prospects both for attack and defense.

Combat too is a very easy process - mainly a question of rolling one die per individual unit.  As the rules themselves proclaim, it's the BOD [buckets of dice] method and they do offer an optional rule for a method to average out results in case you're the type that can't cope with rare swings of luck!  But as most units only score a hit on a 1 roll on a D6, many results are misses.

Mixed in are a few nice variations: cavalry only fire on defense, siege guns can only attack forts and forts themselves are the most powerful hitting on 1-3 [though the latter benefit is balanced by the fact that they cannot receive replacement points, as they are reduced by hits]. 

The sequence of an attack is interesting as the Attacker's artillery fires first, then all the Defender's units and then all the Attacker's units [including the artillery that have already fired!].  Beyond this and the occasional ability to play a card such as Poison Gas, it is remarkable easy.  Personally, I did find that the many rolls with limited numbers of hits over the course of playing the whole war did become a little tedious. 

Taking the lead from many block games, hits have to be taken from the strongest unit and if that is an Army then from the most numerous type of unit in that Army.  Inevitably the infantry naturally takes the brunt of this. 

However, a fine idea is the inclusion and use of Ersatz cards [as illustrated above].  These may be played as a form of taking hits.  So, an Ersatz 2 card will replace 2 hits and an even neater touch is that any card may be used as if it were an Ersatz 1 card.  Talk about a rock and a hard place!  It's rare that you can afford to spend one of your cards in this way, but the option is there and just sometimes it may be what you've got to grit your teeth and do.

A more familiar element is the use of Build Points - again another very well handled aspect providing difficult choices.  Especially taxing is the demand to replace eliminated units or buy cards.  At the beginning of a scenario each player gets a set number, but from then on any further cards have to be bought and without cards you can't acquire those essential Offensive ones.  The strangest item you can spend build points on is Entrenching.  I'm not sure that I can conceive of any convincing rational for this other than that it adds to the agony of choice, especially as an entrenched unit when it moves must be flipped back to its mobile side and so lose its entrenched status.

The rule book is short and the rules are easy to understand and few enough to largely hold in your head.  I strongly recommend the main two Advanced rules: Hidden Army Templates and Bidding for Initiative that appear in the Theatre rulebook.

This is another very good part of the package.  It adds a range of small historical rule elements and scenario variants, a very good section providing set up for scenarios starting in each individual year of the war and a section I particularly like that contains four pages of variant historical German and French plans, two pages of Examples of Play and sadly only a brief side bar of Designer's Notes.

Ultimately for me it is just this side of too simple, but as an intro level simulation it fits the bill, unlike GMT's Fields of Despair on the identical topic which registers on the opposite end of the complexity scale.  There are so many good ideas drawing both on tried and trusted measures and fresh ones too.  There is much that I like and I received this game to review with much excitement. Yet for me somehow the gaming experience falls short of the sum of its parts.  I will continue to play it, but not with the zeal that I pick up Nuts Publishing's most recent offering, Urban Operations.

{Apologies for the weird gremlin in the system that simply wont produce the correct consistent font size, whatever measures I take to correct it!}