Pontiac's War: Frontier Rebellion, 1763 - 1766

by

Compass Games

 I was an avid reader of Allan Eckert and Francis Parkman books in my youth. They both wrote about the early frontier days of the thirteen British Colonies in North America. I had always read about the indigenous people since I was old enough to hold a book. I am not sure if it was in an Eckert book or somewhere else that I first read about Pontiac (Obwaandi'eyaag) the Odawa (Ottawa) War Chief, and his rebellion against the British. This was just after the end of the French & Indian War. British hubris, especially commanding General Jeffery Amherst's, was in full swing and their treatment of the natives was part of this. The British believed that they had beaten the French and that now most of North America belonged to them. This was without any thought of the natives who actually lived there. The Indians were no part of the peace treaty between France and England. The frontier turned into a powder keg after the French troops left and the English took over their forts. This game is about what happened after the fuse was lit.

 This is what Compass Games has to say about the game:

“I mean to destroy the English and leave not one upon our lands.”  Pontiac

“It is not in the Indian’s power to affect anything of consequence.” Major Gladwin.”

"Pontiac’s War: Frontier Rebellion, 1763-1766 followed on the heels of the French and Indian War which ended in 1763. Thanks to Indian resentment over the French surrender of their lands and the harsh policies of General Jeffery Amherst, governor-general of British North America, 20+ Indian nations rose up under the charismatic leadership of the Ottawa sachem, Pontiac and the Lenape Holy Man, Neolin. When the powder-smoke cleared, 450 British soldiers and countless Indians had lost their lives. Two thousand settlers were either killed or captured and 4000 more had been displaced. Moreover, Britain’s foreign conflicts had put the Crown 140 million £ in debt. These expenses led directly to a series of unpopular taxes in North America which in turn led directly to another uprising, our colonial revolution.

Pontiac’s War attempts to recreate the reaction of Indian leaders to British mishandling of frontier politics and the impending colonial crisis it presaged. Building on the point-to-point system and loose Indian alliances used in King Philip’s War and Blood on the Ohio, this design expands frontier conflict using Battle cards to introduce combat chaos, British expenditure on troops, Uncertain Indian Arms supply, siege rules, the capture of prisoners, French interference and trader influence.

The game offers five short introductory scenarios (15-30 minutes), three one-year campaign scenarios (2 hours), and one three-year grand campaign (5-6 hours). Although not a solitaire design, it is solitaire friendly. Players will appreciate the high-production quality of the components which includes a MOUNTED game map and large, 5/8″ size punch-out counters."

Product Information:

Complexity: 4 out of 10

Solitaire Suitability: 5 out of 10

Time Scale: Seasonal turns (approx. 3 months per turn)

Map Scale: Point-to-Point map (approx. 60-75 miles between points)

Unit Scale: 30-50 men, 4-6 artillery guns, individual officers and sea vessels

Players: 1 or 2 (best with 2)

Playing Time: from 15 minutes (intro scenarios) to 6 hours (grand campaign)

Components:

One 22 x 34″ MOUNTED game map

Four Counter Sheets of deluxe, 5/8″ punch-out counters

106 Game Cards

16 Wooden Cubes

11 Player Aid Cards

Rules Booklet

Eight 6-sided dice

Box and Lid

This is the center part of the map. I am still trying to figure out the best placement for the Indians in the first turn.

 The game comes with a colorful mounted map. It shows the territory from Wisconsin to New York and Pennsylvania, along with all of the area in between. The English forts are displayed on the map. The many and varied Indian Nations villages are also on display. The map has all of the pertinent information on it. The turn track, razed forts, and Indians arms, among others, are all right there for the player. The writing on the map is nice and large. The map has point-to-point movement. The game comes with two Off-Map Forces sheets. These are made of card stock and are a half page in size. Next up are two full sized Player Aids. These have the Charts and Tables on one side, and the Combat Sequence on the other. These are both full sized pages and are both made of card stock. The last Player Aid has the 'Indian Nation Activation' rules on it. It is also full sized and made of card stock. It is only single-sided. The Rulebook is 36 pages in length. However, the rules themselves only take up the first 18 1/2 pages. Then comes the information to play the three shorter scenarios and the campaign game. This is followed by a description of some historic sites and then the Designer's Notes. This is followed by a first turn playthrough from page 25 until page 36. This is a very nice addition to be able to see the game being played and the rules you need to use. The game comes with four counter sheets. The counters are nice and large and very easy to read. Both sides have their own deck of cards. Each side has a deck of 50 cards. They are of normal game size, but they do seem to be sturdier than most. The game actually comes with 16 six-sided die, eight per side, and small plastic cubes (these are for use on the Indian Nation Activation Player Aid).

This is the same area of the map (I am still debating my first turn placement) with the addition of a card form both decks. Atrocities on both sides were the name of the game in this conflict. 

 The game rules show us the actual realities of the conflict. The Indian Nations are disjointed and have their own agendas. The British forces are, of course, under their officer's control but are hamstrung in different ways. The Indians' pressing concern is to keep their Arms Track, guns and ammunition, as high as possible. To do this they must take forts and win battles. One of the major reasons that the war took place was because the British were starving the Indians of powder and ammunition that they now used for hunting. By taking forts and winning battles, they can replenish their limited supply of guns and ammunition. Great Britain nearly bankrupted itself during the Seven Years War. This was a global conflict that taxed even the British treasury. So, the number of troops in North America was pared down to keep costs low. As the British player you can add to your forces, but the amount of these forces and their shipping etc. comes with a cost in victory points. So, the Indian player needs to attack, and spend Arms points to do so, but they have to weigh out the loss in arms compared to their possible gain. 

 The game is played in seasonal turns. British Officers and Indian Sachems are prime targets for their enemies. The Indians will be hard pressed if they lose the five victory points for the loss of both Pontiac and Neolin. Neolin was the Lenape/Delaware Prophet. As in some other Indian Wars a native prophet (Neolin) was preaching a return to a lifestyle before the Colonials appeared. There are no stacking limitations, except in forts and during winter (the Off-Map Player Aids come in handy). The game has rules about captives, ambushes, and the destruction of both settlements and native villages. The Indians have to raze as many British forts as possible, and the British can knock the different Nations out of the war by destroying all of their villages. The Indians can move ten points per turn, and the British can move eight. Captives play a large part in the game. The game also gives both players a deck of Combat Cards to be used with, you'll never guess, Combat. Some of the cards also affect the game in other ways in the bigger picture. In the Campaign Scenario the British player has a historical setup to adhere to. In that same scenario there are some rules to adhere to setting up the Indians, but the player is given a lot of leeway. The big question for the Indian player is whether to try and take Detroit on the first turn or not. You can have enough different Nations warriors at Detroit to try it. The other strategy is to spread out your forces and sweep up the numerous smaller English forts first. Historically the latter idea was tried with Detroit trying to be taken by a coup de main. The additions of the cards to play along with luck of the die makes either one a viable option for the Indian player. The victory conditions are based upon the realities of that moment in time. Obviously, the British and Colonials, given their power and population and time, would eventually steamroll over the different tribes. At best, historically, the Indians could have kept the status quo for a decade or more. 

 The game comes with these scenarios:

The Rising - Spring, Summer & Fall 1763

The British Response - Spring, Summer & Fall 1764

The Inconclusive Conclusion - Spring, Summer & Fall 1765

Pontiac's War - The Full Campaign 1763 - 1765

There are also five Introductory Scenarios. Four of them are of two turns each and the fifth has four turns.

The designer has also added six optional rules to help give the players even more replayability and ways to use their gray matter.

This is the Sequence of Play:

Indian Reinforcement

 1. Optional Annual Activation

 2. Key Leaders

 3. War Belts

British Reinforcements

 1. Militia Volunteers

 2. (Spring) Guinea Loans

Indian Movement/Combat/ Both sides replenish cards

British Movement/ Combat/ Both sides replenish cards

Supply/ Siege Attrition

Rebuild Forts & Rally

Lift Sieges/ Wintering

Determine Victory Points

Advance the Turn Marker

 There is a sheet of errata that can be downloaded here:

Pontiac's War Official Clarifications Sheet

You can also download the Rulebook.

 Thank you, Compass Games for allowing me to review this very well-done game on Pontiac's Uprising. I also want to thank the designer John Poniske for developing a game on this important historical period.

Robert Peterson

Pontiac's War: Frontier Rebellion, 1763 - 1766

Compass Games

 Sicilia 1943 - Operation Husky

by

Dissimula Edizioni

 This is some information about a new game from Disimula Edizioni.

Here is what they have to say:

"Even before the surrender of the last Axis troops in Tunisia, the Allied governments had reached the controversial decision to invade Sicily as the next phase, to take the first step on the continent.

The amphibious invasion of Sicily, code-named “Operation Husky,” with a force of 3,000 ships, more than 3,000 aircraft, and 100,000 men landing on the first day was the largest amphibious operation of World War II. After 38 days of hard fighting, the Allied forces, composed of the 7th US Army and the 8th British Army, entered Messina, completing the conquest of the island.

“Sicily 1943 – Operation Husky” reconstructs this important campaign, on a large map (… to maintain the right amount of simplicity and effectiveness. Game turns represent one day.

IN THE BOX

4 standard maps (3 km-hex)

2 small maps (scenarios)

4 counters set, 13 mm side 

Set up charts

Rules aid, tables

Orders display - Air display

Rules booklet

2 dice

English, Italian

THE GAME

The system involves a very intense interaction between players, and is based on the uncertain moment of activation of their Formations, and on the type of operations they will be able to carry out following the directives received at the beginning of the turn.

The rugged terrain of much of Sicily affects operations throughout the game, from the logistical importance of the road network to the possibility of using armored vehicles, lethal in open terrain, but vulnerable on narrow mountain roads.

Air forces (of both sides) and naval forces (Allied only) can be very important... if activated at the right time.

The game includes two challenging campaign games, one historical and one hypothetical, and numerous minor scenarios that concern some individual phases of the campaign, such as landings and counterattacks, the battles of Primosole and Troina, and others."

 You can still get the preorder price here:

Dissimula Edizioni

While you are there, please check out their other games.

Also check out this review from Polydor:

GIVE US VICTORIES - A Wargamers Needful Things

 Gustavus V Wallenstein

Military Revolution, Rivalry & Tragedy in The Thirty Years War

by

John Pike

 Gustavas Adolphus King of Sweden and Albrecht von Wallenstein Duke of Friedland, minus their other nomenclature and titles, were the two giants of the middle years of the Thirty Years War. Their titanic clash sent shockwaves throughout Europe. The author, Mr. Pike, has written an extremely detailed work on these two protagonists and the history and times that made them. In doing so, he has brought Wallenstein out of Gustavus's shadow. Far too many books only give us a small glimpse of Wallenstein compared to the Swedish King. 

 The book gives a detailed account of the early years of the war and its whys and wheres. Then it takes us on a biographical trip of both men before the war even started. With great precision we are shown how Sweden went from an underdeveloped backwater to a major player in European politics. Likewise, the author shows us how Wallenstein, using his own financial genius, was able to turn the tide of the war toward the Hapsburg cause. Wallenstein was able to make the war pay for itself. This was without the excesses that had accompanied the early part of the war.  

 The book is a large one coming in at over 500 pages. It also has a good number of pictures of the main characters and lithographs from the time. I congratulate the author for also interspersing a good number of excellent maps. I cannot state strongly enough that in military histories these are invaluable to the reader and make it so much easier to follow along with the action. It also gives the reader so much more insight into why things happened the way they did.

 The author finishes up his history of the two men and their clash by delving into the military revolution that occurred then. He shows that Gustavus took Maurice of Nassau's ideas and improved on them. Wallenstein is also shown as an incredible organizer and logistical wizard. The reader is also shown how much all the armies in the Thirty Years War relied on field entrenchments. We sometimes think that armies entrenching themselves started in the 19th century. The book shows us that even at this time the armies entrenched themselves as much as or more than the Romans.

 Their titanic struggle, after Wallenstein's reinstatement, is gone into great detail by the author. The ultimate clash at the Battle of Lutzen between the two is shown to us in minute detail.

 This is an excellent history of the two warriors, and I can easily recommend it to anyone remotely interested in the time period. Thank you, Casemate Publishers for allowing me to review this fine book.

Robert Peterson

Book: Gustavus V Wallenstein

Author: John Pike

Publisher: Pen & Sword Military

Distributor: Casemate Publishers

 Fiat Aeritalia Fighters

by

Luigino Caliaro

 The Italian aircraft industry was hobbled during World War II due to Italy not having enough manufacturing infrastructure. This was exceedingly lucky for the Allied powers. While Italy started the war with outdated airplanes, they soon developed some excellent designs that were as good or better than their allies or enemies. With this book, the second in a trilogy about Italian fighters, the author shows us those that were designed by the Fiat company.

 The book starts with a preamble about the history of Fiat's contribution to aviation going back to 1908. It then goes into a synopsis of the company's involvement with aircraft until the present day. The meat of the book starts in the Interwar years with the design and manufacture of the CR.20. This then developed into the CR.32, a very formidable aircraft at its inception. This airplane was blooded in the Spanish Civil War and gave a good report of itself against the Russian aircraft that the Republicans flew.

 Next, we have the design and history of the last Fiat biplane, the CR.42 Falco. This plane was one of the ultimate designs of the biplane era. The CR.42 frame was of an all-metal construction. It started to come off the assembly line in 1939. In the short campaign against France, it did well against the opposition. The plane was also useful in the very early period of the war in North Africa. However, it was still in use by the time Britain was able to manufacture enough Hurricanes and Spitfires to be used against it.

The FIAT G.50 Freccia was of the next generation of Italian fighters. These were among the first group of monoplane fighters that were considered for the Royal Italian Air Force. These types of Italian fighters had the 'chunkier' shape of many of the prewar designs from other countries. They did not resemble the shark like fighter aircraft being developed by Germany and Great Britian. Although a reasonably good aircraft for 1940, it soon was delegated to a second line one due to a lack of speed and armament. 

 The FIAT G.55 Centauro is considered by many to the be ultimate Italian fighter in World War II. Compared to most Italian fighters of this time it was equipped with a very strong arsenal of cannons and machine guns. It was more than a match for any fighter in the skies above Europe during the middle of the war years. The author includes a conversation of the leaders of the German Luftwaffe praising the G.55 when it was flown against the Germans' latest types in 1943. Luckily for the Allies the Germans did not begin manufacturing the G.55. Also luckily, the Italian infrastructure was incapable of building more than a few of them.

 The book is very large, a real coffee table tome. It is absolutely filled on every page with photographs. The author not only goes through each plane's development, but also its use by the Italian Royal Air Force and other nations. The last part of the book shows surviving examples of the planes. For the person interested in aviation, this is a must read. It is also invariable for the modeler and really anyone interested in Italian aviation. Thank you, Casemate Publishers for allowing me to review this encyclopedic reference book on Fiat fighters, both before and during World War II.

Robert Peterson

Book: Fiat Aeritalia Fighters

Author: Luigino Caliaro

Publisher: Crecy Classic

Distributor: Casemate Publishers

 

Kraken Studios talks about their upcoming game Total Victory

Kraken Studios was created out of necessity rather than ambition. I’ve always loved strategy games, but I never imagined they could become a source of income. When my son was about six years old, we discovered on the autism spectrum. It became clear that both parents working fulltime wasn’t possible. He needed one of us home consistently, and no employer was willing to accommodate the frequency of time off required. 

Working part-time wasn’t sustainable, especially since my income fell under my wife’s much higher tax bracket which transformed my income to an almost insignificant amount. That’s when I made a decision that changed everything: I would become a game developer. My first real test was designing the final two expansion packs for Strategic Command 2. Their success proved I had the capability. In 2013, Kraken Studios was born.

 

I started by dreaming far too big. I had loved World War II strategy games since I was a teenager, so I set out to tackle the entire European Theater in a way no one had before. I had to relearn coding and teach myself Unity Engine from scratch. The early months were grueling, and I nearly quit more than once. Gradually, things started to click. I took the best ideas from every grand-strategy title I had ever played and merged them into one massive project. 

Six years later, after countless lessons, mistakes, and breakthroughs, the game released in October 2019. Matrix Games took a chance on me, guiding me through the process and helping refine my work. The code was messy but functional, and although the game launched with bugs, I attacked them relentlessly. I absorbed player feedback and applied everything I learned from my work on Strategic Command. My first game, WarPlan, became a success. 

With breathing room for the first time, I researched the industry more deeply. The data was sobering: most new developers struggle for years, many never earn a living, and beginners are urged to start small. Had I read that before diving into a massive project, I might never have begun. But by then I had discovered something important, I could perform nearly every function of a game development team. I could design, code, create art, build sound effects, handle support, and eventually, market my games. That versatility became my greatest advantage. 

In 2021, my next title was released: WarPlan Pacific. It is an evolution of WarPlan with new systems for the Pacific theater. I expected it to perform at about 40% of the original. The European theater historically draws far more players, a fact confirmed by market research. The game met my expectations. 

In 2024, I released Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero. I had been studying the fantasy strategy landscape for years and saw a gap. No one had released a true fantasy wargame in a long time, and the last attempt had mixed reception. AAA titles were also missing something crucial, adventuring. With improved skills and experience, I rewrote my entire codebase using better structure and cleaner architecture. The resulting game blended wargame mechanics, light 4X, and hero adventuring. It launched with far fewer bugs than WarPlan and met all performance expectations. I am hoping to release a DLC in 2026.

 

My current project, Total Victory, is my most ambitious yet. Built on the refined code foundation of Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero, it is a grand strategy WWII game covering both Europe and the Pacific. What differentiates it is the level of detail delivered without overwhelming the player. Like other grand-strategy titles, it is a corps-level game. It has the same stacking rules as WarPlan with a land, air, and fleet counter stacking in a single hex. Each counter contains underlying divisions, wings, and ships. The game includes 1,452 division types and 3,466 division names across land, sea, and air. It’s immense in scale while still focused on minimizing micromanagement. My goal is simple: to create the ultimate WWII grand strategy experience. The game is currently in Alpha. 

Kraken Studios succeeded because circumstances forced me to generate income due to my family needs. This change in my life uncovered a skill set I didn’t know I had. If my situation had been different, I might never have gone down this path. I feel fortunate today that my games provide a stable income for my family while allowing me the flexibility to meet their needs. My son is now thriving, attending university on scholarship and studying computer science. He hopes to follow in my footsteps and become a game developer. 

I am grateful to Hubert Cater for opening the door, to Matrix Games for giving me a chance, and to my wife for teaching me the foundations of application design. Their support made everything possible. I still have many games I want to build. I am always aiming to fill unmet niches, challenge players intellectually, and reduce needless complexity. Thank you to everyone who has supported my games over the years. 

Alvaro DeSousa, owner of Kraken Studios.

Warplan

Warplan Pacific

Total Victory

 

Interrogation of Marshall Barrington of Command Post Games

 Interrogation Files: Marshall Barrington of Command Post Games

**Q: Marshall, thanks for taking the time. Let’s start simple - who are you and what’s Command Post Games all about?**

**A:** I’m Marshall Barrington, founder and lead designer at Command Post Games. We’re the rebels of the wargaming industry - think of us as the Apple Computer of historical gaming. While everyone else is stuck making the same hex-and-counter complexity festivals, we’re reimagining what wargaming can be. Our flagship product is Pub Battles, and honestly, it’s causing quite a stir among the grognards.

**Q: “Rebels” is a strong word. What exactly are you rebelling against?**

**A:** The tyranny of the 100-page rulebook! Look, I love this hobby, but somewhere along the way we convinced ourselves that complexity equals realism. That’s like saying a car is better now because we just added 100 new buttons that you have to push while you are driving. 

 

I was at a convention last year watching two guys spend 45 minutes resolving a single combat because they had to total up and divide dozens of combat factors and cross-reference and apply 3 different modifier charts.  When they were done, somebody noticed that they forgot a rule 14.8.2.3 about the fatigue modifiers vary depending on different types morale.  Yep, so they had to start all over again.   Meanwhile, at the next table, two kids were playing Pub Battles and making brilliant tactical decisions in real-time. Which table looked more like actual command? The answer was obvious.

The entire industry has become obsessed with simulating every rivet on every tank instead of simulating the experience of command. We’re the guys saying, “Hey, what if we focused on the command decisions instead of the calculations?”

Monmouth

**Q: Tell us about Pub Battles. What makes it different?**

**A:** Pub Battles strips away all the mathematical noise and gets to the heart of command - making decisions with incomplete information. We use wooden blocks instead of counters, so you literally can’t see what your opponent is doing until you’re in contact. No charts, no modifiers, no PhD required.  You don’t have to roll on a table to ‘simulate’ the fog of war.  You just really don’t know where they are at. 

 

Here’s a story that sums it up perfectly: A veteran GMT player tried our Brandywine game at Origins. He kept asking, “When are they going to arrive?  Where are they going to come from?” Twenty minutes later, he was completely absorbed, moving his blocks intuitively, reading the battlefield like Washington actually had to. After the game, he said, “This feels more like commanding an army than any game I’ve ever played.”  That’s why the military loves to use are games for training.

   

That’s our secret weapon - we simulate the fog of war by actually putting it in the game, not by adding more rules that try to simulate it.

Real commanders didn’t have perfect information. They didn’t know exactly how many enemy units were in that forest or precisely what their combat strength was. They made gut decisions based on limited intel and battlefield intuition.

Traditional wargames give you godlike omniscience - you can see every unit, friendly and enemy.  You know every combat factor for attack and defense, morale, supply level, organization level and can calculate every possible modifier that could influence the combat result. That’s not command, that’s accounting. At the Battle of Antietam, McClellan thought he was outnumbered 2:1 when he actually had the advantage. Our hidden blocks system recreates that uncertainty naturally.

A friend of mine, a military historian, played our Little Bighorn game and said afterward, “For the first time in a wargame, I felt like I understood why Custer made the decisions he did - because I was making them with the same limited information he had.”

Brandywine

**Q: Are your rules too simple?  Don’t you lose historical accuracy and realism with only 4 pages of rules?**

**A:** That’s the beautiful irony - we’re actually MORE historically accurate and realistic, not less.  I’m not sure I can explain it.  It’s a paradox.  Like it’s really simple to design a very complex game.  It is extremely complex and difficult to design a simple game with few rules.  Less is more.  Here’s the key:  Just because there isn’t a rule for it, doesn’t mean it isn’t in the game.  It’s very deceptive in a way. 

   

Here’s an example:  You look at the pieces and they are just blocks.  No individually rated combat factors, movement factors, morale, etc.  They all kind of look the same.  Generic.  Like playing checkers, right?   WRONG!

It is all in there.  You just don’t see it.  It’s baked into the system.  We do have individually rated units.  Instead of different combat factors, or morale ratings, they are denoted by color:  militia, veteran and elite.  We also have gold, Guards units with special abilities.  They each have a very different feel and character in combat.   

Militia are very fragile.  With a little luck, they can dish out a blistering volley as good as anybody, but they can’t take it.  Their 1st hit in combat counts as 2.  So they will often break and run after the first round of combat.  Elite units are the opposite.  They shrug off and ignore their 1st hit.  This gives them a lot of staying power.  They have the discipline to just keep coming round after round under fire.  Pub Battles has all the same “crunch” and “detail” that we are used to seeing in wargames.  You just don’t have to slog through pages of rules to tons of number crunching to play it.  The system handles most of it for you. 

Antietam

  

**Q: Your games use miniature-style movement instead of hexes. That’s pretty radical for board wargaming.**

**A:** Why should geography be imprisoned in hexagons?   This hex is half woods and half clear, so what do we call it?  This road is in 1 hex but it zig zags around so much it should really be 2 hexes.  There are tons of inaccuracies and distortions in hexes.  You just don’t see them because the designers hid them all.  Real armies don’t do the drunken stagger across a hex grid and face only in 60-degree increments.

People are just used to hexes.  We don’t have to have them.  It takes a little getting used to.  I remember it felt a little confusing to me at first.  Where exactly IS this unit?  Is he in the woods or in the clear?  With a little practice, it’s actually really and very precise.  Do you know who picks it up right away?  Non wargamers.  Kids.  Wives.  It’s very intuitive, simple and obvious to them.  It’s in the woods because I put it in the woods.  It’s right here.  See?  It’s not confusing.  As wargamers, we’re just not used to seeing it that way. 

 

This is where our Apple DNA really shows. Steve Jobs famously said, “Think Different.” The wargaming industry has been so locked into hexes that they’ve forgotten movement can be organic and intuitive.  Especially when it comes to musket warfare.  It’s very linear.  The formed up in lines, fought to hold lines and moved in lines.  Trying to force all that into a awkward geometric hex grid just looks ridiculous.  It doesn’t fit.

  

With free movement, you can actually form your defensive line around the natural curve of Cemetery and Culp’s Hills.  Wellington can place his artillery just out of sight on the reverse side of the ridge line, not this weird hex sticking out here, that can’t be used because that’s where the grid hit out. Suddenly, terrain matters in ways that hex grids can never capture.

I remember watching a couple of grognards launching Pickett’s Charge in a regular hex game.  The line of contact is all jagged, right?  So they spent all this time, trying to analyze the hex grid.  Which attacks can they get 3 hexsides on vs just 2 or 1?  How many artillery factors do they need to add to each attack to maximize their odds ratio?

I mean to an outsider, it just looks silly.  Is that what Robert E. Lee spent his time doing to prepare for that attack?  Did Napoleon organize each regiment at Waterloo by calculating the best odds ratio for each exposed hexside?  In Pub Battles, it works like it does in real life.  Do you think now is a good time to send Pickett forward.  You move him up to attack or not.  Who exactly are they attacking?  We don’t know.  It might change before the end of the turn and we resolve the combat.  We shell the defender with artillery.  Did that flip them to spent?  They may rally.  They may fall back.  New units might move up to reinforce the defense.  The Federal artillery might open up and flip Pickett to spent status before contact.  There are many things at play but this is how war really works.  The game system encouraged historically accurate tactics organically.  It teaches you to think like a real general, not an accountant.  

Ligny

**Q: You face criticism from traditional wargamers. How do you respond?**

**A:** Same way Apple responded to IBM loyalists in the 80s - we stay focused on making better products for people who want something better.

Look, some grognards are never going to change. They’re invested in complexity the way IBM was invested in command lines and MS-DOS. They’ve spent decades mastering these systems and don’t want to admit there might be a better way. I get it.

But there’s a whole generation of potential wargamers who took one look at a traditional wargame rulebook and said, “Life’s too short.” We’re making games for them - and for the secret rebels inside the grognard community who are tired of being rules lawyers and accountants when they want to be generals.

One of our fans sent me a photo of him playing Pub Battles with his girlfriend.  “She hates my wargames but she does like Pub Battles.  She will play that.”  I’ve heard the same thing with kids too.  They grew up on computer games.  Their eyes glaze over when they see a 100 page, fine print wargame rulebook.  –but they will play Pub Battles.  “Dad, this is way cooler.”  If Wargaming is going to have a future, we need to start moving in new directions. 

 

In Development

**Q: What’s your vision for the future of wargaming?**

**A:** Yeah, exactly.  We want to be the gateway drug that brings a million new people into historical gaming. Right now, wargaming is this tiny, insular community because we’ve made it too intimidating for normal humans. That’s tragic, because history is fascinating and strategy is fun - when it’s not buried under mathematical complexity.

Hey, I’m a grognard too.  I love games like World in Flames or Advanced Squad Leader.  Pub Battles is too simple for you?  Fine, get it and play it anyways.  Here’s why:

Imagine walking into a restaurant and seeing a dad or grandpa playing Pub Battles with a kid.  Where regular families and people might actually see it.  Hey, what is that?  Looks like fun.  How does it work?   Imagine history teachers using games to show students why the South lost the Civil War and what command decisions really feel like. That’s our moonshot.

The traditional companies can keep making games for the 5,000 people who want to spend their weekend calculating combat ratios. We’re going after the 500,000 people who want to experience history without needing an engineering degree.

Coming Soon Austerlitz!

**Q: Any final thoughts for wargamers who might be curious about Command Post Games?**

**A:** Try thinking different about wargaming. Don’t take my word for it – go pick a Pub Battle at commandpostgames.com and try a game. We have a 100% money back, satisfaction guarantee.  Thirty minutes with Pub Battles will teach you more about command than thirty hours with a traditional monster game.

We’re not trying to destroy traditional wargaming - we’re trying to evolve it. The same way Apple didn’t destroy computers, they just made them human.

And to the grognards who are secretly tired of being spreadsheet warriors when they want to be Napoleon or Stonewall Jackson- welcome to the revolution. We saved you a seat at the pub.

-----

*Marshall Barrington is the founder and lead designer of Command Post Games. Their Pub Battles system covers conflicts from ancient Rome to World War II, all playable in under two hours with rules you can learn in ten minutes. Visit commandpostgames.com to join the simplicity revolution.*

 This is a rundown of games that are in development:

Pub Battles:  2nd Bull Run

Gruppenfuhrer:  Tactical WW2 Combat.

Supremacy SLBMs & Bombers

Fall of Berlin & Bulge:  Berlin is very close.  We are trying to rectify the system with Bulge and France 40.  If it works in all those places, it should be good for anything in WW2.

Pub Battles:  Borodino

Gettysburg Campaign:  Operational Scale.

Command Post Games

 

 

Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War

by

Matrix Games

 This is a piece that comes straight from the designers of Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War. If you play computer wargames, you will be well aware of their last two releases:

Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm

Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm

My name is Robert Crandall and I’m the founder of On Target Simulations, the studio behind the Flashpoint series of games.  I started work in 2002 after talking to Matrix Games, and I’ve been working on it ever since.  It was a solo project for the first few years, but then I smartened up and started recruiting partners to help out.  We divvied up the jobs, and I found that the game itself improved significantly once the others joined in on the design.  The downside was that the rate of development actually slowed as we added more people.  We had so many ideas that we wanted to do that starting them all made it very hard to finish anything!  (Cue the eye-rolling by Matrix here).  Such is the life of a software development team.  

We currently have a core group of perhaps 19 people who are seriously contributing to Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War.  Some are full-time, and some are evenings and weekends.  All get a say in what the game looks like. During our six-month beta testing period, we had over 60 devoted testers who provided feedback on scenarios, identified bugs, and made suggestions that we considered. There were over 700 surveys filled out by testers with feedback! There is no doubt about the players helping shape this game and will continue to do so beyond our game launch on November 20th.

The game itself?  Ah, yes, it is a tactical ground combat simulation set in 1989 West Germany, positing a war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.  It is as high intensity as combat can get.  You command a force ranging in size from a reinforced battalion to a reinforced regiment on a 500-meter hex map, 15 by 25 km or larger, for 4 to 14 hours of game time.  Maneuver units are typically platoons for NATO and companies for the Warsaw Pact.

We model equipment right down to the individual vehicles, guns, and sensors, but the real game is at a much higher level.  You are the overall commanding officer, and you must give orders that have time lags and uncertainty associated with them.  You don’t have time to micromanage your forces, you must think big and see the total picture through the fog of war.  

If you can operate a standard Windows program, then you can operate this game.  Yes, there is a learning curve, but we try to make it easy to start.  We have tutorials and lots of docs to get you going.  As much as possible, you just need to point and click to get things started.  The game is hard to master, though, because it tries to reward good tactics.  Good tactics are, well, hard and very situational.  With practice, though, you will develop an eye for these situations and get a feel for when and where you should push hard and when you shouldn’t.

As you get going, you will find yourself dipping more deeply into the support reports and map overlays to get a better sense of potentials and possibilities.  You don’t have to, but they are there waiting for you.  If you take the time to study the terrain and think about the capabilities of both your and the enemy units, you will find yourself doing better and better.

This being the Cold War, there is a lot of interesting new stuff for a gamer to play with beyond the usual tanks, infantry, and artillery.  We have attack helicopters, ATGM firing units, weapon locating radars for counter battery work, and off-map artillery that you can call in.  We have air strikes and air defense suppression assets.  We have ten nations in the database (so far) and 80 maps to play on.  The maps are some of the most beautiful you will play on in the wargaming realm. 

 

There are over 50 standalone scenarios and another 46 between 10 campaigns. We paid special attention to researching the historically accurate units stationed in the various locations across West Germany. Where we could find accurate orders of battle, we use them. It’s amazing how many fans and our own team members bring forward anecdotes from their own time serving in their respective military and share resources that we can draw inspiration and information from. 

 

New in this iteration of the game is tactical transport.  This allows you to load leg infantry into helicopters to do air assaults, something that was a big part of the Warsaw Pact plans and something the NATO allies really wanted to use as well.  Look for a scenario called “Rendezvous with Destiny” to see a big NATO air assault by the 101st Airborne Division.  I strongly suggest you do the “Tutorial -  Air Assault Operations” first though.  There is lots to wrap your head around here.

If you are familiar with the predecessor game, Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm, from three years ago, you will see numerous improvements in the UI, speeding up the orders giving, more variety of unit types, and new features like tactical transport, group movement, artillery fire support groups, and new Staff reports. We have also brought in Belgian and Polish forces to the battle, bringing the total nations represented to 10. I should mention that the game needs a 1920 x 1080 minimum screen resolution but otherwise makes no particular demands of your hardware. The standalone scenarios can be played from either side, but the campaigns are for one particular side only. All of the scenario editing tools ship with the game. Flashpoint Campaigns has always been designed to be played while wearing your tactical thinking hat on to be successful. It’s a classic wargame in the sense that it’s a safe environment for planning a bold course of action and witnessing as it unravels your force or pays off.

Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War

Matrix Games

Steel Centurions

 Italian Armored Formations of the Second World War 1940-43

By 

Paolo Morisi

 In WWII the Italian armored forces started the war with an Albatross around their necks. The Italian Navy had some very well-designed ships at their disposal. The Italian Air Force also had some designs that were comparable to the best in the world, although in limited numbers. However, the Italian tank forces were never equipped to fight in the war. Their tanks were found to be woefully inadequate even during the Spanish Civil War. There they had faced some Soviet Union tanks that put them to shame. Luckily for the Italians the British tanks early in the war were not much better. So, forced to go to battle with old designs and not much better officers, on the whole, it is a wonder how much the Italian tankers were able to accomplish. This book is about their story during the war. The author has given us a comprehensive account of their history from 1940-1943. This book proves that the Italians were just as brave and full of fight as any other participants in the war. They were just so handicapped by design and staff that what seems on the outside to be woeful attempts at warfare is really a story of complete frustration, with bits of brilliance at times.

 The book takes you from the beginning of the Italian Armored formations and tactics until the end of the Sicily campaign. These are the chapters:

The Birth of the Italian Armored Units and Their Development

Minot Armored Campaign (France, East Africa, and Albania/Greece)

North Africa

Further Advance

Gazala and Tobruk

El Alamein

Tunisia

Sicily

M Armored Division and Ariete II

Followed by five appendices

 Naturally, the book's main focus is on the North African campaign, simply because it encompasses almost the entire Italian timeline in the war. The Germans did not find the Italian soldier to be unworthy. Not in the least. When commanded well, even with their outdated equipment, they were viewed as Allies in every sense of the word. Their bravery under great odds is shown throughout the book. I have always been interested in the role of Italy in WWI and WWII. Their forces in WWII are now seen as a cliche or a punchline to a joke. I have always believed that the reality was something entirely different. This is another book that shows that it actually was.

 If you want to know the truth about the Italian Armored formations during WWII and not just read the usual pap, then I suggest you pick up this book to find out for yourself. Thank you, Mr. Morisi, for another excellent book on what some people would call the obscure parts of the world wars. I also want the thank Casemate Publishers for allowing me to review this excellent book.

 The author Paolo Morisi Has also written two other excellent books in my opinion. The first, The Italian Folgore Parachute Division: North African Operations 1940-43. The second is, Hell in the Trenches: Austro-Hungarian Stormtroopers and Italian Arditi in the Great War. This is a link to my review of the second book:

Hell in the Trenches by Paolo Morisi - A Wargamers Needful Things

Robert 

Book: Steel Centurions: Italian Armored Formations of the Second World War 1940-43 

Author: Paolo Morisi

Publisher: Helion & Company

Distributor: Casemate Publishers

 

MacGowan & Lombardy's The Great War Card Game

Expanded 2nd Edition

by

Lombardy Studios

Kyle Cisco, a colleague and friend who owns Iron Raven Editing, is helping me with a Kickstarter campaign for second, expanded editions of MacGowan & Lombardy's The Great War card game and the four World War One minigames I originally designed for the 2014-2018 centennial. You can see more here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2030222759/world-war-one-legacy-collection

This Kickstarter’s purpose is to raise funds to publish second, expanded editions (v2) of five World War One games originally created for the centennial commemoration events in 2014-2018. All of these games can be played solitaire as well as by 2-players.

If you have the original 2021 edition of the card game MacGowan & Lombardy’s The Great War (TGW) you can still use those playing cards with the v2 rules which will be a free download after the crowdfunding campaign ends. You can read more about the original card game development and view the 2021 game art, rules, etc., here: https://lombardystudios.com/2020/09/13/macgowan-and-lombardys-the-great-war-card-game

Briefly, each card has a value or "battle points" shown in a circle on that card. There are also icons that indicate whether a card can be used to attack (arrow), or cancel an enemy card (X), or be added to other cards (+) such as Observation Balloons added to artillery – a "force multiplier" in today's military terms. 

The expanded v2 games include revised rules for faster learning, larger card art that includes historical context for the cards, and a totally new illustrated historical guidebook about the war. Other World War One collectibles listed below are available as pledge levels or add-ons.

The second edition of MacGowan and Lombardy's The Great War (TGW2) card game features large tarot-size cards compared to the original 2021 poker-size cards. If you bought the first edition of TGW you can still play the v2 game using the original 2021 cards. The new second edition rules are simpler and can be downloaded for FREE when they are posted after this Kickstarter campaign ends.

 This is a YT video on how to play:

Kickstarter WW1 card game 102720

There are also links to a good number of books available.

Aviation Flight Badges of World War One

4-volume series of oversize hard cover books 9-inches x 11-inches

1,512 pages total with nearly 2,000 full-color photos and other images

Allied Volumes 1 and 2 

First time in English for the Allied books describing details about the Serbian, Japanese, and several other air services of France, Russia, Great Britain, and America. 

Limited print run

Central Powers Volumes 1 and 2

Germany, Austro-Hungry, Bulgaria, Ottoman Turk