Axis Operations 1939 is the latest add-on for Panzer Corps 2 which I reviewed earlier this year. Much like the previous game, Panzer Corps 2 shipped with a campaign covering all the headline battles for the German army in WW2, but now it is receiving a series of DLC that take a deeper dive into the war, and visit many smaller and less well known battles in a very lengthy grand campaign. The first DLC featured the Spanish Civil War, in many ways the warm up to WW2 in Europe where the various powers tried out new tactics and equipment. If you have already played through that campaign, you can carry your core force and heroes forward into 1939, or start fresh with a balanced force and several heroes to assign as you please.

Over the course of 15 scenarios you'll visit some of the less gamed battles of the war. While in real life many of these were small scale affairs compared to the later battles of the war, Panzer Corps 2 makes up for this by taking the quirks of the historical situation and offering up unique objectives for each scenario. In most cases you'll be offered up a straight forward objective that isn't too difficult to complete, but, critically, you'll also have at least a couple of bonus objectives that will appear tantalizingly within your grasp. Accomplishing one of those objectives will require only a bit more skill than normal, but taking on both at the same time will often demand some real strategy and perhaps even a few separate runs at the scenario. While you can finish the campaign without doing any of these, the game is far more fun, and more challenging, when you attempt them. In almost every scenario I found myself embarrassingly overstretched on my first attempt, thinking I had things in the bag just before an enemy counter-attack cut off my lead units and ravaged them. The rewards for going the extra mile are Commendation Points, which you'll be able to spend at various junctions to get special units and heroes. 

While some of the bonus objectives merely involve taking the primary objective and pushing deeper into enemy territory, others are very unique and fresh. For example, early on you'll invade Czechoslovakia. While you can just roll in and crush all resistance, the ideal way to win the battle is to occupy points all over the map without destroying a single enemy unit. You'll attack and push them back, but never hit them so hard that you wipe one out. As you can imagine, it becomes difficult to cut deep into enemy territory when you keep leaving viable enemy units in your rear. In a later mission fighting the French, you're tasked with capture a huge swath of objectives across the map, but ever so tempting is a heavily fortified city right next to your starting point, that you merely need to raid (simply touch the objective marker once) to complete a bonus objective. It seems so easy, it's right there, you can drive to the objective location on Turn 1, and yet you'll lose half of your force trying to take it directly, or burn through most of your limited turns attempting to encircle and siege the place.

Throughout the campaign you'll see Czechoslovakia, France, Poland, Finland, and Denmark, offering quite a variety of locales and enemy forces. Your own units will of course not evolve too much over this time period, but you will get the chance to capture various enemy units and add them to your core force if you so choose. You'll also see your units grow in experience, awards which add perks to a unit, and gain more heroes. These heroes are used in Panzer Corps 2 to further customize a unit with special perks, which bend the normal rules of the game. Each unit can have up to three of these guys attached, letting you create some real powerhouses with the right synergies. 

At the end of this campaign you'll be edging over into 1940. No doubt we will be seeing Axis Operations 1940 in the coming months, where you can take your forces on to invade the rest of Europe. As I know a lot less about this period of the war than the latter portions, I'm very interested in seeing what locations and battles will be featured.

At just $10, Axis Operations 1939 is certainly worth your money if you are looking for some more Panzer Corps 2 action. While it doesn't break new ground, it offers more of the tried and true, but highly polished action of the core game. 

Axis Operations 1939 is available directly from Slitherine or your gaming store of choice.

- Joe Beard

Field of Glory II

by

Slitherine Games and Byzantine Games 

 Hello again, Peabody and Sherman here, we will be going into the wabac machine to help Lucius Tarquinius Superbus restore his crown, and to review Field of Glory II.

 To be upfront I am an ancient history freak, and would rather game and read about this period than any other.

 Just a caveat: these screens are based on the beta version of the game. Some last minute changes may take place.

 This game has been misnamed; it should not be Field of Glory II, but Field of Glory IV or V. The game is that much better than the original Field of Glory. I was not a fan at all of the older game, but I did only play it against the AI. The older game did have a large multiplayer base. The gaming system, which came from table top gaming, has a large following and has been used in gaming all the way to the Renaissance and beyond.

 The amount of ancient wargaming  in the game beggars belief. These are the campaigns:

 

 This is a list of the 'Epic' (historical) battles:

 The army list of the game for both editing and skirmishes is like the Energizer bunny it just keeps going. These are:

Ancient British 60 BC - 80 AD
Apulian 420-203 BC
Arab 312 BC - 476 AD
Armenian 331 BC - 252 AD
Armenian (Tigranes) 83-69 BC
Atropatene 320-145 BC
Atropatene 144 BC - 226 AD
Bithynian 297-74 BC
Bosporan 348-85 BC
Bosporan 84-11 BC
Bruttian or Lucanian 420-203 BC
Campanian 280-203 BC
Carthaginian 280-263 BC
Carthaginian 262-236 BC
Carthaginian 235-146BC
Carthaginian (Hannibal in Italy) 218-217 BC
Carthaginian (Hannibal in Italy) 216-203 BC
Carthaginian (Hannibal in Africa) 202 BC
Caucasian 320 BC - 476 AD
Dacian 50 BC - 106 AD
Galatian 280-63 BC
Galatian 63-25 BC
Gallic 300-101 BC
Gallic 100-50 BC
Germanic Foot Tribes 105 BC - 259 AD
Graeco-Bactrian 250-130 BC
Greek 280-228 BC
Greek 227-146 BC
Greek (Western) 280-49 BC
Iberian or Colchian 331 BC - 252 AD
Illyrian 350 BC - 25 AD
Indian 500 BC - 319 AD
Indo-Greek 175 BC - 10 AD
Indo-Parthian 60 BC - 130 AD
Indo-Skythian 95 BC - 50 AD
Italian Hill Tribes 490-275 BC
Jewish 167-64 BC
Jewish 64 BC - 6 AD
Kappadokian 260 BC - 17 AD
Kushan 130 BC - 476 AD
Libyan 220 BC - 70 AD
Ligurian 480-145 BC
Macedonian 320-261 BC
Macedonian 260-148 BC
Mountain Indian 492-170 BC
Nabataean 260 BC - 106 AD
Numidian or Moorish 220-56 BC
Numidian or Moorish 55 BC - 6 AD
Parthian 250 BC - 225 AD
Pergamene 262-191 BC
Pergamene 190-129 BC
Pontic 281-111 BC
Pontic 110-85 BC
Pontic 84-47 BC
Ptolemaic 320-167 BC
Ptolemaic 166-56 BC
Ptolemaic 55-30 BC
Pyrrhic 280-272 BC
Rhoxolani 350 BC - 24 AD
Roman 280-220 BC
Roman 219-200 BC
Roman 199-106 BC
Roman 105-25 BC
Saka 300 BC - 50 AD
Samnite 355-272 BC
Sarmatian 350 BC - 24 AD
Scots-Irish 50 BC - 476 AD
Seleucid 320-206 BC
Seleucid 205-167 BC
Seleucid 166-125 BC
Seleucid 124-63 BC
Skythian 300 BC - 50 AD
Slave Revolt 73-71 BC
Spanish 300-10 BC
Spanish (Sertorius) 80-70 BC
Syracusan 280-211 BC
Thracian 350 BC - 46 AD
Umbrian 490-260 BC

 There are a total of eighty-six types of historical units, and each type can have multiple variants. Battles can be as large as eighty units per side. However, the ability to play such large scenarios completely depends on your computer hardware.

 There are three tutorials:

 This is the multiplayer screen:

 This is the first screen when using the editor:

 The game is based upon the Pike and Shot and Sengoku Jidai game engine, which if you haven't picked them up, what are you waiting for? The core game has been updated constantly since release, and for Field of Glory II it has been even more enhanced. As mentioned, the original Field of Glory did have a large multiplayer fan base. The multiplayer for Field of Glory II is based upon the seamless multiplayer setup from Pike and Shot etc.

 The game plays like an ancient battle game. It is not a generic battle system where the Elephant unit is interchangeable with a tank unit. The game is immersive and you feel like you are leading an ancient army.

 Just like in the Sengoku Jidai add-on Gempei Kassen (The Gempei War), the developers have erred on the side of caution with their list of Epic (historical) battles (there being so few sources on the type of units let alone the numbers for the Gempei War battles that it comes with none). The developers have given us only twelve battles preset for play of each side (that does not include the battles in the campaigns). As we have seen, the army list is enough to let any imagination run wild. I am also positive that modders will be in full swing bringing us new historical battles; there are actually some in the works now.

 For those of us who have been waiting for a great ancient tactical game, the wait is over. For those of you still stuck in the mud of the Russian front, please explore a new horizon, and see how good this game really is.

 The following are screenshots of my feeble attempt to play the second tutorial. I eventually win in a messy and very unplanned way. The AI broke my right flank, but the battle had progressed so far on my left and in the center that it didn't help that much. I have actually been spending a lot of my playing time as Antiochus the Great at Magnesia versus the Romans.

 Per the tutorial's instructions, I have moved my lighter Italian infantry to my right and the broken hilly ground. My plan is to smash their right and center with my phalanxes and Elephants.

  My plan was working until my units were bunched up in the choke point between the hills.

 Having been playing the Magnesia scenario too much, I forgot that my heavy cavalry are not cataphracts. My right flank has crumbled.

  My one remaining Elephant unit and the phalanxes are the only things that pull my irons out of the fire.

  Two of the elephants have routed and have gone berserk. This was always the extremely fun part of ancient wargaming. One hex full of even your own berserk elephants can pretty much destroy your painstakingly created line.

 The following are three closeup screenshots of Antiochus The Great Army at Magnesia.

 The Matrix/Slitherine/Ageod lineup for the next few months is incredibly impressive. It looks a little like murderers row from 1927. You not only have Field of Glory II coming out on October 12th, but also these games coming up:

Operational Art of War IV - The name says it all.
Desert war - Who hasn't been clamoring for a desert war game?
Wars of Succession - Marlborough and Charles XII what more can you say?

 Everyone talks about the 'good old days' , but with the books and games (boardgames also) that are coming and have already been produced, this is the 'Age of The Grog'.


Robert

Warbirds: Blitzkrieg Review

 

Reviewing this game has been a learning experience on my part. It is a print and play game that also comes with a Vassal module built in. I had only dipped my toe at times down through the years into Vassal, so for this game I had to get into it down to the nuts and bolts. This game goes back to an earlier age where computers and all our new fangled doodads didn't exist. With all of our new games and plane simulations etc. why do we need to go back to a board game like this? The reason board games of any type are still around, and not only that are thriving right now is because of the game play. You will see during this review that this game is intricate, but fun, and that as a simulation of early WWII war in the air it works. You will have to read (shudder) and not just click a mouse. The game is fairly long on rules, but for gamer's who have played ASL or the original it is nowhere near as bad/good depending on your taste, and masochistic tendencies.

632Meg Download  

 

The game is based on what a pilot could do in in 4.1 seconds of real time. The length and breadth of the rules are because of the physical constraints of using one dimensional maps etc. to simulate everything a plane could do in three dimensions. In order to recreate dogfighting and ground pounding the player has to understand how the rules allow him to not only fly loops, but also do an Immelmann. The index of the rules takes up four pages (there are also a lot of optional rules to immersive yourself further). This is not to scare you off, but just to make sure you understand what you are buying into. The rules are sixty-one pages long, but it does have a lot of illustrations. After that there comes more rules for playing by PBEM, and then reference material, and then an alphabetical index. With the rules in PDF form it is very easy to have them open on a tablet or phone. So you won't have to print them off unless you want to. They are clearly written without ambiguities to argue over. The game rules are intuitive so without to much checking you will be up and flying and fighting in no time.

The game comes with twenty-four maps, and thirty three scenarios. The print and play version has very nicely done graphics, and the Vassal components are top notch.

The manual is well setup to learn all of the different things you need to know in an ABC method. The game is actual in two parts, there is a tactical part, and also an operational one. The tactical part is you flying your plane(s) over the different mapboards. The operational part is one where you are a flight commander, and are responsible for carrying out different missions. The operations part of the game has its own separate rule book.

Flight Ops Chart

 

Background on Air Warfare

 

The written material includes designers notes, and tons of background on air warfare.

 The rules are full of illustrations to show how they are to be utilized in the game.

Counters (Counters and Maps come in US and UK sizes)

 

More Counters

 

BF109E Data Card

 

The plane charts are a marvel all by themselves. By studying them you really get the 'feel' for the different planes.

 

Dornier Data Card

 

Dornier Data Card

 

 What you get for the price of $30.00 is pretty amazing. The fact that once you have the rules down they can be used in any of the other games in the series from WWI to the present is a tribute to how well the rules actually convey air warfare. I have started following along as some players use the PBEM system with the Vassal module. It seems to work pretty seamlessly.

 The games system started out as just a WWII addon for another flying game. The idea is just about twenty years old. Steve Pancrazio is the brain behind the games. Mr. Pancrazio has a background in engineering and aviation. He started playing board wargames in 1974, Avalon Hills 'Luftwaffe' to be exact. He decided to self publish his games in 2014, and the first one is called 'Canvas Falcons' and it has a good following on boardgamegeek etc. As I stated earlier, he was trying, and succeeded, in developing a flight game that could be used in different eras without having to learn a whole new set of rules for each new era. If you look at the rules for 'Blitzkrieg', and compare them to 'Canvas Falcons' you will not see too many differences. The next release will be 'The Battle of Britain' for which he is finishing the naval rules right now. After that it is on to 'Forgotten Wars', and then he will add a Zeppelin module for 'Canvas Falcons'. As a teaser there are aircraft data cards on the website for 'Forgotten Wars' one is a Mig-15 and the other an F-86.
 

  For those of you who want a physical copy there is the print-n-play version, which comes with the game. Their are more than a few good websites that can teach you how to make your own counters and maps, along with instructional videos.

 There is so much here that I really wanted to show, but cannot because of only having so much space.

 

Following are some shots from the Vassal version:

 

WW1 Counters from Canvas Falcons

 

Robert

 

Game: Warbirds Blitzkrieg

Company: Warbirds game System

Designer: Steve Pancrazio

Battle Brothers, from Overhype Studios, is a game which took me by surprise in the best way. The first time I sat down with it and started playing, my only thought was "How has no one made a game like this before?!"  This is one of those occasional titles which reminds you why you started playing video games in the first place. In case you haven't guessed yet, I really enjoyed the game. Read on to find out all the details, or just go buy the game now.

In Battle Brothers, the player takes on the leadership of a small company of mercenaries making their way in a low-fantasy world. The world, and everything in it, is randomly generated each time you start a campaign. Towns, each of different size and containing different amenities, are scattered across a world divided between a few noble houses. There is also a massive area of the world map which is completely shrouded in mystery at the beginning of your campaign. One will immediately be reminded of Mount & Blade when beginning their wanderings through the world, and if you played that classic, you will feel right at home here. Between these towns runs a network of roads cutting through forests, grasslands, deserts, swamps, and mountains. Trade caravans, squads of soldiers, and even other mercenary bands travel the roads. Lurking in the shadows on every side are groups of baddies, waiting to strike the defenseless peasants. This is where your mercenary company steps in to make some coin.

The opening of a battle.

The company begins with just three men, all that remains after the opening events of the campaign. Using your limited budget, you must recruit additional mercenaries and buy them some equipment. This is where some of the wonderful little details of the game start to work their magic. In each village a number of men can be found looking for work. Each one has a background story describing what brought him to take up the mercenary life. Some are appropriately cliche, some are dark, and some are hilarious. Based on their skill level, these men all have different prices to join your company, and will demand a certain wage each day. Early on you will be forced to settle for recruiting a few drunks and beggars, but as the game progresses you can afford the more experienced soldiers and sellswords to replace your losses. 

And trust me, you will have losses, even on the easiest difficulty setting. I highly recommend playing with the Ironman setting turned on. Much like XCOM, the game loses a great deal of its tension without the ever present danger of permadeath for your soldiers. All of these men have unique traits and skill levels that give them character and value. Losing one of your first members, hours into the game, will hit you hard. Seeing a new recruit get cut down by a bandit in his first outing can be equally gut wrenching. Keep your men alive and they will grow ever more powerful, gaining bonuses to a variety of stats and perks. They will also tend to pick up scars and the occasional permanent injury. These kinds of wounds can reduce their stats a great deal, which may force you to send a battle hardened veteran into peaceful retirement.

A world waiting to be explored.

Your men also need equipment. Managing the war gear for your entire company is one of my favorite parts of the game. It takes the appeal of outfitting your characters in an RPG and multiplies it by a dozen or more soldiers. Each man can be equipped with weapons, armor, head gear, and accessories. How you equip your force is entirely up to you, and will be important to your strategy. The type of attacks a soldier can make in battle depend entirely on what you put in his hands. Archers can rain down arrows from behind your lines. Soldiers armed with shields can form a solid shield wall to hold off enemy melee attacks. However, men wielding two handed axes can chop right through those shields. There are a ton of different types of weapons to try out, and you will want to have a good mix. As the game progresses you will be able to buy or scavenge ever more deadly and exotic items.

Some towns are less impressive than others...

The actual fighting in Battle Brothers is done in a turn based format on a hex grid. Combatants on each side go in order based on their initiative, a value which can change over the course of the battle due to fatigue. Each character has a number of action points which are used to move and take actions. Each weapon typically has a couple of distinct attack options, or an attack and some kind of defensive stance. Each time a combatant is hit, his body or head armor will take some damage, and some damage will get through to his hit points. Shields and helms can be destroyed in the midst of the fighting. All sorts of wounds can be inflicted, from broken bones to dismembered ears, and all kinds of bloody unpleasantness in between. These wounds are reflected clearly on the soldiers duking it out. A fresh fighter will look completely different from a bloodied man, barely on his feet towards the end of a battle.

During the combat, the player must keep an eye on more than just hit points. Each man has a resolve score which determines how long his morale will hold up when things aren't going great. Letting a soldier get isolated and surrounded will cause this score to plummet, and usually wind up with him dead. Events like the death, or especially decapitation, of fellow mercenaries will cause a team-wide drop in morale. Taking out an enemy will pump it back up. As the game goes on you will find a few extra ways to help raise morale when things look bleak.  Another number the player must watch is fatigue. Every action builds up some fatigue, another value unique for each mercenary, and in longer battles this number can max out, reducing how many actions a unit can take on his turn. Deeper into the game you will face many longer battles where giving soldiers a chance to breath must factor into your decision making. 

An ugly fight where I lost some good men.

The combat in Battle Brothers keeps me coming back for more, and even hours into a campaign it does not lose its appeal. This is because the game, despite being randomly generated in many ways, offers a satisfying difficulty curve. Early on you will face bandits that are as poorly armed as your own men. After a few successful jobs your force will pick up some better equipment and be able to make mincemeat of any rag tag thieves and bandits of the world. Just as you start to feel invincible, however, the game will throw a nastier enemy force at you that will test your tactical ability. Sometimes you will even be forced to retreat, lest you watch your entire company be wiped out one by one. 

Checking the company gear. Up to 20 mercenaries can be in your company at once.

It's in these tougher fights where the tactical combat really shines.  Deciding when to play conservatively, and when to make a push, can win or lose a battle. The weapons, accessories, and perks of individual fighters must be taken into consideration. Beyond your control, and keeping things tense at all times, is the off chance of a lucky blow. Your best swordsman could be badly wounded by an arrow before he even swings his blade. An inexperienced new recruit, armed with a dagger and not much else, could slip in a killing blow on a tough enemy.  It's a system where good play is rewarded, but the chaos of battle can lash out at any time.

Between fights, the player sends his merry band from town to town looking for new contracts. These contracts start off simple, mostly jobs to go fight brigands harassing the locals. Later on you will get more difficult and lengthy assignments, such as patrolling through a large area for the local duke, or tracking down mysterious artifacts. I especially liked the occasional caravan escort job that went without an enemy daring to attack you. Your men didn't break a sweat, and you still got paid! Payment is always negotiable in Battle Brothers, and you will do well to be a hard bargainer if you want to get rich. You can ask for a portion of payment up front if you need a little cash for food, or ask to get more after the job is done, if you are simply looking for maximum payout. 

You can usually push for a bigger payout, but sometimes the client will walk away.

As you take actions in the world, the world will react. Each town and house has an opinion of you, which will improve as you help them out, and plummet if you take action against them. You also have an overall reputation score as a mercenary company, which you must improve to get the better paying jobs. The deeper into a campaign you go, the more interesting these dynamics become. At some point you will almost certainly make enemies, whether you want to or not.  If you survive long enough, the world will eventually be faced with a variety of calamities, including a war between the noble houses, an invasion of orcs, or the arrival of undead armies.

Browsing for new recruits.

I haven't talked about the mini choose-your-own-adventure moments that pop up during your travels, but I will leave those for you to discover and enjoy yourself. There is also the matter of keeping your company stocked with a variety of food and other supplies, the ambitions you can pursue, and inhuman dangers which reside in the more remote parts of the world. There is just so much this game has to offer that it will keep you busy for a long time. 

Not all of your enemies are human...

Even with all the content in he game, it's clearly a candidate for more of everything, you really couldn't have too much variety here. More quests, character backgrounds, events, enemies, world ending disasters, and weapons are always welcome.  Some areas I would love to see expanded in a patch or DLC down the road would include deeper interactions with towns, more options for running the company itself, a more complex perk system, or even introducing more fantastical elements like magic or taking a step forward in tech (why not both?). 

If you have read this far and are still interested in the game, I strongly urge you to go buy it. This is easily my favorite game of the year so far. Not because it has flashy graphics or an amazing storyline, but because it ticks so many boxes of what I want a game to be. It is fun through and through, and feels polished from the moment the game begins.

Battle Brothers is out now and available on Steam.
http://battlebrothersgame.com/

- Joe Beard