The Last Stand
The Battle for Moscow 1941-42
by
Multi-Man Publishing
The Defenses Around Moscow |
The Last Stand The Battle for Moscow 1941-42 by Multi-Man Publishing This game allows the players to simulate the last part of Operation ...
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The Last Stand
The Battle for Moscow 1941-42
by
Multi-Man Publishing
The Defenses Around Moscow |
Cooper Island pits one to four players against each other to reclaim and settle their own peninsula in the Island of Cooper… It is a heavy-...
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The game plays out in punishingly-few-five turns. Each turn consists of 3 phases, the Income Phase, the Worker Phase and the Clean-Up Phase. Two of which are simultaneous and which give the game a surprisingly low downtime per player when you consider how much stuff you’ve got to think about on your turn.
The Harbour Master in the Second Round |
There are only 8 action spaces for your workers to be placed onto, but you can also perform an almost unlimited number of five Anytime actions. As your peninsula develops new spaces will be revealed on your player board giving additional bonuses and sometimes extra stuff for you to do. I don’t think I’ve ever been as bewildered by a game on the first play as I have this one. Working out how to score points was not even on my radar on my first playthroughs of this.
I came away from my first game (with a terrible score) with a numb brain and I had only just realised that my anytime actions were pivotal for any type of success in this game. On my second play through my brain was hurting even more because I was trying to optimise my choice of actions spaces with the anytime actions that I had at my disposal. However, I was still trying to do a little bit of everything and consequently didn’t receive too many points.
A really close game - not my first |
It wasn’t until the third play-through that I even considered trying to score points (instead of them just happening as a result of my actions) and actually have a strategy; which currently looks like - optimise to get more workers as soon as possible (by fulfilling Milestone Tokens) and then Settle and Build at the highest level possible… This could be utterly wrong, maybe exploring your peninsula or building statues is better… I still don’t really know how to do well.
The earlier you can get more workers the more benefit they will provide over the course of the game is an age-old, (well at least Agricola-old) strategy of building your engine. However, you need to fuel that engine and your workers will need feeding, however, there isn’t the same level of jeopardy that you feel when you can’t feed you Agricola-family. In this, you just receive an anchor token which prevents your ships moving around the peninsula.
2 Normal and 1 Special worker need feeding |
So with 5 Anytime Actions, 8 worker Actions (each with their own bonus actions), 4 terrain types, 6 resource types, 18 unexplored hexes to fill, 8 sandbanks to visit, 5 ruins to explore/statues to build, 3 different types of buildings to construct and two different types of workers, 6 boats to build and a player-dependent number of Bay Water and Harbour spaces to visit; you’ll hopefully begin to understand how wide the decision tree you are faced with is at the start of the game. However, finding good combos and synergies between your anytime actions and your workers’ actions is what makes this game tick.
The pace of this game is perfectly balanced. The first one or two rounds are much simpler, (you’ve unlocked fewer bonus actions) which helps new players to become familiar with the core actions and flow of the game and during the fourth and fifth round, your combos can be magnificent and convoluted. Keeping track of a resource as it moves from a fourth level hex to pay for an action which gets additional bonuses and more market stock to pay for further bonus actions can almost feel like you’re doing the work, but it’s damn rewarding.
The end of a solo game - not too shabby |
The Income Phase is a simultaneous affair where you quickly take the income (shown by Terra Mystica hands) revealed on your player board. Additional hands can be in play by building one of your Income Boats. The standard income actions allow you to draw a double hex tile from the bag into your personal reserve and place a double hex tile onto your peninsula from your personal reserve. The important thing to understand that any time you have actions to do (including your anytime actions) is that you choose the order of them, which adds another wrinkle to your brow when you’re trying to optimise actions.
Double hex landscape tiles and islet tiles form the core of your peninsula and they build up to an attractive looking board with nice, chunky card being placed on top of each other. You can shim a mismatched terrain height by using one of your Anytime Cartographer actions (assuming you’ve got the necessary amount of Cartographer points). Each time you place a landscape tile you’ll place matching resource cubes onto that tile. The height at which the resource cubes are placed determines their value. However, once a hex is a Meadow hex, for example, it is always a Meadow hex you can’t change its hex type (unless you decide to place a settlement tile onto it). Building your landscape in this fashion (following all the tile placement rules) is like a 3d puzzle and could be a challenging game in its own right.
This looks great on the table |
The Worker Phase is the core of the game and you only start with two workers to place onto the board. Those two workers have a choice of 8 spots in the central island board to occupy. Four of the actions will let you place additional landscape tiles into your peninsula (following the placement rules) and which gives resources. The other four actions require you to pay resources you’ve just gained to build buildings, statues, boats, or supply some cargo which all have their own specific benefit and most importantly answer the first question of ‘how the $*&# do you score points?’.
Traditionally in worker placement games, a worker on a spot will prevent other players from taking that action. Here, you just have to pay the player 1 resource to go on top of their worker. This adds an unexpected boost often at opportune times. I suppose it would be possible to determine the board state of another player to work out where they are going to place their workers, to maxims this boost to you, but my gameplay is so far from this level – I’m just gripping on to my ships pennants keeping up with my own game. I just consider it a nice and often welcome surprise if it does happen to me.
The worker actions spaces / central island board |
The Clean-Up Phase is a blessed relief on the grey-matter, even though you have to start by feeding your workers. It is another simultaneous affair in which you may get points and you reset your workers and market and move the round tracker. There is a decision to be made to pay or not to reactivate an asset, however, in my experience, you only have one maybe two assets that even need reactivating and it’s nearly always worth it. This is the easiest decision in the game.
A clear and easy to follow rulebook |
This game plays in about 90 minutes to two hours. If you all know the game 4 players can complete the game in under 2 hours which is a huge achievement for such a dense, crunchy (in a good sense) game. Few games can provide the same level of challenge for four players in the same length of time as this does.
Some of the components deserve special praise. The landscape hex tiles are deliciously thick and create a good-looking peninsula after the game. The player colours are standard red, green, blue and black pieces and the resources are contrasting shades of brown – wood, purple – cloth, grey – stone, pink – food, and yellow – gold. These pieces, resources, workers and buildings are all made of wood – which I prefer.
All good here |
The rulebook does a tremendous job of conveying how the game plays. Each section is colour coded to relate to the actions. This colour coding exists throughout the game i.e. on the player board so after reading the rules, you’ve got a good idea of how the game will play. This is an amazing achievement for such a dense game. The rules are contained in 27 pages of very well written text and copious examples littered throughout. Although I did find one non-game affecting typo relating to page number references.
The player boards and central island board, at first glance, contain a dizzying array of icons, but as is the case with most heavy Euros, once you’re familiar with the actions themselves, the icons provide a non-textual and intuitive prompt for what is going on, and what you should be doing. I thought the player board with its colour-coded sections, and icon design allows a returning player to pick the game flow back up very quickly.
A bit of a table-hog. 2 Player game |
I was disappointed that there is no insert of any type in the box and similarly the two-piece player boards are made from quite a thin card stock. However, these are just minor quibbles for me as I’ll end up 3d printing an insert for this and I understand that another 3 or sheets of board stock with different die cuts would have been much more expensive.
The only criticism I have is not really fair to level at Cooper Island, as it was designed to be a complex worker placement, is that it's a complex worker placement game. You’re not going to have a good time introducing this to gamers more comfortable with Splendor and Ticket to Ride. However, there is a place in the market and my collection for complex Euros like this. If you buy this I am confident that you’ve already done your research and you’ll know exactly if this game is for you or not.
I really like this game, the huge amount of actions you have over five short rounds is impressive. I appreciate the design and all its complexities coming in under 2 hours. However, I don’t think it will see the light of day (or game night) at the moment – I don’t think I can face continually teaching it to lots of new players. Maybe when life is a bit more settled and less crazy I’ll feel a need to train my brain after another relaxing day in the office (/s) and I’ll pull this out for some stimulation. However, 2020 is not that year, my work has been manic of late and I just don’t feel up to Cooper Island but I look forward to the time when life is a bit more peaceful and normal and this will become a regular on my table.
P.S. The solo mode is fun and challenging (I’ve only beat the first difficulty level) but I feel less pressure when playing this solo and not teaching the game.
I’d like to thank Asmodee UK for sending this review copy. This is in stock in many stores and you can use this link https://www.asmodee.co.uk/contentpage/find-your-game-store to find your Friendly Local Game Store who need all the help they can get at the moment.
Designer: Andreas "ode." Odendahl
Bgg page: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269511/cooper-island
Play time: 90 minutes
Players: 1-4
Leningrad The Advance of Panzer Group 4, 1941 W. Chales De Beaulieu Translated by Linden Lyons W. Chales de Beaulieu was the Chief of Sta...
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Leningrad
The Advance of Panzer Group 4, 1941
W. Chales De Beaulieu
Translated by
Linden Lyons
W. Chales de Beaulieu was the Chief of Staff for Panzer Group 4 when it and its commanding unit Army Group North invaded Russia. Army Group North's main job was to take Leningrad, and hook up with the Finnish troops. The book was first published in German in 1961. This was part of the series "Die Wehrmacht in Kampf" Battles and Problems of the Second World War. These are being published in English for the first time. The series is edited by Matthias Strohn, Head of Historical Anlysis at the CHACR, the British Army's strategic think tank, and Reader in Modern war Studies at Buckingham University, and an expert on the German Army.
The book is short at 133 pages, but does come with eighteen appendices. It was written by an army officer, not a writer, so that is how it reads. The author explains in great detail about all of the Panzer Group's actions, and more importantly why those actions were taken.
Incredible as it seems, on the 10th of July 1941 two-thirds of the way to Leningrad had already been covered by the Panzer Group. That means on that date only 300 kilometers were between it and the city. The author believes that the OKH is to blame for most of Army Group North's stops and starts in the coming weeks and months before it arrived before Leningrad. He believes that the Panzer Group could have been at the city on August 18th.
One surprising thing about the author's tale is his views on Field Marshal Manstein (Manstein was in command of Panzer Korps LVI that was part of Panzer Group 4). It is clear from the text that he is not a fan at all of his. He also takes him to task for some of his writings. He believes either Manstein's memory had failed or he simply made up some of his remarks about the charge of the Panzer Group to Leningrad.
Thank you very much Casemate Publishers for allowing me to read this refreshing look at one large part of Army Group North's history in 1941.
Robert
Book: Leningrad: The Advance of Panzer group 4, 1941
Author: W. Chales De Beaulieu
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Something is Stirring, down in the Abyss. A submarine, the USS Salem, has a mysterious incident which leaves the crew scattered across the s...
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Something is Stirring, down in the Abyss. A submarine, the USS Salem, has a mysterious incident which leaves the crew scattered across the sea floor in diving suits. You awaken as one of the officers, and set to work finding other survivors from the crew and figuring out what happened. As you explore, it becomes apparent that this was no simple naval incident. Aggressive, monstrous creatures stand in your way, and nature seems to be corrupting in disturbing ways all around you. Something...fishy...is going on.
Just in time for Halloween comes a spooky strategy adventure from Sleepy Sentry and Slitherine Games. Stirring Abyss combines elements of XCOM and the Lovecraft mythos to create something quite different than anything I've seen before. As the leader of the surviving crew from the USS Salem, you'll go on a series of missions, defeating monsters and gathering resources as you unravel the plot. While you might glance at the screenshots and think that this game seems simple enough, there is actually quite a lot going on...beneath the surface.
After coming to his senses on the sea floor, your starting character makes his way back to the USS Salem, which has suffered heavy damage. Fans of XCOM will immediately see the influence of the base building in that series reimagined here. Instead of building a base, you'll instead be pumping water out of the various compartments in the sub, and then spending resources to get things operational again. Some rooms have a pre-determined use, while quite a few can provide a benefit of your choosing. Stirring Abyss is very stingy with resources, forcing you to make hard choices about what rooms to bring online first.
Stirring Abyss is actually stingy in a lot of good ways, constantly putting your team under a ton of...pressure. Crew members don't automatically heal between missions. Resources that you need for repairing the sub are also needed for crafting items and equipment. Power generated by the sub can be used for special abilities during the tactical phase, but needs to be conserved if you're going to keep pumping water out of the sub. During the tactical phase your team is closer to running out of air with each turn that passes. On top of all of that, the tactical combat itself is unforgiving, often pitting your team against overwhelming odds and demanding that you use all of their special abilities to good effect, or else.
The tactical combat is relatively simple in terms of mechanics, but still very satisfying. There are three classes of characters: officers, scientists, and crewmen, each with a different set of options for unlocking new abilities as they level up. Additionally, each character you bring on board is unique, with a few custom traits of their own. Most combat early on consists of stabbing enemies with your handy diving knives, but eventually each character will have a variety of options for dishing out extra damage, hitting enemies with status effects, and supporting each other. Making this far juicier is that this is a game set in a Lovecraftian world, drawing much of its inspiration from The Temple, a short story about a German sub in WWI that meets a troubled end. After just a couple of missions you gain party wide supernatural abilities that you can fire off several times per mission. These include things like teleporting short distances and massively boosting your accuracy. A little further into the campaign you'll unlock a room in the sub where you can mutate your crew members and give them straight up crazy new "perks" like tentacle arms and giant claws.
You'll need every advantage you can get, as Stirring Abyss pulls no punches with difficulty. Besides dealing with scant resources, you'll also need to keep a close eye on the hit points of your crew members. While there are a lot of ways to restore hit points (abilities, items, submarine features, and occasionally by killing enemies) almost none of them are free, and absolutely none of them will fill that health meter up in one go. This strategic concern translates to careful maneuvering during the tactical phase. Recklessly wading into a fight can put you at a disadvantage later on. Instead, you'll want to make full use of the options you have. You'll also need to learn how each of the many different enemy types operates. Most have at least a couple of special abilities that you'll need to work around. Besides health points, your crewmen also have a sanity meter which can be depleted by various events, like say, seeing a teammate get ripped apart by a giant shark-man monster. Suffering too much sanity damage can eventually render someone completely insane, which could cost you a veteran of many battles. As units level up they can choose from new perks and abilities, depending on their class, as well as stat bonuses that increase things like damage resistance and critical hit chances. These upgrades are pretty straight forward, but to add some complexity there are also a large selection of party-wide bonuses to be unlocked over time.
While the combat and XCOM elements are quite good, if relatively simple, what really makes this game sing is how it dives into its theme. The impressive music tracks are dark and foreboding, playing up the dread of a deep sea mystery and something unimaginable lurking in the darkness. The graphics, which still screenshots don't fully convey, charmingly draw from the well of 1950's era sci-fi and adventure art. Each mission carries the narrative forward, with lengthy discussions among the crew, detailed descriptions of the various horrors you come across, and the occasional choose-your-own-adventure style minigame. I don't want to spoil too much here, as the mystery of just what is happening is a big part of the draw to go from one mission to the next.
As a fan of Lovecraft stories and someone who can't get enough XCOM style strategy games, this one was a very pleasant surprise when it popped onto my radar and eventually ended up in my hands. I haven't gotten too far into the campaign yet, as there was a bug (since ironed out in the release version) which tripped me up several times. Even so, there's no doubt in my mind that this game will hold your interest if you give it a shot. The story is fun right out of the gate, and the tactical combat is comfortable but challenging. I look forward to pursuing the mystery further and seeing just what sort of eldritch horrors are causing so much chaos in the briny deep.
Stirring Abyss is available on GoG, Steam and directly from Slitherine.
- Joe Beard
FOR WHAT REMAINS: BLOOD ON THE RAILS OUT OF THE BASEMENT from DVG In looking at the first of the three "core" boxes of For Wha...
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FOR WHAT REMAINS:
BLOOD ON THE RAILS
OUT OF THE BASEMENT
from
DVG
In looking at the first of the three "core" boxes of For What Remains, I was most concerned to give you a strong idea of the quality, systems and mechanics of this game. In this continuing exploration, the focus will be on the background and player Factions covered in the course of all three games.
As I explained, the timeline behind the game begins in our known world in 1957 and culminates in the not too distant future of 2035. Apart from providing a narrative arc solidly derived from historical events and places, this timeline is important in introducing us to the alt-history beings that emerged over the course of time to challenge our world and led to the post-apocalyptic landscape and future/present in which For What Remains plays out.
The history of 1957 did not just witness the first wholly underground nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site in the USA, but also opened a gateway to the Netherscape, an alternate dimension commonly called the Basement. This provides us with some of the more eldritch creatures that you may find yourself controlling or battling against, especially in the third game, Out of the Basement. A nice touch in the narrative is the explanation that infrequent chance alignments between the two dimensions had occurred throughout earth's history leading to many of the foul things temporarily emerging that led to our beliefs in demons, ghosts and monsters! However, the most important and deadly beings encountered were the humanoid Nethermancers, possessed of telepathic powers.
It's no surprise to learn that while we were focused on the nuclear escalation above ground and the space race, the real race was taking place beneath our feet to unravel and take advantage of the creatures, minerals and powers of the Basement! With echoes of the intentions of the Corporation in the Alien films, proposals to gene-splice human and Nethermancer DNA were proposed, but initially rejected.
However, later events shifted attitudes. In particular the growing influence of North Korea as a nuclear power linked with Algeria, Pakistan and Iran [make of that what you will!] and their alliance with the Nethermancers led to the formation of an opposing and counterbalancing World Alliance. The bedfellows here are very familiar - the US, Canada, Australia and most of Europe, plus one very unexpected member, China.
So, this polarisation of the world into two major antagonistic power blocks [I wonder why?] is postulated. So far, so familiar, but in a very distorted image. By the way, it's not without some amusement/horror that the date reached in the timeline at this point is 2022!
Meanwhile within the World Alliance, a semi-clandestine group of the USA's Homeland Security, Department B [not the nicest bunch!], grows ever more influential, culminating in the development of a humanoid race built out of a fusion of human, organic and mineral matters, named the Earthen. These along with highly developed robotic systems piloted by humans and featuring cyborgs too [who will ultimately provide the game's Combine faction] become the frontline World Alliance forces in the growing confrontations with the denizens of the Netherscape and their human allies in this polarised world.
At much the same time, Department B had established a Tactical Response Unit Echo whose members were being worked on to develop psychic powers in them. To further add to this lethal mix, a universal religious movement rises to condemn and blame both this dependence on technology and the world's abandonment of God. Inevitably, a militant element develops out of this religious ground-swell and so are born the Soldiers of Light. It is these two groups - the smaller off-shoots of the larger human alliances - that oppose each other in the second game. Blood on the Rails. Though technically all are of human stock, the Echo faction members are signally unusual in their range of psychic abilities and also include a number of the strange hybrid human/Netherscape beings called chimeras. While the Soldiers of Light, though themselves human too, have established domination over some of the beasts that have been mutated by the effects of the Basement.
The fifth faction is the Order of The New Dawn. These creatures you will meet in the third game Out of The Basement and they will be battling in their scenarios against the Earthen faction, whose origins I outlined earlier. The Order are almost entirely creatures of the other-world dimension, the Netherscape, though they too have an element of humans degraded and transformed by the effects of extended exposure to the Basement.
In the final period of the game's narrative history from 2022 to 2035, the clash between the two conglomerations of global rivals comes to a head with initially a major victory won by the Earthen against the creatures of the Basement. However, the pyrric decimation of these winning forces leads them to turn against their human masters of the World Alliance. Eventually, as time moves on, by 2030 a resurgence of the Nethermancers allied with North Korea looks to be on the point of total victory, causing the unleashing of all out nuclear weaponry leading to a world in post-apocalyptic ruin.
... and thus, we arrive at the "present" day - an exhausted and depleted world of splintered factions locked in a subtle and murderous interplay. The Combine nominally rules with a repressive martial law over the varied remnants of mankind, fighting as often against humans as against Netherscape creatures, in particular the specific rebel faction, the Freemen. who make up the sixth faction. These confrontations provide the Campaign scenarios in the first game Streets of Ruin.
Having established the narrative setting for the games, this next section will explore the geographical landscape over which the various scenarios and their linking Campaigns are fought. All three Campaigns are located in an area of Russia [physically about the size of Wales] called Semipalatinsk. This is a real location in which between 1949 - 1989, hundreds of nuclear tests were conducted.
A factor I drew attention to and praised in my initial review was how each Rule book, though inevitably containing parts that were identical, tailored the presentation and additional details and all illustrations to reflect the specific and original elements in each game. These Campaign booklets show the same attention to the individuality of each game. They all start with the same diagram of the area, but accompanied by totally different photos of the landscape, as well as individual aerial photos! This adds greatly to the convincing feel of each game.
This is matched in the text by starting with the same one page overall description, but then each booklet branches off into the very particular geography of this game. Streets of Ruin takes us to the town of Kurchatov, while the second game, Blood On The Rails pinpoints the railyards on the outskirts of Kurchatov. Finally, Out of The Basement moves south-west to area "G" and the Degelen Mountain, where true to its game title, all the scenarios play out underground in the tunnels and dwelling areas established by the Earthen and infested with creatures of the Netherscape!
After these open pages establish the background geography, each Campaign booklet then progresses through five linked scenarios Because each game is meant to be able to stand alone, the first scenario in each game is identical in victory conditions, relying on a combination of your opponent's units and pick up scavenge tokens. A gamer intending to buy all three games might feel this repetition a little unrewarding in novelty, as well as the fact that other scenarios spread across the three games have marked similarities.
However, when you consider the hundreds and hundreds of scenarios developed for the myriad boxed sets of ASL [Advanced Squad Leader], the number of scenario types probably boil down to about five or six: [1]eliminate your opponent, [2]occupy more locations than your opponent, [3]attack/ defend a location, [4]get your troops from one side of the map to exit the other edge/prevent your opponent form doing so, [4]an ambush situation, [5]hold out until reinforcements arrive - which in itself is a variation of number 3 and [6] a rescue mission - which often mixes elements of several of these preceding stereotypical actions! This in essence is what all wargames can be reduced down to.
What we have in For What Remains reflects just the same generic situations. Like all wargames, what brings the differences are the particularities of varying units and varying locations, how to get the best out of the units at your disposal and their skills. The final variety comes from the structure that the five scenarios in each Campaign build up in a sequence with two or three being linked so that the outcomes of one influence some factor in the next scenario.
As with most skirmish style games, units divide into two over-riding basic characteristics - units that are best operating at range and those that flourish in close combat or at least close range. The typical example of the first type is probably the sniper, of the latter perhaps a type of flamethrower operative.
Because of the scope that the other world/sci-fi element brings, we have several distinctly unusual skills and their combinations to enrich the game play and, of course, art work to match whether in the booklets or on the counters.
Above is a typical illustration from one of the six Faction booklets. Each booklet starts with a specific introduction to the Faction, followed by at least a single page dedicated to each type of unit with details of their particular skills and how each affects the rules. With the much larger units [called "huge"], whose counters occupy 4 squares, there is a also a full page illustration to exemplify the rules for their weapon/ability.
THIS WAR WITHOUT AN ENEMY FROM NUTS PUBLISHING Are the titles of games getting more obscure? Whatever the answer, the war cloaked behind th...
For your Wargamer, Toy soldier collector, MiniFig collector, military history nut. Reviews, interviews, Model Making, AARs and books!
THIS WAR WITHOUT AN ENEMY
FROM
NUTS PUBLISHING
Are the titles of games getting more obscure? Whatever the answer, the war cloaked behind this title is one that has received very few treatments by the board wargame world. Its subject - the English Civil War.
I came to hear of it early in its inception when it was first mooted as a new addition to Columbia Games' extensive and excellent series of light block games. As most of these are numbered in my collection of games and have had extensive play, I was delighted at the prospect of one on the English Civil War. I had one reservation though: would it just be a re-tread of their Richard III with different blocks?
This too was the problem for the game's designer, Scott Moore, as was revealed in his interview for AWNT, when he described his eventual move to develop the game.
"... my move to Nuts Publishing gave me the freedom to change my game beyond the confines of the Columbia system. So, in the end I had full control over the design of the game and did not have to make any compromises."
At the time, I thought this was a brave decision and it's one that has paid huge dividends not just in terms of the content, but also in the quality. Nuts Publishing, though a small company, has set the highest standards in all the varied components. This is clear from a first glimpse of the daring box art; the stark, dominating red cross set against the swirling, murky white clouds of battle smoke conjures up both the cross of St George, the symbolic flag of England, and the bloody funereal cross of death reminding us of the vicious slaughter of civil war.
Here praise must go to the artist, Nicolas Roblin, and Scott's own words couldn't sum this praise up better.
"...the success of the final design was mainly due to his extensive research, passion and dedication - and, of course, natural talent ... the box cover illustration and the gorgeous map have attracted the most praise."
I couldn't agree more. The strength of the map art can be seen, even from my photograph, in the rich forested areas and the mountainous terrain of Wales and the North. What my shot barely brings out is the 3D quality of the coastline and the superb depiction of the few, but crucial cities.
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