Fields of Fire, designed by Ben Hull and published by GMT games is the best solitaire wargame and I think it could challenge any non-solitaire wargame for quality, immersion, fun, and challenge. 

There, I said it. I know that's only my opinion but in this case, I am pretty sure I'm correct. If you're still here and haven't rushed out to order it already then maybe you want to know why I claim such an accolade; read on ... (prepare yourself for a completely biased view of this great game)

I first discovered this game in the long dark days between the first edition and the newly printed second edition. There aren't many in my regular game group who entertain my wargame habit. In researching my drug of choice, I quickly discovered Ambush as a solo wargame. I promptly paid a benevolent stranger on eBay a princely sum and on completing the first scenario I was hooked. I went on to play the game out and wanting more. I had never played a game that told such a great story and in which you were so emotionally invested in the characters. However in Ambush, each mission is exactly the same, obviously, the outcome will be different, but all the events are preprogrammed to happen again. Ambush has little replayability value but it's a blast the first time around.

For my next fix, I found Fields of Fire; it came with a recommendation, 'if you like Ambush, you'll like this', and a warning 'you could go insane trying to understand the rules'. Unfortunately for me, the game was out of print and out of stock everywhere I looked. So I fired up Vassal and printed off the rules and got ready for an education.

As soon as I started scratching at the system I realised that there was something special here, and the myriad of player aids and unofficial rules available at the game page on board game geek made me think that I wasn't the only one who saw something great. I learnt the game over a week or so using some terrific examples of play and introductions that others had written, which for me, were invaluable for learning the game.

Fields of Fire puts you in the shoes of a 2nd Lieutenant in command of a rifle company of the US Armies 9th Infantry Regiment. This regiment, the 'Manchus' are one of the oldest and most decorated infantry regiments in the US Army. The game portrays their experience through WWII, Korea and Vietnam. There are not many war games that provide 3 different conflicts as part of the base game.

Instead of the traditional wargame hex map, you get a deck of terrain cards which are constructed, per the scenario setup, in front of you in order for you to analyse the terrain before you plan your strategy. There are different terrain decks for each theatre: WWII, Korea and Vietnam and each terrain area has specific attributes, like cover, combat modifier, trafficability, and burst effect. You need to plan to use the strengths and weaknesses of each card as your troops move up the 'map' to take their objectives.

The Normandy Terrain Deck, example cards

There are two distinct parts to this game, the planning phase and the mission itself. During planning you decide which of your 3 platoons will receive your allocated weapons and assets. 'Assets' are crucial for your success in this game and include signal flares, radios, runners etc, i.e. everything you may need to stay in command and communications with your subordinates. The quote below from Prussian General summarises my experiences with Fields of Fire quite succinctly:

"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy" - Field Marshall Graf von Moltke

After you've decided on your plan of attack you then form up your troops in the staging area just off-map and start worrying about what's out there on the map and whether you're going to survive. The way in which each scenario plays out is largely driven by an Action Deck of cards, which contain a plethora of numbers which determine the results of your orders, your attacks, your skirmish results indeed any type of randomisation in the game is resolved by drawing an Action Card. I read one online commenter who claimed their Action Deck cheats. I empathise with them.

The action deck. Showing resolutions for events, orders, initiative, combat success and combat effects and random numbers(12)

The entropy caused by the Action Deck and the Terrain Deck changes the scenario so much that in playing through the same scenario twice, it feels completely different. But in none of them will it be easy, in fact in my experience it is often a brutal and savage experience in which you find yourself clinging onto your last vestiges of command whilst you vainly try to establish contact with your subordinate HQs. What this does is give this game, with 29 included scenarios, almost infinite re-playability.

There are some gamers that decry any randomisation and abhor dice, not something the typical wargamer shuns. However, there are no dice here. You do have the equivalent of a d12 on each Action card. With nearly every order, you're drawing another Action card. This means you're going to reshuffle that Action Deck a lot. They're typical inflexible GMT card stock, i.e. they don't lend themselves to easy shuffling but I've sleeved mine and it is a breeze to shuffle. I am not a 'sleever' per se; my Terrain Decks will not be protected, but the Action Deck will receive such heavy use I would recommend sleeving for protection and to aid shuffling.

Normandy Mission #1 set-up. Note the hills/stacked cards these will prove very useful in maintaining LOS and therefore comms with your subordinates.

One requirement of playing solo is integrity, it's easy to cheat when playing alone. But in this game, there are so many edge cases that crop up sometimes a referral to the rulebook in every single instance costs too much time. Given enough experience, (probably 3+ games) you know 90% of the game with just the Sequence of Play to jog your memory. I would recommend in those edge cases to just play through what you think is sensible and find the rule after the game, if still necessary.

In order for your units to make an action, they need to be given orders from a higher HQ, as determined by the Action Deck which is then modified by game conditions. Your CO HQ can then 'spend' them on any subordinate unit. This command hierarchy exists above and below your CO HQ and is a crucial part of this game e.g. your 1st Plt HQ cannot order a 2nd Plt unit, similarly, your 1st Plt HQ cannot order CO Staff. Where you attach machine guns, mortars and vehicle assets and how they may be commanded and from which terrain, should all be considered in the planning phase to increase your chance of success.

On some turns, you may find your CO HQ with very few commands and they are unable to order any of their subordinates because they are out of communication i.e. the subordinate cannot see or hear their commander giving them an order. If not in visual/verbal communication then they are left to their own initiative. However, if they see an enemy your units will never have to be ordered to open fire, that is automatic. Strangely for a tactical war game, you'll find yourself ordering 'ceasefire' more often than not in an effort to conserve ammunition.

The game system also allows for pyrotechnics to be used to signal your on-map units. Upon seeing a flare they will attempt to carry out the action that was assigned to that flare during the planning phase. Although a new player may be overwhelmed by the multitude of different options, I found my gameplay took an exponential leap forward when I learnt to use pyros proficiently.

When talking about a tactical squad level infantry combat game, I can't think of anything that is missing from this game. You have forward observers that can call in fire support, jeeps, tanks, helicopters, communications, ammo depletion. If I had to criticise the game, and I really don't want to, then maybe the vehicle segments are a little abstracted. However, that is probably a design choice because this isn't Panzer Leader or Check Your 6! whose focus is on armour and airborne battles respectively. This game's focus is firmly on the infantry battle, deep down at the tactical and company level and in that it excels.

The 'Manchus' in Vietnam

This tactical realism comes with a price. You have to manage the Volume of Fire and Primary Direction of Fire counters and all the other ancillary chits which are placed and removed each turn. There is a fair bit of counter management and sometimes, 3 hours into a tough scenario you cannot see the chits from the cards, figuratively speaking. I have found myself just staring at the map, and I'd like to say I was deciding what to do next to save my sorry situation, but the reality was I was just drained, not thinking, just staring. You could say this game had caused some cardboard-induced PTSD and I was diagnosed with the burden of command.

I find this game contains the most realistic version of the known unknowns and inherent fallibility of an infantry-man in hostile territory than any other game I know. Whilst playing this game I am nervous and yet hopeful. I have never commanded an infantry company and I hope my next comment does nothing to diminish the sacrifice or demean the jobs of those that have served in such positions, but this game is the closest a wargamer could get to the reality of 20th-century combat, albeit with the obvious exclusion of physical harm.

This game really does feel like a fight; against the enemy, of survival and against the system which is doing its utmost to win. The second edition has got some excellent player aids. For some strange reason, whether through design or just the rose-tinted glasses through which I view this game, I always seemed to pick up the right chart.

There is also another game in the works using the same system. Fields of Fire Vol 2. With the Old Breed which introduces the 5th Marines in WWII via Peleliu, Korea and Vietnam. It's currently on GMT's P500, which will be the cheapest price you could ever buy it for. 'Vol 2', As I understand it, is a complete game in its own right and you do not need to own Vol 1.

5th Marines moving inland on Peleliu

I didn't ever suffer use the first edition of the rules, so can't attest to their readability or clarity, which are notorious in bgg forums. I started with the unofficial rulebooks the gaming community had collaboratively put together which I thought were good to learn from and to refer to. The second edition's rules borrow a lot from those efforts and what we now have is an excellent rule book, although the game itself is quite complex I can't criticise the new rulebook. It has clarified several aspects which I found very useful.

Overall, the second edition is a glorious production with top quality components and worth every bit of its $75 price tag. Every wargamer who is inclined to play solo, either occasionally or predominantly and who can invest a bit of time would do well to pick this up. If you're willing to put a little bit of effort in, you won't be disappointed. The stories that are created on your table-top are more visceral and as close to what I imagine real infantry combat to be like than any other game I know.

If I had to choose one game to play for the rest of my life i.e. my 'desert-island game', it would be this one. I've been playing it for approximately 3 years and I still find it fresh and challenging and even now, I am looking forward to my next patrol.

Combat Leader Poland 1939 

By 

Minden Games 

 Good things come in small packages, or so we have been taught. This game, compared to the hefty ones I have been reviewing lately, fits the bill. Easily sent in a mailing envelope, it is nonetheless filled with gaming goodness.

 This Minden game is about the 1939 German invasion of Poland. It is a tactical game where each hex is approximately seventeen yards across. Up to twelve friendly units can occupy one hex. There are 'fake' counters and German SS units. So the game does come with a lot for its small size.

 All of Minden games come in a zip lock manner much like a print and play game, with the counter and map being the same thickness. I have two confessions to make. The first is that I am not a fan of print and play games. I guess I just never liked the look and feel of not having a 'real' counter, whatever that means. The second confession is more a foible on my part than anything to do with the game. I decided to make my own counters to use with the game. All went well until it came time for cutting them. I found out that my cutting skills are extremely sub par. So when you look at the pictures of my game's setups, the lopsided counters do not come with the game. 

 The game is a study in minimalism. It comes with two map sheets, 8 1/2" x 11", and two counter sheets. It also comes with two small reference cards. The instruction booklet is only twenty-three pages long , with five of these dedicated to scenarios. You need to supply a deck of regular cards and a six sided die to play. 

 Play consists of six or less phases each turn. These are:

Player 1 phase

Player 2 phase

Initiative phase

Bonus phase

Rally phase

Phase Reverse phase

 Play is like many other tactical games. The first player can move or fire one hex of counters, then the second player may do the same. One caveat: the entire hex, no matter how many units are in it, must do the same. So, if you had a hex with six German units and you decided to have them fire, all of the counters in that hex must fire. The initiative phase is actually a die roll check against a table to see if a bonus phase or a rally phase is conducted. The bonus phase is essentially another round of phases one and two, and then another initiative phase. The rally phase is a morale check to see if any units can become unpinned. The phase reverse phase is to see if player one still goes first or becomes player number 2 etc. You start the scenarios with inverted units. The game also comes with designated 'squad leaders' and 'assistant squad leaders'. These have four movement points if they are face up. All other units have three movement points, unless they are moving with a face up SL or ASL. Once a unit is chosen to move by its owner or is subject to fire etc, it is turned over to its face. The 'fake' counters are then removed.

 The standard rules take up about eight pages. The advanced optional rules are another five pages. These include additional weapons, group movement, and demolition charges etc.

 The game is fast paced, and with its small footprint is great for gamers with limited space. Even playing with my distorted home made counters is fun. That is the reason we play, ......correct? I can recommend this game to other gamers, especially those on a budget. These Minden Games would have come in very handy when I was a new father with limited space and even more limited money.

 Minden Games Combat Leader games come in four flavors:

Combat Leader East Front 41

Combat Leader Volkssturm 45

Combat Leader Winter War

Combat Leader Poland 1939

 With an additional expansion module, and a solitaire module also available, the different games are all around the twenty dollar mark, plus or minus a few dollars.

 My apologies for the first two somewhat blurry counter pictures. They were the only ones I had left after my decision to finally, after five (almost six) decades of gaming, to try my hand at making my own counters.

Robert

Field of Glory II by Slitherine and Byzantine Games

Beta screenshots

 These are just some screenshots from the game which is due out on October 12th. They are various shots of units from the battle of Pydna (Rome vs Macedonians), and Chaironeia (Rome vs Mithridates). These are all beta shots so there might be some changes before the game is out. I will show some game play shots next. Ancient fans get your credit cards ready.

The list of campaigns

The list of Epic (historical) battles that come with the game

 

I had some trepidation in starting to read this book as it is a fairly weighty tome at just under 600 pages. However, it quickly became apparent that the Author/Editor David Evans has deftly married the recollections and considered opinions of former WWII Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) officers into a very readable and well-structured narrative of the IJN's engagements throughout the war.

 Each of the book's seventeen chapters cover a major battle or is an analysis of Japanese naval doctrine. Each chapter opens with the briefest of summaries of the historical situation as it was at the time before the vast majority of the chapter is dedicated to an eye-witness account of those events. In reading every single account I was constantly struck with how erudite and thoughtful each author was, and it did make me wonder how much we have either lost or gained in translation. Most of the accounts are from very senior IJN officers and their education and insight is evident.

IJN aircraft aboard Shokaku - 7 Dec 1941

As I discovered after finishing the book, many of these accounts have been published elsewhere and can be considered, if not the pinnacle, then some of the very best naval writing about the exploits of the IJN in WWII. This book then is an anthology of some of the very best essays on the IJN during WWII. 

One chapter, regarding the sinking of the Battleship Yamato, is truly excellent. In it, the author recounts his experience serving as a junior radar officer at the time of her last battle off of Kyushu. I made a note to remark in this review that the author, Yoshida Mitsuru could have written books for a living. This book's editor has included a postscript that summarises each contributor's life after the war. It turns out that aside from having a successful career with the Bank of Japan, Mitsuru-San also wrote several books on naval subjects. The account in this book is an abridgement from his book, "The End of the Battleship Yamato - Senkan Yamato No Saigo"; which is now considered a classic amongst Japanese books on WWII.

Yamato - under attack and starting to list

I found many of the chapters quite moving, which I think is quite a rare thing for a military history book. However, in these chapters, we have insights into sailors and men, in desperate situations fighting for their very existence. I was particularly moved by the Chapter "The Kamikaze Attack Corps", in which we read the very first flight leader on a kamikaze attack was to be a Lieutenant Seki, a recently married and skillful pilot.

I think this book does a good job at dispelling some of my preconceived ideas about the Japanese during WWII. I have always assumed that kamikaze attacks were an ever-present threat to US Forces that could potentially sink the largest of battleships and carriers. The reality is that kamikaze attacks started in the last few months of the war and their efficacy was dubious at best. The book cites the total number of suicide missions flown compared to the destruction wreaked on US Forces and it is not a favourable comparison.

USS Bunker Hill - CV17 after kamikaze attack

One outspoken critic of the Suicide attacks, Vice Admiral Yokoi Toshiyuki stated: 

"The battle for Okinawa proved conclusively the defects of suicide air attacks. Such operations cannot be successful  ...  It would have been far wiser for the sadly depleted Japanese military to have conserved its manpower instead of squandering it as was done."

He goes on and concludes the chapter on the Battle of Okinawa with:

"... It was a real scourge of Japan's military forces that permitted human life to be treated so lightly through a misinterpretation of the true spirit of Bushido  ...  Japan's suicide air operations mark the Pacific War with two scars that will remain forever in the annals of battle: one, of shame at the mistaken way of command; the other, of valor [sic] at the self-sacrificing spirit of young men who died for their beloved country."

A recurring theme throughout most of the accounts is that the Japanese Navy, throughout the war, was attempting to engage the US Navy in a big decisive fleet battle. This battle never materialised. This may have been a reasonable aspiration early in the war, but as their resources dwindled, they still desperately clung onto the ‘big decisive fleet battle’ doctrine. All contributors who comment on this admit that many mistakes were made by the Japanese military leadership; primarily the inflexibility of their strategic thinking i.e. not being able to move away from their desired decisive battle. I would also include, probably their most egregious error of all, attacking America in the first place.

Apparently, no more than 20% of US naval power was ever engaged in the Pacific, which puts into perspective just how futile Japanese efforts were to be in a prolonged naval campaign, in which nearly all of their resources were dedicated to Pacific operations.

Battleship Row - Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor is the very manifestation of the big attack doctrine, and unfortunately for the Japanese, the American carrier fleet was not in port at the time of the attack. If the Japanese had managed to engage the Americans in a major fleet battle at the outset of the war, their hope to dominate the rest of the Pacific may have had a slight chance. Instead, it is my opinion that despite the valiant and courageous efforts of the Japanese sailors and airmen, their inter-service rivalry and lack of coherent command and control, albeit exacerbated by American attacks, left them little to no chance of victory.

Every major naval battle in the Pacific Theatre is included, Philippines, Midway, Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf, Okinawa and the book predictably starts with the attack on Pearl Harbor. I have read several books on most of these battles and even visited Pearl Harbor and Ford Island. I think I have a good grasp on the events themselves.

However, this book and the perspective of the IJN Officers has increased my appreciation for all those involved, particularly the tenacity and dedication of the Japanese Navy and the skill and professionalism of the US Forces. It has also given me a new perspective on the human tragedy of large naval engagements.

In short, this book has done more to educate, inform and engage me than any other book I have read about the PTO and if you're at all interested in the Pacific Theatre of WWII then I would consider it essential reading. 

This book is available from Pen & Sword Publishing and is currently on sale at £15.99. (RRP £19.99) - Sep 2017.

Book: The Japanese Navy in World War II
Author: David C. Evans
Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Mansions of Madness from Fantasy Flight Games is the second iteration of their H.P. Lovecraft-inspired world. In this cooperative game, you and your fellow players are trying to escape the horrors thrust upon you by a brilliantly designed and integrated app.

As is typical for FFG games, the game includes an abundance of tokens, tiles and decks of cards which are all produced to the industry-leading component quality that FFG is known for. One misstep as far as the game components are concerned is the miniatures. Not only are the sculpts mediocre, but before your first play, you have to 'assemble' the miniatures. This assembly only involves sticking the base and the miniature to each other and inserting a token. This requires one dab of glue on the miniature base being inserted into a hole on the base. In and of itself, not an onerous task ...

However, what I personally found more difficult than it needed to be was inserting the miniatures token into the slot on the base. The manual indicates that you should do that after you've attached the miniature, which I duly did. However the lug from the miniature was not flush with the inside of the base, i.e. the slot in which the token should slide into was obstructed by the miniature lug. This caused several rips and tears on tokens which at the very least is annoying. I should mention that these tokens will never need to be removed (a good job, I don't think I could) and you can only see slight damage to a handful of miniatures' tokens.

The app is absolutely integral to the game and will need to be downloaded before you play. You can get it on either iOS or Android, and also via Steam on Windows or Mac; the Amazon Kindle platform is also supported. If you don't yet own a device that can run the app then don't buy this game. Although the chances of anyone not having the ability to use this app in this day and age are very small. You need the app to drive the game system. The core mechanics of the game, outside of the app are simple and intuitive to understand.

One slight concern I have with an app that is so integral to the game is of longevity. In 20 years time will the app still be around to play; will FFG still exist to support their back-catalogue of games or will it be obsolete? I own and still enjoy games released in the 70s and 80s, will I be able to say the same of this game in a generation or two? It is only a slight concern because aside from death and taxes, I am certain that there will be many more board-games to play and enjoy.

I think FFG have settled on a tried and tested formula for their miniature games and they're sticking to it here. If you've played Descent or Imperial Assault, you'll know what I mean. On their turn, each player-controlled character has two actions, which can be any of their character options: move, attack, trade, interact etc. Interact covers a few closely related app driven components like searching an object within a room, exploring a new room or attempting to solve a puzzle. After each player has moved the Investigator Phase ends and the Mythos Phase begins ...

In the Mythos Phase, the onboard monsters all activate and there may be some extra events or monster spawns which need to be dealt with. Although the players aren't aware (there's no clock or turn counter) there is an intrinsic timer in the app which ramps up the difficulty the longer your group is not progressing through the scenario. The longer you take the more extreme the Mythos Phase becomes.

Mythos Phase screen-shot

The app is very well designed and if anything adds to the level of immersion in the Cthulu-esque world with ambient sound effects. Interacting with the app is a very simple affair and even the most tech-allergic person will be able to control the app after a few turns. However, you should be aware that there is no undo button, once you've confirmed an action on the app you can't go back and do something else. If you confirm an action by mistake when you meant to cancel, you're stuck with that error. Obviously, you could house rule something but the app doesn't cater for Luddites of the highest order.

As your investigators progress through their mission they'll take both physical and horror damage. If they ever receive damage equal to their health or sanity, they get a reset albeit with a new attribute - wounded or insanity. These are game-changing effects which limit your action allowance (wounds) or a player's individual behaviour (insanity). If you do pick up an insane condition you will read the reverse of that card and keep, whatever you've read a secret from the other players. This may change the mission's objectives completely, so your character could, in an effort to help with the new objective, run off into a different map area, leaving the other players behind and bewildered. Although they will know you've picked up an insane condition and could surmise you're still trying to help ...

Once wounded or insane, if your character receives damage or horror again equal to their wounded state, they are eliminated and all surviving players get one more Investigator Phase to finish the game. This is a good mechanism to deal with player elimination. 

On my initial playthroughs, I was often surprised at how well the game flowed, normally I find dungeon crawl type games to be rather clunky. The game designers and app designers have thought long and hard here, about the rules and the app's user interface. This is a very well designed game, in both theme, mechanics and delivery.

This game tells great stories, it almost feels like a role-playing game. In my first game of the introductory scenario (we lost), we were being chased into a dead-end by some flaming, chanting cultists, all the while trying to prevent the fire from engulfing us. This may not be particularly unusual for the Vanderbilt mansion but it's pretty uncommon around these parts. It was easy to imagine the cultists in a trance, immune to the flames blistering their flesh, flickering over their clerical tunics, whilst lurching towards our unwelcome and unfortunate avatars.

It's moments like these, where the game takes on a life/story of its own, that I play board games for. A movie or a book, great in their own right, will always tell the same story, a board game is different on every run-through. Combine that variability with a story-telling game and you've got a highly re-playable custom entertainment experience. 

During the course of your mission, your characters will pick up items, spells and conditions which are all handled by separate decks of cards. These are often double-sided cards whose text will instruct you to flip them and resolve the reverse effect on use. This adds some entropy to the game as, given 5 of the same spell cards, the reverse effect on each is different. After 'tapping' a card, you may be instructed to return the first copy of the card and draw another copy of the same card; the reverse on this second copy will be different. This is a very clever mechanism that changes the way the story unfolds on each play-through. This keeps replay-ability high and each play-through feels different and fresh. You can never be certain that the same spell or item will work as expected. 

I've played the provided scenarios several times, sometimes I encountered different starting areas and different end-game conditions. I was a bit disappointed upon losing my first game that I didn't get a 'cut-scene' on the app. That only seems to happen when your group wins. There was some concern in other game communities around the 'on-rails' story arc you'll be driven down with an app. I didn't find this to be the case at all. You have a plethora of variability between play-throughs. This is affected by character choices, starting equipment and your in-game choices to make each experience different. Even now I would like to go back and replay the first scenario again to see if I have seen it all.

3 of the 4 available expansions; there is another out very soon

The physical base game and app include 4 scenarios. These are all constructed on your table using the 24 double-sided map tiles. The artwork on all the tiles is great, I found it evocative and immersive. You could expand your base game by purchasing 2 DLC missions in the app. If you're still feeling desperate for even more Madness there are also 4 physical expansions available for the game.

I will be more than happy with the base box for some time to come although I can see myself buying the 2 extra scenarios before long. Not because I'm tired of the content in the original scenarios but I want to explore the Mansions of Madness world more, it is that appealing. The base box has an RRP of £92.99 which is a fair chunk of change and an amount that feels a little overpriced for what you're getting. But you'll probably be able to pick it up at your local game store for a little less than that.

But what you are getting for that money, is a brilliant and innovative game whose app-driven mechanic was, and probably is still, the best app-driven board game experience out there. I felt engaged the whole time and it was a pleasure to see those I introduced the game too, after the slight hurdle of rules explanation (not that they're hard), really get immersed into the theme and be invested in their player characters.

Mansions of Madness is a clever and engaging system that will keep you coming back for more because you almost certainly will not complete each mission in your first or even second play-through. Mansions of Madness melds a modern board game with a digital medium so successfully that many others have and are copying the formula. I can only assume that what FFG has started will continue and get more prevalent in the hobby.

Age of Fear 3: The Legend is a turn-based tactical combat game that fully embraces the idea of gameplay over graphics. The developers are up front in admitting that the visuals in their newest title are nothing to get excited about. Instead, they want you to dive into a detailed tactical combat engine in which your opponents are driven by an impressive AI that manages to effectively control hundreds of different unit types, spells, and abilities.

Watch the official trailer to get an idea of how the game looks in motion, and enjoy the..uh..innovative cinematography.

In this game, you can choose to play one of two fairly lengthy campaigns. I've only played partially through them so far, but they are equally interesting takes on the fantasy setting. The first campaign gives you control of a beautiful, but deadly, dryad and an ugly, but very deadly, drider. The drider fellow is like a centaur but with the body of a spider instead of a horse. Nightmare material for sure. These two are forced into a partnership by circumstance, and then go on a wild tear through the countryside building an army to fight whatever gets in their way. The other campaign focuses on a drunken dwarf lord on a rampage of his own. The game has some charmingly silly writing and I laughed more than once at the characters' frequent banter.

The campaign is made up of a series of scenarios that constantly challenge you with new enemies and hazards, with bits of story and dialogue sprinkled in between. After a few missions you will begin to see optional scenarios as well. These can add to the story and give you various bonuses if you complete them. One thing I found really fascinating was that there were occasional missions where losing would actually open up a hidden branch in the story line. I don't want to give any of these away, of course, but just wanted to let any prospective player know not to immediately reload the game when a scenario is going poorly, there might be a fun twist if you hang around.

The combat itself takes place on grid-less battlefields where you are free to move your troops about however you like. Units cannot pass through one another, and the fighting spaces are often crowded, so this means that it is very much an effective tactic to have a line of melee units backed by ranged units, for example. To avoid hindering the mobility of your own units, you'll always want to plan ahead a bit and arrange your own forces to allow for flexibility. A couple of giant ents can really put a hurting on the baddies, but can also clog up your lines, blocking other units from reaching the enemy. Faster units are best kept out on the flanks where they can rapidly close when an opening presents itself. All of this taken together actually gives the gameplay a sort of wargame feel. Frontage and the logistics of moving your troops around the battlefield is equally important to spells and swords.

AoF3 is a game that may look very simple at first glance, but actually gives you a ton of options in how to shape your fighting force to your own style. Between missions you get a chance to recruit new units, buy equipment, and add new abilities to your experienced forces. Two units of the same type can be specialized by buying different upgrades with their experience points. You can even "evolve" some units into a new type, or spend the XP on strengthening what you already have. Attributes like poison/fire/etc resistance, health regeneration, new abilities, or simple attack and defense buffs are among the many options. Your two hero units have tons of choices available, including lots of new abilities to select from. The heroes can also be decked out with various pieces of gear that specialize them even further. Between all of this, a hero unit might have more than a dozen different bonuses and changes that make them unique after just the first few scenarios.

You will need every bonus you can get, since this a game that requires some real tactical effort from the player. Simply sending all of your units forward to engage with the enemy will more often than not lead to disaster. In just about every scenario there is often some sort of tactical adjustment that will need to be made on the player's part in order to win. For example, in an early mission the enemy has several kamikaze plant creatures which will explode into a cloud of poisonous gas if they can hit more than one of your units. However, if you only send one unit forward, the enemy unit will only engage in melee attacks. In another mission an undead alter will continuously summon new units until it is destroyed, making its destruction a much higher priority than defeating the units it sends at you.  Figuring out an approach that will work, and then executing it successfully, is the central part of what makes this game fun. A successful scenario leads to your forces getting bigger and better, and the cycle continues.

One of the things touted by the developers about Age of Fear 3 is the above average enemy AI. I watched out for this in particular as I played the game, and found that it really did do some interesting things. Enemy units exhibit a multitude of behaviors beyond simply charging at you and attacking. Ranged units will try to keep your melee units at a distance, enemies in a hopeless situation will retreat, leaders will hang out behind their lines providing support and then attack furiously once engaged. The AI certainly pulls no punches, as it will at times focus fire on a single unit, and isn't afraid to use area-of-effect attacks when possible.

While playing the game, I did not run into any serious bugs or glitches. The only annoying thing was occasionally having to click twice on something since the first click did not register. Another issue was that the way stat adjustments worked was not always 100% clear or logical. Particularly, I had to learn the hard way that equipping a weapon with a poison bonus would actually lower my chance to hit the enemy at all to practically nothing if said enemy had poison resistance or immunity.

Overall, Age of Fear 3 offers up exactly what it promises. A detailed tactical combat game with simple graphics and sound, but a lot of substance under the hood. It also has fun story lines to follow along with and all sorts of exotic units to choose from.  The game of course won't be everyone's cup of tea, but at least it is very up front about what you are getting. If you are still on the fence, the first two games in the series are quite cheap and offer a fairly similar experience to let you try out the system.

Official Website: http://www.age-of-fear.net/

Age of Fear 3: The Legend can purchased on Steam or directly from the developers on their website.

- Joe Beard

Messerschmitt ME 262 Schwalbe

by

Marek J. Murawski and Marek Rys

 Incredible as it may seem, the earliest design for a jet engine was in 1863 in France. The first patent for a for a jet engine was issued in 1921 to another Frenchman. Frank Whittle took out a patent in 1930. However, the first operational jet engine was patented in Germany in 1935 by Hans Joachim Pabst Von Ohain. The first flight of an aircraft with jet engines took place on 8/27/1939. This was a Heinkel 178 flown by Erich Warsitz. The engineers at Junkers decided to start afresh because of the inherent problems with both Whittle's and Von Ohain's centrifugal designs. They came up with an Axial Turbo Jet engine, the Jumo 004, which is essentially what has been used in all jet aircraft since then.

 The authors start their book on the Me 262 Schwalbe (swallow), by going back in time to the beginning of jet engines. They then go into the thinking and design work that went into the Me 262. The Me 262 was probably the biggest milestone in flight since the Wright brothers. How would you feel, if you were an Allied pilot, to see a plane whiz past you at 100 miles per hour faster than you could fly? The Me 262's maiden flight was on March 29th 1942. The first Jumo motors weren't available until June 1st 1942. After Adolf Gallands first flight in a Me 262 he said "it was as if the angels were pushing you".

 The book continues with all of the design changes, tricycle landing gear, and all of the different armament configurations discussed. The idiotic Fuhrer directive about all aircraft being able to carry a bomb load is brought up. 

 The authors show that the main reason for the delay of the Me 262's deployment was because of the plane and engines being revolutionary. The plane itself was a marvel, but the engines were always its Achilles heel. Acceleration and deceleration had to be slowly and carefully applied or the engines would flame out. The engine's life span was only 10-25 hours. This was due to Germany not being able to produce the exotic alloys needed to deal with the intense heat of a jet engine.

  The book takes us back to Hitler with a very interesting conference about fighter production for the Luftwaffe on Mat 23rd 1944. Hitler wasn't apparently too interested until the Me 262 was mentioned. At that point he asked "how many of the Me 262s already manufactured could carry bombs". When Field Marshal Milch tells him "none" he explodes. Various figures at the meeting try to talk Hitler into the idea that the Me 262 is a fighter through and through. Hitler abuses Adolf Galland and Milch about it. Then Milch blurts out "mein fuhrer, the smallest infant can see that this is a fighter, not a bomber aircraft". I imagine you could hear a pin drop at that moment. 

 By this, the authors show that the Me 262 fighter version was in production, if haltingly, by May 1944. On August 17th 1944 an allied bombing raid on Regensburg caused serious damage to the Me 262 program. Four hundred staff were killed and the facilities were heavily damaged.

 The book continues with a listing of all production and experimental Me 262s. Then it continues with the complete history of all of the Me 262 sorties during this phase of the war. This part of the book takes up the first eighty pages.

 The twenty pages that follow are scaled drawings of every planned or flown Me 262. The next eighty pages are a modeller's and flight simmer's dream. These eighty pages are of computer generated detailed pictures of every single part of a Me 262, from tail to nose and everything in between. The next section is small at fifteen pages, but these are full of pictures of an actual restored Me 262. The last twenty pages are computer renderings of side or top and bottom views of all the different paint schemes, etc.

 Unbelievably, with everything else the book already provides, there are two separate fold out line drawings of the Me 262 one at 1:32 and the other at 1:48 scale. 

 This book is truly a wonder of prose and art. Any and every thing about the Schwalbe is here at the readers fingertips.

Robert

Book: Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe

Authors: Marek J. Murawski and Marek Rys

Publisher: Kagero

Distributor: Casemate Publishers