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Strategy & Tactics # 305 Armies of the White Sun The War in China, 1937-1945  Strategy & Tactics: wow, that...

Strategy & Tactics #305 Armies of The White Sun: The War In China, 1937-1945 Strategy & Tactics #305 Armies of The White Sun: The War In China, 1937-1945

For your Wargamer, Toy soldier collector, MiniFig collector, military history nut. Reviews, interviews, Model Making, AARs and books!





 Strategy & Tactics: wow, that brings up a lot of gaming memories. I had played Battle Cry and Tactics II in the 1960s. I had even played Panzerblitz in 1970, but I had never really known how big the wargaming explosion had become. That is, until I stepped into a hobby store in 1976. I saw row upon row of SPI and Avalon Hill etc. boardgames. Among these was a bunch of magazines sold by SPI that was named Strategy & Tactics. These were a godsend. They were not only cheaper than the boxed wargames, they also had articles on warfare in history, etc. Lets be honest folks. We bought Strategy & Tactics for the games, not the articles. That argument was as specious as buying Playboys for the articles, yeah right. Just kidding, the articles were excellent also. Of the original run of the magazine, I probably owned 50 of them. After changing owners a few times, Decision games started to produce the magazine. They have been publishing it since 1991. The magazine is now, incredibly, in its 50th year. The one great thing about the magazine is it has never been afraid to publish obscure games for us history nuts. I believe Ty Bomba came up with the adage that "Nato, Nukes and Nazis" sell wargames. Well lucky for us, S&T has never followed that idea. I lost most of my collection of the magazines down through the years because of different reasons, but with the help of Ebay and actually having a subscription, I was able to bring my stable of S&Ts back up to about sixty of them. Almost all of these were released after Decision Games took over publishing it. 


Chinese Counters

 The magazine has only gotten better as the years have gone by. The games, like most wargames, have improved down through the years. The magazine is actually a wonder to behold. The articles and the physical quality of them are excellent.



Japanese counters


 The long and very comprehensive article, also named 'The Armies of The White Sun', is an excellent primer for the game and the history behind it. More than that, the article starts with end of the Chinese Empire and its subsequent fall into a bunch of petty states. The attempts of Sun Yat-sen and then Chiang Kai-shek (called 'peanut' by American general 'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell) to unify the country once more is also gone into at depth. 



Trying hard to capture every city

 We in the U.S. were never really taught much about World War II in Asia except for our involvement. Most people do not realize that WWII actually started with the Japanese invasion of the Chinese mainland in 1931. The battles for Northeast China had been going on for ten years before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The game starts in the year 1937. The Japanese had already stolen a large chunk of Northeast China and renamed it 'Manchukuo' and set it up as a puppet empire under the last emperor of China, Pu-Yi. The war for the rest of China broke out because of the Japanese attempt to grab its own 'lebensraum' on the Asian continent. 

 This is from the game information on the decision games site:

 
Armies of the White Sun is a solitaire wargame covering the fighting in China from the Marco Polo Bridge Incident through Pearl Harbor to the planned 1943 Operation Go-Go aimed at capturing Chongking and ending Chinese resistance at the national level. The single player actively commands the invading Japanese forces, while the rules system directs him in the deployment of the defending Chinese. The player wins by capturing key areas on the map. Throughout the game, the player selects units for an operational force, then maneuvers with that force to achieve objectives while fighting Chinese forces as they appear during operations.
Components: One 22" x 34" map & 280 counters



My big push for Nanking is on
 



 In this game you will take on the role of the Japanese player against the solitaire rules of the game. The Japanese player can attack pretty much anywhere, because of his naval might. The first turn is the hardest in my opinion. As the Japanese player, you MUST capture all of the Chinese cities in the FTMOL (First turn minimum objective line). You have plenty of units and the Chinese resistance is sometimes non-existent, but you still have to come up with a plan to capture all of the cities. The Japanese units are given twenty-two movement points for the first turn. There is also a second Japanese movement and combat phase on turn one and four. This is to simulate the Japanese initial invasion and their attempt in1943 to bring the war to a close. On turns two and three, there are no Japanese second phases. This is to replicate the logistical strain the Japanese were under when in China. The two phases on turns one and four really help with with trying to capture all of that territory, but it is still a hard nut to crack. To represent the free wheeling nature of the war and the up and down capabilities of the Chinese, the game has some interesting rules. For each hex entered by the Japanese player you must roll one six-sided die. You can get a Chinese response of from zero to six units for Shanghai and Chunking. This rule makes it so the Japanese player has no idea if by entering a hex he has stirred up a wasp's nest or just some dust. Even before deciding on whether there will be Chinese troops or not in the hex you will have to roll two die to determine if any random events happen. These could have the Japanese using gas to a 'fierce Nationalist counteroffensive', and anything in between. One random event is called the 'rape of' , and is meant to represent the Rape of Nanking. If the Japanese roll it you capture the city, but your entire stack is removed from game play for that turn. The maximum stacking for Japanese units is eight units to a hex. There are only four turns in the game, but since each separate hex movement by you could result in a battle, it is not a short game. There are also rules on  battles that take place in rough terrain or if the hex has fortifications. Japanese units can be no further than six hexes from the nearest railroad or friendly Yangtze river hex to be in supply, and each rough hex counts as two hexes when tracing supply. The Chinese communists are able to interdict your railroad supply. The AVG (American Volunteer Group or 'Flying Tigers') have their own counter and rules for its use.



Close up of my Japanese forces closing in


 The above rules make the game a real nail biter. Do you make many small stacks and hope the die is with you, or do you make large stacks just in  case you run into tough resistance? Conversely, where do you stop? Do you try for one more city with this stack, or hope that the city in the next hex will fall to your next invading stack? 

 It is a bit strange to be playing a game that really has no enemy forces on the map. The fog of war in this game really keeps you on your toes. You can be rolling along for a few hexes and meet minimal to no Chinese forces, and in the next run into a sizable force. The random event roll that you have to do for each hex, even before you roll for the possibility of Chinese forces, really brings home the variables the Japanese ran into during the campaign. No battle plan that you conceive lasts more than a few hexes at most. You can find your force destroyed or too weak to continue with almost every die roll. You want to use large stacks of your Japanese forces in order to avoid the above; the only problem is that it makes your ability to conquer more territory that much harder. This is especially true on turn one with the amount of China that you have to conquer or forfeit the game.

 Thank you Decision Games, and all of the various companies and people who have worked on Strategy & Tactics magazine for the last fifty years. Without you we would not have been able to game so many far flung battles and campaigns.


Robert

I'm coming to you from a classified location, somewhere under the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. The Cold War has gone hot, b...

Cold Waters - Review in Progress Cold Waters - Review in Progress

For your Wargamer, Toy soldier collector, MiniFig collector, military history nut. Reviews, interviews, Model Making, AARs and books!




I'm coming to you from a classified location, somewhere under the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. The Cold War has gone hot, but there's nothing warm about this particular theater of operations. Cold Waters, the just released title from Killerfish Games, has you as the captain aboard one of several different submarines, lurking about looking for prey in a dynamic full scale war environment. 


I did not get a review copy until the day of the game release, and I have not had enough game time to reach a final verdict before setting off on a full-fledged family road trip tomorrow. So I thought I would at least give some first impressions on the game since I know a lot of people are interested in it. Such games as this are few and far between, but there is definitely an audience out there looking for their next chance to fire off a few torpedoes into unsuspecting vessels.



So, is this a technical simulation requiring hours of study to even know what is going on (I'm looking at you Dangerous Waters) or is it an arcade style combat game focused on blowing stuff up? Cold Waters manages to tick all of the naval lingo boxes you could hope for, while being startlingly simple to jump right in to. This will probably make it ideal for most players looking for some Cold War naval action, while perhaps not meshing with a few gamers on the extremes of that spectrum.

The sub battles can sometimes turn into real knife-fights.

On the one hand, to play the game effectively you will need to understand and manage active/passive sonar, what cavitating is (and what depths/speeds it occurs at), steering your sub using speed/rudders/flaps/ballast at the same time, weapon loadout, planning your attack as well as your escape, dealing with upwards of a half-dozen or more torpedoes in the water simultaneously (yours and theirs), and how to use the thermal layer to your advantage.  

On the other hand, the game is played entirely with a third-person view of your sub. Looking about in the crystal clear waters, you will be able to watch enemy torpedoes coming in as you try to dodge them. This can feel a bit like cheating at times, since you can even jump the camera to one of your wire-guided torpedoes and steer it into an enemy sub. That said, the situation often becomes complex enough that you need all the help you can get. Targeting and firing your torpedoes feels a bit too simple compared to the likes of Silent Hunter 3 and its kin, since you simply look at the map and click where you want the torpedo to go. However, you do still need to be pointing in the correct direction to fire off the shot. You can also jam your tubes if you try firing while maneuvering too sharply.


I'll save a more detailed discussion for my full review, but my current thinking is that if the above paragraphs didn't dissuade you, and you are looking for some sub simming action, then Cold Waters is definitely worth taking a close look at. The missions and campaigns quickly get you into the action, but then you will usually need some real strategy and planning to accomplish your goals and live to tell the tale. That escaping alive part is really the crux of the game. More than a few times I got my crew killed by firing off my weaponry, then lingering about since I had not thought that far ahead. Anti-submarine aircraft are usually swarming above, just waiting for you to reveal yourself, and then the hunt is on. Run too hard and you may run smack-dab into an enemy sub that was patiently waiting for you in silence. Once the enemy torpedoes start closing in, the tension level ramps up to white-knuckle levels. 

Look for my full review and a gameplay video in about a week.


- Joe Beard

Official Website: http://killerfishgames.com/games/cold-waters









World In Flames  by Matrix/Slitherine   Right now Matrix/Slitherine is having a 30% off sale until Sunday 6/11. I used a co...

World In Flames by Matrix/Slitherine World In Flames by Matrix/Slitherine

For your Wargamer, Toy soldier collector, MiniFig collector, military history nut. Reviews, interviews, Model Making, AARs and books!


by




 Right now Matrix/Slitherine is having a 30% off sale until Sunday 6/11. I used a coupon to pick up 'World In Flames'. I have been looking at it for a long time, but never pulled the trigger. Now, with the sale and the drop in shipping prices I decided to go for it, and I am glad I did. I have had the game for a few days, but I have been waiting on the rule book and the two player's handbooks. They just arrived today. If you didn't know the book price is added into the physical copy price of the game. So you do not pay any extra for the three beautiful copies seen below. Stay tuned for my thoughts on the game. I did have one of the original boardgame issues, but it has been quite awhile. The only thing so far that I have not been happy about it is the fact that the 1936 scenario is not included. Yes, it still does not have an AI, but I play board games all the time solo so it doesn't upset me , and I knew it going in. There are a some mods listed on the Matrix forum, and also links to players aid videos.










 

Wartile, the Viking themed miniatures combat game from Playwood Project, received a hefty load of new content in an update today. It add...

Wartile - Major Content Update Wartile - Major Content Update

For your Wargamer, Toy soldier collector, MiniFig collector, military history nut. Reviews, interviews, Model Making, AARs and books!



Wartile, the Viking themed miniatures combat game from Playwood Project, received a hefty load of new content in an update today. It adds a new character class, new maps, a new game mode, new items, and a lot more. 

If you want to read my initial rundown of the game you can find that HERE.

If you want to see the game in motion, and watch me lose rather horribly, not once but twice, this video is for you:



Official Wartile Website: http://www.wartile.com/


Finally, below is the complete list of changes and additions:

Overview
New Battle Board & new game mode: Trial of Tyr
New Battle Board: Thor’s Wrath
New Figurine Class: The Archer
2D Art Overhaul
Progression Overhaul
Pickup Items
And much much more.

Progression Overhaul
As we get closer to final release and get more content, we’re slowly starting to be able to organize our progression to our final vision. This means that the map progression has been changed slightly from our last patch.
The Rescue now unlocks after Heidrun Clan
Trial of Tyr (new map) now unlocks after Heidrun Clan
The Monastery now unlocks after The Rescue
Thor's Wrath (new map) now unlocks after The Monastery
The Archer (new class) now unlocks after Heidrun Clan
The Brute now unlocks after The Rescue
Difficulty has been rebalanced accordingly
Progression of experience and loot and gold cost of figurines has been rebalanced accordingly
Pickup Items

In our last patch, we added that characters could carry a Torch; expanding on this mechanic, we have now added items on battle boards that can be picked up. Pickup items will, after being picked up, appear on a character as an ability card that can be used to provide an effect, such as healing or throwing a bomb.

This mechanic will continue to be implemented and improved on in future content and likely added retroactively to existing battle boards.

Trial of Tyr
Added the new Battle Board “Trial of Tyr” adding a new game mode; Skirmish, that involves fighting against waves of enemies and surviving for as long as possible, with randomized events and enemy compositions creating a new and varying challenge.

Trial of Tyr like other maps can be completed like normal, but is also an infinite mode that allows you to test how many waves you can withstand.
New game mechanic: Wave defense
Events that change playing conditions
New Battle Board layout
Thor’s Wrath
Thor’s Wrath features battling your way through not only groups of enemies, but passing through a hazardous thunderstorm that is likely to cause some issues if you are not careful.

Thor’s Wrath features a vast network of caves with partying Vikings, where the element of surprise and tactical use of abilities will certainly be required, unless you choose to brave the dangerous thunderstorm.

New Figurine Class: The Archer
The first female character has been added to the game; The Archer. The archer is strong long range unit, that is particularly weak in close range. The Archer is higher skill cap unit that requires a lot of movement and micromanagement.
The archer class is now unlockable
The archer is a long range unit that requires active input to attack
Archer has the following abilities
Starting ability, Volley: Fires multiple shots in quick succession
Second ability, Rain of Arrows: Lets down a Rain of Arrows in an area dealing AoE damage to nearby units
Third ability, Flaming Arrow: Fires a flaming arrow at a target that ignites the tile dealing massive damage.

2D Art Overhaul
We’re in the process of a full overhaul of all 2D graphics on cards and UI. This is a longer process and this update will contain the first batch of these primarily focusing on Player and Figurine ability cards, quests and Menu UI.

Art in the entire game will follow this new style that will be introduced until the game releases.

Other Updates
Added Quest Tracking
Quests will now be tracked at the right side of the screen after looking at objective cards. This will now distinguish primary from secondary objective as well as adding support for tracking objectives will multiple sub-tasks.
UI element added to the right side of the screen for tracking objectives

Group Moving
Group moving has been introduced as a feature in this patch. Holding down the Shift key while moving a unit, will automatically cause your other nearby units to move with the unit. This has been introduced to reduce the effect of traversal on larger maps.
Group move is done by holding down “Shift” when moving your units

Lost Norse Additional Objective: Poisonous Toads
A new objective has been added to Lost Norse.
Collect toads and earn a new player ability

Battle Notifications
We have added a new Notification system that gives an indication of what effect buffs have and when units receive high grounds and flanking bonuses.
Battle notification appears when a unit enters a flanking position
Battle notification appears when a unit receives high ground defense bonus
Battle notifications appears when a units gains stat debuffs or buffs.

Item tooltips
In an attempt to further clarify the effect of items, we have added tooltips that will improve the feedback of the item’s effects.
Added tooltips to items explaining stats and special effects

AI Improvements
We’re improving a lot of things about the AI systems. Players will notice the following effects:
AI now properly moves through objects on the ground (such as Hel’s Helmet)
AI now reacts better to archers firing at them
AI now reacts to dangerous tiles

Other Changes/Bugfixes
Stat card (lower left corner) should now properly scale and move with different resolutions
Bear Trap is now permanently visible to the player using the card. Opposing players will see the trap setup, after which it will become invisible.
Slight changes to card system behind the scenes. Cards will move cleaner and have less blinking/artifacts as well being ordered differently
Fixed a bug causing friendly invites for multiplayer to not always function
Fixed a bug causing units killed with abilities and ability cards to sometimes not award experience
Units killed by neutral damage sources will no longer award battle points to the player
Minor combat changes (pending an upcoming larger change); Combat now functions slightly differently behind the scene and crits are now visible.
Fixed a bug causing debris to interfere with figurine movement
Fixed a bug that sometimes caused music to stop playing after pressing
Escape to open the menu.
Fixed various missing animations for the Brute figurine class.
Slow time now functions more smoothly. Slow time now properly interacts with other systems, such as no longer slowing down time while showing event card. Slow time will also no longer slow UI elements (such as unit ability cards).
Added hints to the menu to help new players understand more advanced concepts beyond the the scope of the tutorial.
We now save and list your high score on a battle board. This, however, does not work retroactively and will require you to replay maps to display.
Brute “Kick to the Groin” has been re-flavored to “Headbutt”
The godly card “Movement Speed” has been renamed to “Speed of Sleipnir”

Warbirds: Blitzkrieg AAR: Stuka Attack!       Click for Game Review!

AAR Stuka Attack in Warbirds: Blitzkrieg AAR Stuka Attack in Warbirds: Blitzkrieg

For your Wargamer, Toy soldier collector, MiniFig collector, military history nut. Reviews, interviews, Model Making, AARs and books!

Warbirds: Blitzkrieg AAR: Stuka Attack!
 
 
 



Click for Game Review!

SOS Ed 4 Kickstarter      Streets of Stalingrad 4 is a multi-player, company-level boardgame about the German 1942 Fall offensive to...

Streets of Stalingrad Edition 4 Beta test Kickstarter Streets of Stalingrad Edition 4 Beta test Kickstarter

For your Wargamer, Toy soldier collector, MiniFig collector, military history nut. Reviews, interviews, Model Making, AARs and books!

SOS Ed 4 Kickstarter
 

 



 Streets of Stalingrad 4 is a multi-player, company-level boardgame about the German 1942 Fall offensive to take the city of Stalingrad street-by-street, block-by-block. It includes many two-player scenarios and new aviation and river crossing components. The original SOS was published in 1979 followed by two more editions, the last one in 2002. It is considered one of the all-time classic wargames. This fourth edition is a major graphic redesign and game expansion by Lombardy Studios and 626 Designs. SOS4 includes the latest historical information and orders-of-battle based on never-before-seen Soviet archival records and images. A Kickstarter for playtest kits is scheduled for June 2017; the full monster game Kickstarter will launch in September 2017 and run during the 75th anniversary of the battle.
 
LINK TO SOS WEBSITE
 
LINK TO KICKSTARTER



Panzer IV Ausf. H And Ausf. J Volume 1 by Lukasz Gladysiak and  Samir Karmieh   Panzerkampfwagen loosely transla...

Panzer IV Ausf. H And Ausf. J Volume 1 by Lukasz Gladysiak and Samir Karmieh Panzer IV Ausf. H And Ausf. J Volume 1 by Lukasz Gladysiak and Samir Karmieh

For your Wargamer, Toy soldier collector, MiniFig collector, military history nut. Reviews, interviews, Model Making, AARs and books!


by


and 





 Panzerkampfwagen loosely translates into English as 'armored combat vehicle', and just as we use the short word tank to describe one, the Germans use Panzer. The German tanks from the Panzer I  through the Tiger look like they belong to the same family. If asked, most Allied soldiers would say that they fought against Tigers each day of their campaign. In truth, the Tiger was actually a rarity in most combat situations. There were just too few of them. The actual tank that the allied soldiers were up against was more than likely the Panzer IV. The Panzer IV was actually the backbone of the German tank units.

 Amazingly, the Panzer IV was actually designed in 1936. The Panzer IV was used operationally from 1938-1945. Seven years does not seem too long, but all you have to do is compare the world's standard tanks or tankettes in 1938 to the behemoths of 1944 and 1945. The engineering of the Panzer IV was such that it was able to be upgraded and used on the front line all the way through the war.

 This book is actually Volume I on the most numerous built versions of the Panzer IV: AUSF. H and AUSF. J, the J version being the last one to be produced. The Panzer IV was also imported into Syria from left over WWII stock, and used as late as The Six Day War. 

 Chapter one goes through the development history of all of the different versions. Chapter two gives a run down of all of the tanks' technical aspects. There are sections on armor, armament, and the electrical system, etc. There is even a section on the wireless equipment. 

 The next section of the book is a photographic walk around of an intact Panzer IV in Belgium. These close-up photos are a modeler's dream.

 The next part of the book is where I get to say "It is good to be alive now". This section is a stunning 3D visual walk in and around  a Panzer IV.  It is an amazing fifty-two pages of a computer generated wonder that even shows the inner workings of the Panzer IV. Short of getting to spend a few hours in and on a reconstructed Panzer IV, this is as good as it gets. I cannot wait to see more of this series from Kagero.


Robert


Book: Panzer IV AUSF, H And AUSF. J Volume I
Authors: Lukasz Gladysiak and Samir Karmieh
Publisher: Kagero
Distributor: Casemate Publishers
 

The Battletech Backer Beta just went live a couple days ago, here is a video of me giving it a spin! I got a microphone upgrade, so...

Battletech Beta Hands-On Battletech Beta Hands-On

For your Wargamer, Toy soldier collector, MiniFig collector, military history nut. Reviews, interviews, Model Making, AARs and books!







The Battletech Backer Beta just went live a couple days ago, here is a video of me giving it a spin! I got a microphone upgrade, so now you can actually understand what I'm saying.

Official Website: http://battletechgame.com/








- Joe Beard



Editor: Full version will be reviewed when released.

Blitzkrieg From The Ground Up by Niklas Zetterling  Blitzkrieg (Lightning War) From The Ground Up, is an interesti...

Blitzkrieg From The Ground Up by Niklas Zetterling Blitzkrieg From The Ground Up by Niklas Zetterling

For your Wargamer, Toy soldier collector, MiniFig collector, military history nut. Reviews, interviews, Model Making, AARs and books!



by





 Blitzkrieg (Lightning War) From The Ground Up, is an interesting book. Usually an author would pick either the big picture or the smaller one for his work. "Blitzkrieg' not only shows you the big picture, economically, strategically, but also takes you right into the Panzers. This book looks at the nuts and bolts of the German army during the blitzkrieg years. It gives you a background on the theory of blitzkrieg war-making as well. The timeline of the book is operations from 1939 until the end of 1941. These are the years of the stunning German victories. Almost the entire continent of Europe was prostrate or allied to the Germans by June of 1941. How did this happen in such a short time? Mr. Zetterling's attempt to show us the how and why succeeds admirably.

 He takes us from the attack on Poland to the assault on Norway. This is a bit strange for books dealing with the blitzkrieg years. Usually in these books the Norway campaign is treated as just a footnote. The author shows how this invasion fits in with the German theories and their usage in this war. The humbling of France is gone into. Although it was a quick campaign, the fighting was hard and deadly even after the Allies' success at Dunkirk. Although out-generaled and maneuvered by the Germans, the French did not go down easy. Next, we go to Russia and that fateful day of June 22nd 1941. Between that day and December 7th 1941 the Germans' fate was sealed. 

 The campaign of Barbarossa is shown to us from the top echelons down to the driver in a tank. The Germans must have thought they were dealing with the zombie apocalypse. No matter how many Soviets they captured or killed, ten more took their place. The author shows that after the German defeat in the winter of 1941, the war changed into one of attrition. The war in Europe had turned into a 'materials' war that Germany could never win.

 As usual, this Casemate Publishers book is a well written and  absorbing read. For those of us who are interested in the tactics and strategy of the early war years, it is a book you won't want to miss.


Robert


Book: Blitzkrieg from The Ground Up
Author: Niklas Zetterling
Publisher: Casemate Publishers

 

Field Commander Napoleon is a solitaire board game which puts you in the driver's seat on many of Napoleon's greatest campaigns....

Field Commander Napoleon - Vassal Module Review Field Commander Napoleon - Vassal Module Review

For your Wargamer, Toy soldier collector, MiniFig collector, military history nut. Reviews, interviews, Model Making, AARs and books!



Field Commander Napoleon is a solitaire board game which puts you in the driver's seat on many of Napoleon's greatest campaigns. It is part of the Field Commander series from Dan Verssen Games, which includes other titles covering the likes of Alexander the Great and Erwin Rommel. Faced with some of the same challenges as the Little Corporal himself, will you be able to emerge victorious?

My review here focuses specifically on the Vassal module for the game. Since this game has been out for many years, and there are a thousand reviews for it online, I will focus this article on the Vassal element itself, and summarize my opinion of the game at the end.

If you are not familiar with VASSAL, it is a free and open source engine for running digital versions of hundreds of board and wargames. These "modules" vary from completely free, but in many cases limited versions of games, on up to paid for versions that include everything you would find in the actual box. FC Napoleon falls into the more premium category, with a price of $30. However, you are getting essentially the equivalent of owning a physical copy, with all the pieces and boards crisply displayed on your PC screen. I should note up front to make it clear, this is not a "PC game" so much as it is a simulation of playing the board game. While the game neatly organizes all the pieces for you at the start of a campaign, it is up to the player to then move the pieces around the board correctly, and follow the rules.




I'm lucky enough to have a copy of the physical version of the game, which is absolutely gorgeous and worth its rather hefty price tag. Since I've played the game before, I only needed a brief review of the rules to get started. This, however, is where I ran into a snag with the Vassal version, it doesn't seem to include the game manual. Perhaps I am completely missing it, but I searched through every menu and button in the module and could not find it. There are handy buttons to open up the various player aides in separate windows, and a useful guide for veteran players getting comfortable with some nuances of playing in Vassal, but the actual rules for the game are nowhere to be found. I'll happily edit this section if anyone can point out its location to me. I was able to quickly Google up a a PDF of the manual and get rolling, so it isn't an insurmountable hurdle.

While playing in Vassal certainly won't be for everyone, it does offer a bevy of advantages over the physical realm of board gaming. First and foremost, game setup takes all of half a second. Just pick the campaign of your choice, there are eleven to choose from, and away you go. This is especially nice for FC Napoleon, the physical version of which includes triple digit quantities of unit counters, many specific to each campaign, which must be sorted out and placed meticulously according to each scenario's opening game state. What might take twenty minutes with the physical version takes only a split-second in Vassal. Just as nice is the ability to save your game and close the program any time you please. No need to leave things set up on the dining room table for a week, open to devastating attack by cats and small children.





Navigating the game through Vassal takes some getting used to. Perhaps more so for me than other players, since I had not used Vassal before. Right-click menus and other shortcuts allow you to perform the various actions of the game, such as flipping and rotating counters, creating/separating stacks of counters, and increasing/decreasing the value of certain spaces like supplies. One very nice feature is that units can be moved from the operational map to the battle map using a short-cut, which will also prepare everything you need for the battle (such as laying out the Battle Plan counters you will need, then stacking them up when the battle is done). However, using this feature is a bit precarious, as the module guide indicates, because the game isn't quite smart enough to realize if you've done something horribly wrong while moving counters around. The player will still need to pay attention to the details.  Another automated function in the Vassal module is that reinforcements will move onto the campaign board as soon as you meet the appropriate conditions, which is nice and leaves you with one less thing to remember. 

I found that playing in Vassal required a serious mental adjustment on my part. This is neither a truly interactive computer game, nor is it as intuitive as playing the game directly with your hands. Vassal veterans may have an easier time making the adjustment, but for me it took a few hours of tinkering around before I really felt comfortable playing in this environment, despite having experience with the game itself. However, once I found my feet on this new gaming battlefield, I could appreciate why it is so popular with many wargamers. The obvious advantages of instant set up and saved games makes it so much easier to play a game like this on a whim, compared to the sizable time commitment involved in breaking out the physical version. That said, at the fairly steep price of $30, you will have to know that you'll like this before taking the plunge. I can't help but think that anyone who can afford to spend that much on a Vassal module, could probably afford to go ahead and get a physical copy.  Regardless of price, my verdict on the Vassal edition of FC Napoleon is that it fully translates the board game experience onto the PC, while adding several quality of life improvements. I did not run into any bugs or other problems while using this version of the game. 



As for Field Commander Napoleon itself as a game, I can confidently say that it is one of the better solitaire gaming systems I have played. The mix of operational force movement and the more tactical battlefield phases of the game gives you a lot to think about. The enemy AI is simple, but effective enough in that it will keep you on your toes and force you to react to the situations that develop in each campaign. At many points in the game you will be faced with the decision of playing conservatively or aggressively, with the greater rewards carrying greater risks. Just like Napoleon, you will more often than not need to be bold in your actions, and trust to your superior forces and leadership to see you through against the odds. With almost a dozen scenarios to play, the game has plenty of variability and it will take quite a while to win them all. 

In short, this a well done Vassal module of a very good game. Whether it is worth the purchase price is up to you, but you can make that decision knowing that you will get a quality product.

- Joe Beard

Available at Dan Verssen Games






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