Introduction by Congress of Vienna (CoV) Assistant Designer/Editor, Fred Schachter – When I read the author’s “Congress of Vienna with Kids” BGG post last month, I thought “What a marvelous and inspiring story to share with InsideGMT‘s audience!”
For wargaming seems, at least to me and quite a few of my gaming chums, a hobby for increasingly aged participants. While attending a primarily board wargaming convention in Arizona earlier this summer, someone snidely quipped “My goodness! This seems like an A.A.R.P. Conference!”, sigh, what a sadly perceptive, amusing, yet spot on comment that was! (For those outside the U.S.A., A.A.R.P. is the abbreviation for The American Association of Retired Persons.)
Therefore, H.F.’s article, where he shares a Congress of Vienna gaming experience with his three adolescent children is heartening! So, dear reader, if you too are concerned regarding the “greying” of our beloved hobby and its future… take heart from what H.F. writes below!
As to Congress of Vienna, for a prodigious host of material regarding this component of GMT’s “Great Statesmen” series, including the Optional Historical Rules this article references, see: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna, 2nd Printing. With that, take it away H.F.!
This is not a detailed Congress of Vienna game after-action report, it’s just a brief account of a recent game played in the comfort of my home which included myself, two daughters, and my son. My children are 13, 15, and 17 years old. We played the introductory scenario as a “learning game”. How did it go? Quite well, quite well indeed, I am happy to report.
First of all, what is our background? My kids and I have been playing board games together for years, including some war games. We have played Triumph and Tragedy, Maria, and significantly, CoV’s predecessor, Churchill, to name a few. We play these games together, and I’ve played a variety of other war games individually with my children. Therefore, they are not beginners… oh no, far from it!
On the other hand, our usual way of operating is that I first read the rulebook and then explain “how to play” to my familial opponent(s). In other words, they are not burdened by reading the rules on their own and they are therefore largely dependent upon me to do a good job teaching the rules so we all can have the fun of going directly into playing a game.
Having past experience with Churchill, we decided to use that background to dive right in to Congress of Vienna, relying mostly on the game’s Quick Start Rules Summary (CoV_Quick_Start_Booklet_1M.pdf) and Player Aids as needed. I had previously read through much of the large and thorough rulebook as well, but it had been a few weeks prior to attempting this first game, so I was a little unsure.
We played this first Congress of Vienna game in sessions of an hour to an hour and a half each evening over the course of about a week, taking off a day here and there. That initial evening all we got through was the scenario’s first turn up through the six Rounds of its Diplomacy Phase. The next evening, we completed the remainder of that turn. Thereafter, now with the four of us comfortable with all Phases’ mechanics, we played a full turn per session.
Since I had the grasp of Congress of Vienna’s rules, we determined it would be best for me to play the “villain of the piece”, Napoleon’s Imperial France! My kids just love “ganging up on dad” in other games, so it was a natural to continue that enjoyable tradition.
In order to provide a bit of play balance to a CoV inexperienced Coalition Team, I selected use of the pro-Allied Initial Situation “B” Card Deck. That worked out rather well and I did not feel need to hold back at all. I could fully play competitively seeking France’s victory! “Release the Kraken!”, eh? In fact, the Allies spent much of their initial energies jostling with one another (Napoleon’s Dream!). Indeed, my France was able to win the game’s first Diplomacy Phase for 4VP, which was a surprise to us all.
Over course of the scenario’s four turns, the thorniest issues proved to be British Financial Aid and Liberalism/Absolutism. The kids wanted to play with as many Optional Historical Rules as possible. This resulted in a successful British Army of Scheldt landing in Holland. Britain also swiftly took Castille and eventually Naples with another amphibious attack. That good fortune for the British put them ahead of the Russians in VPs, who lost Silesia to a Grande Armée counter offensive.
I had one highly successful turn, during which I managed to hold back my enemies on all fronts arrayed against me, despite having vastly inferior unit counts to the Allies’ armies. That taught everyone the importance of concentrating on achieving really decisive victories, rather than spreading resources across many fronts. My kids learned that lesson rather quickly! On the Victory Point Track, Russia had fallen significantly behind and it looked like it would just be a matter of time before Britain would win the game.
However, Austria was gradually accruing victory points from winning Minor Country Issues and Diplomacy Phase wins. An additional problem for Britain was a French engineered US victory in the War of 1812 (“Canada Annexed!”). By the end of our fourth turn, it was a tight race for VP with the margin between the four Major Powers’ VP Track Markers seeming like a “Conga Line”. Austria squeaked by to victory as a result of winning the most Diplomacy Phases and from other of its VP sources (e.g. from when it finally entered the war).
Overall conclusions: Congress of Vienna was a big hit! We are now ready to move onto the grand adventure of a ten-turn Campaign Game. Like our experience with Churchill, we found this game to be tricky when it comes to gauging who is ahead and who is behind. For us, that still made for a highly exciting and entertaining game since we were less obsessed with accounting for every victory point than we otherwise might have been: Playing from instinct as it were and not feeling too guilty about losing. It was a great and enjoyable gaming experience.
Author: H. F. Mount
What a lovely AAR! I always love to see people enjoying these games with their family.