Mark Herman’s ground-breaking, innovative and thoroughly enjoyable game (insert any title of his here, but in this case, Fort Sumter) is the kind of game you can play over and over again and get a different outcome almost every time. It’s only failing, at least for me, however, is in its victory conditions. No matter whether you win a draw or score twice as many points as your opponent, it just means that you are better prepared for the upcoming war than the other side.
Really? That’s it? Really? As much as I love the game (board and the new computer version alike), that simple, single level of victory (or defeat) is something I find quite unfulfilling and unsatisfying. So much so that it seems anti-climatic. In order for me to better enjoy the game, and to increase the challenge in playing it, I have come up with levels of victory, and what each level means (at least for me).