Monthly Archives: March 2020

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Seas of Thunder: The Interactivity of Specialized Warships

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In a previous article I discussed the power, flexibility and dominating nature of air power in a Seas of Thunder battle. As a companion to that I would like to address the counter-balance to air power, the specialists. Every ship in the game can be put on the gunnery line, from the mightiest battleship to the lowliest submarine and everything in-between. However many ships, at last count over half, have their own specialties that make them more potent in the game than their 5-inch guns would allow. Today we will look at the specialist actions; anti-sub warfare, raiding, subsurface attack, mine laying, and mine sweeping.

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A New Wargamer’s Guide to Failing Spectacularly at Twilight Struggle (i.e. Lessons Learned from My First Failure)

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Below an article on Twilight Struggle new gamer strategy from InsideGMT contributor David Wiley of Cardboard Clash and Swords & Chit. You can also find this article on David’s blog. Enjoy! -Rachel

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Meet the Statesmen of Congress of Vienna – The French Contingent (Part 4 of 4)

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Introduction by Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s Editor, Fred Schachter – To familiarize the InsideGMT audience of what designer Frank Esparrago created with his fun and exciting Congress of Vienna game, now a GMT P-500 offering which has “made the cut”; InsideGMT presented articles of “Designer’s Notes” and a “Game as History” series entitled “An Historical Introduction to the Congress of Vienna Period (CoV)”. Use this link to access copies of these articles: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-850-congress-of-vienna.aspx .

Because this is the third game of GMT’s “Great Statesmen” series, it seems appropriate to focus on those very Statesmen who make this Napoleonic Wars historical period so captivating to our hobby from perspective of the game Frank designed.

Consequently, following Part Three’s “Russian Contingent”, here’s the final part of a four part series: “Meet the Statesmen of Congress of Vienna – The French Contingent”.  

I enjoyed learning more of the historical figures behind the game’s cards and hope you do as well. Also, the CoV Team appreciates folks’ feedback, whether within this forum or elsewhere to this InsideGMT series. Now to conclude matters with its final installment by meeting the Great French Statesmen, War Leaders, and other “neutral” personages of Congress of Vienna…

In italics we include a brief description of the cards and their CoV opportunities and weaknesses:

Note: If you would like to view any of the below images in a larger size, you can click on the image and it will point you to the full image file.

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Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East: Meet the Greeks

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Below is the sixteenth in a series of articles from Mark McLaughlin showcasing the 16 civilizations in Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East. You can find the first fifteen articles in the series here.

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All Bridges Burning: Solitaire System Part 1

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As we speak, All Bridges Burning is all finished and the components have been sent to the printer. The wait is almost over!

In a range of previous InsideGMT articles we spent a great deal of time looking at the game’s treatment of the Finnish Civil War. Alongside that, a series of event card spoilers were published in the Player’s Aid blog (links to the event card spoilers can be found here).

In the present article, we will look in detail at the solitaire system for All Bridges Burning. We do so by continuing the non-player example of play to be contained in the Playbook of the game. Once you have received your copy of the game, this article can serve as a further learning resource when using the game’s solitaire system. I plan to continue to play through this example of play in a series of future posts.

However, before we get on with the example of play, let’s talk a little bit about the solitaire system.

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Red Storm: Baltic Approaches Design Update

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The design and testing team for the first Red Storm expansion, Baltic Approaches, has been working hard over the past months to get it ready for final art with GMT. Since this is an expansion, the early work has focused on the foundations of the expansion: the map area, the orders of battle, the timeline of the war, and the resulting templates for where the ground defenses are at different dates. In terms of rules, the major work has been on adding naval units and sea-skimming missiles to the game. Here’s some more detail on all those efforts.


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Seas of Thunder: What’s a Pretty Commonwealth Line Steamer Doing in a War Like This?

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This is the second part in Chuck’s ongoing series of articles discussing some of the lesser known ships you will command and fight against in Seas of Thunder. (You can read the first article here.)

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Meet the Statesmen of Congress of Vienna – The Russian Contingent (with their Prussian and Swedish Allies) (Part 3 of 4)

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Introduction by Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s Editor, Fred Schachter – To familiarize the InsideGMT audience of what designer Frank Esparrago created with his fun and exciting Congress of Vienna game, now a GMT P-500 offering; InsideGMT  presented articles of “Designer’s Notes” and a “Game as History” series entitled “A Historical Introduction to the Congress of Vienna Period (CoV)”.  Use this link to access copies of these articles: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-850-congress-of-vienna.aspx .

Since this is the third game of GMT’s “Great Statesmen” series, it seems appropriate to focus on those very Statesmen who make this Napoleonic Wars historical period so captivating to our hobby from perspective of the game Frank designed.

Consequently, following Part One’s “British Contingent” and Part Two’s “Austrian Contingent”, here’s part three of a four part series: “Meet the Statesmen of Congress of Vienna – The Russian Contingent”. However, the Russian CoV player also controls cards representing Prussian and Swedish game personages and together, what a fascinating group they comprise!

The next and final increment of this series will address the French with their USA Allies for the War of 1812 and other non-aligned personages. 

In italics we include a brief description of the cards with their CoV opportunities and weaknesses. However, before commencing this article’s main text, a quick aside regarding the Leader Card, a type of distinct card unique for each Major Power.  Here’s the relevant Rulebook extract with an associated illustration:

I enjoyed learning more of the personages behind the game’s cards and hope you do as well. Now to meet the Great Statesmen (and military leaders) of Congress of Vienna’s Russian player…

Note: If you would like to view any of the below images in a larger size, you can click on the image and it will point you to the full image file.

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Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East: Meet the Scythians

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Below is the fifteenth in a series of articles from Mark McLaughlin showcasing the 16 civilizations in Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East. You can find the first fourteen articles in the series here.

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Fire in the Lake Tru’ng Bot Example of Play: NVA March

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The single most important goal of the new COIN bot designs is usability. There are many places where small changes have been made to enhance usability, but the primary change (and a large one!) is the division of the operation selection and space selection priorities into different charts. Trưng divides these using the same principles as the Arjuna bot in Gandhi: operation selection is now handled by a deck of cards, while space selection is handled by the priorities charts that were previewed in the last article.