Disclaimer: All views expressed in this post are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, or Army Training and Doctrine Command
Ian M. Sullivan is the Special Advisor for Analysis and ISR at the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, US Army Training and Doctrine Command.
Below is another great article from The Boardgames Chronicle, this time showing his game of Caesar: Rome vs Gaul playing as the Romans. If you would like to read this article on his blog, you can find that here. Enjoy! -Rachel
Glance at Prime Minister’s game board and player mats, and the first thing you’ll notice are all the numbers. The most important one is 330: the number of seats you need for a majority in the House of Commons. In this article, we’ll take a look at Prime Minister’s numerical side, with a focus on its measurement of public opinion.
Introduction by Congress of Vienna (CoV)s Assistant Designer & Editor, Fred Schachter: 2020 marked one year of Congress of Vienna being a GMT P-500 listed game and we once again thank all who’ve placed much appreciated orders for it. What a year 2020 was; not only for us all due to the Pandemic, but for our beloved gaming hobby and the development of CoV. May the year 2021 be a better experience!
The below is an After-Action-Report (AAR) of a CoV Campaign VASSAL game whose core players were located in the USA and Europe. It is a compilation of emails I provided the team between gaming sessions. I served as the game’s chronicler as well as an observer and kind of “living rulebook” should a question arise. A CoV Campaign Game comprises ten turns and a one turn session was conducted each Saturday. When a player was on holiday/vacation, either designer Frank Esparrago or developer Dick Sauer would substitute for him.
During each one turn session the players were not rushed and could take as much time as desired to negotiate with one another and deliberate a play. No one minded each turn taking 1-2 hours to complete for everyone was having a joyously fun time (which, of course, is why we game)! It should be noted that experienced Congress of Vienna players, who agree to limit “table talk” or simply progress at a brisk pace, can get through a Campaign Game in 5-6 hours with the shorter scenarios being much quicker to complete.
To best appreciate this AAR, a general background regarding CoV will assuredly help. This can be gained by referencing GMT’s site for the game which is replete with a variety of material. See: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna
With that, enjoy this Congress of Vienna Campaign Game After-Action-Report for its turns 1-5, the period before Austria abandons neutrality and enters the war! Here’s an image of the VASSAL CoV game board which was used. A more comprehensive description of changes since Nov. 2020, which this illustration incorporates, should be included within the team’s next month GMT Update:
Ian M. Sullivan is the Special Advisor for Analysis and ISR at the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, US Army Training and Doctrine Command.
Disclaimer: All views expressed in this post are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, or Army Training and Doctrine Command
Ian M. Sullivan is the Special Advisor for Analysis and ISR at the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, US Army Training and Doctrine Command.
Disclaimer: All views expressed in this post are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, or Army Training and Doctrine Command
Below is the eighteenth in a series of articles from Mark McLaughlin showcasing the civilizations in Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East. You can find the first seventeen articles in the series here.
In previous installments, I have described the “main characters” in Banish the Snakes: the historic people that players represent in their attempts to convert Ireland. But now I’m moving on to the “supporting cast” of historic characters, people who were notable in the history of the time and show up in the game on Event cards. The previous articles in this “supporting cast” series can be found here.
