Monthly Archives: April 2021

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“It’s All in the Cards”: A Compendium of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s Cards: Chapter One, Part Five – Great Person “Negate” Cards

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Introduction by ACME Game Developer Fred Schachter: The previous parts of this Chapter One introduced readers to the game’s Great Person Investment, Competition, Spy, and “Power, Money (Mina) & VP” cards. This exposition, which concludes Chapter One, proceeds to the game’s Great Person Negate cards.

Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East play testers attest that Negate cards add a fun, dramatic, and exciting dynamic to the game since they can be used with an immediacy that other cards cannot duplicate. They can save your civilization’s day and frustrate your enemy’s evil intent!

But first, to set the mood, a Mark McLaughlin Design Note aside regarding each ACME game card’s biblical quote… 

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Inside GMT One: Solo Play in Red Flag Over Paris

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Fred Serval’s Red Flag Over Paris was definitely the surprise highlight of 2020 for me. As I sat in quarantine, much like all of you, I was buoyed by the simplicity and elegance of the game. Fortunately we live in a connected age, and I was able to enjoy many sessions of Red Flag with other players on Tabletop Simulator. With each play I kept wondering what it would take to add solitaire play to the game.

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Laban! Chapter 3: Violence and Nonviolence in People Power

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The first COIN project I worked on was Bruce Mansfield’s Gandhi. Even as a relative newcomer to the COIN Series, I knew that Gandhi was a very different game. The model of nonviolent resistance presented in Gandhi sparked my imagination; where else could conflicts be modeled using these principles? As I continued to read I was surprised to find that one of the most common examples of how nonviolent resistance works was the People Power Revolution of 1986. I was even more surprised to find that Ken was already very far along in his design of People Power.

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Congress of Vienna: Designing Its Solitaire Game

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Introduction by Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s Assistant Designer & Editor, Fred Schachter: This article is a description of efforts made by one of the CoV Teams making fine and appreciated contributions to the game… “Gutt’s Guys”… who’ve come up with a set of rules converting CoV’s 4-player game into 3 and 2-player versions. Furthermore, they’ve created a fun, exciting, and engaging solitaire game for it!

In this first article, designer Frank Esparrago describes, the efforts made to make Congress of Vienna into a completely competitive solitaire game with all the intensity and competitiveness of its Standard multi-player versions. The focus is on the game’s cards and how their ratings influence solitaire play. Later articles will describe CoV’s Two Player version and how CoV’s Bots were created for solo play enjoyment. These articles shall provide descriptions, with examples, of how they work.

Understanding Congress of Vienna’s basic game system(s) should enhance readers’ appreciation of this article and its ensuing follow-ups. To that end, GMT’s site for the game contains a wealth of material: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna 

Enjoy and take it away Frank!

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This is the Vietnam Game You’re Looking For, Part 1

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This game is often referred to as “brilliant”, “seminal”, “ingenious” and any other number of superlatives in terms of its breathtaking ability to capture the essence of the Vietnam War. To many, shall we say experienced, grognards, this is because they have direct experience with the game and have spent many long hours immersed in its grip as the gameplay drives a narrative that easily places you in the mindset of a Westmoreland or Giáp.

However, for new players, statements like that alone don’t tell them why they should be interested in the game, too. So, we will, herein, describe the way the game works so you can decide if, perhaps, this is the game you’re looking for.

We’ll start by looking at the components which will come with the game and noting the differences from the original.