With great pleasure I played another two scenarios in Samurai Battles – it hit the table already for the fourth time in the last month so you can see what a great impression it had on me! With Lukasz we focus first on multi set-up engagements, which span across couple of chronologically connected battles. So far we have covered Arita Castle 1517 AD, Okehazama 1560 AD and Koriyama Castle 1540 AD. This time the choice was Azukizaka combats – one in 1542 and the second in 1548.
There are a number of different types of monsters that you will have to deal with when playing The Plum Island Horror. While none of them are very pleasant, some are far worse than others. So I felt it would be worthwhile to do a short treatise on the “Horrors” that you and your friends will be fighting. And by the way, be aware that the term “zombies” is never used in the game’s literature. Calling the abominations that attacked Plum Island “zombies” is an insult to them and their reputations. In fact, there was an unsubstantiated report that we uncovered which claimed that one researcher referred to a captured Horror as a “Zed”. Supposedly the Horror overheard this remark and became so infuriated that it tore out of its cage and consumed the researcher in one gulp. The “Horrors” of Plum Island are more vicious, faster and smarter than any of those ineffectual Romero monster wannabes. Sure, they’ve benefited from great publicity and their marketing department is pretty sharp. But don’t let that superficial nonsense fool you! The Horrors of Plum Island were a real threat to humankind, not like those slow-moving, groaning zombie half-wits that you see in all those popular movies and TV series. The Horrors come in two distinct and disgusting flavors … a Murder of Horrors and Mutations.
Introduction by Congress of Vienna Assistant Designer & Editor – Fred Schachter: The first turn of this After-Action-Report (AAR) chronicled game was an exciting and unusual one with France doing well against their disjointed enemies. It should be noted that this turn’s record, as well as the remaining reports of this series, shall depict battles in some detail… but not EVERY detail… particularly regarding full calculation of the dice roll modifiers which were evaluated to learn how much each side’s two dice battle rolls would be influenced. It’s really a simple checklist review to determine what to include. To learn more of the game’s battle resolution system, see the nifty video two of our media-savvy play test team created: How to Resolve Battle in Congress of Vienna: An Animated Voice-Over PowerPoint – Inside GMT blog
So let’s resume the game action of this Congress of Vienna “Clash of Armies” contest as the conflict expands to engulf the entire European continent with Austria’s entry into the war… but first…
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: The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, or Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).
In the below article I would like to invite Dear Readers to the fantastic travel into the world of solitaire scenarios and campaigns for Atlantic Chase. This will an after action report saturated with many photos as I think only pictures can reflect what was going on during the session. I used some pointers and arrows so you can see the flow of the action as well as grasp the dynamics of the conflict. Hope you will enjoy it!
So far in this series we have described the factions in Vijayanagara, their primary means of attaining their historical (or ahistorical) “victory,” and the combat system in the game. In this article we introduce another dimension relevant primarily to the upstart Deccan kingdoms, the Bahmanis and Vijayanagara, namely the respective influence that each faction has throughout the southern peninsula.
Deccan Influence measures the pliability of regional rulers and their populations to be swayed towards allegiance and service to either the Bahmani Kingdom or the Vijayanagara Empire. Influence can be changed through Events representing the flourishing and dissemination of empire origin stories and foundational myths, and through direct actions (“Commands”) by military and economic means. Stronger influence in the region has a number of immediate benefits, and the Influence level is also added to the final victory point total for these two southern factions.
The Plum Island Horror is a cooperative game for one to four players who are … let’s be honest here … predominantly masochists who have nothing better to do with their free time but get pummeled by a boardgame. Just chalk it up as another wasted night of being embarrassed by some plastic dice and cardboard counters. But if you nonetheless insist on playing this game, you can take comfort in the knowledge that it is actually an accurate simulation of one of the most notorious and covered-up events in U.S. history.
Thanks to the intrepid work of the somewhat-famous journalist, private investigator and former Battle Bots contestant David “Sherlock” Spangler, this horrific story has finally been brought to light. David is most famously known (in some conspiracy and cryptozoology circles anyway) for his bestselling books “Squatching For Dummies” and “Ancient Aliens: Fact or … Fact?”. But it was his tell-all tome “Beware the Shade: Where Horrors Hide in the Daylight” that brought this event to my attention. The story was just too good to pass up and I assembled my team of developers, headed by Ken Kuhn and Fred Manzo, to begin collecting first-hand interviews from survivors of the disaster who were made known to us through accessing documents made available by Mr. Spangler and the Freedom of Information Act. Whatever stories and details we could not verify, well, we just filled in the blanks as best we could (using our highly intellectual and analytical talents). Therefore, I think I am quite justified in saying that this is the most historically accurate and well-researched simulation of a historical event that you will find anywhere in GMT’s game catalog. Obviously.
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: The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, or Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).
Introduction by Congress of Vienna Assistant Designer & Editor – Fred Schachter: This is the first STANDARD GAME Congress of Vienna Replay Article to grace the pages of InsideGMT. To date, each AAR used optional rules favored by CoV veteran grognard play testers… which encompasses all the “Wargame Flavor” rules the game offers. For those AAR’s and other related material to provide a rich background to best appreciate this article, see: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna .
These Wargame Flavor elements include those purple color-highlighted rule cross-references on CoV’s map (see above image) as well as other rules solely within the Playbook. While these are fun and add historiocity (such as including the Norway/Denmark Box)… the more things to consider does slow the pace of play down… not that our grognards mind! Designer Frank’s CoV play testers in Spain, however, consist of many a Eurogamer and they vastly prefer the smoother and less rule knowledge needed Standard Game. We now embark on the latest Congress of Vienna game replay adventure… enjoy!
Pure Land Buddhism venerates the Buddha Amitābha (Amida in Japanese) and originated in India, before spreading to China and eventually Japan. In Japan, Pure Land (Jodo Shū) and True Pure Land (Jōdo Shinshū) Buddhism were both founded in the 12th century, the former by the monk Hōnen and the latter by his disciple Shinran, but did not enjoy widespread popularity until the 15th century. Both traditions teach that humanity is in an age of spiritual decline, but that sincere faith in Amida Buddha can ensure that one is reborn into the Pure Land, where one will receive instruction in how to achieve enlightenment. However, Shinran also taught that due to the corrupt nature of humanity, there is nothing one can do to cultivate this faith, but rather it must be bestowed upon one by the grace of Amida Buddha. All that one can do is chant the Nembutsu (“Namu Amida Butsu”, or “Hail Amida Buddha”), an expression of gratitude to Amida Buddha, and hope for salvation. This teaching has occasionally been declared heretical by the orthodox Buddhist establishment in Japan, but today it is hugely popular, with Jōdo Shinshū being one of the most widely practiced branches of Buddhism in modern Japan.
