Greetings from just south of Baltimore, MD.  My name is Barry Setser and I am the developer for GMT’s upcoming game – Bayonets & Tomahawks.  Many of you know the name from numerous conventions and gatherings over the years, but there’s a larger contingent that have no idea who I am.  I would like to take this bi-weekly occasion to introduce myself, let you know a bit about my gaming credentials, and then top things off with a development update on B&T.

I’ve been gaming since 1968:

It was quite enjoyable in the day, but some designs are best left behind and forgotten on the dustbins of game design history.  I really started to cut my teeth in the late 70s with games like the venerable “Blitzkrieg”, “PanzerBlitz”, “Panzer Leader” and all the classic AH and SPI titles.  Yes, I preferred SPI titles in general, though the complete package approach had a definite draw.  I was mostly out of gaming by the time of the heyday of Victory Games.

Thankfully, I rediscovered gaming in the early 2000s and saw all the splendid titles from GMT.  My first two purchases were “Thirty Years War” and (appropriately) “Wilderness War” and I got that first taste of the real golden age of wargaming.  I loved those games to death and immediately set about getting involved in playtesting; my first game involvement was with the group that did “Pax Romana”.  Yup, I still have scars from that series as I suffered the worst loss ever in my entire gaming life – at one point I had but a single damaged fleet left for the entire empire of Greece.  Thankfully, the playtest banner waved over the Aegean sea, so we learned the lesson about how bad things can get for a player (a very important point – learn the low points of the gameplay in your design).

My first big project was to do the electronic game kit work for Ed Beach’s “Here I Stand”.  I got in on the ground floor of this effort when I went looking for a copy of “A Mighty Fortress” and saw that HIS was underway.  I volunteered to help out, got in the mix and set about doing all the Cyberboard work for the team.  They are still using that CB kit today in non-Vassal play (along with the follow-on work for VQ) which is nice to see.  During that effort, I learned a great deal about card play, card interactions, play balance and more importantly – how fun is the game to play?  Outside of my personal all-time favorite game (“Fortress America”), HIS still rates as the game I’ve played the most.  I think we got the fun part figured out; though “Virgin Queen” and “A Distant Plain” are catching up in the amount of play and fun categories.

A few playtests (“Pursuit of Glory”, “Flying Colors”, “Andean Abyss”, “A Distant Plain”, “Fire In the Lake”) and game kit developments (“Red Storm Over the Reich”, “Triumph of Chaos”, “Shifting Sands”, “Spartacus”) down the road, I started to spend time with the Montreal gamers at their frequent Stac Academies.  It’s a wonderful experience filled with some of the most enjoyable characters you’ll ever meet – oh, and they’ve got some great designs published – all the “No Retreat” series from Carl Paradis and some terrific designs underway – “Hubris”, “Prelude to a Rebellion” and of course – “Bayonets & Tomahawks”.

I got to play the game once while at the Stac and really liked what I saw.  The best games (in my opinion) are the ones that are relatively easy to learn, present good strategy choices, featuring easy to resolve combats and a gripping narrative.  BnT had all this, and more importantly – left me wanting to come back and see what I could do to correct my bad tactical choices from the first game.  The game also has a wonderful visual appeal, as Marc is a very good graphics designer; I wish some of my finished games looked as good as his playtest did!  When I got the request from Marc to help him bring his game to market, I pondered all of about two minutes before accepting.

My current focus development-wise is to complete the Vassal module so we can start with a larger round of playtesting.  I am currently about a third done, and am looking to finish up work in early November.  I will play with the module a bit for a week or two to makes sure it all works fine, then we’ll start a smaller round of open playtesting to introduce the world to this gem from the Great White North!

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Author: Barry Setser