Category Archives: Designer Blogs

Posted on

Order & Opportunity: A Perspective to the Post-Cold War Period

by

Recently, a new game named Order & Opportunity: Making of the Post-Cold War World Order entered GMT Games’ P500 list. This is the first in a series of articles on the game.

From the profile page: Order & Opportunity is a 2 to 4 player game with a solo variant about the making of the post-Cold War world order covering the first decades of the 21st century. In the game, the United States, Russia, China, and the European Union compete over the control of the agenda and ultimately over victory points in the dimensions of economic, political, cultural, and security power projection. Order & Opportunity combines card-driven, asymmetric game play to produce a topical and thematic historical game on a global scale. The game offers a distinctive and captivating play experience at every one of its player counts.

Posted on

How Combat is Resolved in Iron Storm

by

The development of Iron Storm has been going smoothly over the past few months, and the game’s core systems are now close to finalised, with only small tweaks being made as our dedicated playtesters continue to push it to its limits. In this article I will give an overview of the game’s combat system, which is something that a few people have been asking about and we don’t expect to change significantly before publication.

Iron Storm is a relatively simple game that uses straightforward mechanics to capture the core aspects of WWI in Europe, and combat is no different. At the beginning of the action round the active player can initiate Offensives in any contested space, usually by playing an Army card that matches one of their armies in the space (there are also some special cards, such as High Command Orders, that can be used to initiate an Offensive in any space).

Posted on

Imperial Eagles: Air War in the Pacific 1941-43 — Allied Aircraft

by

Since the Japanese need someone to fight, this second article for Inside GMT will describe the planes with which the Allies oppose them in Imperial Eagles.

The US Army Air Force has aircraft in almost every campaign in the game, and more models than any other service.  These are the planes which held the line in the Pacific for the first two years, showing incremental improvement through the end of 1943 while the more modern types went to Europe first.

Posted on

Here I Stand Game Example: Two-Player Variant

by

What follows is a detailed, turn-by-turn actual two-player game pitting the Here I Stand game designer Ed Beach as the Papacy player against a collective group of other skilled players playing the Protestant side. This group included several HIS playtesters and a number of ConsimWorld Forum members. The ConsimWorld forum board was used to debate each Protestant move within the group and to reach consensus for the best choice. Play was accomplished by PBEM using Cyberboard. This PBEM game started August 18, 2007 and ended October 22, 2007, going 7 turns before a victor was declared.

It is best to play out this recorded game with an actual game board (or Cyberboard) with the HIS Rules and HIS Two-Player Variant Rules at hand. If you are new to HIS, read the Rules Book and Scenario Book first. Stepping through this game can be helpful in learning the game and rules. The game perspective is from the Protestant players eyes and the Papacy player’s cards are not known ahead of time. Simply pull the appropriate card from the main deck (or diplomacy deck) when the Papacy card played is revealed.

Click the image below to read the full 18-page game example of the Here I Stand Two-Player Variant:

Click image to see full 18-page PDF
Posted on

Rebellion: Britannia, Leaders

by

Each faction always has one of two possible leaders that are always available in a set (historical) sequence. But when a faction switches between leaders is determined by the Events deck, and since not all cards from that deck are present in the same game it’s possible these events aren’t triggered and a faction never switches their leader.

Posted on

A Fading Star #2: Harakat Al-Shabaab Al-Mujahideen

by

Al-Shabaab (from its full name Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, or ‘Mujahideen Youth Movement’) is a very singular case among the movements that have made the headlines since the rise of violent transnational Islamism. From 2007 to 2014, the organization could sway and control a majority of Southern Somalia, including numerous urban centers, despite the presence of conventional forces protecting the transitional federal government in the capital. Still relevant to this day, Al-Shabaab is an important reminder that terrorist and insurgent organizations can endure terrible military hardships and continue fighting until the root social and political problems that seeded their rise are addressed.

Posted on

Across The Bosporus: Bringing Levy & Campaign to Asia Minor

by

The medieval era: a clash of swords and armor, archers winning the day against charging knights, the dust and roar of melee, lords’ banners snapping crisply in the breeze, high castle parapets withstanding mighty sieges. These are the familiar images that likely come to mind and captivate the imagination when played out on the table in the brilliant Levy & Campaign series.

My name is Justin Fassino and I am currently designing the next series entry entitled SELJUK: Byzantium Besieged 1068-1071, a game about the maneuvering between the Seljuk Turks and Eastern Roman Empire leading up to the pivotal Battle of Manzikert in August 1071. These military matters would ultimately be the first tremors of a multi-century tectonic shift that would see permanent settlement of Anatolia by central Asian steppe tribes, the First Crusade, the creation of the Ottoman Empire, and the end of Rome as a political identity.

Posted on

Rebellion: Britannia, The Events Deck, Part #2

by

Continuing on from the previous blog post, The Events Deck, Part #1, this is Part #2.

Here are some further examples of Event cards.

This Event card has three effects:

  • Rome conducts a supply check.
  • +1 Tension in the Atrebates & Regneses regions.
  • Add a Culture Token to the region with the lowest Tension: Cantiaci, Regneses, or Trinovantes (place in the region with the lowest number if there’s a tie).
Posted on

Imperial Eagles: Air War in the Pacific 1941-43 — Japanese Aircraft

by

For anyone who’s ever played Down in Flames, their first question is probably, “what aircraft do we get in Imperial Eagles?”You’ll be getting a mix of old and new, with even the “repeats” brought up to Wild Blue Yonder standards.  As befits a game featuring Imperial Japanese aviation in World War II, this first article for Inside GMT will describe the planes the Japanese bring to the fight.

Posted on

Illusions of Glory: Playtesting the Next Edition

by

The next generation of rules, mapboard, player aid cards, and counters for Illusions of Glory are open for playtesting.  Links to a Vassal playtest module and next generation rules (labeled “Summer 2022”) are located on the Illusions of Glory webpage.  Please send your critiques to me at Ohiogrognard on BoardGameGeek.

The rules have been clarified with respect to: (1) allocation of unit losses, (2) out of supply effects, (3) building trenches, and (4) retreats after combat,

Corps identification numbers on Large Counter Units have been changed from Roman to Arabic numerals to facilitate recognition and mapboard placement: