News of the CSS “Squib” torpedo boat’s semi-success in its attack on the Union Navy’s Squadron anchored at Hampton Roads, Virginia met with enthusiastic response from the Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Mallory.
In our first article we introduced the design features of Chad Jensen’s strategic game on the three years that ended World War II in Europe. Now we will zoom into the mechanics of Orders, Action Cards and Combat by walking through a typical game opening. The Soviet faction begins the game with the initiative and so will go first.
Shown here is a portion of the map, with the initial set up reflecting the situation on the eastern front in November 1942. Red units are Soviets. All other units are the German and Axis-Allied nations making up the OKH faction.
The years 1863 and 1864 were a busy time for Southern inventors interested in creating a weapon that would give the Confederacy parity of a sort with the much larger and more numerous naval vessels of the United States Navy.
Undoubtedly, when inventors such as Charleston’s Dr. St. Julien Ravenel and Theodore Stoney created their CSS “David” torpedo boat, it was thoughts in equal part of both profit and patriotism that guided their minds and hands.
Printers are whirring away on Levy & Campaign Volume III Inferno! Here Volko shares a gander at an advance copy in action on his game table.
With my proof copy in hand, I set up for the world’s first-ever session of Inferno on a finished set – Scenario B “In Far Vendetta”, the second of six scenarios in the box.
We are quite proud that Rebellion: Britannia can be played solo and, in our opinion, quite well. Some designs have solo playability enmeshed in them from the outset, and some have it built into them later. In this case, the solo mode was developed in step with the design as a whole. (Maurice: I personally have a strong tendency to do this – it helps me design/test rapidly in the early stages when everything is still in flux.)
Players can still choose to be any of the four factions: Rome, Silures, Brigantes, or Iceni, and the game system ‘runs’ an opposing faction. If players choose to play as Rome they will have a different kind of game depending on their selected opposing faction, given the various different British tribe asymmetries. If players choose to be one of the British tribes Rome must be selected as the AI faction used in the game – they’re the big dog in this fight so they need to be present. In fact, if players so choose they can add multiple factions into their game, including playing with all four factions, three of them run by the game system. We’ve not yet tried it, but in theory, the game could even play itself, playing all four factions together through its simple AI system – although it would need a willing human to mechanically turn cards, comply with instructions and move pieces (no such human is provided with the game).
While shipbuilding concerns and machine works like the Park & Lyons Machine Shop in Mobile, Alabama were busy creating an underwater terror known colloquially as a “fishboat,” there were others whose trip to fame and riches lay along a different path.
One such person was Dr. St. Julien Ravenel of Charleston, SC. Ravenel was a scion of Charleston’s well-known Ravenel family. A physician by avocation, Ravenel also taught at the local medical school, being Demonstrator of Anatomy. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Ravenel enlisted as an Army private, participating as such in the siege of Fort Sumter. Within a year’s time, his skill as a physician found him quickly promoted as an officer. Ravenel was then tapped for the position as Director of the Confederate Hospital, in the South Carolina state capital of Columbia.
Currently on the P500, Downfall is Chad Jensen’s strategic-level two-player game on the final three years of WWII in Europe. He evolved the design over several years and left its parts in various stages of completion. I was honored to pick up the project and see the design through.
The game begins at the high-water mark of Axis expansion. One player controls the Western Allies while the other commands the Soviet Union, in their joint effort to destroy the Axis. Though sharing the goal of defeating the Reich, each player seeks a victory that favors their dominance in post-war Europe.
Shown here is Chad’s 34” x 44” map for the game, with design finishes by Mark Simonitch.
Downfall’s innovative game system and play features are evident in the map and counters.
Let’s take a tour!
Since our last update of Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s components: specifically focusing on its gameboard; 0ur efforts were driven to provide Terry Leeds, our graphic designer, with the best raw material for him to do an excellent job taking our play test version and converting it into a “production worthy” piece of functional art adapted to the game’s mechanics.
We already had some knowledge of what Terry Leeds was professionally like. His “Imperial Struggle” work is prominently displayed in my collection of games as a wonder that I find difficult to play, but whose graphics complement the design and made it easier for me to enjoy this well-envisioned game.
Furthermore, for Congress of Vienna, Terry depicted many of the game elements (cards and map board) with a series of different figures, a variety of indicia, so color blind players can play CoV in a much more intuitive way. This proved a success, which pleasantly surprised us, because honestly it was a situation which we had not thought of when we initially designed the basic components of the game for its first prototypes!
At the start of the American Civil War, the Confederacy was faced with an almost insurmountable problem.
Using its navy, the United States was able to blockade trade, not only through coastal ports, but also the necessary interstate riverine trade on the South’s crisscrossing network of rivers, canals and lakes. For a predominately-agricultural nation like the Confederate States of America whose existence depended on unobstructed internal and overseas trade, a naval blockade was a threat to the nation’s existence.
Attempting to construct a national navy matching on a ship-for-ship basis the already-existing one of the northern states, would quickly bankrupt the fledgling Southern government.
As highlighted in a previous InsideGMT article, Bear Trap is primarily a two-player game—but one which will come with a rich solo mode developed by the GMT One team.
In this InsideGMT article, I want to quickly mention a few other things that make Bear Trap a complete package: two additional short scenarios, and tournament rules.
