Jolly: They ain’t paying us enough for this, man.Kip: I’m afraid I have some bad news.Box: Well, that’s certainly a switch. In ARC – The Underworld, the combat action between the ARC and REZ characters takes place in three forms: ranged, explosive ranged, and close combat. All three rely on a similar resolution method using […]
ARC – The Underworld: Combat Mechanics Read Post »
Designer Blogs
The Hellenistic period was undoubtedly one marked by much war: the prominent historian John D. Grainger for instance identified no less than nine “Syrian Wars”, i.e. wars pitting the Seleucids against the Ptolemies, in a span of 170 years… This should not surprise us with dynasties descended from Alexander’s generals, who had built their patrimonies
The Hubris Histories – Book 4: Of War and Peace Read Post »
Designer Blogs
In this article, we’ll look at one of the major game mechanics that causes players to make choices in any Men of Iron series game. You might think this would be movement or combat, as in many wargames. But that’s the point. Although players’ choices made involving those two mechanics are important in Men of
Men of Iron: What is a Turn Anyway? Read Post »
Designer Blogs
We have introduced in the precedent entry of these Histories the main players and movers of things in Hubris – Twilight of the Hellenistic World: the Kings and their Friends. Now we are going to examine what they were fighting over, i.e. as in most of history, land and the resources that could be obtained
The Hubris Histories – Book 3: The Lay of the Land Read Post »
Designer Blogs
As we have seen in the general historical overview in Book 1, individual leaders, first and foremost, but not exclusively, kings, drove the historical narrative in Ancient times. Accordingly, Hubris – Twilight of the Hellenistic World has been built around these leaders, their strengths and weaknesses, unique abilities and relationships. Who can you trust to
The Hubris Histories – Book 2: The Kings and their Courts Read Post »
Designer Blogs
Disease killed significantly more soldiers in the Civil War than bullets did. The Union lost 110, 000 killed in action and 225,000 from disease. The South lost 94,000 killed in action and 169,000 from disease. In addition, each side had about 30,000 men die in captivity, and almost all of those would have been die
Disease and Other Unexpected Losses in A House Divided Read Post »
Designer Blogs
In 2024, my upcoming game Men of Iron Volume VII: Ermine was put onto the GMT P500 list, and reached its number relatively quickly. For those who don’t know, Men of Iron, created by Richard Berg is a hex and counter series of games focussed on medieval battles at the grand tactical scale. Ermine covers
Ermine Design Process & Historical Look at The Battle of Champtoceux Read Post »
Designer Blogs
Hubris – Twilight of the Hellenistic World takes one to three players twenty-two centuries back in time to the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean. This period is often little known, obscured by the great epopees of Alexander the Great (that preceded it), Hannibal (that took place simultaneously) or Julius Caesar (that followed it). It was nonetheless pivotal
The Hubris Histories – Book 1: Historical Overview Read Post »
Designer Blogs
In previous installments of this series we spent a lot of time on how the game works on the tactical scale, from the Dynamic Hexes and Counters and the Simple Structure of the action system, to how the opposition bot uses Contact to Contest Control. We began bridging the gap between the tactical and operational
Putting the Operation in TacOps Read Post »
Designer Blogs
This is the fourth in a series of InsideGMT articles from Paul Hellyer about his board game Tsar, currently on GMT’s P500. You can view the previous article here. Tsarist Russia was supposedly ruled by one person, but this didn’t keep Nicholas II’s subjects from debating the faults and merits of their government and hatching
Factions and Scoring in Tsar Read Post »
Designer Blogs