This is the first article in a series where I will present each of the five powers of Baltic Empires in turn. I am starting with Sweden as that is the power that will likely be most familiar to players of GMT´s other games set in the Baltic region during this period (1558-1721), such as Pax Baltica and Nothing Gained But Glory.
Those following the progress of the Musket & Pike Battle Series (MPBS) Dual Pack on P500 will have noted that the game has progressed into the “Made the Cut – In Art and Final Development” category. Many are asking for some peeks at the new artwork, and I wanted to give an update to the project overall.
To be plain, this project is much more than a reprint. Though it is hard to believe, it has been 20 years since This Accursed Civil War was released. There have been 5 more volumes of the series released since. It all started with the Desktop Published (DTP) version before that. The original 16-page rulebook is now 32 pages (which includes graphics) and has been carefully honed over the years to provide a solid base. The design had strong roots in Great Battle of History and Rob Markham’s games. When published, it was very much representative of the state of the art at that time.
When we embarked on the Dual Pack project, it was clear that it was going to be much more involved than just a reprint. Not only did the graphics for all the components need to be brought up to the current state, but I wanted to add new battles and incorporate new scholarship into existing battles. That drove a comprehensive review of the orders of battle, setups, and victory conditions. Combining the first two volumes made for a mountain of work, which is one of the causes for the long time it has taken to get this far.
Though inspired by the game Legion of Honor, I, Napoleon can also trace its origin to the line of solo narrative games that begins with B-17 Queen of the Skies and runs through the designs of Greg Smith such as The Hunters. It is a game where you are put in the shoes of an individual leader and have to deal with what the game throws at you. Except instead of leading a plane or a submarine, you are leading France, and what gets thrown at you aren’t shells or depth charges but the armies of entire nations.
Last time, your Inventor’s Vade Mecum handbook supplied you with information on the different materials and mechanisms available right now to make your dream of an underwater wonder a reality.
Today, we will discuss how to give that underwater wonder of yours its aura of dread and destruction.
We will also touch on the various types of propulsion systems that will take your fishboat into battle and hopefully out.
My company was assigned to lead the Battalion’s attack on the Japanese held plantation that blocked the road to Munda. I was given an additional Platoon from Echo Company and a Platoon of Marine Stuarts to stiffen the assault. The infantry was first responsible for clearing the jungle and hills surrounding the plantation, with MGs and mortar in support. The Marine tanks would provide fire support from across the plantation and, if possible, maneuver to our left to enfilade the enemy during our final assault on the plantation.
In this InsideGMT article, I’ll give some historical comments on a few (but not all) of the strategy cards. I want to unpack the events and people at play behind these cards so you can better appreciate what they represent. But this is a high-level overview of the historical background, and detail here is sacrificed in the pursuit of brevity.
Note that this the second part of a two-part series of InsideGMT articles about the cards in Bear Trap—in the first part, I discussed how the different cards work and what the deck compositions look like in the game.
If you have trouble reading the card text on the card graphics presented here, take a look at the second page of the Bear Trap player aid, which can be found on the GMT webpage for the game, as the card text for all strategy cards can be found there. (And note that the cards depicted here are playtest components and still subject to possible change—including text, art, and graphic design.)
For those unfamiliar with how these strategy cards work in the game, here’s a quick overview: Each side has eight pairs of strategy cards (16 cards total). During setup each player will choose one strategy card and add it to their deck—thereby informing their initial strategic direction. Then, each time a player reshuffles their deck, they add two additional strategy cards to their deck. This allows them to develop their overarching strategy in reaction to the changing game state. It’s also worth noting that, during setup, each player will remove a random pair of strategy cards from the game. This means that a player cannot ever rely wholly on one pair of strategy cards to be a staple of their approach to the game, as it won’t necessarily be available to them in one playthrough or the next.
Hello, and good day to you, young Inventor.
Our using the Inventor’s Vade Mecum today will work a miracle of modern industrial science.
No, we will not recreate the alchemist’s dream of turning base metal into gold.
Instead, we will transform paper into iron: turning your machine shop’s paper plans, mechanical drawings, work orders and invoices into the iron hull, intricate mechanisms and potent weaponry of your undersea Wonder of the Age.
Before you begin work on your fishboat, you must answer two important questions.
Line of sight has always been a problematic issue with tactical games, and certainly, Great Battles of the American Civil War games are no different. Everyone has different spatial reasoning skills, and as Richard Berg said more than once, there is no rule that all will understand – whether simple or complicated.
Add to that the latest edition of GBACW rules and Into the Woods’ special cases, and the result is that LOS is often as mysterious in the game as it was to the actual participants in the battle.
In this article I will explain how warfare is handled in Baltic Empires, both in terms of how the battle mechanics themselves work (which is quite simple), but also the bigger economic aspects of warfare during the period (1558-1721) and how these are represented in the game.
The Powers in Baltic Empires each have access to 4 different kinds of units: Infantry, Cavalry, Fortresses, and Ships of the Line. All five Powers in the game can build these units, but each Power has a very different distribution of them in their available force pool, as well as different costs to build each of them, to represent the different military traditions and political or economic circumstances of that Power. Some Powers (and Dramatis Personae) also have additional special rules that either weaken or strengthen specific units, which will be described below.
Good day again to you, young Inventor.
Since our last meeting, your mind must be a-whirl with ideas and plans to make your undersea weapon of war a reality.
Let’s temper that reality by understanding that, though you may indeed be the One With The Idea, it will take more than you to give that idea form and substance.
