The road to Manzikert is long… but only if you choose it to be! As the game gets closer to arriving to players, here is a spotlight on the scenarios in the game that showcase the breadth of available starting situations and game length options. Because SELJUK covers four years and turn length is a […]
The Scenarios of SELJUK: Byzantium Besieged Read Post »
Designer Blogs, Scenarios/Variants
This article continues the case study of the Battle of Issus started in the InsideGMT article Great Battles of Alexander: The Battle of Issus (Part 1), picking up the action with Game Turn 2. The Persians have the bulk of their Light Cavalry across the Pinarus and poised for an assault on the rather disorganized
Great Battles of Alexander: The Battle of Issus (Part II) Read Post »
Designer Blogs, Examples of Play
A House Divided now includes event cards, one of which is drawn each turn, and there are unique decks for each of the years of the war after 1861. Every card is drawn and played once, and so every one of the historic events portrayed by the card occur, but players are unsure in what
Weather in A House Divided Read Post »
Designer Blogs
Designing a game with the scope of Combat Commander: Vietnam requires a lot of testing. Before the game is opened up for broader playtesting, the core design team has to ensure that all of the pieces of the design are working to provide the play experience we want. In the previous article we discussed how
Brown Water Brawl: A Combat Commander: Vietnam AAR Read Post »
After Action Report, Designer Blogs
Introduction Illusions of Glory: The Great War on the Eastern Front (“IoG”) is a card-driven game simulating the First World War in eastern Europe. Its first edition was published by GMT Games in 2017 after the award-winning Paths of Glory, which simulated the entire war in Europe and the Near East in army/corps scale. IoG
Illusions of Glory 2nd Edition: A Summary Read Post »
Designer Blogs
This guide is intended to give players helpful hints on playing the Great Battles of Alexander. The format is like my SPQR: A Guide to Playing the Game available on the GMT website. That guide provided a comprehensive review of the SPQR rules using the Battle of Heraclea as a case study. For this guide
Great Battles of Alexander: The Battle of Issus (Part I) Read Post »
Designer Blogs, Examples of Play
The Ottoman Empire The period covered by Baltic Empires saw the Ottoman Empire at the absolute height of its power. The steppes of southern Ukraine and Russia were controlled by the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate, who were vassals of the Ottoman Empire, while the southern border of the Poland-Lithuania was inhabited by semi-independent Cossacks
Foreign Intervention in Baltic Empires: Part Two Read Post »
Designer Blogs
This is the third 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. As the new year arrived in 1917, Russia’s Tsarist regime teetered on the brink of collapse. Public opinion had turned against it, its army was struggling
Deciding the Fate of the Tsarist Regime Read Post »
Designer Blogs
The historical power struggles occurring during the period covered by Baltic Empires (1558-1721) did not happen in a vacuum, but were of great importance to the interest to major powers on the edges of the map of Baltic Empires: England, France, the Netherlands, the Habsburg-controlled Holy Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. Each of these
Foreign Intervention in Baltic Empires: Part One Read Post »
Designer Blogs
In William Shakespeare’s Richard III, the eponymous character is described as physically deformed and a psychopathic villain. Was this the truth or Tudor era propaganda? Shakespeare has these lines in the play depicting Richard as deformed in body: “To help thee curse this poisonous bunch-backed toad.” “O, thou didst prophesy the time would come that
Men of Iron Historical Look – Battle of Bosworth 22 August 1485 Read Post »
Designer Blogs, Inside the Game as History