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
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