Category Archives: Designer Blogs

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“It’s All in the Cards”: A Compendium of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s Cards: Chapter One, Part One – Great Person Investment Cards

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Chapter One: The Great Person Cards of ACME

Part 1: Great Person Investment Cards

Introduction by ACME Game Developer Fred Schachter: The February 2021 GMT Update contained a wonderful new development as the game proceeds towards production readiness: the first increment of professional graphics by the talented Mark Mahaffey! These cards fulfilled my and designers Chris & Mark’s hopes by creating a basic card layout including all play test card elements: each card’s classification, title (color coded by type to ease quick identification), description of what it does, and those captivating biblical quotes from Mark McLaughlin’s research, each appropriate to the card, which can lend such a fun element to play. During play testing, we’d occasionally read that card’s quote, in as “basso-profundo” voice possible, before inflicting it, for good or ill, upon the player receiving its effect(s). Ah the mirth or woe that could entail! This InsideGMT article series presents the cards of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East as a kind of Compendium. For more regarding this second of GMTâ’ Ancient Civs series, the first being Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea GMT Games – Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea (ACIS) go to GMT Games – Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME) for a variety of associated material, including Mark Mahaffey’s beautiful rendition of ACME’s mapboard, replays, introductions to the game’s seventeen Civilizations, and other items of readers will hopefully find of interest.
During a turn of ACME, Cards are played in Civilization sequence after disks are deployed on the map, just as with ACIS. Each Civilization can have a maximum of six cards in its hand. These are divided into several different types of cards, their titles color-coded, which is how this article series’ chapters are structured: Great Person, Competition/Trade/Resource cards, various Regular cards (for benefit or to inflict grief, call it “the will of the gods” upon another Civilization: these comprise the bulk of the deck), Religion, Event, and, of course, Deity Cards. ACME, unlike ACIS, does not have Wonders for Civilizations to build. Religion and Deity cards, which add much to this game’s atmosphere, are unique to ACME. With that, let’s commence this review with its Chapter One The “Great Person” Cards of ACME, Part 1: Great Person Investment cards. Each increment of these articles include one or more general Design Notes from Mark & Chris!
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Dominant Species: Marine Now on Tabletop Simulator

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Get Your Game On!

You bought a copy of Dominant Species: Marine, it finally arrived and now you can’t play it with your friends because of COVID. What’s a gamer to do?

Round up one to three friends and head to TableTop Simulator, of course.

Thanks to the efforts of Andrew Clifton, enabled by an assist with graphic files from Simon Dorfman, you can now play DS: Marine on TTS (via Steam). Some of the features include: automated setup, functional Reseed, and variant setups for “The Long and the Short of It” options. In addition, the alternate animal displays are available and the Random Earth set-up is also possible now.

As there are a lot of animals swimming around to keep track of, HappyHexagon on BGG passed on this tip for players new to TTS: If you highlight and left-click to grab several items while keeping the left mouse button down, press a number on your keyboard. It will organize the items into rows equal to the number you pressed. This should make organizing and counting cubes on hexes easier.

If you would like to play Dominant Species: Marine on TableTop Simulator (via Steam), follow the link here.

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Congress of Vienna’s Spring Campaign of 1813 AAR from the Transatlantic Team — Introductory/“Short” Scenario

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Introduction by CoV Assistant Designer & Editor, Fred Schachter: Designer Frank Esparrago, Developer Dick Sauer, and I are grateful for the Transatlantic Team’s Congress of Vienna play test contributions. They’re quite the group of sharp, excellent, veteran grognard play testers! What a grand, fun, game the below-described AAR was for the three turn Spring Campaign of 1813 – Introductory /”Short” Scenario with Wargame Flavor Rules: a true “nail biter” to the end, eh? Thanks guys!

To best appreciate this After-Action-Report, a composite of AAR emails I issued the team after each session of play; a background concerning the Congress of Vienna game’s mechanics is helpful (and if this is the first article you’ve ever read regarding this pending GMT P-500 game; it is strongly urged you consult this repository since this article presumes knowledge of what CoV is about). This can be obtained through material found within GMT’s site for the game: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna .

Hopefully, the below AAR provides readers an idea, not only of Congress of Vienna‘s game system, but how players seek applying those mechanics towards achieving victory in their play of this wonderful game by designer Frank Esparrago. Enjoy!

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In The Shadows: Playing the Occupation

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I. Within the occupied territories, the adequate punishment for offences committed against the German State or the occupying power which endanger their security or a state of readiness is on principle the death penalty.”

the first directive of Hitler’s Nacht und Nebel decree
(Courtesy of Bundesarchiv/Wikimedia, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Germany)

While 100,000 German troops were garrisoning Occupied France during World War Two, most were dealing with the Atlantic Wall, resting combat units, and general occupation duties. So special German units were used for policing actions against the resistance forces while they relied on the French milice irregular units to uncover resistance for Maquis forces.

While designing the actions for the Occupation player, we wanted to show the difference between the two factions. The Germans could use overwhelming force when needed, but they couldn’t be everywhere at once. The French collaborator milice forces were only supplied with light weapons. But as Frenchmen, they had a much easier time mixing with civilians and uncovering resistance forces.

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Congress of Vienna Feb. 2021 Gameboard Update

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The changes made to the Feb. 2021 Congress of Vienna (CoV) Production Gameboard, which replaces the Nov. 2020 edition previously posted on GMT’s site for the game, are based on Vassal play tests conducted by gamers (both veteran grognards and Eurogamers) located in both Europe and the United States. Their diligent contributions while enjoying play of fun and exciting CoV games are most appreciated!

For images of the CoV Vassal gameboard, as well as a wide range of game-related material, including how to play videos and After Action Reports by one of our play test teams (what a game that was!), see GMT’s site: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna .

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Factions in Red Dust Rebellion: Church of the Reclaimer

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We look to Earth and see the climate catastrophe unfolding. The droughts and storms, fires and floods that plague that world are the result of one thing and one thing only.

The base human drive to take more than we need. 

We could have solved this problem centuries ago, but it was too hard. Too hard not to eat our fill and ask for more. Too hard not to burn oil for easy power. Too hard not to package every single confection in its own brightly colored wrapping paper. Too hard not to be self-indulgent, lazy, and weak.

And now the gaze of avarice turns to Mars. A new world to exploit. A new opportunity for more misery, and suffering. A new world to be consumed.

We must fundamentally change our ways as a species. We can no longer afford to live in an adversarial relationship with the world that gave birth to us. We must find a new balance, an equilibrium where we are part of a planet’s ecosystem, not the ravagers of it.

If we are to reclaim our future as a species, we must adapt to the worlds we live on. Not bend them to our will. They are planets, not products. And we are people, not consumers.

If Mars is to become a new home for humanity, then humanity must adapt to Mars. Or we are doomed as a species to repeat the same mistakes, over and over again, until both worlds finally destroy us.

The Ma’Adim, Reclaimer prophet
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Why Cards? Resolving Outcomes for In the Shadows

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Early in the design process for In the Shadows, we (Chris, Joe and I) had used dice to determine success or failure for most of the player actions. This allowed us to tailor probability and test quickly within the time constraints of the Consim Game Jam. Our contest entry offered tight play, albeit with a lot of die rolling. Rolling dice can be satisfying, but if done too much during a player turn it can also become tedious and add to the overall length of a game. However, the fewer rolls a design incorporates in a game, the more weight individual outcomes will carry.

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A Hop, Skip, and an Amphibious Assault — Playing Next War: Taiwan (Part 4)

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Disclaimer: All views expressed in this post are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, or Army Training and Doctrine Command

Ian M. Sullivan is the Special Advisor for Analysis and ISR at the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, US Army Training and Doctrine Command.

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Solitaire Play in Prime Minister: The “Clockwork” System

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When Gene Billingsley first accepted my Prime Minister prototype as a GMT project, he wanted a solitaire system in our development goals. I was intrigued, but wary. For me, player interaction is a key part of Prime Minister. I also knew the game involved some complex decision-making, especially on the Government side. But I thought the idea was worth a try, and I could see some possibilities. As I explained in the first InsideGMT article for Prime Minister, the game already involves lots of numbers used to track political factors, and bots love numbers. After thinking it over, I told Gene that I thought an automated Opposition was achievable, but I wasn’t sure about automating the Government.