Designer Blogs

Congress of Vienna November 2021 Development Update: Gameboard Narrative

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During the last six months we continued adjusting Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s components to try to make them as functional as possible. This effort included minor corrections to the rules: for example, when a rule was moved from being an optional rule to becoming a standard one or vice versa. This always seems a problem […]

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Designer Blogs, Development Updates

Resolving Combat in Bear Trap

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In this InsideGMT article, I’ll walk you through a simple example of combat in Bear Trap. This should give you the flavor of the combat system in Bear Trap – as well as how it’s similar to, yet also quite different from, combat in Sekigahara. Because of the timescale over which Bear Trap is played,

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Designer Blogs

The Sequence of Play in Baltic Empires

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A game of Baltic Empires lasts up to 8, 12, or 16 Rounds, chosen before starting the game, but can also end sooner if a player wins a sudden death victory (as described in the previous article). This article will describe what happens during a Round, and how players can manipulate the turn order in

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Designer Blogs

A Congress of Vienna Option: Adding Tactical Flavor to Battles (A Tactical Battle Matrix) Part 1 of 2

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Introduction by Congress of Vienna Designer – Frank Esparrago: Although Congress of Vienna (CoV) is a game with an enormously robust selection of political and diplomatic decisions and effects with the game’s military aspects omnipresent; you’d think that would be enough. Ha! Some play testers wanted an option to study what could happen if they

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Designer Blogs

Almoravid Vassal Module in Action

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Here is a peek into the cutting-edge Vassal module engineered by the great Brian Reynolds for Levy & Campaign Series Volume II, Almoravid, from a solo game that Volko played to test out module operation. Have a look!

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Designer Blogs, Examples of Play

Victory Conditions in Baltic Empires

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How they work and the history behind them. The victory conditions in Baltic Empires have been constructed to give players multiple paths to victory and to allow for sudden death victories, as it is my experience that this keeps players on their toes and gives a far more exciting game with more intense diplomatic interaction

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Designer Blogs

When Did WWII Start? Germans in The Bell of Treason

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Let’s begin with a school question: when did WWII start? The generally acknowledged answer is September 1, 1939. But if we define war as a state of actual armed hostilities, regardless of a formal declaration of war, we may find that the answer is not so simple. During the Munich Crisis of 1938 (and here

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Designer Blogs

The Factions of Plum Island (or … What Futility Personified Looks Like)

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As I’ve explained to you all numerous times before (ad nauseum, to be honest), each player involved in The Plum Island Horror will be controlling one of the six available factions. These factions represent groups of people who are associated with one another for one reason or another … work, recreation, favorite bourbons, culinary tastes,

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Designer Blogs

Cross Bronx Expressway: Positioning Players in the Bronx

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Asymmetric game design often lives and dies on the way players relate to their positions, frequently expressed through factions. In historical simulations, the faction design provides a framework through which players can execute their strategies. When done well the strategic choices presented to them create a decision space which mirrors the history, or at least

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Designer Blogs

The British Way: Cyprus

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In this article, we will conclude our coverage of the games in The British Way by overviewing the British emergency in Cyprus from 1955 to 1959. Cyprus is probably the easiest game in the pack to learn for those new to the COIN series, but will offer a drastically different experience for COIN veterans due

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Designer Blogs
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