Category Archives: Developer Notes

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Fields of Fire Series Development Diary – August 2023

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Draft Vietnam Mission book pages before they go off to GMT for layout (not final images)

Progress on Fields of Fire Deluxe Edition moves ever forwards. With the layout & design folk at GMT freed up from other projects (and everyone back from having fun gaming at WBC), the mission books are full speed ahead. First up will be Vietnam, this is the most complex of the books so we thought it best to get the layout perfected here and then everything else should be easy. New mission layouts, updates to missions, units, package lists, events, almost everything has been rewritten from scratch. This one has the most campaign specific rules too, so we think it’s best to get it online and into the hands of the community quickly who will no doubt let us know if our rules are as clear as mud and need further improving before they go to the printer.

Sample of Upgrade Kit counters that bring both 1st and 2nd edition sets up to 3rd edition “Deluxe”.

We stress-tested the new counter sheets recently and made a few amendments, they’re done now (really this time!), so work can begin on making the Update Kit sheets. Three sheets, 525 counters. 115 of those are extras for people who want to upgrade their 1st edition sets straight to 3rd edition. You’ll find corrected counters, new counters, QoL counters and a bunch of recoloured NKPA units in there. We’ll include some kind of guidance on which counters are new, which are replacements and which 2nd edition owners can ignore. You can find more info on the kit here: Fields of Fire, Deluxe Edition Update Kit.

It’s been fun watching Youtubers get to grips with the draft 3rd edition rules recently, I know it’s tricky without the new Mission Books and counters to support them, but we’ll get those out for you all soon! There will also be a Living Rules update based on the past nine months of internal discussion, plus feedback from playtesters, proofreaders, folk on BGG and Facebook and Youtubers. The master doc has a few edits noted here and there for clarification and some updates to the images to submit. Looks like we’re approaching 500 edits in total (big book, they do add up!).

Talking of stress testing, having Made the Cut last month, a small group of us are playing through the first of the Fields of Fire III campaigns right now. After we’ve made some adjustments, this will be ready for wider playtesting. You’ll find a call for playtesters in the August 2023 newsletter. The Falklands campaign is the least complex of the three in the set, so we’re looking for people who can already play the game, aren’t intimidated by the Normandy campaign, and are looking for something different to try. These will be followed by the Arnhem campaign and Afghanistan as they become ready for testing.

Sample of Falklands Playtest Book & Mission being played (rather poorly) in Vassal (not final art)

Finally, those of you following wargaming news on Twitter or who attended WBC this year may have noted that Ben Hull was there showing off a Tarawa/Saipan set. As expected, his prototype shows off some new innovative ideas for the series and feels quite different from the previous amphibious invasion of Peleliu in FoFII. It’s quite a long way off yet, but we’re quite excited about this one.

So, there’s this to look forward to along with a deluxe upgrade for the Peleliu, Chosin Reservoir and Hue campaigns from Fields of Fire II at some point. There are a few things to work out, but hopefully these upgrades and the Tarawa/Saipan set will be compatible not only with Fields of Fire II, but also Fields of Fire Deluxe so everyone can enjoy them.

Tarawa/Saipan Prototype Module Samples (not final components)

And now back to work. I see “Bunker” needs adding to the index, and a definition of what “Under Fire” actually means is required on the Enemy Activity Hierarchy chart somewhere…

Andrew Stead

Fields of Fire Series Developer

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Borikén Game Three: Post-1529

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Borikén: The Taíno Resistance includes three separate games, each covering a distinct period of the history of the Taíno people of Borikén (modern day Puerto Rico). Each game uses the same map and the same basic system, but with different additional rules and objectives to model the particularities of its era. In my previous articles I played through the first game, covering the fifteen centuries prior to 1492, and the second game, covering the initial arrival of the conquistadors from 1493-1528. I was able to complete my objectives and resist the conquistadors for a time, but unfortunately their numbers and technology are too great, and now in the third game I am tasked with ensuring the survival of the Taíno people by escaping from Borikén. Like the second game, the third game can be played cooperatively, but I will again be playing solitaire as I explain some of the rules and history.

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Fields of Fire Deluxe – Progress Report

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So what’s going on with Fields of Fire Deluxe?

In October 2022, a draft of the new rulebook went online. This is due for another update once all the components are done to add new images along with a handful of new clarifications. The rulebook now contains all the base rules, with full explanations and examples, and should answer any question that comes up during play. However, that’s just the first step towards the new presentation of Fields of Fire.

The second step is the Starter Guide & Field Manual. Fields of Fire can be a tricky game to grasp, especially for players of other tactical wargames. The training course in this guide takes you through the basics of the game one step at a time and teaches you how to follow the sequence of play. The book also provides a series of examples and guidance for the various situations that the campaigns present; how to plan for an air assault, what to think about when setting up a defensive mission, a demonstration of between-mission reconstitution and replacements and so on. The main text is complete and it’s currently going through a series of checks, edits and design discussions to make sure it’s as user-friendly as possible.

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An Interesting Thing Happened on the Way to Jask

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Many strange situations crop up when playtesting even when that game is the sixth (or seventh? – TBD) game in the series. In this case, the playtesters ended up in a situation that required some working through the nuances of the rules. It didn’t break anything or require adding new rules, but it presented an interesting Air Strike Interception situation that I thought would be enlightening to share.

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Solo Playthrough of Borikén Game Two: 1493-1528

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Borikén: The Taíno Resistance includes three separate games, each covering a distinct period of the history of the Taíno people of Borikén (modern day Puerto Rico). Each game uses the same map and the same basic system, but with different additional rules and objectives to model the particularities of its era. In my previous article I played through the first game, covering the fifteen centuries prior to 1492, and was able to successfully establish myself on the island of Borikén as High Chief on the Taíno. Now, in the second game, the conquistadors have arrived, and I must attempt to resist their incursions onto the island while also completing certain historical objectives. This game can be played cooperatively with multiple players, but I will be playing solo, without the help of anyone else!

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Solo Playthrough of Borikén Game One: Pre-1493

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Borikén: The Taíno Resistance includes three separate games, each covering a distinct period of the history of the Taíno people of Borikén (modern day Puerto Rico). Each game uses the same map and the same basic system, but with different additional rules and objectives to model the particularities of its era. The first game, taking place in the centuries prior to the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in 1493, is competitive, with players aiming to establish their own Taíno faction on the island, competing against each other and the rival Caribe people, with the dominant player at the end of the game becoming Agüeybaná I, High Chief on the Taíno, in the second game. The second and third games then chart the players’ cooperative struggle against the conquistadors from 1493 to 1528, and finally their desperate attempts to escape and survive after 1529. All three games can also be played solitaire, with the first (competitive) game coming with additional rules and objectives for solo play. In this series of articles I will play through all three games, providing an introduction to the rules and themes as I go (all art featured in these articles is prototype material that will be replaced before publication). 

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Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME) Is Electric… on Vassal That Is!

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Designers Christopher Vorder Brugge, Mark McLaughlin, and I would like to express our gratitude for the support, patronage, and encouragement which so many of the GMT Community provided over the lengthy, but always enjoyable, journey of ACME from concept to publication.  You have our thanks.

We would also like to express our particular gratitude to Joel Toppen, a prolific, talented, and creative designer who so graciously and expertly created a VASSAL module for ACME. This module is available at VASSALEngine.org: https://vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Ancient_Civilizations_of_the_Middle_East

ACME Map on VASSAL
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Inside GMT One: How I Designed a Solo Bot for Twilight Struggle: Red Sea

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Twilight Struggle has long been the game that I most wanted to find a satisfying way to play solo. The game rewards knowing your hand intimately, and guessing what’s in your opponent’s hand as well. Because the game is so tactical in determining the order and timing of card play, it is a difficult game to play solo. So when Jason Matthews asked me if I would help design the Solo Opponent for Twilight Struggle: Red Sea I jumped at the opportunity to solve these really hard problems.

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Designing the Congress of Vienna Solitaire Game, Part 1of 2: Diplomacy and The French Bot

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Introduction #1 from Congress of Vienna Assistant Designer & Editor Fred Schachter: I’ve had the fun and pleasure of helping Designer Frank Esparrago on his journey, now our journey, to bringing his labor of love CoV game vision from dream into reality.

This GMT P-500 game is now undergoing a wonderful transformation from playtest into production graphics thanks to the talents of Terry Leeds.  For the latest status of Terry’s efforts and a host of Congress of Vienna game material see: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna .

But for all the content readers will find within GMT’s site for the game; there’ll be a dearth of current material relevant to Congress of Vienna’s Solitaire Version and Bots.  Those rules and Bots are to the credit of CoV Team members: initially Jim Gutt and David Illanes and more recently David Schoellhamer, who is architect of those Bots’ latest rendition.  Well done guys!

With that, I’ll turn further introductory honors to Frank…

Introduction #2 From Congress of Vienna designer Frank Esparrago: Previous InsideGMT articles explain how the CoV Team agreed to offer a version for solitaire play. However, Developer Dick Sauer and I did not have sufficient experience to address this creative task fully and properly. Our first approach was to consider emulating the Churchill game’s Bots. Alas, they were too simplistic for a CoV solitaire game which needed to deliver the kind of interesting, uncertain, fun to play gaming elements we sought and, above all, to put pressure on a human player and make attaining victory an entertaining challenge.

Consequently, we increased our development team with new members having experience in designing a solitaire game. As Fred mentioned, these CoV solo game developers were Jim Gutt and David Illanes.  They created the game’s inaugural French Bot. Their tenacity, highly critical minds, detailed knowledge of the Congress of Vienna  game system, as well as game design orthodoxy in general; allowed them to build a series of summary tables (in Excel or Word). This enabled me to convert those guidelines into suitable Flowcharts or rules which can be easily understood by future players.

In Spain, both myself and Ignacio Badal commenced efforts to create a 2-player CoV version. This would have similar concepts to what Jim and his United States team derived. We had to change a few game mechanics of this highly interactive multiplayer game to make it into a viable 2-player contest!

Once those design concepts were fixed; we realized if we created a good 2-player Congress of Vienna game; designing a derivative solo game could be easier than by advancing directly from 4-players to just a single “human” player! That worked out to be a good intermediary step.  Serendipity!

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Resolving Combat in Bear Trap’s Solitaire System

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When I began developing Bear Trap, it was already a tight and competitive two-player game, much like its spiritual ancestor Sekigahara. However, the designer P.R. Daniels had ambitions to go beyond this and include a solitaire mode that would allow a single player to enjoy the game by themself. Bear Trap is a block game with a lot of hidden information, which makes designing a solitaire mode quite challenging, but Paul has come up with some clever systems to facilitate this. In this article, I want to look closely at just one aspect of Bear Trap’s solitaire mode: how combat is resolved, which highlights several of the core design principles that underlie it. For an introduction to the combat system in Bear Trap, you can read Paul’s earlier InsideGMT article here.