Category Archives: Development Updates

Posted on

Order & Opportunity: November 2024 Development Update

by

It’s been a very exciting few weeks for the development of Order & Opportunity.

Over here in Europe, the Essen Spiel Fair 2024 took place in early October. With a little bit of help from a friend, the Estonian designer and publisher Aigar Alaveer, I was able to get some table space and demo Order & Opportunity at the fair this year. It was great to see many gamers stop by ranging from those who said they had already backed the game as well as curious folks who seemed not to have played a historical game in their lives.

Aigar accommodated me at one corner of his booth space, for which I am extremely thankful. Be sure to check out Aigar’s games at https://www.2d6.ee/. Among others, I got the game Arabella published by Aigar and 2d6, billed as an “18xx roll and write” set in Estonia, which sounds absolutely fascinating.

Posted on

Carmen Triumphale: To The Ancient World

by

Along with my friends, Johan and Chris, I have been playing the scenarios in The Ancient World: Rise of the Roman Republic and The Ancient World: Carthage pretty much every Wednesday night since December 2023. At first, we just wanted to take the system for a spin as Johan spoke highly of it, but it has since turned into a grand adventure.

Our first play of the 1st Punic War scenario from Carthage ended with a Carthaginian victory. We had so much fun with that play, we immediately reset and went back to it again. This time the Romans prevailed. It was also around this time that, since we had been asking so many questions of the developer, Alan Ray, we formally signed on to the playtest team.

Since that time, we’ve played every scenario in both Rise of the Roman Republic and Carthage (except the Mercenary War – that’s coming) at least once and a few of them twice. It still hasn’t gotten old. Playtesting can sometimes be work; this doesn’t feel like it.

What is it that’s so engaging about this system that we keep returning to it?

Posted on

Herding Elephants: A Development Update on Hannibal’s Revenge

by

In April I was able to take my playtest kit for Hannibal’s Revenge to the GMT Weekend at the Warehouse and play with several of the GMT Team Members in attendance, so that we could plan the next steps for development of the game. Needless to say, we had a great time playing the game and I was able to complete two playtests while I was there, in addition to several partial sessions.

One of the main goals in this test was to try out the new map from Mark Mahaffey and look for any issues with the pieces, sizes of the boxes, and coloration of the map to make sure that it was as usable as possible. The map passed with flying colors.

A playtest session in progress with Kai Jensen. None of these components should be considered final, but they sure did look nice!
Posted on

Three Days of Gettysburg Deluxe Edition – Designer Update

by

Three Days of Gettysburg Deluxe Edition’s design is picking up pace and is now moving through both alpha and beta testing of the current scenarios.

These include the traditional first-day battle. However, multiple scenarios have different starting times for the whole July 1st fight. The first scenario begins at 7 AM and is designed with the optional Skirmisher rules to cover the small unit fighting and maneuvering before the Union infantry arrive. While the original 3DoG first-day scenario was fun and exciting with a slow-moving Southern infantry division facing a nimble but smaller Union cavalry force, it had little to do with the actual history of the morning fight before Reynold’s Union infantry arrived. The typical competitive play focused on the threat of cavalry charges against the flanks of the Rebel force and had no resemblance to the fighting early on that July day.

Posted on

A “Congress of Vienna” GMT Production Process Status Report

by

Introduction by Fred Schachter – Congress of Vienna (CoV), Assistant Designer & Editor: What a wonderful and pleasurable journey it’s been in this “labor of love” regarding Designer Frank Esparrago’s Congress of Vienna game. Previous InsideGMT articles were devoted to various aspects of the game (see: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna); but with this piece Frank focuses on the game’s production status as of January 2024 in elaboration of what was shared by the 1/18/24 GMT January Monthly Update: January 18, 2024 Update from GMT: New P500s, Art Samples, Production Update, a Free Download, and More!! (mailchi.mp). So, take it away Frank!

Posted on

Fields of Fire Deluxe – Heartbreak Ridge Mission Book

by

The new Mission Book for the Heartbreak Ridge campaign from the upcoming Fields of Fire Deluxe is now free to download from the Fields of Fire Deluxe P500 page at GMT Games for anyone with the original game to play with. [Link]

About The Campaign

Heartbreak Ridge was originally released as a free extra for Fields of Fire around 2010, and then later included in FoF 2nd edition, somewhat hidden at the back of the main Korean War campaign (Naktong River).

Personally, I think it’s one of the most fun campaigns in the series, and after we sent a bunch of playtesters up the ridge it became apparent that it wasn’t just me. The exciting AARs of the Manchus battling up the hill through NKPA trenches, of an enemy who refuse to give up, and desperate last stands at the mission objectives amidst mounting casualties convinced us that more people need to know about this “forgotten” campaign.

We hope that this newly produced mission book, in the new style we’re using for this edition, along with the new components included with Fields of Fire Deluxe (and the Update Kit), encourages players to give it a go. For anyone who has just completed Normandy and are looking for where to go next, I can definitely recommend this one.

Posted on

Fields of Fire Deluxe – Vietnam Campaign Mission Book

by

The new Vietnam Campaign Mission book from the upcoming Fields of Fire Deluxe is now free to download from the Fields of Fire Deluxe P500 page at GMT Games for anyone with the original game to play with.

About The Campaign

Most Fields of Fire campaigns take place over a series of missions that are set days or, at most, a couple of weeks apart. They depict your company as it fights its way through one intense period of action.

However, the nine-mission Vietnam campaign presented in FoF Volume I, sees you in command of a 9th Infantry rifle company for just over 2 years of action. During this time, instead of the continuous promotion of your surviving units and gradual progress towards a completely veteran company as you may be used to in previous campaigns, your company will likely degrade over time. Not just through casualties, but you’ll also see your best units rotated out of the battalion and sent home and will experience a restructuring of the regiment half-way through the campaign that leaves you with yet more green units to lead into battle.

All the while the missions themselves ramp up the intensity as you are sent into ambushes, or try to lead single platoons on patrols through VC strongholds. Even the safety of the Staging Area is not guaranteed in this campaign. Missions see you dropped by helicopter into the middle of the jungle or trying to defend far flung outposts with no place to fall back to.

Posted on

Illusions of Glory: Playtesting the Next Edition

by

The next generation of rules, mapboard, player aid cards, and counters for Illusions of Glory are open for playtesting.  Links to a Vassal playtest module and next generation rules (labeled “Summer 2022”) are located on the Illusions of Glory webpage.  Please send your critiques to me at Ohiogrognard on BoardGameGeek.

The rules have been clarified with respect to: (1) allocation of unit losses, (2) out of supply effects, (3) building trenches, and (4) retreats after combat,

Corps identification numbers on Large Counter Units have been changed from Roman to Arabic numerals to facilitate recognition and mapboard placement:

Posted on

Downfall: Conquest of the Third Reich Preview 4 — Action Rounds Continue

by

In this article in our series previewing Downfall, we continue our typical game to show a range of orders and activities that might occur, such as strategic warfare, event triggers, intra-Axis conflict, weather and partisan warfare.

At the end of Preview 3, the Western Faction’s Initiative Marker occupied the lowest-numbered space on the Initiative Track so they will conduct the next Action Round.

Posted on

WELCOME TO PLUM ISLAND (or … A Brief Tour of a Soon-To-Be Hellscape)!

by

Greetings again, ladies and gentlemen, and boys and girls of all ages! After having been flooded by hundreds of thousands of emails and posts requesting more information about this game (well, that’s a rough estimate … maybe it was just Harvey from East Northport who wrote me, but I can’t remember just now), I had to succumb and return from my self-imposed exile and provide another eye-opening and inspiring article to this blog. 

As you may or may not have seen, the big breaking news is that the game board for The Plum Island Horror has been completed. I can attest to its historical accuracy, and I commend Terry Leeds and the team for producing such a wonderfully detailed and realistic depiction of the island just moments before the horrific events on October 24th of a year that we are unable to reveal for legal reasons.