It’s been awhile since the last InsideGMT article concerning The Seven Years War: Frederick’s Gamble, henceforth referred to as 7YW:FG. This piece is an update of the game’s development progress as well as solicitation of InsideGMT readers of whether the game is on the right track in considering certain content.
Developing the second volume of Wing Leader was supposed to be so simple. I would assemble some new aircraft data cards, throw together some scenarios, kick it out the door, then. . . profit!
It all went wrong when people started to LIKE the first volume, Wing Leader: Victories. The problem when people like your game is that they play it. They play it a lot. They push the system and ask awkward questions. (What bastards!) Next thing you know, you’re responding to the feedback, tweaking rules, nerfing some values while buffing others. The game evolves!
On Wednesday, Rob Beggs, one of the play testers for Last Hundred Yards (LHY), and I had the opportunity to play Mission #2: Flushing Quail. In this mission, the Americans are charged with driving a German outpost from a hill. This outpost consists of (2) Infantry squads broken down into (4) sections and a Forward Observer (FO) for a 80mm mortar section that has been harassing the American Battalion HQ. The American force consisted of a two Infantry platoons led by Lts. Cherry and Murphy and a MG section.
The following is Rob’s account of the action:
I think that I’ve mentioned this before, but I was a little surprised by just how quickly Next War: Poland (NWP) vaulted up the P500 ladder. I had a rough Operational Map and a Strategic Display, and I had made a start on the Game Specific Rules. Based on the performance of the prior games in the Next War Series, GMT put the game on the list while I was still in the middle of working on Silver Bayonet. Now that the latter game is off to the printer, I’ve had some time to focus on NWP, and I thought I’d give a quick update on where we’re at.
Here is a long overdue update for Silver Bayonet. As you are all, no doubt, well aware, we didn’t hit our desired date for Oct-Nov last year. I decided to push production out because, quite simply, the game wasn’t ready yet.
The team has been working hard to test all of the scenarios to ensure that all of the rules changes have been thoroughly vetted. In the case of the Standard Game scenarios, this is a relatively quick process as they are range anywhere from half a turn to eight turns long using only a portion of the map, and they are easily playable in an evening. In the case of the Campaign Game scenarios, this is proving a little more involved as they range from eight to 39 turns using larger areas or the entire map, and they are far more involved in terms of additional rules such as Patrols, Hidden Movement, Helicopters, etc. We are working hard to make sure that this game exceeds expectations in all categories.
In Gene’s last article, he said:
“We’re now using Charlie’s most recent map version to create a Vassal Module so we can test the scenarios on the new map. We’ll tell you more about that process, as well as about a couple of new scenarios we’re adding, in our next InsideGMT post about the project.”
The most recent article discussed the scenarios, so now, not only am I going to give you an update on the status of the game, but I’ll also describe the changes to the game which we’re making to enhance gameplay, i.e., sharpening the bayonet.
When I decided to do a 25th Anniversary Edition of Silver Bayonet, I knew that I had to commit to doing a MAJOR revision of the game map. There are artistic reasons to want a new map because the maps that Mark and Charlie are capable of creating today dwarf what we were able to create in the pre-digital-game-map days of 1990. But as a designer, the biggest reason I wanted a new map is because I was a little embarrassed by that original Silver Bayonet map. I knew that the original map was my “best attempt,” based on very limited map resources back then, but frankly, it wasn’t a very good representation of the operational area southwest of Pleiku in the Republic of Vietnam. I knew that we could now get access at least to 1:250,000 Topo maps of the region (most were still Classified back in 1990), which should get us a much better base game map than the one that was in the original game.
At left is the 1990 map. To the right is a cobbled-together shrunk-down version of nine 1:50,000 base maps I was using to test size and scale. (I ended up using only those top six; that’s the Chu Pong Massif – which defines the bottom left of our game map – at the bottom of the middle map on the left.)
Coming Soon!
No Retreat! The Italian Front will be released soon! I have been very busy with the details of the design work and haven’t been able to spend much time online telling you all about its peculiarities and qualities. So please, let me correct this lapse today.
Why This Game?
This is the fourth game in my “No Retreat!” series, which premiered with No Retreat: The Russian Front, my favorite WWII topic. This was followed by the North African Front (1940-43) game. The third was about the French Front (1940), published by Victory Point Games, and currently on GMT’s P500 list as No Retreat: The French and Polish Fronts, with the Polish campaign added in for this version. My initial goal was to make just the first NR! game, but things got out of hand and I was somehow goaded into adding more and more titles to the list. My goal right now is to make five games total, the final one covering the West Front (1943-45). This series is a tribute to the old Avalon Hill “Classics”: NR1 = Russian Campaign, NR2 = Afrika Korps, NR3 = France 40, NR4 = Anzio, NR5 = D-Day. We now are at number four: The Italian Campaign.
Genesis Developer Update – April 2015
As we enter the month of April, the creation of the game’s components is in the final stretch. The map, counters, Event Cards, and Kingdom Display/Victory Point Cards are complete. The rules and the Player Aid cards have moved through the layout and internal edit process, are off to the game’s proofreader and group of the play testers for a final edit. The final component – the Playbook – is in the layout and internal edit process and will be sent to the proofreaders and play testers later this month for a final edit. The Playbook features an extensive Example of Play of a complete game turn of the three person version of one of the shorter scenarios, covering the middle part of the historical period represented in the game.
The game includes eight scenarios:
Now for the eye candy:
The Map
The map shows Anatolia (modern Turkey), the Levant (Middle East/Egypt) and Mesopotamia as they possibly appeared in The Late Bronze Age, approximately 1700 to 1200 BC.
We’ve been listening to those of you who’ve been telling us that you want and need to see more specific information about the content of the games on our P500 Reprint list. What has changed? Why is it better? Can I get an upgrade kit? And so on…. So this year we’re making a concerted effort over time to give you guys lots more info about the reprints so that you can make more informed decisions about your purchases. We intend to both update information or links on each game’s P500 page as well as give you more detailed information here in InsideGMT. Your feedback to our recent article on Mark Simonitch’s Normandy ’44 has been terrific, and we’ve had quite a number of new orders placed already, so we’re hopeful that we’re on the right track here and that you guys find this information helpful.
In this article, designer Kevin McPartland is giving you a detailed look into the “new cards and counters” aspect of the 2nd Edition of Conquest of Paradise. We’ve already told you guys that it’ll include a mounted map, but we realized there just wasn’t a lot ELSE out there about the new edition. We hope Kevin’s article will help to fill that void. Enjoy! – Gene
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Note that all card and counter art below is playtest art.
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Aloha! The upgraded 2nd Edition of Conquest of Paradise, now on GMT’s P-500 list, will have many improvements from the first edition, most notably including a mounted map. Of the many improvements, this article will focus on just one: the Random Event cards.
These cards were included in C3i #22, as a set of three cardstock inserts with nine event cards on each sheet, for a total of 27 Random Events. The cards had to be carefully cut out, and placed in card sleeves (unless you were really carful cutting them out). In the new edition of Conquest of Paradise, these cards will be included in the game (as an optional Advanced rule) and printed as regular playing cards, with the full GMT-quality treatment!
When we first published the Random Events for CoP in C3i, we thought we’d use a chit pull for the events; this later changed to cards. What’s even better? Cards and chits, like the reprint will have! There will be 14 new markers in the game, dedicated to specific Random Event cards. For the C3i cards, we had to use markers that were already in the game, like placing an Improved Agriculture marker at a 45° angle to mark Invasive Weeds. Now we will have a dedicated marker for Invasive Weeds!
