As we are getting near the release date of the game, we are now going to present some of the Event Cards that you will play with in Pendragon – The Fall of Roman Britain. For our first installment of this second series of Chronicles, we are going to focus on a very visible, and sometimes controversial, aspect of the game: the elements it borrows from the Arthurian Legend.
The Flying Colors series of tactical naval games, designed by Mike Nagel, has proven to be not only popular, but very flexible in simulating a variety of naval actions from the age of sail. Followers of the series have seen fleet actions in the Atlantic and Mediterranean between the great European fleets of Great Britain, France and Spain, fought battles off the coast of India, in the Great Lakes of North America, and even in the Baltic and Black Seas. Volume IV: Under the Southern Cross (USC) promises an entirely new set of challenges as the scene of action shifts to the rocky Pacific coast and the expansive river systems of South America.
Here’s a look at the scenarios in Silver Bayonet, and some of the history behind them.
There are two kinds of scenarios in the game: Standard and Campaign. The Standard scenarios are smaller and, for the most part, cover some portion of the action which occurred during the campaign. The Campaign scenarios are larger and more involved, although they are also divided into two categories. There are three smaller campaign scenarios, each of which deals with a particular brigade’s operations during the campaign, and there are two Grand Campaign scenarios covering the entire campaign.
Readers interested in learning more detail about the play of 7YW:FG should read the our earlier article, The 7 Years War: Frederick’s Gamble – Playtest Report.
Designer Greg Ticer’s hand-drawn 7YW:FG playtest map.
Theaters of Operation and General Introductory Overview
The fighting depicted in The Seven Years War: Frederick’s Gamble game (7YW: FG) can in historical terms be divided into distinct theaters of operation. The naval conflict, abstracted in the game, was chiefly between the British and the French, as were the conflicts in India, North America, the Caribbean and elsewhere which, when including the broader European stage, result in many deeming this conflict “The First World War”.
MINI-MAP NORTH AMERICA: On the North American frontier, the British suffered early defeats because their army was not effectively trained nor equipped for wilderness fighting. By 1758 these deficits had been remedied and the tide turned in favor of the British. During 1759, known to history as the “Anno Mirabilis” (Year of Miracles), the British launched a three-pronged offensive against the last French controlled territory and, by end of that year, achieved their aim of destroying France’s North American colonial presence. In 7YW:FG terms, that colonial theater of operations would be considered “Dominated” and the British enabled to annually transfer troops, e.g. strength points (SP’s), out of North America.
“It is difficult to think of a great passage of arms in which one critical day of battle was so strangely – and so soon – underscored by another” – David Ascoli, author of A Day of Battle
On the evening of Tuesday, August 16th 1870, the battlefield of Mars-la-Tour looked much like countless other battlefields of history. The devastation spread from the Yron River valley in the west almost to Gravelotte on the eastern end of the field. Physical destruction and human sorrow was prevalent and overwhelming throughout the length and breadth of this deadly ground. After the exceptionally brutal “day of battle”, about 33,000 casualties had been inflicted on the two armies – roughly equally split – and both forces were spent. Superficially, the battle was a draw when scoring by a measure of raw casualties or relative field position of the combatants. But in actuality, this was an astounding Prussian victory and a near-miraculous outcome considering the odds against them at the start of the day. The Prussian 2nd Army of Prince Frederick Charles had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and Marshal Bazaine’s French Army of the Rhine had no one to blame but themselves.
German period map showing troops positions of all three battles around Metz – August 14th (Borny-Colombey), August 16th (Mars-la-Tour) and August 18th (Gravelotte-St.Privat)
“The tragedy is that, obsessed with avoiding defeat, he was blind to a beckoning victory.” – David Ascoli, author of A Day of Battle, referring to French Marshal Francois Bazaine
The Battle of Mars-la-Tour was fought on August 16th, 1870 and is considered to be one of the more remarkable battles of military history. Not only were the circumstances under which it was fought most singular, but its impact on the future of Europe was monumental. The importance of the engagement on that “day of battle” alone makes it ripe for study in the wargaming community, having had such a significant impact on the rise of the German Empire and the fall of Napoleon III’s Second French Empire. Yet, the very uniqueness and oddity of that “murderous day” make it almost impossible to simulate accurately on the game board. Such was the challenge that Fred Manzo and I decided to take on with the design of the Mars-La-Tour scenario for At Any Cost: Metz 1870. So how does At Any Cost attempt to accurately simulate such an odd and convoluted battle? Well, let me tell you ……
The French army in the summer of 1870 was already in full retreat after its first series of engagements. A significant portion of the French Army of the Rhine was defeated at the Battle of Spicheren by parts of the Prussian First and Second Armies and being pursued, albeit loosely, to the fortress town of Metz. Without the possibility of any support, the French army huddled around the fort as it decided its next course of action. Emperor Napoleon III, pressured to return to Paris in order to deal with various defeatist political issues, turned over command of the Army of the Rhine to Marshal Achilles Bazaine. Not his first choice, Bazaine nonetheless reluctantly took the reins from Napoleon and received his final, somewhat contradictory, instructions – protect the army under all circumstances and get it to Verdun and Chalons to rejoin the Emperor to form a new army.
These multiple and divergent goals are reflected in the game’s Victory Track mechanic. The French player must not only try to open his retreat route to Verdun by capturing key towns and map edge hexes, but he must do so without losing too many units or – even worse – being cut off from Metz. The Prussians don’t need to worry about casualties at all and simply strive to take important towns on the map that threaten the French army’s position and thwart its mission.
When I set out to design Navajo Wars, I had a couple goals in mind. First, I wanted to tell the story of the Diné (“the people”) in a way that was faithful to the historical record, honorable, and from the perspective of the Diné. When I was finishing up Navajo Wars, I knew already that I wanted to design a follow-on game which told the story of a different people. My research into the Navajo had led me to read quite a bit about the Comanche, one of the implacable enemies of the Navajo. And so it was that before Navajo Wars had even hit the shelves, the work on Comanchería had already begun.
In many ways the Comanche game has proven far more difficult to design than Navajo Wars was. There are a number of reasons for this: First, I don’t know any Comanche personally. Never doubt the tremendous value of person-to-person contact when researching a people! With Navajo Wars, I had only to pick up the phone and talk to one of several friends who were fluent in the language and culture of the Diné. Not so with the Comanche! The second challenge has been that the Comanche are so very different from the Navajo. Their culture, their religion and taboos, their style of warfare all differ considerably from the Navajo!
August 16th marks the anniversary of the Battle of Mars-la-Tour and August 18th the anniversary of the Battle of Gravelotte-St. Privat, both fought in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. These two battles were titanic struggles, yielding approximately 60,000 casualties in total. Both battles were tremendously important military events when placed into proper historical perspective. In fact, Bismarck himself stated that the Battle of Mars-la-Tour – “beyond argument” – decided not only the Franco-Prussian War, but the future of Europe as well. The subsequent Battle of Gravelotte-St. Privat, two days later, sealed that fate by locking the French Army of the Rhine into its tomb at the Metz fortress. These battles simultaneously killed an aging French Empire and gave birth to a new German Reich.
Two such important battles fought in a war that, despite its undeniable influence on European and world history, seems to garner little attention or enthusiasm in the wargaming community. Aside from the obvious historical importance of the conflict, most of the battles were hard-fought, brutal affairs with the Prussians suffering the majority of the losses. Yet most gamers hold to the prevalent misconception that all Franco-Prussian War games are “slam dunks” for the Prussians. At the grand-strategic level, this may be true. The Prussian Army at this time was an efficient war machine that was well-prepped, well-led and confident after mauling the Austrians in 1866. Helmuth von Moltke, Chief of the Prussian General Staff, was a master strategist and well-served by the talented General Staff. Moltke grabbed the initiative and outmaneuvered a lethargic and ill-prepared French Emperor Napoleon III and his “laissez-faire” generals. The French army in 1870 lived in the shadow of its former glory and its elite reputation was still alive around the world (particularly in the U.S.). Realistically, however, the French aura of military power and superior generalship was a mere facade. So indeed, on the grand-strategic tier alone, the Franco-Prussian War was probably a mismatch. Yet, most wargames that have been published about this war have covered it exactly at that level – a scale at which the game is unavoidably unbalanced in favor of the Prussians and their German allies.
When I met Kurt Keckley at a GMT Weekend at the Warehouse in 2013, he wanted to show me a WWI block game. Now the success of games from Ted Raicer and Mike Resch has shown me that I should never say “no” out of hand to a WWI title, but I have to admit, I had my doubts. That is, until Kurt drove 90 miles to my house one night and walked me through how to play. I was blown away (although he would tell you that I hid it well! 🙂 ) Here was a strategic West Front WWI game with really fun fog of war, production choices, cool mechanics for air and artillery development, and an elegant and well-thought out flow of play. I was “in,” so Fields of Despair came to the P500 list earlier this year.
Kurt is a teacher by profession, and his instructional and organizational skills shine through in his game design. I think you’ll see from his article, below, that Kurt really pays attention to detail, and that’s great news for all of us who love games, because Fields of Despair is a gem! I hope you guys enjoy Kurt’s first InsideGMT article, and look forward to future installments. – Gene
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Today, August 5th, marks the 100th anniversary of the German attack into Belgium. What better day to give you a little peak at where we are with development as it relates to the opening moves of the war?
When playing the 1914 Mobile War or Grand Campaign of Fields of Despair, your first order of business is to plan the attack into Belgium. In your way is the fortress city of Liege just as it was 100 years ago. Below is a photo of the scenario set-up and my awesome hand-drawn arrows to illustrate the German war plans.
Mark McLaughlin is as interesting a guy as you’re going to find at a game convention. When I think of Mark, I think “learning and laughter,” as I always learn something when I talk with him, and there’s always a lot of laughter involved! I’ve really enjoyed the few occasions (Mark is East Coast, I’m West Coast, so we don’t see each other very often) we’ve had a chance to sit down and talk about history, games, and even science fiction! Mark is one of those cool guys who takes great care and pride in his work, but doesn’t let his many accomplishments inflate his ego. He’s a down-to-earth great guy who is a terrific fit with our teams here at GMT. He and Fred Schachter, his developer, are a joy to work with, and I look forward to you guys getting to know them both in this blog. In terms of GMT game credits, Mark is the designer of The Napoleonic Wars, Wellington, Kutozov, Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, and an as-yet-unannounced series coming to P500 soon. Mark is a professional journalist and author, who publishes his own blog at http://markgmclaughlin.blogspot.com/. Check it out! – Gene
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August 5 is the 150th anniversary of the biggest naval battle of the Civil War: Admiral David Glasgow Farragut’s massive assault into Mobile Bay. In GMT’s strategic naval game on the Civil War, players can recreate that epic fight – in which this time, thanks to cards and dice, going “full speed ahead” may not be the best tactic.
Recreating the Historical Battle….in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas
-I. The Union Fleet
On August 5, 1864 Admiral David Glasgow Farragut led 18 warships into one of the most heavily defended ports in the Confederacy: Mobile Bay. His four armored monitors and 14 screw sloops and gunboats mounted nearly 180 guns. Among the larger ships were the “unsinkable” USS Brooklyn and the mighty USS Hartford – from which Farragut flew his flag.
