Today, we have a surprise for you players of The Last Hundred Yards! Designer Mike Denson has graciously created a new FREE downloadable scenario for the game! Feel free to check it out here in InsideGMT. When you’re ready to download and print the PDF and TIF files, just click the links at the bottom of the article. We hope you enjoy this new scenario for The Last Hundred Yards. Thanks Mike!
Below is another fantastic article from The Boardgames Chronicle, this time discussing the 1917 Scenario variant for Paths of Glory. You can check out his previous series discussing the major and minor similarities/differences between Commands & Colors: Ancients and Commands & Colors: Medieval here. Enjoy! -Rachel
The Alien Technology deck is a fun feature of the Close Encounters expansion that rewards you for colonizing deep space planets by giving you access to unique technological upgrades. You could end up with Cryogenic Stasis Pods that reduce the maintenance costs of your boarding ships and troop transports, or a Microwarp Drive that increases the attack strength of your BC’s. The cards are highly thematic, and work alongside the Empire Advantage deck to diversify each empire.
Black and white picture. Murky and faded. In the background, a Pz VI Tiger tips precariously backwards into a flooded ditch. Its 88m canon points ineffectively skyward while troops of a Panzer grenadier unit either wade in water with chunks of floating ice or simply mill about, stalled, exposed, some at rest. Gaunt faces stare from beneath hoods into the camera as a tanker, directly in the foreground, turns away in the instant a fellow crewman takes the photo of their sinking leviathan during Operation Spring Awakening.
When Jim Krohn and his team included Unique Ships in the Space Empires: Close Encounters expansion, they opened the door to a cardboard shipwright’s dream workshop. You can build these unique ships pretty much any way you want within certain boundaries. There are a ton of possible configurations to keep you busy: you can build a C5-3 x 3 ship with a shield projector and heavy warheads, and you will do so because it’s just plain cool. That is, if you aren’t bothered by the 26 CP price tag and the fact that you need Ship Tech 7 in order to build it.
One of the (many!) best parts of the Space Empires: Close Encounters (CE) expansion was the addition of the empire advantages deck. If you are not familiar with the expansion, this deck gives players variable starting powers by having them play unique alien races—an aspect of modern sci-fi board games that seems to be almost a necessity for some. But while you are zooming through space as the House of Speed, making peace with deep-space aliens as the Amazing Diplomats, or bringing major hurt as the Star Wolves, you can bring even more close encounters into the game with a simple rules tweak, outlined below.
Welcome back to the 2nd half of this strategic study of the South Pacific Scenario from C3i Magazine #30. For those who haven’t read Part 1, it can be found here on Inside GMT. Remember, I’ll be discussing South Pacific strategy as it is played at a tournament. Meaning, all draw conditions are considered a Japanese victory.
As previously promised, I will start off this article with a look at another, guaranteed-to-succeed, opening move that the Allies can do using #13: Operation Watchtower. It’s called:
Mark Herman’s ground-breaking, innovative and thoroughly enjoyable game (insert any title of his here, but in this case, Fort Sumter) is the kind of game you can play over and over again and get a different outcome almost every time. It’s only failing, at least for me, however, is in its victory conditions. No matter whether you win a draw or score twice as many points as your opponent, it just means that you are better prepared for the upcoming war than the other side.
Really? That’s it? Really? As much as I love the game (board and the new computer version alike), that simple, single level of victory (or defeat) is something I find quite unfulfilling and unsatisfying. So much so that it seems anti-climatic. In order for me to better enjoy the game, and to increase the challenge in playing it, I have come up with levels of victory, and what each level means (at least for me).
This is the third and last installment in my after-action report for “Fisher’s Hill”, one of Death Valley‘s 1864 battles. Like the preceding parts, it employs a “narrative” style designed to display the GBACW system’s level of detail. In all but the final section of the article I avoid game terminology. Nevertheless, the AAR relies solely on GBACW system mechanics, except for invented dialogue between historical figures. While often merely an embellishment, the dialogue at other times serves to indicate the rationale behind player decisions. Any unfamiliar-sounding accounts of unit actions may well reflect series rules changes for the 2019 edition.
For the sake of continuity, I follow the action in a given sector throughout a specific turn before turning to another sector, rather than risk the narrative being fragmented by the chit-draw activation mechanic.
This article covers the scenario’s 1800 and 1900 turns.
This is the second in a three-part after-action report for “Fisher’s Hill”, one of Death Valley‘s 1864 battles. Like its predecessor, it employs a “narrative” style, avoiding game terminology but relying solely on GBACW system mechanics for its details, except for invented dialogue between historical figures. Where not entirely indulgent, the dialogue serves to indicate the rationale behind player decisions. Combat details which do not seem to square with the GBACW rules reflect rules changes in the new edition.
In this way I hope to demonstrate how rich a battle narrative GBACW is capable of conveying. For the sake of continuity, I tend to follow the action in a given sector throughout a specific turn before turning to another sector, rather than bouncing back and forth according to the activation chit draws.
This article covers the scenario’s 1700 turn. The third will cover 1800-1900.
