Introduction by Fred Schachter, CoV Editor: This article is meant to inform readers of designer Frank Esparrago and team’s efforts to date regarding Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s development. To learn more and obtain background useful to best appreciating this article, see:  GMT Games – Congress of Vienna. There’s a host of CoV-related content available there which could be consulted since this article presumes some familiarity with prior published CoV material. Here’s Frank’s report which you’ll hopefully find of interest. Now to Frank’s latest!

During the last month, we increased playtesting of Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s shorter scenarios (early, middle, and late campaign). Furthermore, based on playtest feedback, we improved the layout of cards, counters, and the map board. We want these game components to be easy to use with label texts and colors of the cards precise, so they are not subject to misinterpretation and get you into the game with minimal need to cross-reference rules.

The Game Cards: Character and Battle Events

In Congress of Vienna the main use of Game cards is during the Diplomacy Phase; for negotiating and debating Issues — as in GMT’s Churchill game — although CoV players have many more cards in their hands than there are Diplomacy Rounds to use them. This allows debates to be very frequent and disputed and keeps all players in constant action. However, cards can also have uses through granting bonuses such as receiving additional military units, resources or favorably affecting the resolution of some Issues such as Liberalism/ Absolutism or Pax Britannica.  But there’s more…

All cards with a red band in the upper right corner indicate if they have been saved until the War Phase; they can be used in Battle or Diplomacy (which can make for some tough choices). These military cards can be decisively used during the War Phase to provide die roll modifiers (DRM) with others for terrain, homeland, amphibious landing,  military units, support markers (representing: trenches, artillery, scouting, supplies…)… all of which are tabulated and cumulatively tracked on the game board to help set-up a battle’s resolution. Don’t worry, all is clearly laid out, step-by-step, in the game’s Player Aid components. 

The DRM indicates the availability or arrival on time for a battle by the cards’ different generals and their army corps or a timely and heroic performance of the same. Additionally, neutral battle event cards incorporate factors such as cavalry superiority, river crossing, and elite or guard units at a high Grand Strategy level. All these military aspects have been systematically tested during this last month to confirm battles are intense, competitive, exciting, and fun! 

However, this enjoyable facet of the live player game becomes a nightmare when designing Bots for each player representing a European Major Power (Russia, Britain, Austria, France) since the possibilities of interaction are enormous… but we’re succeeding in meeting the challenge! More on that aspect of the game’s development with a future update.

Many playtest games to date with very different players made it possible to “polish” the cards: slightly redesigning texts to prevent non-historical battles or excessively unbalanced ones (although a blow-out battle result remains possible, as it was historically).

Four game cards we significantly modified based on play test experience are the neutral battle event cards. Now their use is much simpler. They have cross interactions and improved clarity of writing. More on these with an upcoming InsideGMT article.

For those of you who read the InsideGMT articles concerning CoV’s character cards, we slightly modified some like Poniatowski (F-4); which some play testers wanted to include his extraordinary feat of sneaking out of Russian territory from Poland and ending up in Saxony with his Polish army corps integrated into the Grande Armée. However, as with this card’s earlier iteration, poor Poniatowski can still be killed in action with a die roll (historically, he drowned during the French retreat after the Battle of Leipzig). 

Among the British cards (including Spanish ones) the Gambier (B-7) card is now able to reflect the increased involvement of the Royal Navy at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812.

We also changed some Russian and Prussian cards: This includes Yorck von Wartenburg, to whom we gave a free Prussian military unit in recognition of his excellent behavior after the Russian Campaign of 1812! Modified Austrian cards are Gentz (A-11) and the Metternich (A-1) leader card.

Initial Situation & Optional Handicap Cards

The Initial Situation cards are used at the beginning of each Congress of Vienna game turn. They have not required changes since their prior edition. However, some San Francisco Bay/UK play testers (affectionately known as the Transatlantic Team), supported by our editor, found that when there are some specific Game cards in players’ hands; the diplomatic negotiation and War Phase become a complex interesting puzzle, tense, and balanced on a razor’s edge. We have listened to them and thus the Turn 4 (July 1813) card, normally under Armistice condition, is “busy” for the British and French! In the same way, our play testers have been probing the “Campaign of France 1814”, short scenario (the last three Campaign Game turns) and wanted to add more spice to a British renewed attack in Gascony or America from the Initial Situation Card (Turn 9). We have added it! Thank you, Transatlantic Team!

The optional Handicap card deck has remained static since initial CoV development efforts. However, the evolution of the game made it necessary to slightly update some of them. These cards add more uncertainty to the game (and therefore re-playability). They allow to “dose” the Bots difficulty and can be used for balancing contests between novice versus experienced players. Two samples of the latest Handicap cards are here provided.

Issue markers, which are placed on Major Powers’ Negotiating Tracks during a turn’s Diplomacy Phase, have been slightly corrected for ease of use. This was rightly suggested by our play testers. These markers now have a reminder of the priority for these Issues receiving an activating Resource during the Government Phase (and players never seem to have enough Resources to do everything they may desire!) We also simplified the colors and flags of the European Minor Country Issue markers so players may more readily discern which Countries are of interest to their involved Major Powers (perhaps less historical, but much more functional when placed on the Negotiation Tracks). Below are samples…

The Map Board

Minor changes were made to the Mapboard since the last update posted on GMT’s site for the game. We believe now that most rules which can be overlooked in the excitement of playing a game are placed in or near key map spaces. For example, Paris! Of course, the small adjustments made to the Future Government of France, Pax Britannica and Liberalism/Absolutism tracks are included! The latest CoV map is below (and will replace the earlier version now posted on GMT’s site). 

In the Future Government of France track; two spaces (dark and light blue) indicate that France has a ruler similar to emperor Napoleon but one serving a more democratically based government immersed in the ideals of a French Republic (+ VPs for France and -VP for Allied!). Before, we called that 2^nd space “King Napoleon Bonaparte”; but now, our editor Fred Schachter urged calling it with the bombastic name “Republic of French Revolutionary Ideals” (since Napoleon still ruling France after being forced out of power seemed historically implausible). Both Dick Sauer (our developer) and I weren’t convinced … but when an editor like Fred has an idea, he can be stubbornly convincing!

The Rulebook

However, our greatest achievement during the last month has definitely been finishing the Rulebook. This involved a major editorial decision. We had to decide which rules were to be eliminated (it is always difficult to lose sight of some “good old friends”!); which were to be maintained, and even those requiring more written clarity to facilitate understanding; and which are to be transplanted into to a final rulebook section (Chapter 15): provisionally called “Adding Wargamer Flavor“. Supporting and making major contributions to this editing is Chris Clarke, who has worked with editor Fred’s GMT efforts as well as with other publishers’ games such as Escape Plan, Obsession, and High Frontier.

In this chapter we place the most complicated rules and those generating more complexity; but for those who like more simulation precision from the point of view of diplomatic and military history, or who simply basically love traditional wargames, this seemed a prudent organizational decision. However, all this greater game richness involves a trade-off of more complexity and generally lengthens the game’s playing time.

The Standard Rules (Chapters 1-14) now have a good balance between rules, game component figures, small explanatory examples, and a limited number of historical, design, and players notes.

For us, the goal set from the beginning of CoV’s development is that the Full Campaign Game can be played in 5 hours with experienced players and a scenario does not represent more than 2-2½ hours. Readers, this does presume table talk, which our play testers so enjoy and is an intrinsic part of a game focusing on negotiation, is kept at reasonable levels.

In this way, the Standard game decreased the time dedicated for diplomatic negotiation and executing the Government Phase to 2/3 of the time they used to take, while the War Phase has been reduced to 1/3 of its original game time. There are numerous wargames about the Napoleonic Wars but very few games about politics, diplomacy, finance and war for this fascinating historical period.

Kindly note a two-player head-to-head game, one player as France and the other in charge of the Coalition’s three Major Powers, as well as the game’s Bots and solitaire play options (kudos to Jim Gutt and team for their hard work on the Bots!), will all be placed into the Playbook

Of course, we are clear that the result of these Congress of Vienna efforts is left to the judgment of our future players! Please feel free to submit questions regarding this update. Your interest is most appreciated.

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