Convention Report: The GMT Delegation’s January 2020 Visit to Bellota Con III in Badajoz, Spain & Congress of Vienna (CoV)

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The Locale: Landscape picture taken from the Bellota Con convention site. Dominating the scene is the Guadiana River and the ancient bridge with Roman ashlars on the horizon as well as the old fortress of Elvas on the Portuguese side of the Spanish-Portuguese border.

Note: If you would like to view any of the above or below images in a larger size, you can click on the image and it will point you to the full image file.

Badajoz is a small and quiet city in the southwest of Spain with 150,000 inhabitants. It is replete with history relevant to the Congress of Vienna game period. It boasts an old fortress with 17th-century Vauban bastions that was key to the southern corridor between Portugal and Spain during the Peninsular War. It was occupied by the French March 1811 after the Spaniards surrendered.

Thereafter, Wellington tried to occupy it but failed; although his subordinate Beresford with part of the British army along with Portuguese and Spanish forces managed to defeat the first French relief force led by Soult in bloody battle of Albuera (20 km at South). The following year, in April 1812, Wellington, after a bloody pitched assault captured the city and some British units infamously brutally pillaged it for three days.

The Locale in History: This 17th century engraving contains a panoramic view of the fortress of Badajoz. It includes where the hotel is now located: the glorious venue of the Bellota Con III Wargame Convention.
A Congress of Vienna Period Historical Feature #1: This is one of the gates of the fortress. It was in this place the Spanish general died when he defended the fortress against the French besieging forces of Marshal Soult in March 1811.

Badajoz’s history goes back further than that. Many centuries before the Napoleonic Wars, in 1086, in its surrounding area the Battle of Zalaca took place. It was an overwhelming victory for the Almoravid Muslim fundamentalists (who invaded from North Africa) over the northern Spanish Christian kingdoms led by the King of Castile. This abruptly halted the Christian reconquest of Iberia by almost 150 years.

During the twentieth century, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, the city was defended by militiamen and regular republican forces against another military force from North Africa… the army of Franco comprising nationalist legionaries with Moorish and fascist paramilitaries. Badajoz was stormed by Franco, with both sides suffering many casualties and the losers experiencing cruel treatment from victorious nationalist forces.

A Congress of Vienna Period Historical Feature #2: This is the wall of Badajoz. It is from this place where Wellington launched his main assault on the fortress and where British units suffered a bloody failure in 1812. Part of the USA Bellota Con III crew visited this place as well as the old Arab Castle located in the highest part of the city.

Today the city retains its Arab castle, as well as its walled enclosure from the 17th century that surrounded 90% of it. There’s also the old bridge of Roman ashlars that crosses its river. In the historic center of Badajoz and very close to one of its bastions, was where the “BELLOTA CON III” convention was held between January 23 and 26.

What a gaming extravaganza took place in this fine old city with approximately 200 wargamers in attendance! The attendees were mostly Spanish, but several did arrive from other countries in Europe, Brazil, Dubai, the United States, and Puerto Rico. The US Crew was comprised of Dick Sauer, the developer of Congress of Vienna (CoV), who hails from Phoenix (AZ), Luke Billingsley of GMT, from Nashville (TN), as well as game designer Volko Ruhnke (DC), and hobby Blogger Stuka Joe (from Puerto Rico). Volko and Stuka Joe had already participated in the previous year’s Bellota Con gathering and were therefore veterans of the event.

Part of the US Crew attending “Bellota Con III”: Volko, Stuka Joe, and Luke with the Spanish “Bellota Con” III organizers (first and third on the left)

The place of the convention was the magnificent hotel Secortel Zurbaran.

A Fine Venue for a Gaming Convention: This is the Main Entrance of the beautiful Secortel Hotel.
A Place to Relax Between Gaming Sessions: Here’s a photo of a public garden in front of the hotel. It is a lovely park boasting varied flora as well as colorful (albeit camera shy) peacocks who live in freedom upon its grounds.

For the 4 days of the Bellota Con III convention we played many types of games. This included testing prototypes, attending conferences on game-related history, as well as seminars about different games. The oldest player in attendance was 80 years old and the youngest 14.

Many excellent games found their way to the convention’s tables. We played “Pendragon”, “Hannibal”, “Here I Stand”, “Virgin Queen”, “For the People”, “Almoravid” (a potential GMT game, more on that later), “Congress of Vienna”, “Sword of Rome”, various COIN system offerings, “Europa Universalis”, and many more. We also tried a possible prequel to GMT’s renowned “Here I Stand” game, entitled “Monta Tanto [2]”. It is a game about Isabella & Ferdinand, rulers of Castile & Aragon, which include Portugal, the Moorish kingdom of Grenada, Italy, France, the Age of Discovery (expand to find the Canary Islands, America, Brazil, Africa, India, etc.). Fun stuff!!

Bellota Con III Gaming Underway: Attendees enjoy several games – those involving a variety of “wooden bits” to the more traditional ones with cardstock counters such as “Empire of the Sun”.

About 60% of the games played at Bellota Con III were GMT games. Those selections included a variety of different themes, historical periods, length, number of players, and game mechanics. Numerous Spanish and European designers also showed us their prototypes. Games from other small European and Spanish companies were also offered for playing. Some classics like Victory Games’ “Fleet” series were played by their still every faithful devotees.

More Bellota Con III Gaming: Attendees played shorter games like “Santacruz” (from a Spanish publisher about Nelson’s attack on the Canary Islands in 1797, pictured in the image on the left), “Fort Sumter”, or GMT’s recent “Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea” (a 5 player game was enjoyed). In the right image, Dick Sauer, CoV’s developer from Phoenix (AZ) and me (Frank Esparrago, the CoV designer) are playing a “divertimento” game of “Fort Sumter”. This intermission took place between two intense Congress of Vienna gaming sessions with participants who were interested in learning and playing this exciting GMT P-500 offering.
GMT Favorites at Play: In every Convention in Spain “Twilight Struggle” is a perennial favorite. Here’s a Bellota Con III photo of it juxtaposed on the right with GMT’s Napoleonic tactical game… “Commands &Colors: Napoleonics”!!
Two Excellent Wargames about the Spanish Civil War were played during the Convention: The one shown on the left is of the brigade type about the bloody battle of Teruel 1938, which was the true beginning of the end for the Republican cause. The one on the right is arguably one of the best strategic games about the Spanish Civil War, a CDG entitled “Crusade & Revolution”. It uses familiar PoG mechanics: three war status card types with an independent deck for each player. This fine game was edited ten years ago by Compass Games and recently reissued.
A Spanish Game Designer’s Offering: The game we earlier referenced in this article, “Tanto Monta”, is an excellent prequel to “Here I Stand”. “Tanto Monta” takes place between 1475-1520. It pits France, Spain, Portugal, and the Islamic kingdoms of Granada and Morocco in a 4 player contest. It was a big hit at the Convention and those who enjoyed it hope GMT Games will consider publishing “Tanto Monta” in the future. The person with black skirt standing within the right image is the game’s designer.
Photos of Two Other Examples of Spanish Game Designers’ Creativity: The first, “Camino de Santiago” is a game about the Middle Ages in the Iberian Peninsula: Muslim and Christian kingdoms, Jewish merchants, religion and witchcraft, trade with the Mediterranean,…, the two designers are located on the left. The game on the right “The Caida de Hispania 406-507 AD” (The Fall of Spain 406-507 AD”) is already published and deals with barbarian invasions of the 5th century: Goths, Vandals, and Suevi battle against the remains of the declining Roman Empire in Iberia.

We also attended seminars on new games, learned strategies to better play games like “Hannibal” or “Crusade and Revolution”, and explored the future of our wonderful gaming hobby.

A Seminar by Volko Ruhnke, at the left, explaining his new game “Almoravid” on Muslim expansion into the Iberian Peninsula during the eleventh century. The photo on the right is of a spirited discussion of “El Cid”, which concerns the Islamic fundamentalists of North Africa invading Iberia. Here, Volko and Stuka Joe are discussing “Almoravid” during a playtesting session of that game: one of many prospective new games featured during Bellota Con III.

Bellota Con III playtesting of Congress of Vienna: We played seven CoV games during this magnificent event, with players ranging in age from 15 years old (a young veteran from the previous “Bellota“) to almost 80 years (Dick Sauer, our CoV developer from Arizona).

The games included some expert, experienced, CoV playtesters and many more who only knew of Congress of Vienna since its GMT P-500 Program Dec. 2019 announcement. These included veteran players of the other two GMT Great Statesmen games: “Pericles” and “Churchill”; as well as a Eurogamers curious to give CoV a try.

Since that announcement, the Cov Design/Development Team has made improvements with small details of the game in the use of cards. There were also interesting suggestions from different players. We believe that Bellota Con III has been very helpful to CoV because so many of our fellow hobbyists were able to play the game or observe others intensely enjoying its fun, easy-to-learn, action. We appreciate what we have learnt during the convention to improve CoV’s graphic components and various rules.

GMT “Great Statesmen” Game Action: On the left three are playing “Churchill”, the model for CoV. In the image on right is Dick Sauer (CoV developer) making a brilliant Diplomacy Phase action as the Austrian player before the gaze of a somewhat incredulous, yet never-the-less impressed, British player (who hails from Dubai).
One of the Convention’s Congress of Vienna games: the player at the head of the table has come from Dubai, the second from the left (with beard) is providing interesting observations about the powerful Napoleon card’s military use. The one on the far left of the photo is a veteran Spanish CoV playtester; while I, the game designer, am located on the right wearing a greenish gray sweater. We had an enjoyable four player CoV game.
More Congress of Vienna Bellota Con III Playtesting Action! On the left, a very young player (15 years old) observes my French Army’s movement. This lad already participated during last year’s convention during the first CoV games held in Spain. At that time, he played two games as Napoleon (that was really challenging hard work!). This time he experienced playing as the Austrians.
In the two images on the right we see another group of CoV players (my presence was only to take notes and answer rule questions) who played a game in the afternoon, middle picture, and then played another equally spirited game later during that same day: right photo (they really enjoyed CoV!). Several of them had P-500 ordered the game and wanted to learn and play it during the convention. They took such a liking to CoV that they offered to assist us by creating a team of play testers in their hometown of Madrid!

During Bellota Con III we took advantage of opportunities to discuss various improvements to the game. These included Fred’s suggestions about having variable Campaign Game ending options (so it is not always ten turns): e.g. the game ends when the Peace Congress begins or when a player achieves a Sudden Death Victory Condition.

This got us thinking of extending the game during the period immediately after Napoleon’s surrender (the Peace Congress itself) and perhaps testing the possibility of simulating “The Hundred Days” and Waterloo campaign … but this requires a bit of deep reflection. It should not be solely based on euphoria derived from four days of intense convention fun and extraordinary fellowship!

The experience gained by both Dick and I during this marvelous convention regarding political games and their possibilities (as well as limitations) have made us glimpse more possibilities for Congress of Vienna game options.

We hope some of you readers will join us next year in beautiful Badajoz, Spain for Bellota Con IV. What a grand time was had by this year’s attendees!

Footnotes

[1] – (in reference to the use of Bellota in the article’s title) – “Bellota” is the Spanish word for “Acorn”. In the ranches of southern Spain where green oaks grow, the famous Iberian pigs eat their acorns to produce world famous “Iberian Bellota ham”, a Spanish gastronomic delight. That’s why the name of BELLOTA CON became the title for the Convention. In addition, Frank Esparrago, the designer of Congress of Vienna, lives in the area and the initial “Bellota” convention was where Congress of Vienna was play-tested for the first time.

[2] Two old Spanish words indicating “He & She; but equals” the motto for Isabella & Ferdinand Kings of Castile & Aragon.

Frank Esparrago and Fred Schachter
Author: Frank Esparrago and Fred Schachter

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Categories: Convention Report, Hobby General Interest

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