Spring, 1862, brought the southern Confederacy a succession of defeats in the west and retreats in the east. Richmond’s only glimmer of hope came from the Shenandoah Valley, where at great cost Stonewall Jackson drove back elements of John C. Fremont’s Army of West Virginia at the Battle of McDowell in early May. As dubious as that “victory” was, however, it sowed the seeds of a dramatic reversal of fortunes.
When I was working on Empire of the Sun 2nd edition, Gene Billingsley convinced me to create a new solo system for the game. I blithely said ‘sure’ not realizing how much work this would entail and how difficult it is to write computer logic for humans. My history with solo systems goes back to my 20th century release of VG’s Peloponnesian War, so I examined that method for this system. Although I did incorporate the option that once you start with the Japanese, you can switch to the Allies in 1943, ultimately the task required a new solo system.
“Talon Tuesdays” is an article series appearing on InsideGMT periodically on Tuesdays. It features articles from the Talon development team regarding the game’s design, development and upcoming release of the Talon 1000 expansion. Since Space Empires:4x Replicators is also releasing soon and there is crossover between the two development teams, Replicator articles will be featured as well.
Issue #35 Talon 1000 – New Empire War Map
Below you will find the second in a series of articles from Clio of Clio’s Board Games. The article is Part 2 in a planned series that looks at the fall of Communism through the lens of GMT’s 1989. You can find Part 1 of this series here. Hope you enjoy the article! -Rachel
Imperial Struggle: The Global Rivalry Between Britain and France, 1697-1789 enjoyed an active social life in the last three months of 2017. With appearances at GMT Weekend in the Warehouse in October, and then at the San Diego Historical Games Convention in November, more and more players have been able to sit down with the game and give their feedback. And one theme recurs: “This game isn’t as much like Twilight Struggle as I had expected!”
It’s true. Twilight Struggle is more older cousin than sibling to Imperial Struggle. They share a dream, scope, and player fantasy; but mechanically they diverge quite a bit. How could they not? Imperial Struggle covers twice Twilight’s length of time, and encompasses four major wars between the two protagonists. More fundamentally, the Cold War mentality – and thus the player’s emotional experience – is not the same as the 18th century dream of glory.
This is the fourth installment of Tokyo at Dawn, an after action report created using GMT’s Enemy Coast Ahead: The Doolittle Raid. Where a word appears in bold, it references a game mechanic or rule. The first three articles of the Tokyo at Dawn series can be found here, here, and here. Another of Chris’ fantastic InsideGMT articles, “Walking the Distant Plain” can be found here.
Replicator Tuesdays is an article series appearing on InsideGMT. It features insights into the development of the 2nd expansion for the board wargame Space Empires:4x by Jim Krohn. Here the designer, developer and play testers will share their thoughts and experiences on this upcoming expansion. Since there is much crossover between the Space Empires and Talon development teams, both Space Empires and Talon articles will be featured in this series.
Issue #34 Advanced Ship Development – Part Two, Curveballs
This article continues the discussion of the Advanced and X Units that were added to the game in Replicators (for Part 1 of the article, follow the link here). New ships and techs are about 25% of this expansion and this series looks at the new ships one by one.
It should come as no surprise that the question I get asked more than any other regarding Apocalypse Road is, “What are the cars like?” or “Can we design our own cars?” I guess I should answer the second question first, and you may not like it. No, the cars that come with Apocalypse Road have been designed by Carla and myself and will be the same for each team. As for what are they like…
This is the original Syrian plan for the assault on the Golan Heights. Al-Owda (“Homing all the way”) was to begin at dawn instead of the afternoon starting point for the later choosen Operation Badhr and involved the two tank divisions, all five commando battalions as well as the Assad Guards Brigade from early on in the assault. The commandos was to be airlifted into vital areas and to block Israeli reinforcements by create roadblocks across the Jordan river and roads leading up the escarpment. This plan was a most ambitious one, “a virtual blueprint for victory – the best plan any Arab state had been able to bring to the brink of execution in a quarter century of struggle with a seemingly omnipotent enemy”. However, the plan was rejected by the Egyptians and since their own offensive across the Suez Canal was to be launched in the afternoon. Other political issues such as the fear of a coup against the Assad regime also caused the Syrians to go for the Badhr plan, and therefore went on for a smaller safer scale attack and withdrew strong units from the lineup, to be placed in reserve. Since this scenario is hypothetical, setup and reinforcement schedules are estimated. This is a real challenge for the Israelis and it’s recommended that the most experienced player plays the Israelis.
This is the third installment of Tokyo at Dawn, an after action report created using GMT’s Enemy Coast Ahead: The Doolittle Raid. Where a word appears in bold, it references a game mechanic or rule. The first two articles of the Tokyo at Dawn series can be found here and here. Another of Chris’ fantastic InsideGMT articles, “Walking the Distant Plain” can be found here.
