In the previous articles in this series, I discussed the high-level concepts behind the Solitaire TacOps system and how they are represented in the components of the game. In this article, I will walk through how players interact with those components to play out their own strategic approaches to historical engagements.
Below you will find Part 2 in a Plantagenet replay series from Cristophe Correia originally published on The Boardgames Chronicle blog. You can read Parts 1 and 2 here and here. Enjoy! -Rachel
This is the first in a series of InsideGMT articles on the games in the second COIN Multipack by GMT Games, The Guerrilla Generation. First, I should mention that I’m very happy with the reception of the first COIN Multipack, The British Way, in terms of reception and sales. Thanks to all your support the game’s first printing ran out of stock in only six months! Stay tuned for further updates on The British Way. It’s exciting to see many players and reviewers enjoying this new approach to the COIN series, getting to explore many different conflicts in one game box. The Guerrilla Generation offers four more conflicts for players to explore, with each involving slightly more complexity and depth than the ones found in The British Way. In the rest of this article I’ll outline the first chronological game in the pack, Uruguay (1968-1972).
As promised at the end of my last blog post, today we are diving into the way that the maps and components in Solitaire TacOps: Ortona impact the game play. As discussed in the second part of this series, the system builds off of the ideas from classic hex and counter games, but it does not fit directly in the “traditional” line, instead adapting those ideas in ways that better convey the dynamics it intends to model.
Last week, we started off with by talking about the design principles and scale behind Solitaire TacOps: Ortona. This week we will be talking about the design behind the series system.
The Solitaire TacOps system, as a design idea, entered the formative stage while considering the map of the 1977 SPI game Cityfight by Joe Balkoski and Stephen Donaldson. It is clearly the work of Redmond Simonsen. A cluttered Simonsen but a Simonsen nonetheless. Standard white for clear terrain, gray roads, multiple greens for different clusters of trees and even some water features. The buildings are mostly nondescript rectangles in a range of colors, which the map key explains refers to height. A standard hex grid is overlaid to manage movement, with the hexes grouped into megahexes (a central hex and its six surrounding hexes). Small triangles dot the map providing directional cues. Each of these details building a language that unfolds the physicality that gives its fictional city a real shape. Seen through this lens one begins to appreciate the complexities the urban landscape offers.
Upcoming game Žižka: Reformation and Crusade in Hussite Bohemia, 1420-1421 comes with a bunch of new mechanics such as new Assets, new rules for Crusade, for immediate surrender of some types of Strongholds, new multi stronghold Locale (Prague), or the whole new multi-purpose deck of so called Cause cards. It also relies heavily on mechanics already introduced with the Levy & Campaign system by Volko Ruhnke. When the series system is good, merely tackling its parameters and prerequisites can provide very different historical narratives from previous volumes. In this first part of the design diary, let’s take a look at how the already-known ruleset provides a new story and new challenges for the players by simply changing a few numbers or conditions.
In Nevsky, Almoravid, and Inferno, the map could be roughly divided into your and your enemy’s territory. This is not the case in Žižka as both Hussites and Catholics considered Bohemia their own country. The land is not a subject of dispute here, while the faith and the ruler are. With that, the first parameter changes come. The VP award for Ravaging is not 1/2 VP but 0 VP. Gone is the familiar hunt for VPs by inflicting as much damage on the opponent’s land? as possible. There is still an incentive for Ravaging as it helps to force Strongholds to surrender, brings the armies more food, and may prolong the sides’ will to fight (more on those later).
At first blush, the connection between my first GMT game, Cross Bronx Expressway, and my next, Solitaire TacOps: Ortona, might seem tenuous. However, the connection is quite simple – I have an affinity for urban settings and how they serve as representations of human modernity. Cross Bronx Expressway explores this through the social, political, and economic domains. Solitaire TacOps: Ortona explores it almost exclusively through the force domain.
Urban warfare is a very small niche of wargaming which shows up mostly as either scenarios within tactical systems, or stand-alone operational games. Both of these scales offer views into the nature of urban conflict, but each, removed from the other, loses the context to make those views complete. In order to model the dynamic impacts of urban warfare, Solitaire TacOps explores both tactical and operational considerations.
Below you will find an article from co-designers D. B. Dockter and Mark Herman on the design of their upcoming game titled Defiance: 2nd Russo-Ukrainian War 2022-?, which is available for P500 preorder from GMT as of this December. This article was originally published on Conflicts of Interest Online in April 2023, and you can find the link to their version of the article here. Onward! -Rachel
The new Mission Book for the Heartbreak Ridge campaign from the upcoming Fields of Fire Deluxe is now free to download from the Fields of Fire Deluxe P500 page at GMT Games for anyone with the original game to play with. [Link]
About The Campaign
Heartbreak Ridge was originally released as a free extra for Fields of Fire around 2010, and then later included in FoF 2nd edition, somewhat hidden at the back of the main Korean War campaign (Naktong River).
Personally, I think it’s one of the most fun campaigns in the series, and after we sent a bunch of playtesters up the ridge it became apparent that it wasn’t just me. The exciting AARs of the Manchus battling up the hill through NKPA trenches, of an enemy who refuse to give up, and desperate last stands at the mission objectives amidst mounting casualties convinced us that more people need to know about this “forgotten” campaign.
We hope that this newly produced mission book, in the new style we’re using for this edition, along with the new components included with Fields of Fire Deluxe (and the Update Kit), encourages players to give it a go. For anyone who has just completed Normandy and are looking for where to go next, I can definitely recommend this one.
Below you will find Part 2 in a Plantagenet replay series from Cristophe Correia originally published on The Boardgames Chronicle blog. You can read Part 1 here. Enjoy! -Rachel
After the defeat and the death of Henry VI and Somerset at the Battle of Ipswich, Richard York becomes King of England for the next 10 years. However, things go badly between him and Warwick – his old ally.
The sons of Richard York and Warwick fight for power – and when York chooses his sons Edward and Richard (of Gloucester) over Warwick, the latter decides to rebel against them by joining the Lancastrians.
