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A Roman, a Carthaginian, a Gaul and a Latin Ally Walk Into a Bar…and Tear it Apart — The Conflict and Event Cards of Hannibal’s Revenge

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Introduction by Hannibal’s Revenge Game Developer, Fred Schachter: To those who placed P500 orders for the game and/or InsideGMT readers curious regarding the all too long hiatus in communications regarding it, Mark and I, after tragic periods in our personal lives (we both lost our beloved wives within a single year), are pleased to resume Hannibal’s Revenge progress with our wonderful publisher, GMT Games’, support. The first game of the “Card Conquest System” series is Hitler’s Reich.  This game, although using a similar “engine” for resolving conflict, modifies the system to depict a fascinating and legendary historical struggle. Now to Mark for his update of this next “Card Conquest” Series game.

Introduction by Game Designer, Mark McLaughlin: Hannibal’s Revenge is not your typical game about the titular scourge of Rome.  Nor is it your typical wargame. It does cover the Second Punic War, as have so many games which have come and gone before (with a tip of the helmet to Mark Simonitch for his classic Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage | Board Game | BoardGameGeek  – both the original and the glorious remake with chess-like model soldiers), but in a unique manner. As to my design regarding this topic…

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Decisive Action: Movement and Opportunity Fire

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by Evan Yoak and Joe Chacon

Last time we shot, this time we’ll move, next time we’ll communicate. Erm, we’ll shoot this time, too. Maybe communicate as well. Heck, we’re just going to do it all!

That said, we’re not going to cover movement in Decisive Action in any great depth since, if you’ve ever played a hex-and-counter game before (pretty likely if you’re reading a wargaming blog), you already know what’s going on. Instead, we’ll talk about two features that are different from your standard hex-and-counter fare.

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Plantagenet – War of the Roses Replay by Christophe Correia, Part 1

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Below you will find Part 1 in a Plantagenet replay series from Cristophe Correia originally published on The Boardgames Chronicle blog. Enjoy! -Rachel

Levy & Campaign Series developer Christophe Correia and his friend John O’Reilly face off in a run through the full-length scenario of Volume IV, Plantagenet. The scenario covers the full War of the Roses between 1459 and 1485. The scenario is composed of three smaller parts, that represent the 3 periods of activity of the War. Christophe played the Lancastrians and John the Yorkists. The Playtime for this epic scenario was around 15 hours. Christophe gives us the blow by blow, including all the many battles that will decide the conflict. Enjoy this trip to medieval England!

Protagonists will enter and leave the field, as they die and new pretenders arise! In the full-length scenario of Plantagenet, the Lancastrians and Yorkists fight across three different, shorter scenarios, representing the three main periods of fighting. The Lords of those scenarios are split between Heirs, who can end up being King, and lesser magnates, who are there to support the Heirs and help their side.

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Resisting Revolution: The Soviet Union

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The Soviet Union was just as surprised as everyone else when the Cuban revolution succeeded, and their initial attitude towards Castro was cautious, as it was not yet clear where his sympathies lay. The Cuban communist party (the PSP, or Popular Socialist Party) had even supported Fulgencio Batista during his first presidency from 1940 to 1944, and were regarded with suspicion among the Cuban revolutionaries, who came from a diverse range of political backgrounds. However, after the US embargo was established in October 1960 the Soviet Union stepped in to purchase Cuban sugar and provide other economic aid, and this relationship rapidly escalated after the Bay of Pigs invasion, eventually leading to the deployment of nuclear weapons and the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962. Similar to the United States faction, the Soviet Union faction represents especially those within the Soviet government and military who are in favour of using Cuba as a tool to increase their regional influence and extract concessions from the United States.  In this article I will outline some key features of the Soviet Union faction and their new menu of Operations and Special Activities.

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Rebellion: Britannia — Intra Machina (Inside the Machine)

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In the earliest development of Rebellion: Britannia we were visualizing the systems in the form of various levers, so that the key elements of Briton Tension, Briton Warbands, and Legion Cohesion (which is rather fun to say out loud) all had mechanisms to both increase and decrease them. We might show this in the form shown in Table 1. (It did not look this neat in our original notebooks.)

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Battle Command: The Bulge After Action Report Part 8 — U.S. Turn 4

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US Turn 4 – The last chance.

Moving to the US Turn, fewer cards are drawn by both sides now.

Not much to write home about in terms of cards drawn.

Moving to close a gap in the lines with a pre-planned move, the Germans use a Force March card to shift 2nd SS Panzer into the good defensive terrain at Elsenborn. Needing to maintain a strong line to protect now-exposed Verviers, the US shuffle their Elite Infantry and B/9 Armored north, abandoning the Garrison at Vielsalm to its fate.

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Resisting Revolution: The United States

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At the beginning of 1959 United States companies owned about 40 percent of the Cuban sugar lands—almost all the cattle ranches—90 percent of the mines and mineral concessions—80 percent of the utilities—practically all the oil industry—and supplied two-thirds of Cuba’s imports.

John F. Kennedy, October 1960
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Cuius Regio: Campaign Game Summary / Example of Play

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Cuius Regio is an operational level wargame depicting the military activities of the Thirty Years War.  This is a summary of activity in the first two turns of a Campaign game from one of our teaching games with our playtest group.  While this is not a detailed explanation of the rules, but it does provide a description of the flow of the game and the basics of how the game works.

NOTE: The Map art depicted in this article is almost final (pending a few minor corrections), but the counter art is not. This game was played online using Vassal.

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Battle Command: The Bulge After Action Report Part 7 — German Turn 4

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German Turn 4 – Don’t rest on your laurels.

The Germans draw a decent strong hand, but lack cards for their most important fights, which will be conducted by the 5th Panzer Army. The US draw a disappointing hand, geared entirely for defence at time when they need to be counterattacking.

Next, powerful German reinforcements arrive in the east, but the US doesn’t get anything this turn. These units can be redeployed to the front lines for the price of a Fuel card, so long as they don’t enter a contested area, but at this point the front line is still close enough for the Germans to use these for off-road movement and initiate combat, so that’s precisely what they will do.