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“Cat-Herder-in-Chief”: Playing the Mr. President 2017 Hard Scenario (Part 2)

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Gene: When last we left our intrepid cardboard President, Rick had just finished the first half of Activation Phase 1. Note that the Activation Phases are organized so that the first half (the left column) of each Activation Phase features more “game opponents” actions with some player reaction opportunities. The second half of each Activation Phase, which Rick is beginning now, gives the player more action opportunities, with a small reaction segment for the opponents. So Rick should have a good opportunity during the rest of this phase to plug holes created by the opponent’s actions and to grab the initiative and began to work his plan. We’ll start with his Ally Actions, which can be very useful if you’ve kept your Ally Relationships strong.

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Alexander’s Successors Wars as Depicted by C&C Ancients

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Recently I have played C&C Ancients a lot less in comparison to the time when I was initially enchanted by this game. Still, it oftentimes gives me a lot of satisfaction and nowadays I usually play sets of historically and chronologically connected scenarios.

Recently I brought to the table couple of Civil War battles (Caesar vs Pompey), and later on the Greco-Persian Wars. This time we decided to completely change the settings and armies compositions. We moved to the Alexander’s Successors Wars! What we played was:

  1. Paraitacene (318 BC) – first of the grand clashes between Antigonus and Eumenes, a battle to be long remembered.
  2. Gabiene – (317 BC) – a battle which almost ended the the War of Diadochi – after which Antigonus became a true Lord of Asia and most powerful pretender to inherit the Alexander’s legacy.

Without further delay, let me invite you to the session reports! Enjoy!

PS. As always, you can click on each picture to see details.

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Fields of Fire: The Bulge Campaign Mission #6 AAR (Part 4)

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Mission 6 – Attack on Schöneseiffen

2nd January 1945

Part 4 – Turns 8-10

We’re ready for the final assault, hopefully there are enough commands to go around and get the job done.

Turn 8 – Street Fight

The orders are to take the town by sundown, and we’re starting to feel the time pressure now.

Savage fighting on the outskirts of town has caused massive damage to both sides. 2/2 captures the secondary objective, driving away the enemy spotter. But not before one of our Shermans explodes after a direct hit from the mortar fire he called down last turn. A second StuG III joins the fight supported by an assault rifle wielding squad. The lack of commands going around is really hampering us. We have two spotters, but they never seem to get a break. And we have a green 1st PLT HQ with no radio struggling to get anything done but somehow still moving forwards. 

Someone needs to hit the town with as much firepower as we can manage. And quickly.

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William G. Cheeney – A Spark, Burning Bright

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In my ongoing research for “Infernal Machine: Dawn of Submarine Warfare,” I have made the acquaintance of a number of very interesting people, not only in my current era, but also from the American Civil War period.

The mid-19th Century is one of the most interesting periods of human endeavor.

The Industrial Revolution, filled with promise and with might, was still underway.

During this period, you would occasionally get one spark of intellect and genius that would shine brighter than its neighbors.

Of course like the proverb says, “The spark that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”

Such a spark was a man with the name of William G. Cheeney.

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Video: The Players’ Aid WBC 2022 Interview with Mark Miklos

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Below is a great interview from The Players’ Aid at WBC 2022 with Dave Stiffler, Rob McCracken, and BoAR series designer Mark Miklos. In this interview, they discuss Small BoAR, the new American Revolution Tri-Pack including Monmouth, Germantown, Newtown and Oriskany, and lots more! Enjoy! -Rachel

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Making “Next War” More Multi-Domain: Some Alternative Rules for the “Next War” Series

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I have been an avid player of the “Next War” series of games since I discovered them by accident a few years ago at a local war game convention.  I’ve played them all, and wrote a series of AARs which have been run on this blog.  As I played the games, I realized one of the things that I most enjoy about the system is that it is one of the only games I know of that makes the player fully integrate capabilities across the various war-fighting domains.  To win, a player must effectively integrate air, sea, and land capabilities, and the game has some excellent rules for strike warfare, integrating cruise and ballistic missiles, and even for the use of chemical and tactical nuclear weapons. 

My “eureka” moment came when I realized this game really makes one think about modern, multi-domain operations.  It became crystal clear when I acquired the Supplemental Rules, and first added cyber warfare to my game experience.  Supplement 1’s cyber rules are genius.  They mix simplicity and playability with game impact, and I saw that the game became something different.  It became multi-domain.

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Fields of Fire: The Bulge Campaign Mission #6 AAR (Part 3)

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Mission 6 – Attack on Schöneseiffen

2nd January 1945

Part 3 – Turns 5-7

Returning to our efforts to walk across the beautiful open snowy fields while Germans drop artillery on us. We’re making progress. Half the map is secured, but there are hidden spotters and snipers out there that we need to deal with.

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“Cat-Herder-in-Chief”: Playing the Mr. President 2017 Hard Scenario (Part 1)

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By way of introduction, Rick is simply one of the best playtesters I’ve ever known. His enthusiasm for and contributions to the development of Mr. President have been numerous (usually because he was using and abusing the game system in ways that I had not anticipated – which is one thing great testers do). Many, MANY times during the development process, Rick has sent me an AAR with notes about how “easy” it was to win – and Rick REALLY likes to win. That usually ticked me off! ? But he chronicled his games in such great detail and provided me with the “whys” behind what he was doing that it made it very easy for me to compare his approach to what I believed was “real-world-plausible” and “game-legal” and then make the design better (and more challenging) based on his reports. I have received many subsequent emails from Rick – usually after I nuked or modified his favorite way to abuse a rule or Action – that referred to me as “The Evil Game Designer™” (and occasionally questioned my parentage!). As you might glean from that, Rick is a lot of fun to play (or test) games with. At our yearly playtest sessions at Consimworld Expo in Tempe, Rick provided much hilarity over his play-by-play “what I’m thinking as President right now” announcing of his test games.

Our whole team has been incredibly blessed because Rick has been a part of us. Below, you have a recent AAR that Rick wrote, to help give potential players a sense of how the game flows. He has asked me to insert comments on his play throughout. So, I guess this is my chance to get some payback! ? My comments will be in italics below. Enjoy Rick’s article! – Gene

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Veni Vidi Vassali: Converting a Great Battles of History Classic to Vassal

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In the nearly thirty years, (twenty-eight to be exact), since GMT Games published the 1st and only edition of the IVth Volume of Richard H. Berg’s and Mark Herman’s, Great Battles of History series, other series entries have received reprints and major updates. SPQR for instance, is on the 2nd Printing of the its Deluxe Edition, encompassing four Rule Change editions over several reprints and edition publications. Caesar: The Civil Wars, interestingly, long out of print has seen its sister volume, Conquest of Gaul receive a reprinting but it took a little while longer for the original Caesar title to get there. So, when GMT announced a new deluxe treatment of both The Civil Wars and Conquest of Gaul together in a new dual package, I immediately contacted them to volunteer to build the official GMT Vassal module and was thrilled when Alan Ray contacted me back to let me know it was going to happen. For me, it represents a dream project that I hoped to see come about ever since building my first basic module, after viewing Joel Toppen’s helpful video series on how to build a Vassal module several years ago now. 

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Combat Commander: Europe Random Scenario Setup Example

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The random scenario generator in Combat Commander: Europe is perhaps one of the most underrated features of the game. It vastly expands replayability, offering new situations for seasoned players and newcomers alike. The rules are tucked into the back of the scenario book and you may have missed them or forgotten they are there—or maybe you simply haven’t had a chance to try them yet, perhaps because the prospect seems daunting. In the following paragraphs I’ll walk through an example to show you how easy and fun random scenario generation is. I will not re-explain all of the rules, but I have included the references so that you can follow along in your book.