Back to the book & game pairings to educate and entertain about a certain historical topic! After our kickoff with the Eastern Front of World War II, we’ll go a little bit further back in time, landing in the early 16th century: The Reformation is shaking up Europe, and powerful rulers try to make the most of these turbulent times… both in Four Princes (John Julius Norwich) and Here I Stand (Ed Beach, GMT Games).
Below you will find the fourth in a series of articles from Brett Dedrick featuring a playthrough of Panzer Expansion #4 Scenario #37: Delaying Action at Ernage. The first three parts can be found here. Enjoy!
Hi Everyone!
Today we would like to point you to a couple of excellent video interviews with Julio E. Nazario, designer of one of GMT’s newest P500 additions, Borikén: The Taíno Resistance.
The first interview, streamed on May 7th from the Bonding with Board Games and RPGs YouTube channel, covered many topics including why Julio decided to design this game, in-depth descriptions of the game board, the three different stand-alone scenarios, and the complexity and mechanics. Here is an excerpt:
After visiting Director Kellen Butler at the Lasch Conservation Center and seen the H.L. Hunley itself being painstakingly and lovingly restored, I needed to learn more about the locations where those involved in unleashing the Hunley upon the Union Navy blockading Charleston Harbor did their good work.
In this InsideGMT article, we’ll play through a few turns of Bear Trap.
The following playthrough is designed to demonstrate a few different aspects of the game, and to give you a basic sense of what it’s like to play—it’s not meant to be a demonstration of good play by the players.
In what follows, I won’t explain the game rules in detail. Instead, I’ll focus on describing what the players are doing. Insurgent play will be in green text, while Soviet play will be in red text, but I’ll also offer some commentary in italics. In all images here, all blocks are face up only for illustrative purposes; in an actual game, you would only be able to see the sticked side of your own blocks (until enemy blocks are committed in combat).
If you’re unfamiliar with the mechanics of how the game works, check out this prior InsideGMT article which provides an overview of gameplay, or take a look at the draft rulebook and player-aid (both on GMT’s product page for the game). Finally, note that the graphic design and artwork used here are for playtest purposes only and isn’t indicative of what the final artwork and layout will be like for the game when published. (What we have works fine for playtest purposes, but the GMT art department will eventually do a great job of creating something beautiful with a natural look that supports the gameplay.)
For this example of play, we’ll tune in about halfway through the game. The players have so far undergone 3 reshuffles and the Soviet player is getting close to their next reshuffle. A game of Bear Trap lasts up to 7 reshuffles, but can end earlier if a player satisfies their victory condition.
An IoG player sporting the Nom de Guerre of “LeftSide” posted an interesting AAR re-printed below. But first, a link to IoG’s April 2022 Living Rules has been inserted on the game’s webpage here. The April 2022 Living Rules address applying combat losses and building trenches.
LeftSide posted a Summer 1914 Turn (Turn 1) AAR for as follows:
Below you will find the second in a series of articles from Brett Dedrick featuring a playthrough of Panzer Expansion #4 Scenario #37: Delaying Action at Ernage. Part 1 can be found here. Enjoy!
At the opening of the American Civil War, Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his people faced an enemy that had a substantially larger and fully ocean-going navy and was wedded to a strategic “Anaconda Plan” of defeating the Confederacy by economic strangulation through a naval blockading of all of its ports.
Like their forefathers, the Confederates used the technology of the 19th Century’s Industrial Revolution to even the odds by engineering an up-to-date version of a Revolutionary War weapon, the torpedo.
The term “torpedo” here applies to any explosive device triggered either remotely or by its own internal fuse.
With the Civil War entering its second year, the Confederate government set up two separate bureaus in Richmond, VA to expedite development and deployment of the torpedo on land and sea.
Below you will find the first in a series of articles from Brett Dedrick featuring a playthrough of Panzer Expansion #4 Scenario #37: Delaying Action at Ernage. Enjoy!
You hit somebody with your fist and not with your fingers spread.
General Has Guderian
