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The Chronicles of Ōnin #1: Civil War in Muromachi Japan

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The Pure Land depicts the decade-long Ōnin War in 15th century Japan, a civil war for control of the Muromachi Bakufu set against a backdrop of peasant unrest and religious militancy. This conflict precipitated the Sengoku (or Warring States) period that would continue into the 16th century, and was the beginning of the slow decline of the established order. In future articles I will go into more detail about the factions involved in the war and how I have chosen to depict them, but first I will set the scene with a short historical overview of this era.

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ConSim Game Jam Podcast Series Announcement

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Hi folks,

David Alexander and Peter Evans here with an announcement for a new podcast series that may be interesting to followers of GMT Games, covering the first ever “ConSim Game Jam” sponsored by GMT that took place last October.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Consim Game Jam, this 72-hour event challenged teams to create a board game from scratch using only the components found in one of the published games from GMT’s COIN series.

In this podcast series we interviewed the founders of the ConSim Jam (“young guns” Fred Serval and Joe Dewhurst); the Judges of the event (the venerable Volko Runhke, Morgan Gouyon-Rety, and Jason Carr); and the three teams whose games secured themselves a podium finish, including the designers behind current P500-listed designs In the Shadows and Vijayangara (the other placing design on Boudicea’s revolt may join them soon as well, albeit in another form).

These interviews covered what the Jam was like from a variety of perspectives; as well as a wide range of board game related topics, including design and development, building a narrative, the COIN system, how to know when a design is viable, and many more besides!

We had a wonderful time chatting with folks to create this, and hope you enjoy listening to these interviews as much as we had in putting them together!

Finally – this podcast series also inaugurates the launch of our new Podcast: The Spicy Fish Board Games Podcast. We would love to hear your feedback as well as suggestions. If you like what you hear, or would like to hear more from us or request content please contact us at spicyfishpodcast@gmail.com.

We hope to see you at the gaming table!

Dave & Peter

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All Bridges Burning: Some Post-Publication Rules Variants

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Until you have a community playing you don’t know how good of a job you’ve done.

Richard Garfield

A good half a year has passed since the publication of the COIN Series Volume X, All Bridges Burning. The reception has been amazing. The game was nominated for the Golden Geek Award, several good reviews have appeared (see here for a selection), and generally the feedback has been really positive. It seems that All Bridges Burning was able to bring something new and captivating on the table in the tried and tested COIN Series.

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Laban! Chapter 8: Hand Gestures in the People Power Revolution

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While every culture has its own methods of nonverbal communication, in the 1980s it was common to see Filipinos raise their hands to communicate their allegiance to one of the Presidential candidates: a “V” for Marcos, or an “L” for Corazon Acquino. While the Communist Party of the Philippines (the political arm of the New People’s Army) did not field a candidate in the 1986 election, supporters of the CPP/NPA used the ubiquitous raised fist to indicate their fidelity to communist ideals. These gestures were an essential part of the milieu of the Philippines in the 1980s, and People Power uses these gestures throughout the game. Therefore, it is important that we understand their origin and meaning.

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Commands & Colors: Samurai Battles Session Report – Arita Castle 1517 AD

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With Commands & Colors: Samurai Battles recently unboxed and all the stickers already applied, it was just a matter of time before I brought that title to the table. I am going to present the session reports connected with the game in similarly way as I did for C&C Medieval and the Belisarius Campaign. You may expect the historical background to each battle and a picture-rich story for every engagement as well as interesting insights regarding the design mechanics. I hope you will find this installment of the Command & Colors series enjoyable!

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The Last Hundred Yards Volume 2: Airborne Over Europe After Action Report — Mission 13, Bridge 10

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Able Company, 504 PIR 
0530 18 September, 1944 
Near Neerbosch, on the Maas-Waal Canal 

Holland is flat, no two ways about it. On Sicily it was the heat. In Italy, it was the mud. But here in Holland, it is the complete lack of cover. Pool-table flat, pancake flat, you get the picture. Scouting the position before we jumped off, Murph (1st Lt. Murphy, 1st Platoon leader) and I could only spot one low rise to provide any defilade on our approach march. 

The plan was simple — stupid simple — I guess. 3rd Platoon and our MG team, under 2LT Smith would take up positions on top of the “hill” to our left, acting as base of fire. 2LT Cherry, with 2nd Platoon, would be our backup, in the very likely event that the whole plan “went south.” And my buddy Murph drew the short straw, as usual. He would take 1st Platoon straight down the road toward Bridge 10. 

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“It’s All in the Cards”: A Compendium of Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East’s Cards: Chapter Two, Part Two – Trade Cards

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Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East provides ten (10!) Trade cards… not cards the players trade with one another, but cards representing the Ancient World’s commercial environment and the forces which effected it. 

Please note cards are generally played sequentially by Civilization after the Deployment Phase which places disks upon the map. For an explanation and example of game Phases leading up to the Card Phase, see: Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME) Example of Play Part 1 of 3: Game Set-Up through Growth Phase – Inside GMT blog As to the Card Phase itself, see: Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME) Example of Play Part 2 of 3: Card Phase through Competition Phase – Inside GMT blog

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Inside the Opposing Armies of Dubno ’41 (Part 1): Soviet Army – The Stumbling Colossus

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The little known battle of Brody-Dubno pitted the highly proficient German Wehrmacht against the unproven Red Army colossus, both supported by their own air forces.

Let’s take a look at both sides’ forces and how they are modeled into Dubno ’41.

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“All Along The Demilitarized Zone”: Playing Next War: Korea (Part 3)

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Ian M. Sullivan is the Special Advisor for Analysis and ISR at the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, US Army Training and Doctrine Command.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in this post are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, or Army Training and Doctrine Command

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Inside GMT One: Evolving Trưng into Tây Sơn

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The development process for Fall of Saigon’s bots began way back with the development of the Trưng Bot Update Kit. Much of what Bruce Mansfield designed for Trưng eventually made its way into the Fall of Saigon bots, which we call Tây Sơn. The three Tây Sơn brothers united Vietnam in the 18th Century after a century-long civil war. While Tây Sơn owes a great deal to Trưng, there were distinct challenges involved in creating a bot for Fall of Saigon.The four main issues with designing Tây Sơn were: (a) new pieces, (b) the new 2-player scenario, (c) dealing with US Retreat vs War, and (d) ensuring the system works both with Trưng and with the original Fire in the Lake flowchart bots.