Below you will find an article from Francisco Ronco, designer of the upcoming P500 title Dubno ’41. This game will be the most recent installment in the Fast Action Battles series, and it will be available for P500 preorder soon. Enjoy!
The New People’s Army (NPA) has its genesis in the Hukbalahap rebellion, fought by tenant farmers after World War II. By the late 1960s, the social conditions which had led the Huks to rebel remained unresolved and led to the formation of the New People’s Army by José María Sison and Bernabe Buscayno. The NPA was not the only insurgency fighting the Filipino Goverment – the Bangasamoro people of Mindanao were in the early years of the Moro Independence struggle, which peaked during the mid 70s, before a peace agreement was brokered by Muammar Ghaddafi in 1976.
Below you will find another fantastic article from Clio’s Board Games, this time discussing Robert Walpole through the lens of GMT’s Imperial Struggle. You can also find this article on Clio’s blog. Enjoy! -Rachel
Introduction by Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s Assistant Designer & Editor, Fred Schachter: This article follows up a previous piece’s description of efforts made by one of the CoV Teams making fine and appreciated contributions to the game… “Gutt’s Guysâ€â€¦ who’ve come up with a set of rules converting CoV’s 4-player game into 3 and 2-player versions.
With this article, designer Frank Esparrago describes efforts to make Congress of Vienna into a completely competitive and fun two player game with all the intensity and excitement of its Standard multi-player versions… but one which delivers some unique design elements to hopefully create novel and exciting player experiences and “puzzles to victory†conundrums to explore. Later articles will describe how CoV’s Bots were created for solo play enjoyment; and shall provide a description, with examples, of how they work.
Understanding Congress of Vienna’s basic game system(s) should enhance readers’ appreciation of this article and its ensuing follow-ups. To that end, GMT’s site for the game contains a wealth of material: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna
We hope you enjoy that content and take it away Frank!
First an update on where we are with the game at this moment. The final playtesting is underway and I’m very pleased by the excellent work the playtest team have done so far. The difficulties have been all the new concepts in this volume and to transfer the FAB system to the wide open desert and desert warfare, where there are no strict frontlines and swirling battles are fought all across the map.
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
In People Power the Reformer faction encompasses all the liberal, nonviolent, political opposition to the Marcos regime, including politicians, Catholic leaders, and regular citizens who were willing to voice their disdain for Marcos and his cronies. However, there is little doubt that the voice of the Reformers was, for many years, one man: Benigno Aquino Jr, known to Filipinos simply as “Ninoy.”
Mons, 1914: The Mad Minute will include the 2.0 version of the Rifle and Spade series rules; the 1.0 version shipped with Gallipoli, 1915: Churchill’s Greatest Gamble. The new version is focused on readability and faster play, while retaining the same historical accuracy. Rules that rarely came up in play or that were difficult to remember were dropped, obscure language clarified, and several key procedures simplified – the new rules are 20% shorter and the playtesters are all much happier. Gallipoli can be played with the 2.0 rules, using replacments of the Fire DRM chart and the Fire Results Table.
