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
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.
When Gene Billingsley first accepted my Prime Minister prototype as a GMT project, he wanted a solitaire system in our development goals. I was intrigued, but wary. For me, player interaction is a key part of Prime Minister. I also knew the game involved some complex decision-making, especially on the Government side. But I thought the idea was worth a try, and I could see some possibilities. As I explained in the first InsideGMT article for Prime Minister, the game already involves lots of numbers used to track political factors, and bots love numbers. After thinking it over, I told Gene that I thought an automated Opposition was achievable, but I wasn’t sure about automating the Government.
Introduction by Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s Assistant Designer & Editor, Fred Schachter: The below is an After-Action-Report (AAR) of a CoV Campaign VASSAL game whose core players were located in the USA and Europe. It is a compilation of emails I provided the team between gaming sessions. I served as the game’s chronicler as well as an observer and kind of “living rulebook” should a question arise. A CoV Campaign Game comprises ten turns and a one turn session was conducted each Saturday.
The first five turn’s of this AAR, encompassing the period of Austria’s neutrality, before it joined the fray against that “Corsican Ogre”, Napoleon I, emperor of the French, are covered by this piece’s initial segment: Congress of Vienna (with Wargame Flavor Rules) After Action Reports Turns 1-5 “Austria’s Neutrality”. Inside GMT blog readers are encouraged to reference this for background as to how our AAR’s players came to the juncture this article encompasses.
During each one turn session the players were not rushed and could take as much time as desired to negotiate with one another and deliberate a play. No one minded each turn taking 1-2 hours to complete for everyone was having a joyously fun time (which, of course, is why we game)! It should be noted that experienced Congress of Vienna players, who agree to limit “table talk” or simply progress at a brisk pace, can get through a Campaign Game in 5-6 hours with the shorter scenarios being much quicker to complete.
To best appreciate this AAR, a general background regarding CoV will assuredly help. This can be gained by referencing GMT’s site for the game which is replete with a variety of material. See: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna
With that, enjoy this Congress of Vienna Campaign Game After-Action-Report for its turns 6-8, the period before Austria abandons neutrality and enters the war! At the conclusion of this history the four players share their musings about this particular contest and the Congress of Vienna game overall. The CoV VASSAL map saw a few improvements during this game’s conduct as Frank, myself, and the players noticed need for a clarifying “tweak” here and there as well as for a few rule improvements…
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
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.
From the very start of the Consim Game Jam we (Chris, Dan, and I) wanted to make sure that our design offered both an excellent two player and solo gaming experience. In the Shadows is a card-driven game about the desperate struggle of the French Resistance against the occupying Nazi and collaborating French forces between January 1943 and June 1944. The game offers both an intense two player game and a story driven solo experience. In this article I want to talk a bit about how In the Shadows embraces the narrative nature of solo play to create two distinct gaming experiences in the same box.
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the human presence on Mars. 200 years ago, a small group of intrepid explorers from multiple of Earth’s nations set foot on our world. And starting from that first brave step, we have built all that you see around us today. A living, breathing, vibrant community, a rich diverse world of peoples from all the nations of Earth and many of us who have always called Mars home.
Today is a day when we must reflect one where we have come from. The debt we owe our forebears and the struggles and sacrifices they made to carve out a life in the barren rock of Mars. The botanists who learned to grow plants that feed us, the engineers who built the tunnels we live in, the scientists who built our water reclamation system, the miners who dug up the materials we need, and the machinists who built the places we now call home.
Today we must reflect on where we came from. But we must also look forward to the next 200 years of this greatest of human endeavors. We will terraform Mars. We will build a new world, a new home for humanity. It will be our greatest accomplishment. And for all that our forebears have done to bring us to this point, we must do more.
For our future, for our children’s future, and for the future of humanity. Let us all work together in this noblest of goals.
Teresa Yeo, Prime Minister of the Martian Assembly, Bi-centennial day address
Below is another great article from The Boardgames Chronicle, this time showing his game of Caesar: Rome vs Gaul playing as the Gauls. If you would like to read this article on his blog, you can find that here. Enjoy! -Rachel
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
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.
The first InsideGMT article for Prime Minister discussed the game’s use of numbers to simulate Britain’s political system. Now we’ll go beyond the numbers and look at how player roles and relationships evoke the struggle for political power.
In the Shadows was born in a whirlwind. We (Chris, Dan, and Joe) created the game for the inaugural Consim Game Jam in October 2020. We were tasked with designing an original game using the existing components from one of the COIN series games. And, if that wasn’t challenging enough, we only had 72 hours to do it!
Amidst the swirl of creativity, we desired to design something that told the story of the French Resistance within the framing of a Lunchtime Game. In the game you will play as either the Resistance or the Occupation in a fight over the hearts and minds of the French People. In this article we will focus on the Event cards and the importance of the regional Suits.
