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Less and More in Skies Above Britain

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The core concept of Skies Above the Reich was spatial. The formation of heavy bombers penetrating Axis airspace during World War Two constituted a discrete space. That space was stable, even somewhat static. The four-engined B-17s and B-24s creating that space relied on each other for mutual support, each sporting at least seven gun positions, and no pilot dared leave formation if he could avoid it. To the German fighter pilot, that space was lethal, and the game presented the German player with a map of the formation. The player’s task was to navigate that map and loosen the bomber formation.

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GMT November Update: Congress of Vienna in Final Development

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Introduction by Fred Schachter, CoV Editor: This article is meant to inform readers of designer Frank Esparrago and team’s efforts to date regarding Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s development. To learn more and obtain background useful to best appreciating this article, see:  GMT Games – Congress of Vienna. There’s a host of CoV-related content available there which could be consulted since this article presumes some familiarity with prior published CoV material. Here’s Frank’s report which you’ll hopefully find of interest. Now to Frank’s latest!

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Drop Zone: Southern France Unit Histories – Part 2: US 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team

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This is the second of article on the Allied and German units featured in the game.

We continue our survey of Allied Airborne units in Southern France in the order of arrival—second to land was the 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team (PRCT), including the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), the 460th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (PFAB) and the 596th Parachute Engineer Company (PEC).

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Factions in Red Dust Rebellion: The Red Dust Movement

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Today, tunnel 64a in south Shenzou collapsed. Today, 22 miners from our community are lost in the rubble. We don’t know if anyone is alive down there. But we will dig until we find them. And while we don’t know whether they will live, we already know the reason for this tragedy. For months our members have been complaining about long hours, poor conditions and shortcuts from management. Of basic safety measures being relaxed or ignored to save a few bucks — The Blue Bloods, they don’t care about Martian workers, they don’t care about our people. They care about lines on a spreadsheet.

We are not just organic assets to be itemized on a corporate balance sheet. We are humans, we are Martians, and we are strong.

-Aroha Thompson, Red Dust spokesperson and Mining Union organizer.  

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How to Win as England in Here I Stand

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Below you will find another fantastic article from the Here I Stand series on the Clio’s Board Games blog, this time discussing England player strategy. You can also find this article on Clio’s blog. If you would like to visit the Naty’s Bookshelf blog, you can do that here. The previous articles in this series, “How to Win as the Hapsburgs in Here I Stand” and “How to Win as the Papacy in Here I Stand” can be found here and here. If you are interested in Clio’s Board Games’ previous series on InsideGMT discussing the fall of Communism through the lens of GMT’s 1989, you can read that here. Enjoy! -Rachel

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Drop Zone: Southern France – Unit Histories (Part 1)

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This will be the first of nine articles on the Allied and German units featured in the game.

Part 1: US 509th Parachute Battalion Combat Team
Part 2: US 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team
Part 3: British 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade Group
Part 4: Airborne from Panama—US 551st Parachute and 550th Glider Infantry Battalions
Part 5: Allied Glider units
Part 6: German 148th Reserve and 242nd Infantry Divisions
Part 7: German Kampfgruppe von Schwerin and LXII Corps

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A New Wargamer’s Insights and Impressions from Commands & Colors: Napoleonics

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Below is an article featuring Commands & Colors: Napoleonics insights and first impressions from first time player and InsideGMT contributor David Wiley of Swords and Chit and Cardboard Clash. You can also find this article on David’s blog. Enjoy! -Rachel

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Tanto Monta Design Diary #3: The Portuguese Player

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On the 29th of May, 1453, the great city of Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Turks. European trade with the Orient is significantly disrupted, causing prices for spices and silk to skyrocket across the Mediterranean. Portugal, a land nestled up against the Atlantic, has perfected the design of ocean-going caravels and spent the past thirty years exploring the coast of West Africa. Looking for new access to the markets of India and China, the Portuguese are ready to push further down the African Coast and build on the earlier work of their prince, nicknamed Henry the Navigator. Henry’s training program for navigators, established in the town of Sagres on the southwest tip of Portugal, has enhanced Portuguese techniques in shipbuilding and cartography. Soon archipelagos such as Madeira and the Azores have been discovered in the Atlantic. New routes are established that take advantage of the winds out over the open ocean, thus bypassing the limitations faced by expeditions that have to hug the coast. Surely voyages that test the southern limits of Africa will soon be within reach.

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Commands & Colors: Medieval Belisarius Campaign Part 7 – Decimum 533 AD (Phase 1)

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The Campaign

After significant break due to the pandemic, me and Marcin are coming back to the Belisarius Campaign. With the seventh installment in the series we are getting close to the end of this epic tale. This is a tale of the greatest Byzantine general, beautifully told by the Commands and Colors Medieval game. Today we move from the eastern frontiers to North Africa – time to start the Vandal War!

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Drop Zone: Southern France Organization of Units – Part 6: Allied Special Forces

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We will conclude our examination of unit organization with a look at the Allied Special Forces, involved in the campaign.

Today, the United States Army Special Forces have five primary missions: (1) unconventional warfare (the original and most important mission of Special Forces), (2) direct action, (3) special reconnaissance, (4) foreign internal defense, and (5) counter-terrorism. Allied special operations units in 1944 performed the first three of these missions, but primarily unconventional warfare—activities conducted to enable a resistance movement or insurgency to coerce, disrupt, or overthrow a government or occupying power by operating through or with an underground, auxiliary, and guerrilla force in a denied area.