We usually announce new P500 game information when we add the game to our P500 list. Every once in a while, though, especially for game series with strong followings, we give you some insider previews here in InsideGMT. Today, designer James Day gives us a peek at the next game in his popular Panzer series. Enjoy!
In the latest InsideGMT articles on All Bridges Burning, we kicked off a series of short posts going through the base game commands and special activities to help gamers ease into playing the game with minimum effort.
Last time we looked at the Rally command and the Prepare special activity. Today we continue that series with Activism and Political Event.
While sheltering-in-place during our present global circumstances, I had the privilege to playtest the upcoming expansion to SpaceCorp, titled SpaceCorp: Ventures. One of my favorite parts of the new game is the updated solo play options, especially the custom competition HQ! In this article, we will take a look at how the new player HQ New Nomads fares against the competition HQ D.P. Roberts Ltd in the Mariners era.
Introduction by Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s Editor, Fred Schachter – To familiarize the InsideGMT audience of what designer Frank Esparrago accomplished with his fun and exciting Congress of Vienna game, now a GMT P-500 offering which has “Made the Cut” and then some (thank you patrons, thank you so very much!) kindly reference previous InsideGMT articles covering a wide range of CoV topics. These can serve as useful background for appreciating this article. Use the following link to access this material: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-850-congress-of-vienna.aspx
The CoV play test team, now mostly using VASSAL due to being geographically disparate, have enjoyed many exciting Congress of Vienna games. I have become something of a “VASSAL Voyeur” observing a game from time to time with its fun, excitement, and often hilarious banter between the players (e.g. “that’s one heck of a maniacal chuckle, my friend… just what are you planning, you sly fox, you?!?”)
The team has held many an interesting debate considering how to best play each of Congress of Vienna’s Major Powers. This article wraps this “strategies” series up by reflecting on their most recent musings concerning Russia as described by game designer Frank Esparrago. It follows preceding InsideGMT articles for France, Austria, and Britain.
We have indicated in italics game Issue markers the players vie for. The terms “track” and “front” are synonymous. Game rules will unfortunately need to be implicit: a restriction an article format such as this compels which readers will hopefully appreciate. That said, take it away Frank (and readers, please appreciate Frank’s somewhat tongue in cheek humor within certain parts of this piece)!
Note: If you would like to view any of the below images in a larger size, you can click on the image and it will point you to the full image file.
As I write this, the preorders placed on All Bridges Burning have just been charged and the game is due to begin to ship within the next few weeks.
In the last few InsideGMT articles on All Bridges Burning, we looked at the game’s solitaire system in action (see those articles here, here, and here). In the course of the next few posts, we shall go through the base game commands and special activities to hopefully help gamers ease into playing the game with minimum effort.
Let’s begin the series with a look at one of the most central of all commands in the game, the Rally command.
While sheltering-in-place during our present global circumstances, I had the privilege to playtest the upcoming expansion to SpaceCorp, titled SpaceCorp: Ventures. One of my favorite parts of the new game is the updated solo play options, especially the custom competition HQ! Over several articles, I’ll be playing the new player HQ New Nomads against the competition HQ D.P. Roberts Ltd.
Note that all images in this article are near final art and subject to change. While very nicely printed, the final components will be printed on cards and thick cardstock, while my copy was made at a local printshop.
Like its parent game, our forthcoming SpaceCorp expansion, SpaceCorp:Ventures includes a dedicated solo version with its own rules. For Ventures, designer John Butterfield tweaked the Solo AI to make it tougher to beat, by enhancing the competition’s responsiveness to the strategic situation on each era’s board. Players who enjoyed the original SpaceCorp solo game and want a more challenging AI will be pleased to know that the Ventures solo enhancements can also be applied to original solo SpaceCorp.
This post introduces official solitaire enhancements compatible with original SpaceCorp. The enhancements refine competition site actions, so we have a downloadable Solitaire Player Aid that includes these changes linked to this post (and on the SpaceCorp game page on the GMT website).
Below you will find another fantastic article from Clio’s Board Games, this time discussing Hapsburg player strategy in Here I Stand. You can also find this article on Clio’s blog. 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
Slated to start shipping in September, the publication of All Bridges Burning is almost upon us! In the previous InsideGMT article on All Bridges Burning we set upon playing a few turns of a solitaire game. This article continues from where we left off that time.
