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Meet the Statesmen of Congress of Vienna – The Russian Contingent, 2024 Edition (Part 3 of 4) with their Prussian and Swedish Allies

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Introduction by Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s Assistant Designer & Editor, Fred Schachter – To familiarize the InsideGMT audience of what designer Frank Esparrago created with his fun and exciting Congress of Vienna game, which is now a GMT P-500 offering; InsideGMT presented articles of “Designer’s Notes” and a “Game as History” series entitled “A Historical Introduction to the Congress of Vienna Period (CoV).” Use this link to access copies of these articles and much more: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-850-congress-of-vienna.aspx.

Since this is the fifth game of GMT’s “Great Statesmen” series, it seems appropriate to focus on those very Statesmen who make the Napoleonic Wars historical period so captivating and compelling to our hobby from the perspective of the game Frank designed.

Consequently, following Part One’s “British Contingent” and Part Two’s “Austrian Contingent” (with its bonus of CoV’s Bibliography), here’s part three of a four part series: “Meet the Statesmen of Congress of Vienna – The Russian Contingent, with their Prussian and Swedish Allies.” For the Russian CoV player controls cards and military forces representing Prussian and Swedish game Characters and together what a fascinating group they comprise!

The next and final increment of this series will address the French with their USA Allies for the War of 1812 and other non-aligned personages. It should be noted this piece was originally InsideGMT published during early 2020. This is the 2024 edition…which is an update including Terry Leeds’ gorgeous graphics of Congress of Vienna’s cards.

In italics we include a brief description of the cards with their CoV opportunities and weaknesses. However, before commencing this article’s main text, below is an aside regarding Leader Cards, a type of distinct card unique for each Major Power. Here’s the relevant Rulebook extract with an associated illustration:


I enjoyed learning more of the Historical Personages behind the game’s cards and hope you do as well. Now to meet the Great Statesmen (and military leaders) of Congress of Vienna’s Russian player…

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1867 Big Wyoming: Pressure Points

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I knew from the outset that I wanted people playing 1867 Big Wyoming to feel pressure. I didn’t want players to get comfortable, to bask too long in their short-term successes, to feel like the responsibility of changing the game state was on somebody else—I wanted players to feel like they were running a race, like slowing down was not an option, like there was always some ill-intentioned force waiting for the right moment to strike. In short, I wanted the game to put pressure on players in addition to what pressure naturally comes from their opponents. Some 18xx games are content to let players dictate the pace of a game and drive the game’s action; in fact, in many 18xx games, it’s theoretically possible that, if players behave in certain ways, the game will never end. While I very much appreciate many such games, that’s not what I wanted for 1867 Big Wyoming. There are several reasons for this.

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Napoleon in Egypt: Local Units Side with the French (Part 1)

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In Napoleon in Egypt, the French Player has several different types of Units at his disposal: Regulars, Grognards, Militia, and Auxiliaries. In this article, we will take a more detailed look at the background history of the various Auxiliary Units, original and colorful troops who can either be recruited by the French Player for 2 APs or show up through historical Events.

During the French campaign in Egypt and Syria, Bonaparte faced a major challenge: the renewal of his troops. Since the start of the Revolutionary Wars, the French armies had always maintained a link with their mother country, a natural source of new soldiers. Moreover, the revolutionary enthusiasm which had spread to some conquered territories and populations had assured an influx of allied units for the Republic. But after the naval disaster in Aboukir, sending troops from France to Egypt and Syria became impossible. Bonaparte had no choice: if he wanted to swell his ranks and benefit from fresh troops, he had to recruit local units, a principle he would later adopt throughout the Empire.

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How to Win at Twilight Struggle: Red Sea (Three Basic Tips, #11)

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Typically, my strategy posts cover fairly long, heavy games. These are the ones that benefit most from my approach of three easy-to-remember strategy tips for beginner and intermediate players, as you get some guidance for a game which you might not play again very soon to apply the experience you gathered from the first game. This is not the case for Twilight Struggle: Red Sea (Ananda Gupta/Jason Matthews, GMT Games): This game plays in barely over 30 minutes, so you can easily play it several times in a row. I still want to cover it here not only because I think it’s a fun game, but also because of the fondness I have for its big sibling Twilight Struggle (Ananda Gupta/Jason Matthews, GMT Games) – after all, original TS was the game with which I kicked off this series, and I know how many of you love it too. Yet this little TS spawn plays decidedly different. And so I want to focus on a few things that might be new even to seasoned TS players…they certainly were for me.

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1867 Big Wyoming: Union Pacific & Burlington Northern Acquisition

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One of my earliest goals when working on 1867 Big Wyoming was to create an endgame that differed from your standard 18xx “script.” Most 18xx games end with a prolonged and workmanlike series of operating rounds in which meaningful decision points become increasingly rare and the dynamic character of earlier game phases gradually disappears. While this sort of endgame appropriately rewards players for the foundations they’ve laid over the course of the game, I’ve never found them very fun or very engaging. I have yet to meet anyone who claims the end of an 18xx game is their favorite part.

1867 Big Wyoming’s endgame, which is driven by a series of acquisitions by the non-player Union Pacific and Burlington Northern systems, is my favorite part of the game. The seed of this acquisition system can be found in 1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight, designed by Mike Hutton. 1860’s acquisition system, while a breath of fresh air, lacked player agency and often tended only to make the rich richer. 1867 Big Wyoming’s acquisition system is, by contrast, full of meaningful decision points that have a significant impact on the game’s outcome.

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Hannibal Wonders, “Do ALL Roads REALLY Run to Rome?”: A tour of the penultimate version of the map for Hannibal’s Revenge

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It has been a long road (no pun intended) from my original kindergarten-(well, maybe 2nd grade) level playtest map to what we are soon having printed for ongoing play test and “Learn the Rules / Play the Game” demo session purposes, but it has been worth the trip. Readers can glance at the original Hannibal’s Revenge hand-drawn map I devised (should they want to start their day with a groan or a giggle, depending on their point of view) by going to this posting: Meet the Leaders & Gameboard of Hannibal’s Revenge | Inside GMT blog

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Meet the Statesmen of Congress of Vienna – The Austrian Contingent, 2024 Edition (Part 2 of 4) with CoV’s Bibliography as a Bonus

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Introduction by Congress of Vienna (CoV)’s Assistant Designer & Editor, Fred Schachter – To familiarize the InsideGMT audience of what designer Frank Esparrago created with his fun and exciting Congress of Vienna game, now a GMT P-500 offering; InsideGMT presented articles of “Designer’s Notes” and a “Game as History” series entitled “An Historical Introduction to the Congress of Vienna Period (CoV)”.  Use this link to access copies of these articles and more: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-850-congress-of-vienna.aspx .

Since this is the fifth game of GMT’s “Great Statesmen” series, it seems appropriate to focus on those very Statesmen who make this Napoleonic Wars historical period so captivating to our hobby from perspective of the game Frank designed.

Consequently, following Part One’s “British Contingent,” here’s part two of a four-part series: “Meet the Statesmen of Congress of Vienna – The Austrian Contingent.”  The next article increments will address the Russians-Prussians (a single player controls them both) and finally the French with their USA Allies for the War of 1812. It should be noted this piece was originally InsideGMT published during early 2020.  This is the 2024 edition… which is an update including Terry Leeds’ gorgeous graphics of Congress of Vienna’s cards.

This piece includes bonuses!  #1: The Military & Diplomacy Cards of Congress of Vienna and #2: a Bibliography, whose works lay behind the game’s design.  Alas, as previously explained, this material could not be accommodated within CoV’s Playbook due to space limitations and is consequently here presented.

I enjoyed learning more of the personages behind the game’s cards and hope you do as well. Now to meet the Great Austrian Statesmen (and military leaders) of Congress of Vienna…

In italics we include a description of the cards’ historical background, and their CoV opportunities and weaknesses:

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Factions of The Weimar Republic: Democratic Coalition

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This overview provides historical perspectives on the Democratic Coalition playable faction in The Weimar Republic, as well as some insight as to how the faction functions in gameplay terms. For overviews on the NSDAP, KPD, and Radical Conservatives factions, be sure to check out my earlier posts on Inside GMT.

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Firefight Friday #21: Countless Tales of Valor

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Welcome back to Firefight Fridays. Last week we covered the game’s bot, how it works, and the design philosophy behind it. This week we are wrapping up Firefight Fridays with a subject I am very excited about. I have mentioned many times over the course of this series how I wanted it to be easy and rewarding to build custom scenarios for Firefight Tactical. Even the core game scenarios themselves were designed in part to demonstrate the ease of making tweaks to the system to significantly alter gameplay. This week we will be talking about the logic behind custom scenario creation. Let’s jump in.

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Decisive Action: Assets

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Now that we have covered all the basics of Decisive Action, including fire combat, movement and opportunity fire, and activations and actions, it’s time for the piece de resistance: Assets. These are the combat multipliers available to the commander (i.e., you) to dispense with as he or she sees fit and include capabilities like Close Air Support (CAS) aircraft, UAVs, electronic warfare, and attack helicopters, as well as more colorful optional assets like chemical weapons and drone swarms.

A U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from the brigade (playtest art)

Of course, this smorgasbord of bellicose lethality is not an all-you-can-eat buffet: rather, you will have to make some tough decisions about what Assets you want served up to complete a particular mission, as well as when the serving is going to happen. Each mission provides a list of Assets you get pre-mission for free and a list of other Assets you can acquire with Operations Points (remember, Operations Points are an abstraction of the time and attention the staff and commander have to direct orders for changing Activation cards, calling in artillery, and, in this case, communicating with a higher echelon to request support). Assets can be “bought” either before the mission begins or while it’s taking place, but requesting them beforehand costs less Operations Points since the staff can focus all its attention on these tasks without getting distracted by Private Perkins umpteenth request for orders shouted over the radio above the din of artillery rounds going off. Nevertheless, the tactical situation may unexpectedly end up requiring a different tool, so you as the Commander will have to decide if you can live without that extra A-10 Close Air Support sortie or not.