This article is a written version of a YouTube video about the design of Red Flag Over Paris. In Part 1 I wrote about Political and Military Spaces, Victory Conditions, and Strategy Cards.
Below is the twelfth in a series of articles from Mark McLaughlin showcasing the 16 civilizations in Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East. You can find the first eleven articles in the series here.
I remember cracking the seal on my first COIN game – Colonial Twilight – and seeing that bot chart in the box. I was a relatively new wargamer, and Colonial Twilight was not only my first COIN game but also my first P500 (much to my wallet’s chagrin, it was not my last!). After playing a learning game I quickly took out the bot and began to play a Solitaire game. I was floored by the ability of the bot to play better than I could, teaching me the nuances of the game. While I recognized the limitations of the bot, I was quite enamored of the experience and satisfied with the playability, usability, and skill shown in the design of the bot.
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Badajoz is a small and quiet city in the southwest of Spain with 150,000 inhabitants. It is replete with history relevant to the Congress of Vienna game period. It boasts an old fortress with 17th-century Vauban bastions that was key to the southern corridor between Portugal and Spain during the Peninsular War. It was occupied by the French March 1811 after the Spaniards surrendered.
[In this article, I will occasionally interject my thoughts in to issues that Chuck either left vague or skipped completely. I do this only to make sure everyone is as clear as possible on the concepts he is presenting and how they relate to the game. Honestly this could be looked at as a companion to our 2nd article on the game where I discussed the workings of the Combat Sequence Card. This is Chuck’s first effort at writing an article for… anything, I believe. – Jeff Horger]
Introduction by ACIS Developer Fred Schachter: The Designers, Mark McLaughlin and Chris Vorder Bruegge, as well as myself, would like as many of our fellow hobbyists as possible to enjoy playing ACIS. We appreciate some gamers sharing how they’ve mitigated the game’s chaos through a variety of house rules and it is grand learning how those customized changes result in more folks having fun with the game and consequently playing it repeatedly.
Upon reading of gamers modifying ACIS, Mark responded… “If they are playing the game and are happy, I am happy… if they are playing the game and making it their own, I am even happier.”
These positive developments inspired Designer Chris Vorder Bruegge to make recommendations of his own, recommendations which mitigate Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea’s chaotic game environment with a menu of choices. For those interested in experiencing this different ACIS milieu, a more merciful environment than the game as published offers, we hope you’ll appreciate and enjoy Chris’ offerings…
Below is the eleventh in a series of articles from Mark McLaughlin showcasing the 16 civilizations in Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East. You can find the first ten articles in the series here.
This month’s P500 announcement of a new Fire in the Lake bot system has prompted much excitement from Fire in the Lake fans, and several questions which I will answer in this article. This article is a Q&A format, but keep reading to the bottom to get a sneak peek at the new Trưng Solitaire system (the u is pronounced like the ‘oo’ in ‘food’).
