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Bonnie Prince Charlie and “The ‘45” — French Strategy in Clash of Sovereigns (Part 2 of ?)

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Whew! After a long hiatus doing not much of anything productive, I have returned to impart more thoughts on Clash of Sovereigns. The first French Strategy article, posted some time back, covered the big picture on COS play for France. So, for round two, let’s drill down and focus on a notable sub-game in COS – “The ‘45” invasion of the Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie, and his forlorn attempt to retake the English throne. [Note – all images are playtest visuals from the working Vassal module; production components will be different and splendid!]

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Seas of Thunder: Raiders – Shadows on the Sea

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One of the great balancing devices in Seas of Thunder are the Axis raiders and their ability to force the Allies to defend even the most out-of-the-way backwater Sea Zones. The raider’s distant reach and their special abilities force the Allies to play defense across the entire globe. They are hard to hit, hard to catch and hard to stop. Good play with the raiders can go a long way to an Axis victory, especially in the early scenarios. Sloppy play can bring the curtain down on Axis chances quite abruptly and far more severely than their strength seems to warrant. When the seas are populated with massive battleships and carriers full of planes and submarines that can easily bring down said battleships, what makes the lowly armed merchantman kso decisive? Well, the game works hard to keep them alive, but it can be squandered. Knowing what they can accomplish is helpful, but ignoring it can be disastrous. Treating them as fragile treasures can preserve them as a menace throughout the game, but considering them just another tin can will doom them. Raiders have unique options and skill sets that can reap great rewards, but if these are ignored, they become just another weak ship destined for Davy Jones’ Locker.

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Struggle for Power in The Weimar Republic: KPD Play by Play, 1919 to 1921 (Part 1)

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Introduction

I came to designer Gunnar Holmbäck’s The Weimar Republic with the resolve of a time traveller determined to change History, a resolve nurtured by a grandfather’s subscription to Berlin’s Die Rote Fahne (The Red Flag), German New Wave director Margarethe von Trotta’s film, Rosa Luxemburg (1986), the Weimar era novels of Alfred Doblin and, most recently, the German TV series, Babylon Berlin, set in the capital’s insurrectionist streets and licentious nightclubs.

When I first joined the ranks of The Weimar Republic’s play testers as faction leader of the KPD (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands) aka the German Communist Party, that struggle was as close as my bookshelf and Rosa Luxemburg’s 1907 treatise, The Mass Strike, Political Parties and Trade Unions. By June of 1919 her corpse would float in Berlin’s Landwehr Canal. And so, I had my Victory Condition: to defeat by Revolution the reactionary paramilitaries or Freikorps, Luxemburg’s murderers unleashed by the fledgling Republic. Vicious realpolitik is the initial game state of The Weimar Republic, the board game.

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Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME) Example of Play Part 1 of 3: Game Set-Up through Growth Phase

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Introduction: Those familiar with Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea’s (ACIS) Playbook example of a turn may observe similarities between that piece and this exposition. However, although both games share the same basic system, there are differences. For details, and links to material which explain game term references (for this article’s limitations can only allude to rulebook details); see an associated InsideGMT article: Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East Design Background and Differences from Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea.

Let’s again join Sue and Bob of the ACIS Playbook as they enjoy ACME’s excitement and uncertain arena of chaos while competing against one another for advantage towards earning an Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East triumph.

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Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Columba

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Here is the final installment of my series of articles on the main characters in Banish the Snakes, who are called “saints” in the game. I hope you have enjoyed these short biographies. Perhaps they have brought some understanding to a little-known episode in world history.

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The Terrible Year Part 2: The Paris Commune

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In the article below, first-time designer Fred Serval writes about the specific context and events of the Paris Commune. You can find part one of this series here. For more information on this game, see the December 2019 GMT Customer Update.

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The Terrible Year Part 1: The Franco-Prussian War

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First-time designer Fred Serval writes about the historical context for his upcoming design on the Paris Commune…

In 1872, Victor Hugo published a series of poems called L’Année Terrible (the Terrible Year), dealing with 3 significant events in the writer’s life: the fall of the Second Empire, the loss of his son, and the events of the Paris Commune. This year was indeed terrible, not only for Victor Hugo but also for Parisians and most of the French population. After the fall of Napoleon the third, the famous author could finally come back from exile to his home city only to witness the Prussian Siege of 1870, the humiliating end of the war, foreign troops parading in Paris, and, finally, the brutal repression of the Paris Commune during the Bloody Week.

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War on the Raiders: A Strategic Look at Playing the Allies in Seas of Thunder Scenario 1

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Seas of Thunder is a game covering the global war on the high seas during World War 2. Scenario 1 covers the period between the start of the war and the invasion of France in 1940 and spans three game turns. France and Britain are pitted against the much smaller German fleet. At first blush, the Allies appear to have an embarrassment of riches that appears to have no end.

This article is not intended to be a fully established unbeatable strategy guide. It is intended to give new players a list of possibilities and some suggestions about what not to do. Players can do everything right and still lose a scenario simply because of dice and more importantly the interactive combat resolution that can allow for an unorthodox strategy to work above its expected value. I will even say that these basic do’s and don’ts can and have been overcome by a bold stroke here and there by the Axis. In general adherence to these rules will keep you in a game but victory over a skilled player will require elements of surprise and luck.

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Determining AMs in Great Battles of the American Civil War (GBACW)

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GMT rates GBACW’s complexity a “7” for good reasons — though there are undoubtedly whiz kids who immediately grasp the intent of the series rules, some of us poor mortals require a reread or two before we sit down at the table. This is the first of what will hopefully be a series of articles aimed at the latter group. Each article will tackle a topic that experience indicates is likely to generate questions, both from those new to GBACW and from veteran players alike. A word of caution: There’s no substitute for reading the rules.