Below you will find another fantastic article from Clio’s Board Games, this time discussing the history of the Berlin Wall through the lens of GMT’s 1989: Dawn of Freedom. You can also find this article on Clio’s blog. If you are interested in Clio’s Board Games’ other articles in the 20th century German history series, you can find those listed below. Enjoy! -Rachel
Introduction by Fred Schachter: Part 1 of this series provided General Background regarding GMT’s upcoming Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME).
Now that the stage has begun being set; how should players’ attitude be when they consider playing ACME? We all assume a role when playing a game and this installment conveys what perspective an ACME player is encouraged to take to fully appreciate this game’s somewhat unusual design perspective.
To best enjoy this series of articles, some knowledge of ACIS is helpful. GMT has a wealth of information regarding ACIS in its site for the game: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-624-ancient-civilizations-of-the-inner-sea.aspx .
One of the major strengths of historical board games – be they classical wargames, political games or something in between – is that they let players experience the joy of “playing history”, of creating contra-factual situations based on historically accurate premises. Through exploration of the what if?-scenarios that most readers of history delight in, and by allowing for different versions and variants of these scenarios during each play session, historical board games offer a way of understanding and reflecting on history that is, in most cases, both interactive and entertaining.
The first set of six characters from Banish the Snakes that we described were contemporaries of Patrick — or even his predecessors. We now begin the first of six characters that rose to prominence in the following century or so, and played prominent roles in completing the conversion of Ireland to Christianity. In a historic game, they begin shuffled into the deck of event cards. Of course, you are not restricted to the historic order: you can choose to start with some of these people instead, and shuffle others into the deck.
Below is the first in a series of articles from Mark McLaughlin showcasing the 16 civilizations in Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East.
Last weekend I was at the GMT Weekend at the Warehouse gathering and Gene was kind enough to give me an open copy of Nevsky. To set the stage, I am friends with the designer, so if I did not like the game I would never post anything. If I liked the game I would have tweeted out some happy words. But if I really like the game, I write a strategy analysis.
At first glance, The Barracks Emperors seems to be a bit of an unusual game to appear on the GMT Games website. It’s not a wargame, although it does feature player conflict. It’s not a historical simulation, although it is historically themed. And it’s not part of a great series, although it does share its setting and some of its material with the light wargame Time of Crisis, and its expansion The Age of Iron and Rust.
To find a game reminiscent of The Barracks Emperors in GMT’s stable, you’d want to think about Battle Line, Reiner Knizia’s card game that put an ancient war theme on three-card poker and took it to a new level of play. Like Battle Line, The Barracks Emperors is a themed card game rooted in traditional card games, with new mechanics that add tactical depth and player competition. It’s a trick-taking game at heart, with a core mechanic that may remind you of games like Spades or Bridge, but this isn’t your grandfather’s card game. It’s not a friendly Euro game either. The Barracks Emperors adds a number of twists that turn a simple trick-taking game into a veritable battle, requiring players to find ways to leverage multiple different aspects of card play to cleverly steal Emperor Cards away from the other players (the “tricks” – representing opportunities to seize the throne of Rome).
One playtester memorably described The Barracks Emperors as “trick taking, weaponized.”
The purpose of this article is to explain some more about how The Barracks Emperors works, focusing on the twists that make it distinctive and take a “simple” trick-taking game to the “weaponized” level.
FAB Crusader has turned into being several games within a game design. There are the overall operations, which can best be likened to a combination of three seashells combined with roulette. You have to bluff, feint, and maneuver to be strong where your opponent is weak and take victory points in sudden rushes to push you to victory. A part of this is also the resource management bit where you have to make hard choices between taking losses in pips or assets and manage your flow, your rhythm, knowing when to attack, and when to save for later. But then there is the tactical game, where it is about using the right tools for the job. Or at least trying to do so.
This is the last of six installments describing the characters represented in the historic “at start” cards. Over the following weeks, I will describe each of the six cards that are shuffled into the deck at the beginning of the game, representing characters that rose to prominence after the initial group did their work in Ireland. However, in any game you can instead choose to change this, starting with whomever you would like, maybe even with Patrick and his initial cohorts shuffled into the deck.
Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East offers gamers the opportunity to play – and play against – 16 nations, peoples, kingdoms, and empires which rose, fought, prospered, and perished over the course of 4,000 years. As many as six – or as few as two – of these civilizations may be present in a single game. Historical set-ups help guide players to put themselves in a particular time and area of the map, while Sandbox game set-ups allow players to create their own “what if†matchups where civilizations which were not contemporaneous can be set against each other in a struggle for domination – and survival.
