Sekigahara is a simple 3-hour block game based on the campaign in 1600 that unified Japan. Hidden information on blocks & cards, but no dice. Cards are not events (this isn’t a typical “card-driven wargame”) but rather motivation (suited by clan). Units fight only when a matching card is produced.
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“Now the trumpet summons us again, not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are – but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle.” – John F. Kennedy
In 1945, unlikely allies toppled Hitler’s war machine, while humanity’s most devastating weapons forced the Japanese Empire to its knees in a storm of fire. Where once there stood many great powers, there now stood only two – the United States and the Soviet Union. The world had scant months to collectively sigh in relief before a new conflict threatened. Unlike the titanic struggles of the preceding decades, this conflict would be waged not primarily by soldiers and tanks, but by spies and politicians, scientists and intellectuals, artists and traitors. Twilight Struggle is a two-player game simulating the 45 year dance of intrigue, prestige, and occasional flares of warfare between the USSR and the USA. The entire world is the stage on which these two titans fight. The game begins amidst the ruins of Europe as the two new superpowers scramble over the wreckage of WWII and ends in 1989, when only the United States remained standing.
Twilight Struggle inherits its fundamental systems from the card-driven classics We the People and Hannibal. It is a quick-playing, low-complexity game in that same tradition. The game map is a world map of the period, whereon players move units and exert influence in attempts to gain allies and control for their superpower.
Twilight Struggle’s Event cards add detail and flavor to the game. They cover a vast array of historical happenings: the Arab-Israeli conflicts, Vietnam, the peace movement, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and other such incidents that brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation. Subsystems capture the prestige-laden Space Race as well as nuclear tensions, with the possibility of game-ending nuclear war. Can you, as the U.S. President or Soviet Premier, lead your nation to victory? Play Twilight Struggle and find out.
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In this collaboration between Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc, players must buy the favor of the gods in their race to be the first player to build two cities in the Ancient Greek island group known as the Cyclades.
Victory requires respect for all the gods – players cannot afford to sacrifice to only one god, but must pay homage to each of five gods in turn. Each turn, the players bid for the favors of the gods, as only one player can have the favor of each god per turn – and each player is also limited to the favor of a single god per turn.
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Risk Legacy represents what is if not a new, at least a rare concept to boardgaming: campaigning. At its core, the game, particularly at first, plays much like regular Risk with a few changes. Players control countries or regions on a map of the world, and through simple combat (with players rolling dice to determine who loses units in each battle) they try to eliminate all opponents from the game board or control a certain number of “red stars”, otherwise known as victory points (VPs).
What’s different is that Risk Legacy’ changes over time based on the outcome of each game and the various choices made by players. In each game, players choose one of five factions; each faction has uniquely shaped pieces, and more importantly, different rules. At the start of the first game, each of these factions gains the ability to break one minor rule, such as the ability to move troops at any time during your turn, as opposed to only at the end.
What makes this game unique is that when powers are chosen, players must choose one of their faction’s two powers, affix that power’s sticker to their faction card, then destroy the card that has the other rule on it – and by destroy, the rules mean what they say: “If a card is DESTROYED, it is removed from the game permanently. Rip it up. Throw it in the trash.” This key concept permeates through the game. Some things you do in a game will affect it temporarily, while others will affect it permanently. These changes may include boosting the resources of a country (for recruiting troops in lieu of the older “match three symbols” style of recruiting), adding bonuses or penalties to defending die rolls to countries, or adding permanent continent troop bonuses that may affect all players.
The rule book itself is also designed to change as the game continues, with blocks of blank space on the pages to allow for rules additions or changes. Entire sections of rules will not take effect until later in the game. The game box contains different sealed packages and compartments, each with a written condition for opening. The rule book indicates that these contain the rule additions, additional faction powers, and other things that should not be discussed here for spoiler protection.
The winner of each of the first 15 games receives a “major bonus,” such as founding a major city (which only he will be allowed to start on in future games), deleting a permanent modifier from the board, destroying a country card (preventing it from providing any resources towards purchasing troops in future games), changing a continent troop bonus, or naming a continent, which gives that player a troop bonus in future games. Players who did not win but were not eliminated are allowed to make minor changes to the world, such as founding a minor city or adding resources to a country.
Initial games take approximately 30-90 minutes to play, which includes a brief rules explanation and setup.
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In the aftermath of his stunning triumph at Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee decided to carry the war to the North in the hopes that a victory on Northern soil would win the war for the Confederacy. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was as close in numbers to its antagonist, the Army of the Potomac, as it had ever been, and that army was in a leadership crisis that would result in a new commander, George Meade, being appointed in the middle of the campaign.
Only two days after Meade’s taking command, a Union cavalry division outside of the town of Gettysburg came under attack by Confederate infantry. The engaged commanders of both sides called for reinforcements, and without orders from either Lee or Meade, more and more units from both armies rushed to the scene. Without anyone having planned or intended it, the decisive battle of the campaign, and perhaps the war, was underway.
The Guns of Gettysburg recreates that historic battle. Derived from the system used in the acclaimed Bonaparte at Marengo and Napoleon’s Triumph, the game, still in development, will retain the striking appearance, simple rules, and fast play of its predecessors. The system will, however, have numerous changes to reflect differences between the Napoleonic and American Civil War periods and also the special characteristics of the battle of Gettysburg.
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Gearworld: The Borderlands is a game of negotiation, conquest, and construction in which two to four players compete to gain the favor of the Sky People for their tribe of scavengers in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Based on the classic board game Borderlands designed by Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge and Peter Olotka, players must negotiate trades and alliances, conquer their rivals’ territory, and gather resources in a race to build the skyworks to win the favor of those who live in the World Above!
Gearworld: The Borderlands includes a game board with beautiful, detailed artwork, 220 tokens, and 100 plastic figures in four different colors.
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It Never Snows is a Standard Combat Series (SCS) game covering the pivotal Market Garden offensive in September, 1944. Using a system based on the well-received SCS Game Bastogne, It Never Snows covers the landings and ground offensive endeavoring to link up with them at 600m per hex with units generally companies. Each turn is half a day making for a 17 turn campaign game (uniquely playable among Market Garden games).
The expansive five map area allows each of the airborne division fights to be geographically isolated and separate, as was the case historically. What this does is that it allows each situation to be gamed as its own little tactical puzzle—making it such that a player might be “winning” in one region while “losing” in another, at the same time. Both players are always “in the game.”
While the Allied player is busy dropping paratroopers, establishing bridgeheads and running a ground offensive to link up with them, the German player must devastate the airborne forces clinging to Arnhem, defend the various river crossings and counterattack to sever the Allied supply lines. Both players are attacking and defending at the same time, every turn.
Following on the heels of Bastogne, It Never Snows uses a tactical model with a minimal amount of rules overhead which shows both set-piece as well as “on the fly” attacks and the effects of indirect fires and air support.
A fantastically detailed OOB shows the insane array of German units being scratched together to defeat the Allied offensive—from displaced sailors to the deaf, from elite armor to barely trained school units, from highly motivated SS to penal units being pushed into battle at gunpoint. Against the elite airborne troops of the Allies, this menagerie is hardly the German army many wargamers envision when they think of World War II.
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The year is 1812. Great Britain and her allies are battling Napoleon for control of Europe. In response to British seizure of American ships and goods, the young United States declares war on Britain and invades Canada. You and up to 4 other players take command of the armies of the British Redcoats, Canadian Militia, and Native Americans, or of the American Regulars and American Militia to decide the fate of the Americas. The action takes place on a huge historically accurate map that spans the United States and Canada from Detroit to Montreal. Players from each faction cooperate to gain control of key towns and forts.
1812 features fast, intuitive and fun gameplay that involves teamwork and strategic planning in a historic and educational setting. This is THE GAME for people who want an enjoyable and manageable introduction to historic/conflict based games.
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The modern wars in Africa provide a rich arena of different and unique gaming situations beyond WWII in North Africa (where most wargames have concentrated their examination of wars in Africa). Some of these wars were short affairs of a few months, while others raged for twenty years or more. Each of these modern African wars shaped the political and military future of the continent and they are still finding their way into today’s headlines.
The African Wars series provides a means for understanding these wars that shaped modern Africa and current world opinion.
The Last King of Scotland, the first in the African Wars series by designer Dennis Bishop, simulates the Uganda-Tanzania War of 1978 – 1979 that ousted Uganda’s President for Life, Idi Amin Dada. With a seeming fascination for all things Scottish, Idi Amin referred to himself as the “uncrowned king of Scotland”. When Amin fled Uganda, in a sense he truly became “The Last King of Scotland.”
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ZULUS ON THE RAMPARTS! is the battle cry of those defending the Mission Station at Rorke’s Drift. It is 22 January 1879, and the British invasion column moving into Zululand was disastrously defeated that morning at nearby Isandlwana. Now, fresh troops from the victorious Zulu iMpi (army) are advancing on your position. With your 140 British soldiers and auxiliaries, you must survive the repeated attacks of 4000+ crack Zulu warriors.
This States of Siege™ game puts you squarely in command of a desperate defense. As events unfold and heroes emerge, can you build up the barricades and fill the breaches before the camp is overrun?
As the Zulus relentlessly charge wielding their deadly spears and as British rifles overheat, can you keep cool and make the command decisions necessary to hold your position and repel the onrush of fierce braves until the Relief Column arrives?
The Battle of Rorke’s Drift saw more Victoria Crosses awarded than any other before or since. Can you write an equally glorious page in history as you confront these ZULUS ON THE RAMPARTS! ?
Joseph Miranda
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