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Posted on Jul 29, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Tim Williams Another One Gone… Richard Berg 1943-2019 Richard H. Berg was one of the best wargame designers that ever took up a pencil and a history book and converted the results into a historical simulation game capable of stimulating players’ interest in History, sharpening their intellects, and damaging their friendships. Outside of movies, my primary hobby between 1977 and roughly 1991 was Board Wargaming, and Berg designs were prominent in my collection, which at its peak numbered approximately 320 games. Aside from game design, Mr. Berg was a retired Criminal Defense Lawyer by trade, but was also a true ‘Renaissance’ individual, capable of holding forth with great authority on subjects as diverse as Literature, Baseball, Haute Cuisine and Opera. Having joined several wargame-related FaceBook pages some years back, I took a chance and sent him a friend request, which to my surprise he accepted. I was even more surprised how willing he was to make comments on my posts, especially considering that we were not actually “friends†or even...
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Posted on Jul 23, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Marathon 490 BC Board Game Review. Publisher: Turning Point Simulations Game Designer: Paul Rohrbaugh Price $33.95 zip lock bag, $39.95 boxed Passed Inspection: beautiful components, fun to play, can be played in 2 or 3 hours, small table footprint, easy to learn rules, high replay value owing to both a historic and a hypothetical scenario Failed Basic: abatis counters are printed too lightly, counters must face a hex vertex which I kept forgetting to do, needs slightly bigger hexes ‘With you it rests, Callimachus, either to bring Athens to slavery, or, by securing her freedom, to be remembered by all future generations. For never since the time that the Athenians became a people were they in so great a danger as now. If they bow their necks beneath the yoke of the Persians, the woes which they will have to suffer…are already determined. If, on the other hand, they fight and overcome, Athens may rise to be the very first city in Greece.’ Herodotus The Battle of Marathon...
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Posted on Jul 8, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Halls of Montezuma: Publisher: GMT Games. Designers: Michael Welker & David Fox. Price $55.00 (On sale for $35.00) Passed inspection: Does a good job of teaching Mexican geography through the map. Highlights the key events of the war through the event and action cards. Failed basic: Set up instructions are unclear. Original rulebook is a muddle that makes learning to play the game very difficult. Card driven games have become a staple of the board game hobby. Be it “Twilight Struggleâ€, “For the Peopleâ€, or any of the growing number of COIN series games, the card driven game seems here to stay. And rightly so as the mechanism of the card driven game allows a great blend of history lesson, special rule delivery vehicle and an agent for conveying the fog of war. The Mexican American War is a great topic for a card driven game. With a rich history of events that span political and military affairs, the period offers the opportunity to convey a lot of...
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Posted on Jul 5, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Bloody Dawns. 2017. Publisher: High Flying Dice Games. Designer: Pierre Razoux. Developer: Paul Rohrbaugh. Price: $45.00 Passed inspection: Game provided insight into the little covered Iran-Iraq War. Rules were easy to digest and focused on speed of play and player experience. Great introduction to card driven games. Die-cut counters! Failed basic: A few minor bits of errata you need to integrate into the rulebook, but that errata are included with the game. Mention the Iran-Iraq war to most American’s and they’ll likely focus on either the first gulf war in 1990-91 or the post-9/11 events of the past 18 years. Those that do remember the conflict often view it through the lens of Ronald Reagan’s presidential victory, the end of the Iranian hostage crisis and a more militant, interventionist United States foreign policy. What’s often lost in this view are the details of an eight-year war that pitted two intractable competitors engaged in total war. While it’s easy to view this as a proxy war between cold war adversaries,...
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Posted on Jul 4, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Warfighter The World War II Pacific Combat Card Game Board Game Review. Publisher: DVG Games Game Designer: Dan Verssen and Kevin Verssen Price $59.99 Passed Inspection – fast playing, fun, the game creates an immersive narrative for your squad, unique combat system, beautiful components, solo or cooperative play Failed Basic:  rules could be reorganized for easier reference, needs an index, box cannot hold everything once you unpack the cards. There is a steep learning curve. Game requires a large table top footprint, rules say you can play Japanese or American teams but the game only includes cards for playing as the Americans, needs more equipment and weapon cards, I would prefer a greater variety of enemy encounters. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller’s quote above was actually made during the time he served in the Korean Conflict but it easily applies to the US Marine and Army combat in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. The quote especially applies to the adventures you will have in...
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Posted on Jun 28, 2019 in Electronic Games, Front Page Features
The Battle of Peleliu 1944 for Android Operating System Game Review. Publisher and Designer: Joni Nuutinen Price $5.99 Passed Inspection: detailed play, nice graphics, great AI, fantastic value for the price, informational texts tell you about the battle Failed Basic: too easy to move a unit by mistake and no option to take back a move, solo play only Joni Nuutinen is a Finnish developer of strategy games for the Android system. An overview of his games for the Android Operating System was published back in 2015. ‘Conflict’ Series – Android OS Game Review Peleliu 1944 is a strategic look at this most horrible of World War 2 Pacific battles. Each turn is approximately 3 hours long and each unit is a regiment. At the bottom of the screen is a status line showing the turn number and month, day and year. Also on the status line are indicators for the victory points earned, temporary movement points and rail movement points. You are playing from the American perspective. Each...
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Posted on Jun 18, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
An Undeniable Victory: Operation Fath ol Mobin. Publisher: High Flying Dice Games. Designer: Paul Rohrbaugh Price: $45.00 Passed inspection: Game provided insight into a little covered battle of the Iran-Iraq War. Focuses rules were easy to digest and focused on speed of play and player experience. Die-cut counters! Failed basic: A few minor bits of errata you need to integrate into the rulebook, but the errata is included with the game. I was a teenager in 1982. I was also a wargamer with a keen interest in ‘modern’ Cold War gaming. But the real-world action in those days did not focus on the Inter-German Border. Instead, the newspapers had sketchy reports from the front lines of a distant land – the ongoing war between Iraq and Iran. In 1980 Saddam Hussein launched an offensive into Iran designed to weaken the Islamic Revolution, secure Iraq from infiltration and allow Iraq to replace Iran as the dominant power in the Persian Gulf. As you might know, that plan did not work...
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Posted on Jun 12, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Retro Review # 3 Ace of Aces Game Review. Publisher: Nova Game Designs Game Designer: Alfred Leonardi Price: varies (EBay or limited copies reprinted by Flying Buffalo Games) Passed Inspection: Easy to learn, can be played almost in real time, each set covers different time periods of military aviation, can almost fit in your pocket, different levels of complexity Failed Basic: out of print so it can be difficult to find, a few errors in the pages, early World War I planes are somewhat unbalanced, not solo compatible Ace of Aces is 39 years old this year. First gracing the shelves of your friendly neighborhood game store in 1980 (for me it was the Tin Soldier in Dayton, Ohio), Ace of Aces has not lost any of its allure and, like a fine wine, seems to get better with age. For Retro Review number 3, come with me in our biplane of the imagination and let’s take a closer look at the Ace of Aces game system. As stated...
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Posted on Jun 6, 2019 in Armchair Reading, Front Page Features
75th Anniversary D-Day A Millennials Guide – Book Review Anthology edited by Jay Wertz, Monroe Publications. 2019 315 pages Soft Cover $19.99 ISBN 9781732631502 It is a sad truth that the youth today, in aggregate, know less about history than any other generation for the last 100 years even though they have access to more research material than almost any generation in history thanks to the Internet. According to the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation’s October 3rd, 2018 report, just one in three American citizens would pass the United States Citizenship Exam which focuses on American history and civics. This is a cultural crime and must be rectified in the immediate future if we are to have any semblance of an educated citizenry by the mid to late 21st Century. Monroe Publications and Jay Wertz hope to rectify some of this deficiency by the release of the new soft cover book entitled the “75th Anniversary D-Day A Millennials Guideâ€. The book is comprised of an introduction plus 23 chapters...
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Posted on May 30, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Sails of Glory 2018 Ship Pack Expansion Miniatures Game Review. Publisher: Ares Games Game Designer: Andrea Angiolino and Andrea Mainini Price $13.00 to $20 depending on the ship Passed Inspection – beautiful, fully built and painted ships ready to set sail using the Sails of Glory game system Failed Basic – not a single thing “A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.â€Â When the legendary Rear Admiral and computer scientist (think COBOL) Grace Hopper made this statement in which she was re-quoting John G. Shedd , she was not talking about sailing ships from the 1700s and 1800s but her statement is completely apropos to ships of that time period which is the focus of Ares Games’ brilliant Sails of Glory. In late 2018, Ares released 12 new ships for the game. With the addition of these ships, the total number of ships available is now 58 ships including ships of the line, frigates, sloops and merchantmen. Each fully painted and assembled...
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Posted on May 28, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
A Step to Victory: The Bougainville Campaign 1943-45. Publisher: War Drum Games. (English Translation and distribution: Quarterdeck International.) Designer: Yasushi Nakaguro. Price 11.00 Passed inspection: Colorful map is a clean, effective depiction of Bougainville. Counters are perfectly die-cut, colorful and easy to read. Rules are clear and to the point. A great game to introduce new players to hex and counter wargaming. Failed basic: Reinforcement rules are open to interpretation and could use clarification. Games covering the Pacific Theater tend to focus on either the naval battles or a handful of land battles like the Kokoda Trail, Guadalcanal or the Philippines campaigns. Glossed over in that perception are a number of ground battles and campaigns that were far less glamorous, but just as critical in prosecuting the war against the Japanese Empire. Yasushi Nakaguro has done a good job bringing one of these lesser known campaigns to the tabletop in the form of ‘A Step to Victory: The Bougainville Campaign’. The game was most recently re-published by War Drum...
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Posted on May 24, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Jack Greene’s “Togo Dawn of the Dreadnought – Naval Battles of the Russo-Japanese War†Board Game Review. Publisher: Bonsai Games and Quarterdeck International Game Designer: Jack Greene Price $39 Passed Inspection – well organized, clearly written rules. An elegant system for ship to ship combat. Easy to learn. Excellent value for the price Failed Basic –gun combat results table needs an identifier for the columns and rows to help with identification, fleet sheets are slightly larger than 8.5 x 11 so can provide a challenge to photocopy for use “Certainly the Japanese navy had performed well, but its opponents had been weak, and it was not invincible … TÅgÅ’s victory [helped] set Japan on a path that would eventually lead her to the Second World War.†-Historian Geoffrey Regan “You are young, and it is you who will one day retrieve the honor and glory of the Russian Navy. The lives of the two thousand four hundred men in these ships are more important than mine.†-Russian Rear Admiral...
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Posted on May 21, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Retro Review #2 Star Trek III. Publisher: West End Games. Designers: Greg Costikyan, John M. Ford, Doug Kaufman. Price: $16.95 (1985), $24.00 (current used) Passed inspection: Contains three distinct solitaire games. Captures the theme of classic Star Trek episodes. Gives you the opportunity to game out the Kobayashi Maru scenario from Wrath of Khan. Failed basic: The lack of thematic connection to the movie ‘Star Trek III: The Search for Spock’ makes the game’s title feel a bit like a bait and switch effort. Some game play is weak with one of the games having little feel of specifically being set in the ‘Star Trek’ universe. Time travel is a common theme in Star Trek, so in today’s episode, we’re going to step back in time a few decades and revisit the crew of the starship Enterprise in the form of West End Games’ board game – Star Trek III. Back in the early 80’s, you couldn’t swing a Denebian Slime Devil in a game store without hitting a...
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Posted on May 3, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Terminator Genisys: Rise of the Resistance Board Game Review. Publisher: River Horse Game Designer: Alessio Cavatore Price $84.99 Passed Inspection: Easy to learn, captures the frantic energy of the movies perfectly, beautiful components and minis Failed Basic: a few vague rules can lead to confusion I still remember with great fondness that day in 1984 when my good friend dropped by and asked me if I’d seen the new film called “The Terminatorâ€. At that point I hadn’t as the film had only been out for one day and I was waiting for the weekend to see it. My friend, Anthony, said “good†and then set up a Car Wars role playing and car combat game for us to play which ran my character through the events of Terminator movie! Well my character and his tricked out Mad Max style combat car survived our encounter with futuristic cyborg and a few days later I saw the film, itself, and was completely blown away! When Terminator 2 rolled around in...
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Posted on Apr 22, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Zeppelin Raider. Publisher: Compass Games. Designers: Gregory M. Smith and Paul O’Grady. Price $79.00 ($59.00 sale price) Passed inspection: Captures the experience of taking a Zeppelin into action. Catalogs the risks and dangers faced by the commander and crew of the airships. Failed basic: Could have used a flow chart to walk through the mission steps. World War I is remembered for the innovation and industrialization that transformed war into the mechanized meat grinder it is today. Aerial warfare emerged as a new dimension by which one could project force while avoiding the traditional obstacles of land and water. While conventional airplanes lacked the range, reliability and payload to carry the fight deep into the enemy’s territory, Germany quickly recognized the military value of the rigid airship – and the role of the Zeppelin in military service took off. Which brings us to Compass Games’ new release – Zeppelin Raiders. Created by Paul O’Grady, Zeppelin Raider is a solitaire game that pus the player into command of a single...
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Posted on Apr 19, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Enemy Coast Ahead – The Doolittle Raid Board Game Review. Publisher: GMT Games Game Designer: Jeremy White Price $60.00 by Rick Martin Passed Inspection – rich, dynamic game play, fully immersive, various levels of play, programmed rules, full campaign can be played in one day, great replayability, fantastic narrative, entire game (from planning to denouement) can be played in one day Failed Basic: needs an index, many chit draws makes one wish for a simple die roll table, mission security rules not as clear as I would have hoped “One of the pilots asked what Doolittle would do if his plane were hit. “Each pilot must decide for himself what he will do and what he’ll tell his crew to do if that happens,†he answered. “I know what I’m going to do.†A silence hung over the men before the pilot asked the logical follow-up. “I don’t intend to be taken prisoner,†Doolittle replied. “I’m 45 years old and have lived a full life. If my plane...
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Posted on Apr 3, 2019 in Electronic Games, Front Page Features
The Problem with Hexagons By D. Ezra Sidran, PhD General-Staff.com Hexagons are ubiquitous in wargames now (indeed, both Philip Sabin’s War: Studying Conflict Through Simulation Games and Peter Perla’s The Art of Wargaming feature hexagons on their book covers), but this wasn’t always the case. My first wargame – the first board wargame for many of us – was Avalon Hill’s original Gettysburg (by the way, $75 seems to be the going price for a copy on eBay these days). No hexagons in Avalon Hill’s original Gettysburg. Remember how the map contained the original starting positions for the Union cavalry and out posts? From author’s collection.  The American Kriegsspiel by Captain Livermore (circa 1882) only had a map grid for estimating distances. We also have a map grid in General Staff to facilitate estimating distances but you can turn the map grid on or off. Plate 1 from The American Kriegsspiel by Captain Livermore. This image is from GrogHeads wonderful blog post on Nineteenth Century Military...
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Posted on Mar 28, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Profile in Courage PT-109  Board Game Review. Publisher: High Flying Dice  Games  Game Designer:   Rod Bauer Price $11.95 with unmounted counters or $17.95 with mounted counters Passed Inspection:  Easy to learn, great fun to play, company is very responsive to questions, unique subject matter, nice graphics, good replayability, solo game Failed Basic:  typos cause some confusion, the PT boat template isn’t used to its maximum effectiveness, needs a fuel tracking chart Profile in Courage: PT-109 is a terrific little solo game. It is a tactical look at the legendary operations of John F. Kennedy’s PT-109 during July and August of 1943 during the Japanese attempts to reinforce Munda in New Georgia. This boat, PT 109, became so associated with JFK that a swimming pool float toy of the 109 was produced in the 1960s (I know this because I still have my PT 109 swimming pool toy that I got when I was 4 or 5 years old!) American PT boat operations were predicated upon the relatively small...
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Posted on Mar 25, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
“1942†Publisher: Game Designers’ Workshop. Designer: Marc W. Miller. Price $17.00 – $75.00  Passed inspection: Fast-playing game, good introduction to hex and counter gaming while still offering challenging game play for veteran players. Good overview of the war in the Far East.  Failed basic: Allied player is constrained into a passive defensive posture with limited decisions.   “Retro Reviews†is a new feature here at Armchair General. Each Retro Review will look at a classic (or not so classic) game from yesteryear. So jump in your “way back machine†(or if you are like me, your Tardis) and check out 1978’s “1942â€! Remember the movie “The Final Countdownâ€? You, know – the one where the USS Nimitz travels back in time forty years and (spoiler alert!) wrestles with whether or not they should change the course of World War Two in the Pacific? That movie was on my mind during my play through of GDW’s board game ‘1942’. Not only are the players also looking...
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Posted on Mar 22, 2019 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Dual Powers Revolution 1917  Board Game Review. Publisher: Thunderworks  Games  Game Designer:   Brett Myers, James Kyle and Keith Matejka Price $39.95 Passed Inspection:  beautiful artwork and components, solo or two player, lots of historical information, easy to learn, player reference cards are provided, high replay value for a low price Failed Basic:  some information on Petrograd and its suburbs would have been helpful as it forms the area of conflict on the map; rules are short but need an index “In March of 1917, Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate the throne of Russia. In his place, a conservative Provisional Government formed, representing the official authority of the state. Opposed to the newly formed government stood the Petrograd Soviet, an elected council of workers organized by socialist activists. Over the following months, an internal struggle for power and influence would dominate the country and spark a social revolution. In this state of dual power, or dvoevlastie, charismatic and powerful leaders would rise with the tide of public dissatisfaction...
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