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Posted on Jul 28, 2024 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Western Front Ace: The Great War in the Air, 1916-1918. Publisher: Compass Games. Designer: Gregory M. Smith and Ian Cooper. Price $109.00 Passed inspection: A solid game that produces plausible encounters and engagements while conveying the experience of a Great War fighter pilot. Failed basic: Rules organization could be better. The ‘grind’ of running mission after mission starts to feel like a repetitious chore rather than a game to be enjoyed. From the logbook of Otto Hefty, – K.u.K. Luftfahrtruppen20 Sep 16 – Aircraft: Brandenburg D.1We’ve been tasked with a bomber escort mission. The outbound leg was an uneventful mission over the lines into Italian territiory. The bombers conducted their attack and turned for home.During the return flight, I encountered a SPAD VII over the front lines. We came at each other head to head. As we closed, our guns hammered away at each other. I could feel the stick shudder in my hands as my tail took some solid hits. But I was the better pilot as the...
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Posted on Aug 2, 2023 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Sleepwalkers: Imperial Rivalries and the Great War. Publisher: Dr. Richter Konflictsimulationen. Designer: Dr. Benjamin Richter. Price: 14.95 Passed inspection: A compact, multiple player game that highlights European competition and diplomacy while still conveying the impact of conflict between great powers at the dawn of the 20th Century. Failed basic: Negotiations are central to the course of the game to the point that the experience can feel like ‘Diplomacy-lite’. If you are looking for a more structured game that does not rely on diplomatic negotiations, then Sleepwalkers may not be for you (but give it a chance!). The end of the 19th Century was a complex period for the major states of Europe. Much of the world was – or was in the process of becoming – enmeshed in various colonial empires, providing the raw materials for the imperial states. These colonies were areas of friction both internally for the occupied peoples and externally between the imperial powers. Aside from imperial ambitions, the world, but Europe in particular was experiencing...
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Posted on Jul 9, 2023 in Armchair Reading, Books and Movies, Front Page Features
Digital Influence Mercenaries: Profits and Power through Information Warfare Author: James J.F. Forest. Publisher: Naval Institute Press. Price $ 39.95 Use the term ‘mercenary’ and you likely conjure a visage of fourteenth century condottieri contracting with Italian princes or more recently the activities of the Russian-based Wagner group. Outlawed by international convention, the classic view of a mercenary has been supplanted by the verbally awkward, but legally accurate phrase ‘private military contractor’. But while the traditional role of mercenaries occupying the physical battlespace has been limited by international treaty and convention, the virtual battlespace is condottieri of a different color. Dr. James J.F. Forest explores the current state of activity in the digital space in his recent book Digital Influence Mercenaries: Profits and Power through Information Warfare (2022, Naval Institute Press). In defining his terms Dr. Forest draws a boundary around the activities of these modern Tom Sawyer’s, with digital influence mercenaries being concerned with profit above all else. A specific cause or ideology is irrelevant, as long as...
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Posted on Jun 4, 2023 in Armchair Reading, Books and Movies, Front Page Features
Uniting America: How FDR and Henry Stimson Brought Democrats and Republicans Together to Win World War II. Author: Peter Shinkle. Publisher: St. Martin’s Press. Price $ 32.50 Students of World War II history, both professional and casual, are familiar with the grand sweep of the military scope of the war. That familiarity ranges from an understanding of the tactical decisions within a single battle to the grand strategy discussions at Casablanca and Yalta. The common theme is the focus on history through the lens of the war effort. National governments are mostly depicted as monolithic institutions subordinate to the direction of their senior leaders – Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt. Like the Tamarian tale of Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra, the Second World War was a conflict that brought unlikely partners together to unite against a common foe. Author Peter Shinkle changes that focus in his book Uniting America: How FDR and Henry Stimson Brought Democrats and Republicans Together to Win World War II. Shinkle explores the fascinating partnership between...
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Posted on Apr 27, 2023 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Schnell Boats: Scourge of the English Channel Publisher: Compass Games Designer: Joe Carter Price $69.00 Passed Inspection: Nice looking components, game weaves a strong and immersive narrative, one mission can be played in 1 to 2 hours, tons of replayability, great value for the price, can be played solo or cooperatively, fun and realistic at the same time Failed Basic: needs some rules clarifications, Table Booklets need an index, one more editorial pass may have corrected some issues “As S-100 Swordfish and her two remaining S Boats advance towards the approach to the Isle of Wight, the sea state degenerates to level 5 waves. The Griffon flashes its deck lights to tell us that she lost her radio antenna to a huge wave. We flash back and order her to maintain her formation. I will remember to ask the supply officers to please stock up on these antennas. When we lost our antenna during the last mission, we had to wait for 18 days to get a replacement....
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Posted on Mar 14, 2023 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
By Ray Garbee Aces of Valor. Publisher: Legion Wargames. Designer: Eric Von Rossing. Don Hendon. Artist Mark Mahaffey. Price $72.00 (current sale price $55.00) Passed inspection: Solid rules and quality components deliver what the box promises. Highly abstracted air combat model allows you to quickly spin through engagements over the course of a mission. Magneto switch, on! Clear! The ground crew heave the propellor around, and the engine catches and roars to life. You are about to lead your patrol of scout fighters into the air on a patrol over the trench lines of the Western Front in Aces of Valor. Games come and go in cycles. What’s hot and what’s not. In 2023 what’s hot seems to be the trend of solitaire games – continuing a trend that really took off during the pandemic – and air combat games. Now while games of aerial combat have been with us for a long time (Richtofen’s War, anyone?), the last few years have seen continued growth in games covering aerial...
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Posted on Mar 12, 2023 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Depths of Courage Attack on Alexandria Harbor Publisher: High Flying Dice Games Designer: Paul Rohrbaugh Price $9.95 non mounted counters or $17.95 with mounted counters Passed Inspection: Great looking game, tense game play, tons of replayability, small footprint, great value for the price, extremely challenging, solo game, can be played in less than 60 minutes, easy to learn Failed Basic: a few typos “In March 1939 Italy’s Regia Marina established a specialized and secret naval warfare unit called Decima Flottiglia MAS (Motoscafo Anti Sommergibili), generally known as the 10th Light Flotilla or X MAS. This unit was innovative, in that it employed selected, highly trained personnel using special weapons and delivery systems to conduct sneak attacks. On the night of 18 December 1941, six members of this unit penetrated the main British naval base in the eastern Mediterranean at Alexandria, Egypt, and disabled the Mediterranean Fleet’s two battleships, a tanker, and a destroyer. In few military endeavors has so little been risked to achieve so much.†Vincent P....
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Posted on Feb 20, 2023 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
By Ray Garbee Skies Above Britain. Publisher: GMT Games. Designer: Jeremy White and Gina Willis. Price $99.00 Passed inspection: An immersive solitaire experience that captures the feel of the air war over Britain in 1940. The well-crafted rulebook and charts make finding rules references a snap. Failed basic: Not a failure, but it can be taxing to follow everything going on within a turn. However, Gina solved this with a downloadable deck of cards that walk you through the patrol cycle. A solitary British fighter executes a victory roll in the sky above an airfield in France in the opening scene of Guy Hamilton’s 1969 film “The Battle of Britainâ€. The film delivers on its title, packing the breadth of the three-month campaign into two hours and thirteen minutes. As a child I was captivated by the depiction of the air battles and heroic characters. As an adult, I’ve come to appreciate the solid job the film does delivering so much of the experience of the campaign in a...
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Posted on Feb 5, 2023 in Books and Movies, Front Page Features
Dark Horse: General Larry O. Spencer and His Journey from the Horseshoe to the Pentagon. Author: General Larry O. Spencer, USAF (Ret.). Publisher: Naval Institute Press. Price: $ 26.95 The military is by default viewed as a warrior culture. Warfare and combat are, of course, the core of why the military exists. But there’s more to a military service than the action at the tip of the spear. The work of every individual behind that fighting tip contributes to the success of the organization. It’s an example of the axiom that there are no unimportant jobs. The 2022 book, Dark Horse: General Larry O. Spencer and His Journey from the Horseshoe to the Pentagon explores the career of Larry Spencer Larry was an black child from Washington, D.C.. Enlisting in the United States Air Forces in 1971, Larry Spencer’s career was a long road across the next four decades that saw him rise through the ranks to eventually retire as assistance chief of staff of the United States Air...
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Posted on Jan 30, 2023 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Tor Andersson’s online gaming project continues to grow. The experience of playing tabletop board games has been primarily a physical, face to face experience. But in the 21st Century, board games began migrating into the digital space. Well known examples of this shift include the VASSAL engine, Steam and Tabletop Simulator. That shift really picked up speed in 2020 when the pandemic had many folks stuck at home with no face to face opponents. It was certainly what motivated me to dive into Vassal and start tabletop gaming online. Beyond the Vassal’s and the Tabletop Simulator type enfine, there’s another option out there – Rally the Troops! Rally the Troops! is a website created and maintained by Tor Andersson. It is a free software project. The site is free to play, requiring only a user profile. The game engine presents each game through a web-browser user experience. Unlike some of the other channels, Rally the Troops provides the complete game experience and includes game board, charts and the complete...
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Posted on Jan 7, 2023 in Books and Movies, Front Page Features
War of Supply: World War II Allied Logistics in the Mediterranean. Author: David D. Dworak. Publisher: University Press of Kentucky. Price $ 40.00 During World War II, the Allied powers (primarily the United States and the United Kingdom) engaged in a number of campaigns in the Mediterranean region, including the North African campaign, the invasion of Sicily, and the Italian campaign. Logistics played a crucial role in these campaigns, as the Allies had to transport and supply troops, equipment, and supplies over long distances and across difficult terrain. When you mention military logistics, the first thing that comes to mind is the famous statement that “An army travels on its stomachâ€. While oft attributed to Napoleon or Fredrick the Great, the fundamental core of the statement remains true – for a military force to operate effectively, it must be supplied. While in the 18th and early 19th Century this mostly referred to food for the troops and fodder for the horses, by the mid-20th Century, technology had transformed warfare...
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Posted on Dec 27, 2022 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
303 Squadron. Publisher: Hobbity.eu Designer: Michal Kohmann Price $79.90 Passed Inspection: Beautiful components, tense game play, solo or multiplayer, tons of scenarios, full campaign mode with legacy game aspects, tons of replayability Failed Basic: some lack of clarity in the rules leading to having to re-read a section a few times, needs a player’s aid sheet During the Battle of Britain, 8000 Polish pilots and ground crew fought with the RAF against the Luftwaffe providing much needed combat expertise against German pilots tested and trained in Spain, Poland and France. Polish combat pilots fought bravely against enemies from without and within from both the Luftwaffe and bigotry from some members of the RAF. In total, Polish combat pilots shot down 203 German aircraft for the loss of 29 Polish pilots. The Polish 303 Squadron was the most successful RAF squadron in the Battle of Britain. Polish pilots were known for attacking from close range. Hibbity.eu’s 303 Squadron is one of the most beautiful games that’s come across...
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Posted on Dec 10, 2022 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Solitaire Caesar Board Game Review. Publisher: White Dog Games Designer: David Kershaw Price $48 boxed or Print and Play for $30 Passed Inspection: Very tense game play; easy to learn; good AI; optional rules provide excellent replayability; nice components; good value for the price; small footprint makes it perfect to play while traveling Failed Basic: combat system may be counter-intuitive for experienced gamers; barbarian movement rules somewhat unclear “Solitaire Caesar†is subtitled “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire 350 BC to 1453 AD†and if that subtitle seems overly ambitious for a game with only 7 pages of rules plus a page of Designer’s Notes, you are certainly right to think it but the game’s designer, David Kershaw, the designer of Barbarossa Solitaire, has pulled it off beautifully. The Roman Empire Solitaire Caesar simulates the expansion and contraction of the Roman Empire focusing mostly on strategic conquest. Each turn is 100 years. The map features a point to point movement system and includes many of the kingdoms...
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Posted on Nov 13, 2022 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
King & Assassins Deluxe Edition Board Game Review. Publisher: Galakta Designer: Lukasz Wozniak Price $30.00 Passed Inspection: fast playing, easy to learn, good replay value, nice artwork, excellent family friendly board game “The king has finally descended among his people, safe behind a shield wall of his so called ‘knights’ and sure of his immense authority. Walking among the crowd, he pays no heed to the shouts of rising anger, blindly believing that his subjects are too scared to act against his rule. Yet, there are shadowy forces ready to topple the throne and secret agents hidden among the throng who are more than willing to strike at the most opportune moment. The fate of the kingdom is soon to be decided… “ Box Art Kings & Assassins Deluxe Edition is a redesign of a 2013 release. This new edition streamlines the game, adds 23 beautiful miniatures and features a double sided map board of a medieval village. The game comes in an attractive and very sturdy box. It...
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Posted on Nov 6, 2022 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Plains Indian Wars. Publisher: GMT Games. Designer: John Poniske. Price $65.00 Passed inspection: Quick playing game that provides an overview of the conflict between the indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and the United States of America. Solid components with oversized cards that convey historical information regarding the period. Failed basic: Rules have a number of ambiguities that resulted in a number of clarifications. In conventional popular memory, the settlement of the American West was a story of European immigrants and Americans trekking into the empty spaces of North America. The Great Plains, mountains and the West Coast were the goals of hardy European’s enduring hardship and risk in a search was a better life. It was America’s ‘Manifest Destiny’ to expand westward, pushing civilization to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The American concept of the ‘frontier’ served as a demarcation between lands subject to the laws and policies of the United States and a ‘wilderness’ waiting to be defined, formalized, settled and civilized. That this wilderness was...
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Posted on Nov 5, 2022 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
After some delays, the nominees for the 2021 Charles S. Roberts Awards for Excellence in Conflict Simulation Games have been published. You can see the list over on the CSR website. The awards are given in the following categories Best Ancients to Medieval Era Board WargameBest Early Gunpowder Board Wargame 1453-1793 ADBest Late Gunpowder to Pre-World War I Board Wargame, excluding American Civil War and Napoleonic TopicsBest Napoleonic Board WargameBest American Civil War Board WargameBest World War I Era Board WargameBest World War II Era Board WargameBest Modern Era Board WargameBest Science-Fiction or Fantasy Board WargameBest Solitaire or Cooperative Board WargameBest Magazine Board WargameBest Expansion or Supplement for an Existing Board WargameBest Board Wargame Playing ComponentsBest Board Wargame Map GraphicsBest Board Wargame RulesBest Computer WargameBest Cover Art In addition to the categories covering board games, there the media awards for Best wargame magazine and Best Game Review or Analysis Website, Webcast or Podcast.Best Individual Historical, Scenario Analysis, or Book Then there’s the individual awards Wargame of the YearJames F....
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Posted on Sep 22, 2022 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
Sparta! Publisher: Plague Island Games. Designer: Kris Van Beurden. Price $59.00 – 89.00 on kickstarter. This is Sparta! That classic line from Frank Miller’s 1998 graphic novels, still resonate. Sparta was a military superpower in its day, fielding a formidable army under capable leaders. But part of what fuels our continuing interest in Sparta were their opponents – Athens and Thebes. Plague Island Games is working to bring these conflicts to the table with Sparta! Designed by Kris Van Beurden and with development support by Stuart Tonge. Plague Island Games provided us with a demo/prototype copy of the game. While it’s not quite the finished production version, it’s really close to it. By way of comparison, Plague Island did the same thing with their first game 2 Minutes to Midnight, and the differences between that prototype and the final game were very minimal, so I expect the finished version of Sparta to be very similar to this prototype. The game board for Sparta! Sparta! Is a two-player game in...
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Posted on Aug 28, 2022 in Electronic Games, Front Page Features
Wings of Glory the Digital Game Review. Publisher: Dire Wolf Digital Based Upon Ares Games’ Miniatures Game Price $14.95 Review by Rick Martin with comments by Ray Garbee. Passed Inspection: captures the WW1 miniatures game feel and game play, solo or multiplayer modes, training scenarios, customizable airplanes and pilots, basic and advanced rules, easy to learn, nice music and graphics, available on multiple platforms, Dire Wolf is very good about listening to user comments and implementing patches as needed, great value for the price Failed Basic: freezes up too often, no campaign mode, other issues As any reader of Armchair General knows, Wings of Glory, both in its World War I and World War II variants, is one of my all-time favorite game systems. In my opinion, it is almost as perfect as an air combat game can get. Andrea Angiolino and Pier Giorgio Paglia created the game system back in 2004 and it’s been in print ever since. It started out as a game where the airplanes were...
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Posted on Aug 14, 2022 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
By Ray Garbee Zurmat. Publisher: Catastrophe Games. Designer: Tim Densham. Price $ 70.00 At Origins in 2021, Catastrophe Games had a demo copy of an upcoming game Zurmat, which depicted counter insurgency (COIN) operations of the Afghan war. Fast forward a year (well, nine months) and I picked up a copy of the recently released game from their booth at Origins 2022. Zurmat looks at counter-insurgency from the perspective of a Coalition military officer assigned to a district in Afghanistan. You have orders to build a secure space within which the residents will support the government. Of course, this being a two-player game, the Taliban insurgents will be acting to achieve the opposite result in which the populace supports their efforts to build an Islamic state standing in opposition to the government in Kabul. Cover of the box The game description on the Catastrophe Games website sums up the game nicely; Zurmat pits the Taliban versus the Coalition, as players secretly add influence or decoys each turn, then taking...
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Posted on Jun 12, 2022 in Boardgames, Front Page Features
The Shores of Tripoli Board Game Review. Publisher: Fort Circle Games Designer: Kevin Bertram Price $60.00 Passed Inspection: tense game play; easy to learn; a lovely game; solo or two players; excellent replayability; great value for the price; historical supplement included; very educational Failed Basic: Absolutely nothing After the Revolutionary War, American merchant vessels sailed the 7 seas but those merchant ships no longer could rely on the protection of the British navy. Starting in 1785, the Barbary States (Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli) captured over a dozen American merchant ships and took their crews hostage. In the late 1790s, the Barbary States “offered†to “control†the pirates if America paid a monetary tribute to their governments. The US government refused to pay the protection money and Tripoli declared war on the US. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson ordered the US Navy to send armed frigates to blockade Tripoli. The war against the Barbary Pirates had begun and would be a trial by combat for the US Navy and the...
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