2024 Q2 Report: the Slow March to Normal

 

U.S. Military Telegraph Operators, Headquarters, Army of the Potomac: photograph by
Matthew Brady, July 1863 (for more information, check this short article
by David Hochfelder, Johns Hopkins University),

 

So, here we are at the mid-point of the year. And what’s been happening? Well, the Charles S. Roberts Award were announced. Some interesting games were nominated, and I think the winners deserved their accolades. Yves Rettel’s Red Strike (Vuca Simulations, 2023) collecting four awards has made me question my hereto firm position against purchasing any more hypothetical wargames (though the price – and the current exchange rate – still gives me pause). Vuca make stunningly good games, and by everything I've seen online, they've knocked it out of the park with Red Strike.

I was quite gratified to see We Are Coming, Nineveh (Nuts! Publications, 2023) getting a win from its numerous category nominations. This is one of the most compelling games I’ve come across of late, and the fact that the kernel of the simulation grew from a couple of grad students with no previous game design experience (Harold Buchannan of SD Hist Con interviewed Rex Brynen and Brian Train about the development of the game here). I’m hoping to get something up about how Nineveh plays sometime soon.

One of the benefits of the Charlies is how it highlights games that even the most diligent observer may have missed. Before the nominee announcement, I’d completely missed the release of the third volume in Phillippe Hardy's Par le feu, le fer et la foi (“By Shot, Shock, and Faith”) series, covering the French Wars of Religion, which, to the best of my knowledge, haven’t had been treated to a systematic game survey like this before.  The game is called 1562: The Beginning of a Tragedy (Serious Historical Games, 2023 – nominated for Best Gunpowder or Industrial Era Game), and the reason I missed it was the first two volumes, Par le feu, le fer et le foi (Hexasim, 2014) and Fate of the Reiters: Five Battles of the French Wars of Religion (Hexasim, 2019) were released by Hexasim, while this one has been published by a relatively new company out of France, Serious Historical Games, who have two well-received games under their belt; Nagashino 1575 & Shizugatake 1583 (SHG, 2022), which was nominated for the CSR Award for Best Gunpowder Wargame in 2022, and Sekigahara, 1660 (SHG, 2023).

Par le feu - five battles from the French Wars of Religion played out on really
gorgeous maps, with quite hard to read counters (well, this volume at least). 

The Par le feu, le fer et la foi series are relatively simple I-GO/U-GO area movement games, but there is a lot of player discretion over how attacks are prosecuted and how the defender meets the challenge. The games are a lot of fun and play very smoothly, and they deserve a lot more attention than they’ve got in English-speaking countries.

Another winner – not a literal award-winner, but first-time nominee – was Conflict Simulations Ltd, who had two games nominated in separate categories; 1854: the Alma (CSL, 2023 – also nominated for Best Gunpowder or Industrial Era Game) and The World Undone: 1914, Serbia (CSL, 2023 – nominated for the Best World War I Game). Neither game won in its category, but it’s always good to see small publisher like High Flying Dice, Three Crowns, Hollandspiele, Serious Historical Games, and CSL getting some exposure. (In a side-note, I’ve got a copy of 1854: the Alma coming, along with some other CSL titles, and will put a short unbagging post together probably the same day it arrives).

The World Undone, 1914: Serbia. Like the DAMOS games, it's part of a trilogy
that can be played individually or combined into a "mini-monster".

I’ve already spoken about my recent health issues in a previous post, so I won’t rehash that, but I can report I’m feeling a lot better and looking forward to ending the wargaming drought (and the insufficiency of posts lately 0 I’ll swing back a round to this later in the report).

Incoming

This week I got the news that a game I’ve waited some time for is nearly on the home stretch. I decided not to back A Most Fearful Sacrifice: The Three Days of Gettysburg (Flying Pig Games, 2022 - awarded Wargame of the Year in the 2022 CSR Awards) on its first Kickstarter release, something I regretted almost immediately. I would have backed the KS campaign for the Second Edition, except that this was maybe the first campaign where Mark Walker form Flying Pig, said, sorry, shipping outside the US is just too hard. There must have been some feedback regarding this decision because I was able to take advantage of the recent reprint Second Edition reprint campaign being opened up to foreign markets, with a warning about shipping rates to Australia/New Zealand hiking if less than fifty orders were received. This must have been the case, because the game is coming from Quartermaster General in the UK instead of Aetherworks in Canberra. This means – hopefully – it will arrive in the next couple of months.

Adding the shipping cost, AMFS will be the most expensive game I’ve ever bought, but everyone seems to have nothing but good things to say about the look and play of the tame, so I’m looking forward to getting stuck into this. It will also be the largest footprint game I’ve ever bought, just pipping Downfall: Conquest of the Third Reich (GMT Games, 2023 - winner of the Best World War II Game and Game of the Year CSR awards this year) and The Russian Campaign: Deluxe Fifth Edition (GMT Games, 2023) at the post.

As I mentioned earlier, I also have some Conflict Simulation Ltd games in the mail. CSL games are print-on-demand, and the keep low inventories, but the turnaround is usually pretty quick. The games were supposed to be ready while T was in the US for a conference and delivered to his hotel, but there were delays and this didn’t happen, so they’re slowly (and expensively) making their way here now. I’ll talk more about those when they arrive.

Goals, Reviews, and such

I began the year with a clear goal of writing twenty reviews over the course of the year, about one every two-and-a-half weeks. I wrote twelve last year, and they are among the most popular pieces I’ve posted. I really enjoy writing game reviews, but they are a lot of work. To wit, so far this year, I’ve posted five. Being unable to concentrate enough to table even a short game for the last six or so weeks took a toll as well, but I haven't given up on that goal, may even make the twenty. As Spike Milligan once said, "I'll live to be a hundred, or die in the attempt."

Chris Moeller's Brothers at War, 1862; definitely a game I want to spend more time over.

I currently have three reviews in various states of (in)completion, but each needs an extra play or two, and some deeper consideration. A fourth review is close to completion; I surprised myself with this one, as I never intended to write it – had in fact, decided not to – but here we are. All things being equal, it should be up in the next few days.

In the near-term, I’m keen to get We are Coming, Nineveh to the table as well as one of Mark Simonitch’s  19XX games I haven’t got around to breaking out yet – probably Salerno ‘43 (GMT Games, 2022) or France ’40 (GMT Games, 2024 - I  did an unboxing of this one; you can find it here); I want to leave North Africa ’41 (GMT, 2023) until I know I have a full day or two clear to spend on it – and circle back to Brothers at War, 1862 (Compass Games, 2022), which is a really fantastic game, and particularly good for two-handed play with the timed chit-pull system, but I’d like to get in some two-player games in before I attempt to review this one (I should still be able to write about it before the next instalment, Brothers at War, 1861 (Compass Games, ~2024-25), hits the shelves). My enforced break from gaming this last month and some has made me ever more keen to get back to the table.

This year, I’ve also been working through my collection of Worthington Publishing games. I’ve bought quite a few over the years, and most of them fit the blog’s stated intention, right there in the title, of being both fast-playing and enjoyable games. I really like nearly all of the Worthington games I own (one day I may share the one I’m least impressed with, but not today), so I’ll continue with that project. The next off the rank will likely be Dunkirk: France 1940 (Worthington Publishing, 2018). Though that may change (the judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into).

Dunkirk: France, 1940. Small map, big game.

As mentioned before, Downfall won the Wargame of the Year award at the Charlies this year. In case you've been living under a rock, know that it was initially conceived and created by the late Chad Jensen, and completed by Chad's widow, Kai, and his friend, John Butterfield. The game uses a conceit first seen in Jim Dunnigan's Battle for Germany (SPI, 1975), but it more fully realised and deeply nuanced, of each player handling either the Eastern or Western Allies attacking Germany, AND the German forces opposing the other Allied faction. The game has been receiving a lot of attention since it was first announced (I wasn't above this, I admit to being pre-order #230-something on GMT's P500 page, and it was one of my most keenly anticipated games last year). Because of all the attention, which has practically quadrupled since its release, I had decided not to cover the game at all; there are a lot of other games that deserve some oxygen. To be honest, I haven't even punched my copy yet, though I have spent some time over the rules and the cards.

As I’ve said previously, reviews are a lot of work. This is because I take them seriously. I think the stated target of twenty reviews for the year is still attainable, so I’ll aim for that.

About a month ago, John Edwards (yes, THAT John Edwards) declared on Facebook that unboxings were a curse on the wargaming hobby and that people should be playing games instead of showing them off. I can appreciate where he’s coming from – unboxings are easy-to-produce content for YouTubers because they just require a table and good lighting, and can be shot quickly and put together with a minimum of editing. YouTube is a hungry god that demands regular sacrifices, and these quick-and-dirty show-and-tells help fill the void. Most unboxings are a waste of time, unless you’re just looking to see the quality of the components of how big the map is. I like Meandering Mike’s unboxings – Mike doesn’t pretend to be an expert like some others tend to do – but it can be frustrating to watch him get stuff wrong that he would have had a clue about if he’d read the box-back-blurb or the product description on the publisher’s webpage. Ardy at Ardwulf’s Lair probably does it best with his designer-assisted unboxings (this is a new thing he started when John Butterfield suggested they record one together for Downfall (which you can view here).

THAT John Edwards,

I’m not above posting unboxings of games I think warrant a closer look, but I also try to offer some elucidating commentary on the game or its components as I go. As it happens, these are the generally most popular posts, pipping the reviews by a margin. So long as this trend persists, I’ll keep posting games I think warrant closer look.

Extra-curricular activities

I think I can talk about this. I’ll be taking on some more playtesting work for Conflict Simulations Limited, kicking the tyres on designer Ray Weiss’s next DAMOS series games, the three-volume North Afrika (Conflict Simulations Limited, 2024) (apparently, I didn’t screw it up with The Great Northern War (CSL, 2024)). It’s coming with some games I bought and paid for, and if I enjoy any of them you’ll see some positive reviews here, otherwise I won’t mention them again. And like The Great Northern War, I’ve been granted permission to share a post or two about the playtesting process). In the meantime, I’ve managed to score a second-hand copy of CSL’s second DAMOS-driven release, Army Group Center (CSL, 2019), so I can familiarise myself with the play of the system ahead of time, instead of just reviewing the rules.

I haven't got the DAMOS: Afrika test-kit yet, so here's aa photo of the Great Northern War
 set I made up with left-over bits from other games and played solidly for a couple of weeks.

In closing

Looking back over what I’ve written here, this post is a bit ramshackle. Maybe I’m not quite so recovered as I thought. In short, what you can expect is more of the same. I’m trying to keep A Fast Game tighter and more focussed, and not go off on a frolic too often. I think the headings (“State of Play”, “Overthinking It”) help the casual reader to filter out the bits that don’t concern them. I wouldn’t expect everyone to slavishly read everything I post here. If you come for the unboxings, great – I hope they work for you. If you just like the reviews, that’s cool too. I’ll try to get more of them up. Don’t be afraid to comment. Let me know what you like, and I’ll try to provide more of that.

Now, take care of yourself and your loved ones, be nice to animals and small children, and play some wargames.