 |
| "Hougoumont - burial ground after the battle" - aquatint by James Rouse. |
With the end of the year coming up, I’ve been thinking about what the future holds in regard to wargaming. I’m reluctant to make bold declarations or plans for 2026; I experience little difficulty setting goals, but I haven’t demonstrated a strong track record in sticking to them, even relatively modest ones.
This doesn’t mean, though, that I can’t look forward to good
things in my future. Philosopher, novelist and French Resistance fighter Albert
Camus said that the one thing that separates humans from other animals is our
capacity for hope. What follows is a small declaration of my own humanity, short
list of my material hopes for the coming year. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but this coming year I'm planning (there's that word again) to try to keep to modest aspirations.
I was originally going to call this post "Wishlist Games," but it's not really a wish-list if I've already paid for three of them. So I went with "aspirational wargaming." This puts the emphasis on the playing of these games rather than simply their acquisition (which will no doubt bring its own joy as well).
La Der des Ders theatre board. Each player also has their own status board.
La Der des Ders (War to End Wars) (Hexasim, 2025)
This has only just recently been received at Hexasim headquarters,
like in just the last couple of weeks of so (at time of writing). La Der des
Ders is a redevelopment and expansion of designer Arnauld Della Siega’s earlier
game of the same title, which appeared in the No. 145 (May/June 2019) issue of Vae Victis.
This is an abstracted game covering the entirely of the Great War via significant historical events and technological innovation. I get that this kind of abstraction isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but the game is said to play out within two hours and offer a multitude of tough decision-points along the way, which puts it squarely in my wheelhouse. Hexasim's production standards are always nice, and the presence of a solid solitaire implementation, allowing play of either the Entente or Central Powers makes this a must-have.
How many WWI
games does a man need? It would seem just one more.
Cover art for Coast Watchers. Honestly not my favourite cover art ever,
but you don't play the box-top.
Coastwatchers is the first volume of a new series
from designer of note, Volko Ruhnke, called the Recon series. I believe this game grew out of Mr Ruhnke’s
work on another hidden information game, Hunt for Blackbeard (Fort Circle Games, ~2026). Which hasn’t
quite made it to store shelves yet, but you can already try out with fully functioning implementation on Rally the Troops.
Coast Watchers simulates the activities of the
Allies’ human early-warning system of volunteers scattered among the islands of
the South Pacific who monitored the activities of Japanese naval and air assets
at a crucial point in the Pacific War. The game revolves around the Japanese
players need for secrecy and search for the Allies coast-watching assets, and
the Coast Watchers teasing out intelligence and evading capture.
With a second game, Drachen (GMT Games, ~2027?) already in development, the Recon series looks like
it may become another COIN or Levy and Campaign. Again, this game also includes
a fully developed solitaire system, so I won’t have to wait on somebody else’s
availability to dive into Coast Watchers. Needless to say, I have both games on order with the publisher.
Battle Commander, Vol 1. (French edition, in case there was any confusion).
Battle Commander, Vol. 1: Napoleon’s Italian Campaigns (Sound of Drums, ~2026)
Battle Commander is a Carl Paradis design (which made
it an instant order for me) and is envisioned to cover six volumes in total, dropping
in roughly chronological order – Volume 1 covers Napoleon’s Italian Campaigns, while
Volume 2 will handle the engagements of the Second and Third Coalitions. Another
Napoleonic battle system I hear you say? Well, this is different and promises
to be a good fit for me, at least.
Battle Commander units and markers.
Units are represented by wooden markers signifying
infantry, cavalry and artillery. The action is card driven, and the combat
diceless. This isn’t Mr Paradis’ first venture into diceless combat resolution;
Absolute War! The Russian Front 1941-45 (GMT Games, 2021) used a similar card-draw result system for the random
element. Activation will be handled with a cube-pull mechanic (which sounds great
– cubes should wear better than cardboard chits).
Another thing that will no doubt get some noses out
of joint will be the maps, or specifically the regulation of movement. Battle
Commander uses a kind of hybrid area-movement/brick-offset model that sounds
batty but should work quite well in play.
This might sound all a bit too mush for some folks.
I’m willing to take a punt on it; in fact, I already have. I believe the Pledge
manager for BC Vol. 1 has now closed, but I supported the campaign to the tune
of the base box and an expansion that adds two battles to the game. Everything
is printed and should be making its way to Sound of Drums HQ, and I’m pretty
confident of seeing it arrive in the first half of 2026. Lots of pictures and opinions
will be forthcoming.
Napoléon 1870* (Shakos, hopefully ~2026-27)
Long time readers will know I’m a fan of Denis Sauvage’s Conquerors series;
the first three games, Napoléon
1806 (Shakos, 2012 – review), Napoléon 1807 (Shakos, 2020 – review), and Napoléon 1815 (Shakos, 2022), covered three significant campaigns of
Napoleon’s career using an innovative system to squeeze a real corps-level operational
experience into a manageable two-to-three hours of table-time.
The cards and blocks look familiar, but the railway tracks are new.
I first heard of a planned Napoléon 1870, dealing with the events of the Franco-Prussian War, maybe two years ago, when Fred Serval mentioned it in a Homo Ludens channel update. Since then, rumours have continued,
and around the middle of this year, M. Sauvage released some prototype images
on the Conquerors Facebook group of the game board and components, including a cover confirming M. Seval and Brian Asklev as the designers. The artist on the project is Nicolas Triel.
The last time I checked, there was nothing “official”
on the Shakos website. They have been busy with other projects of late, but I
for one hope they will free up some space in their production schedule for
Napoléon 1870.
The manoeuvre portion of the Brandywine 1777 board, with cohesion tracking for the
British and Hessian forces in the foreground (Colonial forces deployed on-map).
Note the inset rows for the cohesion tracks.
Brandywine 1777: A Time for Heroes (Les 3 Zouaves, ~2026)
Andy Loakes and Yves Roig took inspiration from Maurice Suckling’s Chancellorsville, 1863 (Worthington Publishing, 2020 – review) and created Gettysburg: A Time for Heroes (Worthington Publishing, 2024), which, in spite of my best efforts, I have not yet secured a copy thereof. Since then, M. Roig has taken the game model to the
new places, having just completed a Gamefound campaign for Brandywine, 1777: A Time for Heroes, under the auspices of his own company, Les 3 Zouaves (note: at time of press, the campaign is
still open for late backers). Having learned my lesson, I backed this one early, and all things being equal, it should be out in
the first half of the new year.
Brandywine begins as the battle is engaged. On the crowded
battlefield, manoeuvre is constricted, with units forced to take preset paths
based on restrictive terrain and enemy placement, and every move reduces a unit’s
cohesion. Blocks represent the available units, and their relative strength, or
cohesion, is recorded n a series of dedicated tracks along that player’s side
of the board. Cohesion is key to the game; it is a limited resource and
everything a unit does – manoeuvre or battle – will reduce it. This won’t sound
like fun for some gamers, but setting these restrictions makes for a
challenging contest for both sides, rewarding good planning and encouraging the
taking of calculated risks. Turtling may preserve your forces, but it will cost
you the game.
This doesn’t signal the end of the line for A Time for Heroes. M. Roig has been showing off – sorry, demonstrating – a playtest version of the next game in the series, handling the battle of Austerlitz. Just take my money now.
Official pic of the box art for the boardgame version of Waterloo Solitaire,
depicting "The Defence of Hougoumont," by Denis Dighton.
Waterloo
Solitaire Boardgame (Worthington Publishing, 2023)
This is probably the most imminent of my anticipated
games for 2026, not the least as it was published in 2023. Waterloo Solitaire Boardgame
is a reimplementation of Worthington’s popular book-game, Waterloo Solitaire (Worthington
Publishing, 2021). I debated backing the Kickstarter campaign for the boardgame
version but demurred. Having regretted that decision for some time, when I came
into some “found cash” selling some RPG materials, I ordered a copy during Worthington’s Massive Holiday Sale (a case of putting my money where my mouth is), which is still
tunning at time of writing.
The Waterloo Solitaire Boardgame replicates and
streamlines the book game experience, replacing event tables with cards and
using wooden blocks for the units. While it’s purely solitaire, you
can play either the French Armée du Nord under Napoleon or the combined
forces of La Belle Alliance under Wellington.
Given the vagaries of the US Postal Service, I’m
unlikely to see this much before February, but I’m at peace with that. If there’s
one thing our shared hobby teaches us often (especially those of us in the Antipodes),
it’s the value of patience.
* Beyond a couple of snapshots on Facebook, Napoleon 1870 doesn't exist as far as the World Wide Web is concerned. When asked, Denis Sauvage said Shakos hoped to have a crowdfunding campaign running in the Spring of 2024. Obviously this hasn't yet happened, but when it does, you'll be able to read about it here.
No comments:
Post a Comment