Empires of History magazine issue number one (Guild of Blades Publishing Group, 9195 Sandison, White Lake, MI 48386). This magazine with an enclosed game has a spectacular color cover, a color game map as the rear cover, an extensive review of Axis and Allies game variants, other Axis and Allies news, and a micro game battle for Stalingrad. The micro game has an eleven by seventeen inch map, plastic playing tokens, and sticking objects that one attaches to the tokens to make counters. The map has approximately 100 areas and covers Stalingrad and Astrakhan on over to Kharkhov and the Black Sea. The printing of the magazine is by photocopy; the magazine itself is 32 pages long, side stapled.
Trilobite.: Trilobite is a variant on the game Insecta. It uses the same map but has entirely different rules and refers to the evolution and survival of creatures hundreds of millions of years ago. The game comes with creature cards, catastrophe cards, cute plastic creatures that perhaps do resemble trilobites somewhat, and of course features that creatures may have. The game is indeed a variant. It includes an extensive bibliography on fossils, invertebrates, dinosaurs, and the origin of life.
Stalingrad: This game is based on the Advanced Tobruk System, which is a rules set in which unit counters stand for single vehicles or small numbers of men: individuals up two squads. Each square on the map represents 50 yards of terrain. The rules extend 56 pages in length including detailed rules for a vast numbers of interactions. There are large numbers of charts. There appear to be nine scenarios. The map shows a detailed overview of the Stalingrad Tractor works including railroad cars, areas covered by buildings, areas with brush, and individual roads. The map itself is printed largely in shades of tan. Individual houses cover single squares; larger buildings are five or ten squares on a side.
I count the equivalent of five large sheets of the counters with Russians in brown and Germans in gray. The game producer is Critical Hit, which has produced a long series of similar games which in style somewhat resemble the old Avalon Hill Squad Leader series.
Rainforest Expansion is another variant of the Insecta series from Sierra Madre Games Company. The game includes a dozen pages of uncut unit counters, four pages of additional rules, and, in addition to the insects, other rules for pixies. The game rules will cause players to develop a substantial knowledge of entomology if they did not have that knowledge to begin with. Where else can you find a game with a special rule for forced trophollaxis, which for the curious is a process whereby which an insect fools an ant into feeding the insect instead of feeding other ants?
Clash Along the Psel is another game in the Advanced Tobruk System series from Critical Hit. Unit counters continue to represent vehicles, individuals, or small groups of men. The main rule book is standardized. I count a half dozen sheets of unit counters. Sizes of unit counters vary greatly, so a single sheet may be 100 or 200 units depending on what sort of units it represents. The level of the game is so de-tailed that there are markers to represent people who have become winded. The map is 26 by 39 squares and shows rural terrain with woods, valleys, and a section of river. As with other Critical Hit games, the packaging consists of a plastic sealable envelope. The counters, rules, etc. are a good centimeter in thickness, justifying a price of almost $40.00.
The Battle of the Piave is a mini game by Hjalmar Gerber. It depicts a 1918 battle between Italy and Austria-Hungary. There are 240 unmounted unit counters, a ten by fourteen square map with somewhat complex movement details, and an eleven page rule book. There is a separate color cover. The unit counters represents divisions; the two sides had the equivalent of an army group each. In addition to the Austrian and Italian units, there is a significant British and French force which was sent to rescue the Italians from complete collapse.
Games Unplugged is a new 48 page colorfully printed role gaming magazine available at Post Office Box 221, Lake Geneva, WI 53147. The magazine covers role playing games, board games--at least science fiction boardgames, card games, advice to game manufacturers, and has substan-tial numbers of advertisements. Some of the advice is a bit different. For example, one writer proposes that a miniatures game in order to be successful needs to sell the miniatures as a line with the game, as opposed to being a new rules set that could be used with any miniature from the appropriate period.
Imperial Herald is a new magazine from Legend of the Five Rings publishers. It is published four times a year. Subscriptions are $15.00 per year from Imperial Assembly, 4045 Guasti Road, Ontario CA 91761. This magazine runs 32 pages with internal color printing. The magazine is dedicated to a collectible card game with a national competition series and a large number of ranked players listed in the magazine. There’s also an extensive list of retailers for which cities and telephone numbers but not addresses are given. There is also an interior game event described as an adventure.
The Insecta Desert Hive Pack is yet another game set for the Insecta rules set. It features approximately a dozen sheets of unit cards showing various exotic insects which actually exist. There is no other material in the pack: no rules, no discussion, just the beautiful and detailed cards on various in-sects which many readers will never have heard of before. The rules set with the full game is stuffed with detailed entomological information.
Asia, 1483 is an Empires of History game from the Guild of Blades publishing group. The map covers southeast Asia from Uzbekistan over to Indonesia. The map sheets, printed on bright scarlet cardboard, give an area map in which, for example, Java is divided into four areas. There is competition between sixteen distinct powers, if all powers are in use, including diplomacy, colonization, unit construction, naval movement, land movement, and combat. There are also uses of resources. The objective is to become the dominant power in the region, an objective that was never met in this historical era by any of the indicated powers.
Afrika, 1483, is another Guild of Blades publishing group Empires of History series game. This game covers Afrika south of the Sahara. Included are Madagascar and the southernmost bit of Arabia, the Yemen. The maps are printed in black ink on bright scarlet paper. There is an extensive list of major and minor powers, of most of which will not be familiar to most players other than those interested in the history of this continent. So far as I can tell, the game cannot be played by itself. The actual rules are similar to those of Asia, 1483 or Europe, 1483 but there’s no rules set in this variant.
1492: The New World North America is an expansion set for the 1483 Medieval Empires history board games set from Guild of Blades. The map covers all of north and central America. The game series uses area maps and involves military expansion resources, and some level of development. This game includes a half dozen map sheets, one of which is back printed as the external cover of the game. The maps are not mounted; they are printed on stiff cardboard.
Suleiman the Magnificent, a game appearing in Against the Odds magazine volume 3 number 1, reproduces the Battle of Mohacs in which the Hungarian army was destroyed by the Ottomans, leading to the conquest of Hungary by the Ottomans in the year 1526. The game designer is Richard Berg. Unit counters represent battalions; there are close to 200 unit counters for the two sides, not to mention a large numbers of status markers and other such objects. The map is divided into hexagons, the separation between the hexagons being artful small geometric features rather than the traditional lines seen in many games. The battlefield is fairly featureless. There are few rises and a few streams and a road. Historical data about the battle is somewhat limited and contradictory. Rules extend over a dozen pages. There are also multiple pages of various tables.
Go Tell The Spartans is the solitaire game also included in Against the Odds magazine volume 3 number 1. The magazine actually includes updated and corrected rules not the full game; the full game appeared in issue six of this magazine. Insecta second edition Mutant Kit is an expansion of the Insecta game from Sierra Madre Games Company. The game includes the core rules set and a map sheet so it can be played as a complete unit. The map shows complex geographic areas over which insects of various sorts, accurately depicted on the unit counters, fight. There is an enormous amount of detailed information on entomology here, which would be entirely educational even if one did not wish to play the game. There are also rules for mutation giving insects that did not immediately exist in the real world. The combat concept and the scale of combat is, let us say, unique.
Carnage at Cassino is a scenario set from Critical Hit games based on Beyond Valor, Yanks, and West of Alemein. The game scenarios represent attacks on the Monte Cassino hill area during World War Two. Unit counters represent individuals, vehicles, and small groups of men. The forces on the field are representative fractions of a battalion. There is a colorful map sheet of approximately 50 by 30 squares in shades of green and brown, showing the rough terrain of the area. This is not a complete game; the aforementioned games on which this is based are required for play.
Ordeal Before Shuri, the Battle of Okinawa, is another scenario kit from Critical Hit games. The background games required for play are Code of Bushido, Yanks, and Gung Ho. The map sheet is large and relatively colorful, 50 by 30 squares. There are a series of scenarios, costs for various reinforcements and the types of reinforcements, and special rules for the event, as well as several tables.
View From The Trenches is the British ASL journal. It features a wide variety of discussions with a European focus on the Advanced Squad Leader game system. Publication continued into the year 2004. There are convention reports, good photographic coverage, scenario reports, and discussions of tactical opportunities for various scenarios. There is a remarkable amount of detailed tactical analysis, relative to what you see in most modern American magazines. The photography includes not only pictures from World War Two but also pictures from United Kingdom game conventions of the current epoch. The printing is relatively modest monochrome, black on white; the most recent double issue that I have, for the start of this year, is 40 pages long.
Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 12
To Game! List of Issues
To MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2004 by George Phillies.
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com