HISPANIA (Andreas Steding - original version) When work prevents one holding big multi-player games that last two days Hispania is not necessarily denied to you. You just set it up and leave it running solitaire. What is denied to you is the involvement with one faction so that much of the clever stuff in the rules goes west (nothing like those quiet periods in these gams to bone up on the special rules). This is far too long a game to be a realistic topic for most people. However even with the imperfections of solitaire play there are some great moments, and recently I even managed to keep the Suebes and Basques long enough to become Leon and Navarre.
The way the Visigoths only get income after a certain point prevents them becoming all powerful and neatly summarises the weakness of an Arian state in a land of the Athanasian Creed. However, am I wrong in suspecting stolid Canterberian play can (a) stop the Suebes doing too well, and (b) guarantee the Visigoths a bolt hole for when they become Castile? Did the Canterberians really think that far ahead ("in a thousand years my son we will be hidalgos of Castile!"). No, but then it is up to the Galicians and Lusitanians to stop them.
The invasion of the Muslims is fast and powerful sweeping back the Christians from the plains and pinning them in the mountains, but just when their imperium looks almighty the Green Muslims split into a rainbow of successor states. I must admit I bridled at the simulation of The Holy Cid Of Spain (the great Campeador) who seems to be on hire to Zaragossa to destroy Navarre! Still a remarkable tour-de-force for those who like to watch their history grow even if an event too many (it does give you shorter scenarios so points here as well). Much much better than Maharajah.
Glory (Richard Berg for GMT) Bergistas get excited at whatever the Master supplies so I could tell nothing about this one (except that 3DoG has sold three times as many - all copies being played eh?!). It seems to be simpler than recent Berg Wristage Wrampages but for those who resisted them not simple enough in my view. I suspect what we have here is an Edsel, it's not what the Wristers want, and the Gnatheads (those of us who like shorter games) are quite happy with Across Five Aprils so Glory sits uncomfortably in the middle.
It certainly uses good old fashioned chit draw to get the sequence good and jumbled, but when we get there its back to the usual modifier-disperse-undisperse crud that slows games down a treat. ACW is not a topic that inspires overwhelming interest but give the Boys a month or two and they will have a whole range of Napoleonic games upon which we can really go to town. One to play again.
Top Race (Wolfgang Kramer for ASS) Not very historical but a firm favourite with my son and heir the Erbprinz Punchinello. Top Race is a quasi simulation of Formula 1 racing. You set up the six cars and play cards to move them. The problem is you lack enough cards (probably) to get your car all the way round, but then most cards move more than one car so you will get a hand from others (lots of strategy there). Cars are moved in the order on the card and the distance given so there can be a lot of overtaking (more Formula 3000 really) but certain bits of the course are single track and here you can hold up the opposition a treat, first into the corner and watch 'em lock up the brakes (writes our Man in the Abbey Corner Stand fast asleep).
The inside corner is fastest in many places and the game is very exciting and a firm favourite with the children. What is more by deducting cards from the skilled player and giving them to the children (so they have more chance of favourable cards) you can balance it. Mayfair have picked up the series and done a physically less impressive double header covering Cleveland and Detroit. Mike Siggins has their Daytona which is an oval track - go on Mike gizzalend.
Krieg! (Steve Kosakowski for Decision) Interesting spelling there, this is a game creating a hum out there. It is a big European Theatre of War game coming, apparently, from Russian Campaign. It is a big and slick and looks like it is a "panzer-pusher" but the designer has laid on top of this a card-strategy system that just might have made this a simulation of the real thing. It is the playing of these strategies that drives what forces you have and what you can do with them. It is a big game so I am suspending judgement, but it looks to be doing what Days of Decision so signally failed to do. The rules look to have been edited with care, but with such a topic you can expect them to be very severely tested. Clearly a labour of love, and with detail that makes the stages of the war feel different (the concept of Limited and Total War helping).
The Great War In The Near East (Ted "Boy" Raicer for Command) What the Big C buying a Raicer game - well I am a sucker for Allenby's campaigns so smart move Teddy. This game covers three fronts Palestine-Sinai, the Caucasus and Iraq. It is clearly going to suffer from the rigidities implicit in being compatible with The Great War In Europe and it still seemed to me that attacking was less damaging than defending but the idiocies seemed less obvious. Lots of turns it is true, but not many units and the chit-draw is now monthly with lots of wee jolly things that cannot be incorporated in the game. Difficult to call, supply is a key and the attack routes are "fixed" by the placement of towns, but that does not, of course, make them wrong!
The Great War At Sea (Mike Bennighof for Avalanche) Very pretty counters, simple (and slow but lots of pre-plotting to move it) with a tac map for battles. Lots and lots of different ships, my current problem is no maps!
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© Copyright 1996 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
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