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editor’s column James Dillon Editor-in-chief editor@thebattlespace.com www.thebattlespace.com
We are only half way through the year and already many amazing gaming events have taken place. The UK’s strong gaming industry recently enjoyed the Sheffield Triples and South London Warlords’ Salute events take place, while there was Adepticon in the US in April. Two events book-end the month of June alone: the UK Games Live Expo in Birmingham and Origins in Ohio, US. The UK Games Live Expo streamed live footage of game demonstrations and featured a ‘Kniziathon’ in honour of the legendary board game designer. The Origins Awards will be presented later this month for outstanding work in the game industry. In this issue we feature the board games nominated for these prestigious awards. Upcoming is the Games Workshop Games Day in Chicago in July and in October there is the Internationale Spieltage SPIEL
It’s happening in Essen, Germany, showcasing everything boardgame related. This year I was been fortunate enough to attend Australia’s best two gaming events, Canon and Auscon. While Cancon has been going for a number of years, Auscon is a new event based in Brisbane that has been built from the ground-up in the space of a year. For more details about the event please read our Shows and Events section. In this issue we have introduced a new interface for the Flash version of this issue - the heads up display (HUD). The HUD is available at the top of every page (not in the PDF version) and lets you naviage the magazine quickly. In keeping with our focus on all things steampunk this issue, the HUD interface has been given a steampunk theme. The HUD is one of many such forms of digital interaction Battlespace will be able to explore in future issues. B
Battlespace ‘babe’ Carmen at the Auscon Wizard of Oz painting competition in Brisbane, Australia
The new heads up display gaming news
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INCOMING! products
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WARGAME AUCTION SITE OPENS
WORK OF ART SELECTED FOR ‘SMART AWARD’
A specialist auction site for miniature wargames figures and accessories opened in May
Pastiche was one of five games awarded as a Mensa Select winner at its 2011 Mind Games in April. Pastiche designer, Sean MacDonald told Battlespace he was pleased that Pastiche has been honoured. “It’s great to know that 200+ Mensa boardgamers came together for a weekend of gaming and gave Pastiche their seal of approval,” he said. “I am very pleased that so many people seem to be enjoying it,” Mr MacDonald said. In the game, players score their commissions by mixing primary colors through clever tile placement, and recreating the palette of colors used by the masters who created these works.
Mini-E-Bid, based in the UK, is freeto-use and has featured auctions, a bid-now option and wanted ads.
NUKES IN THE NORTH Paradox Interactive’s recently announced a new naval strategy game set around the north pole. Naval War: Arctic Circle is a realtime strategy game where the player battles enemy naval and aerial forces for power and ultimate world domination. The game play takes place along the Norwegian and British coast, through Iceland and Greenland all the way to the North Americas and the orth West Passage. It will has an extensive campaign along with skirmish, LAN and online modes. Factions will includes the United States, the Russian federation, the Nordic countries and NATO.
IMPACT! PITCHES A FORCEBALL Impact! Miniatures has agreed to a licensing agreement with Gigantoskop to produce and distribute Forceball. Impact! worked with the Gigantoskop team to refine the levels of play and rulebook. Forceball is a fast and futuristic sport card game. Each match consists of three periods. A period starts with a face-off to decide who’s the attacker and who’s the defender and then progresses with the players taking turns either attacking or defending. The period ends when all 5
cards in the deck have been used and the deck is then reshuffled for the next period. There are five levels of play (Little League to All-Star) that add additional layers of complexity to the game. Forceball is a complete game in itself, not a trading card game. The game is easy to learn, easy to carry around in your pocket, and a period takes less than 15 minutes. It’s suitable both as a filler and for lengthy tournaments.
gaming news
BATTLETECH ANNIVERSARY BOX SET SOLD OUT The BattleTech 25th Anniversary Introductory Box Set sold out 10 days after being released. Despite printing 50 per cent more copies of the original box set run than usual, Catalyst game Labs found demand was still higher then expected. “Even our wildest expectations, however, could not match the demand. Barring copies set aside for Origins and Gen Con, we effectively sold out of the print run from the warehouse in 10 days,” Catalyst Game Labs’ Bill Randall said. “We are extremely excited and humbled to be at the helm of
BOARD OF THE DEAD Cryptozoic Entertainment will be releasing a boardgame based on the Walking Dead TV series. The game, slated for a September 2011 launch. will allow players to fight their way through zombie-infested Atlanta with fellow survivors. Game mechanics including using weapons to clear a path, visiting destinations like the department store, old folk’s home, and the CDC or locating tools Up to four players will be able to take on the role of Rick, Andrea, or one of the other hapless survivors and scrounge for weapons such as the shotgun or crossbow.
BattleTech as it returns to such heights; a worthy legacy for such a seminal game. Catalyst Game Labs has spent the last four years re-launching the BattleTech brand, with a slew of sourcebooks and core rulebooks. “The awareness of BattleTech is at a height not seen since the mid 90s, while the number of people returning or finding BattleTech for the first time continues to climb,” Mr Randalls said. A new print run is under way and they have more than doubled their standard print run to try and keep up with demand.
GW PODCASTER MOVES TO ‘CIVILIZATION’
“Keep your eyes open for new allies, but watch your back. When supplies start running low, it’s every man for himself,” Cryptozoic Entertainment stated.
A member of Games Workshop hobbyist podcast, World’s End Radio recently moved closer to ‘civilization’. Podcaster John ‘JJ’ Layfield moved from Perth, Western Australia, to Brisbane, Queensland, earlier this year, but is still maintaining the bi-weekly podcast. The show earns its name from the fact that it is recorded and produced from the “most isolated hobby community capital on the planet”, in Perth. Mr Layfield still podcasts with fellow host Luke Retallack, although without visual cues it sometimes makes it harder to gauge when to speak, he said. 6
Podcaster John Layfield
gaming news
COLLABORATIVE ARMY BUILD TO AID CHARITY One of the largest collaborative Warhammer 40K army builds ever done in the gaming community has begun in the hopes to raise funds for charity. The Heroes of Armageddon project is attempting to build four 3000 point armies to be given away in July. The proceeds at the end of the process will be given to Doctors Without Borders.
Jawaballs, Man Boy Genius and Goatboy. Every dollar donated gives the donator the chance to be one of the four new army winners at the end of the drive. Each dollar donated equals one equivalent chance at one of the final prizes.
Additional donated prizes are being The diorama will depict the third battle given out each week leading up to the of Armageddon and will include four compeition, such as painter Simon armies: the Steel Legion, Blood Angels, M’s bloody Space Marine diorama Ork Hordes and Speed Freaks. The (pictured). armies will be on display at Games Day In 2010 the Storm Wardens project in Chicago on 30 July. raised over $US16,000 for Doctors Build team leaders include Dave Taylor,
Painter Simon M’s contribution for charity. Photo credit: Heroes of Armageddon
SWEET DEALS TO CELEBRATE 10th ANNIVERSARY In celebration of their ten-year anniversary, the Privateer Press online store will be hosting deals on a selection of products from all current game lines throughout June. “We’re kicking things off with some fantastic offers on our award-winning miniatures games Warmachine and Hordes,” Privateer Press stated. “Between now and June 20th, we’re offering Warmachine Starter Bundles and Hordes Starter Bundles. Pick any
battlegroup box set, the associated faction tokens, and a set of Warmachine or Hordes templates, and receive a free copy of Warmachine: Prime Mk II or Hordes: Primal Mk II as well as a free Privateer Press tape measure.” Privateer Press is also offering free shipping worldwide on purchases of Warmachine and Hordes battlegroup box sets. There are also deals on their kaiju battle miniatures game Monsterpocalypse and back stock. 7
Without Borders .
gaming news
ASIA PACIFIC TANKING UP World War II tabletop game, Flames of War has seen strong growth in Asia Pacific, according to Battlefront Miniatures sales manager, Kyran Henry (pictured). Mr Henry said that Flames of War rules were were highly playable and were play tested to “ridiculous levels” “Everything gets reviewed, everything is done as a team and everyone throws their two cents,” he said. “We don’t own the rights to what we do (historically), so we try to make sure it looks the best.”
MANTIC HEADS TO OUTER SPACE Mantic Games announced that it will be releasing a new sci-fi game later in the year. Warpath will be a new miniatures range and rules set involving games designer Alessio Cavatore. More information and an open beta of the ruleset will be released over the next few months.
PRINT-AND-PLAY MERCS
PERFECT SCORE FOR NORMAN INVASION
A print-and-play card game currently under development will allow players to manage a crew of skilled mercenaries in a fantasy kingdom.
Eurogamer has given Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy (CM:BN) a perfect 10/10 score in its review of the game.
Hired Swords by Dave Graffam will have players fighting their way through a series of contracted missions, building up your reputation and forming a stable of loyal soldiersof-fortune.
The new tactical turn-based/real-time WWII wargame was released in May.
“Your successes and failures will spell out your career path as you take on a variety of job types. When your crew is ready, you’ll take on one last contract the final mission that will cement your status as a legend, or will leave your mercenaries broke and defeated,” Mr Graffam said.
“CMBN is the ingenious plan that successfully manages to repel the
Hired Swords print-and-play characters 8
assault of 70 tanks in a monster battle, but is also the drama of the lone soldier who rounds a corner, discovers an enemy soldier, draws his pistol, take aim and who is then shot at by an unseen third enemy soldier hiding in a neighboring house,” Eurogamer’s review states.
gaming news
‘FREE RIDE OVER’ FOR EUROPEAN GW TRADERS European Union traders will no longer be able to sell Games Workshop product outside the EU. Games Workshop CEO, Mark Wells wrote a letter in response to customers contacting him to express their concerns over their restriction. Mr Wells said that due to currency changes, some traders have tried to take advantage of these movements and offer deep discounts to overseas hobbyists. “It is for this reason that we have changed our European Trade terms. While this may seem great in the short term, the simple fact is that European
internet traders will not invest any money in growing the hobby in your country. Their model is to minimise their costs and free-ride on the investment of Games Workshop and local independent shops in creating a customer base,” Mr Wells said. “The inevitable consequence if this was allowed to continue is that Games Workshop would not be able to operate Hobby Centres, nor to support local trade accounts.” Mr Wells said that if this continues to happen, Games Workshop will also be forced to scale back its product development.
FREE WWII CAMPAIGN FOR THE GREAT WAR Free bonus content for Strategic Command: WWI The Great War is currently under development, according to Fury Software. The campaign 1939 Storm over Europe will be released in the near future. “While having lots of fun designing and then playing the WWI game on the new large scale map, it kept occurring to me that this map would also be ideal for WWII scenarios. In fact it would be a crying shame not to take advantage of this amazing opportunity that we have here for a grand-scale WWII campaign,” Fury Software lead designer, Bill Runacre said. 9
gaming news
FREE COMMUNITY RULES FOR DYSTOPIAN WARS
‘GOD BOOK’ LEAK RESULTS IN SUSPENSIONS
Spartan Games will soon release its first set of community rules as a free download.
Former Magic: The Gathering tour champion, Guillaume Matignon has been suspended from the Duelists’ Convocation International (DCI) for three years for revealing the details of a confidential ‘God Book’ . Three other players were also suspended in April until October 2012 for their involvement. The God Book contains every card from an upcoming set and this confidential material is trusted to very few people in order to keep the contents concealed until the proper time.
The Armoured Clash rules are centred in the world of Dystopian Wars and are designed for large scale land combat with commanders pushing numerous units around a battlefield, the command and control of which is key to their success. Early on in the development of the rules it was decided that the game had to be very simple, easy to set up and quick to play. “It was also a perfect opportunity to develop the Dystopian Wars background by providing detail on the land armies of the first four main Imperial powers involved in the conflict,” Spartan Games stated.
As a writer for Lotus Noir magazine, Mr Matignon had access to the book in order to write about the upcoming release. “He broke the trust of Lotus Noir and Wizards by sharing this information with his friends and ultimately spoiling the set well in advance of its release,” Wizards of the Coast stated in April. Mr Martignon said that he had made a “stupid mistake” by sharing the book’s information with others. “If there is a single player quitting the game due to that leak, a single booster unsold, that will be my fault,” he said.
ENGLISH HELL DORADO GOES TO PRINT The English rules for the French miniatures game Hell Dorado went to print in April. The exact date of distribution has yet to be released.
GODSLAYER GOES APP
“We’ll keep the anxiously awaiting fans updated on the process as we go,” Cipher Studios stated.
Incinerator Studios have brought Origin Awards’ nominated Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer to the Apple App Store.
Hell Dorado is a strategic game in which players compose free companies of around 10 members that clash with each other in a hellish landscape.
“We’re very excited to take Ascension to a mobile platform. We’re delighted to offer Ascension as both a board game and an app in a fresh, fast and play-anywhere format,” Gary Games CEO, Justin Gary said.
An official English translation of the French game has been long in the waiting. In 2009 miniature manufacturing company, Cipher Studios licensed the right to develop and produce Hell Dorado.
In Ascension, players take turns recruiting for their decks or defeating monsters to earn honor and ultimate victory as new cards are revealed. 10
insight
By James Dillon Gamification - the buzz word has entered the vocabulary of tech-savy marketer looking for the next big thing. The concept is simple: apply gameplay mechanics to non-game applications. Why live a normal, dull existance when you can overlay a virtual world on top of it and reward customers for performing basic tasks, such as cleaning the house? The concept isn’t new. Supermarkets, airlines and other services have made use of loyalty points for years, but the uptake of smart phones, GPS tracking, Facebook, Foursquare and 11
Web 2.0 applications has rocketed the methodology along. Now anything and everything you do can be turned into a a game of some form. The system lends itself well to RPG, puzzle and twitch-based games - your real world actions are rewarded with points, levels and recognition for your digital alter ego. This goes beyond just posting more in a certain forum inorder to improve your title or receiving an achievement for gibbing your tenth opponent - some form of real activity is needed. So how can this be applied to strategy gaming?
insight Gaming can be a tremendous time sink. Countless millions of collective hours have been poured into playing games, practicing, building army lists, developing strategies and generally just thinking about how game scenarios might play out. What if all this time could be harnessed for world good? The idea might sound far-fetched, but games designer Jane McGonigal is attempting to change how the world perceives the importance of games. A celebrated designer, researcher, and future forecaster, Ms McGonigal specialises in alternate-reality games that engage massive online audiences in real-world issues, ranging from energy shortages to health pandemics. Her presentation at the TED ideas conference in early 2010 on how ‘epic wins’ can make for a better world has drawn considerable global attention. The games designer calculates that world issues such as poverty, climate change, hunger and obesity can be solved through 21 billion hours of online gameplay each week.
alternating days for eight years in order to overcome the famine. To put her ideas into practice, Ms McGonigal created the community website Gameful.org to act as a catalyst for positive gamification discussion. In order to find out how these concepts might translate to strategy gaming, Battlespace went to Gameful.org to get some ideas. The following requirements for what constitutes a startegy game were put forth (keeping it mind that it had to include card, board, tabletop and digital startegy):
Battlespace put the question out to the gamification community: what would a real-world gamified strategy game look like? A response from Gameful forum member QuantumChaos took our interest. Below is a modified version of the ‘hive mind’ concept.
Each hive would consist of 100 members. Once it fills up, a new hive is created on a real-world map. Each hive would be a single unit in a global-scale hive.
- careful command/decision-making;
As an individual of the game your purpose is to better your community. Each hour in real life that you are part of the game you would receive one or five action points: one if your inactive and five if your active (logged into the game) for that hour. With these points you can supply the basic needs of your hive: food, water and shelter.
- situational awareness; - a form of resource collection not reliant on the player’s constant ‘clicking’; - point distribution or unit purchase before an engagement;
Make food and water for the hive by working in the garden or exploring the world for ‘resources’ to bring back to the hive (jobs, and activites).
Gameful forum member, QuantumChaos, provided the concept of the ‘hive mind’, shown on the right. The hive concept is an extreme example of how gamers could ‘go about’ a strategy “It turns out by playing all these games, game in real life. If you have any other we are changing what we are capable of as ideas on please feel free to share them on human beings. We are evolving to become the Battlespace Facebook page. a more collaborative and hardy species” Gamification and other gaming topics Ms McGonigal said. will be addressed at the 8th Annual Games There is a historic precedent for using strategy games to save a civilization. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus describes how games were invented in a the Kingdom of Lydia during a time of famine. According to Ms McGonigal, dice games were used by the kingdom as a form of ‘blissful productivity’ on
Build shelters for other members of the hive (charitable work). Socialise with the hive. Food and water are consumable resources so they will be depleted over time but the shelters will stay and can be expanded upon. While the hive mind sounds suspiciously like an insectoid version of socialist philosophy, it does provide the start for a conversation into turning thoughtful, competitive gameplay into a real world activity.
for Change Festival in June. Headlined by former US vice-president, Al Gore, the event will also include Valve’s Gabe Newell, Pulitzer Prize winners and the United nations World Food Programme ‘Head of Web’. Judging by the amount of interest being shown, games may continue to have a vital role to play in society. B 12
digital strategy
Battlespace talks to grand strategy developer, Paradox Interactive about designing and publishing epic digital strategy. 13
digital strategy
Something incredible happened in the early 90s. With a click of the mouse, Dune II changed how players enjoyed strategy games. Since then, digital strategy gaming has evolved by leaps and bounds over the past two decades. What begin as a traditional turn-based structure has been superseded in popularity by the rise of real-time strategy. An emphasis on fast reflexes and time management has clashed with measured thinking, drawing strategy gamers into two camps: those who like to take their time and those who crave immediate action.
“This is particularly true seen as though we transitioned from being ‘just’ a developer, into being a credible publisher in 2004,” Ms Graham told Battlespace.
The Stockholm-based company has an internal studio of 16 staff and a publishing team of 12, three of whom are based in the US. The US office is mainly a sales and distribution office while games production and marketing happens from Stockholm. The company Successfully straddling the divide will have published 21 games by the end between turn-based and real-time of the year, including Cities in Motion, strategy is Swedish video game developer, Sword of the Stars 2, Pride of Nations, Paradox Interactive. First started in 1998, the company has been credited First of all, we've for starting a new PC genre, ‘grand learned that the user strategy’, with two of its major titles Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron still interfaces need to enjoying continued sequels and interest. become better and better
Clockwise from top: Paradox Interactive’s Stockholm office, Cities in Motion, Europa Universalis III, Victoria II, Hearts of Iron II
“
According to Paradox Interactive executive vice president publishing, Susana Meza Graham, the transformation of the “much loved” board game Europa Universalis into a digital title put Paradox Interactive on the map as a serious contender in the PC strategy genre. “Since then we’ve stayed true to our core, but still attempt to push the envelope each year with new games and genres. 14
each year.
Darkest Hour, Hearts of Iron: The Card Game and Supreme Ruler: Cold War. Having enjoyed considerable development success, lead game programmer, Johan Andersson is able to reflect on some of the hard lessons he has learnt with Paradox Interactive. Two in particular come to mind.
digital strategy “First of all, we've learned that the user interfaces need to become better and better each year. Compare a good old classic strategy game from the 90s with today and the first thing you'll notice is how much extra work you have to do when playing an older game,” Mr Andersson explained to Battlespace. “Secondly, strategy games nowadays are slightly more complex than they were in the past. Whereas divisions previously only offered an attack value and defend value, they now offer detailed information about every single weapon which is then used in the calculations.” The strategy design road has been a bumpy one, with the developer learning he had to transform a rigid structure that broke down as the game progressed into one more focused on plausible history. “It’s been a huge success for us and our
fans seem to love it. It’s also made it so that our games are more technically polished and have a better atmosphere about them; we are no longer forced to just spend development time making sure history repeats itself,” Mr Andersson said. With many layers of detail lying under the user interface, deep strategy gamers must find a balance between dedicated fans and ‘casual’ real-time strategy gamers. While the grand strategy market may be niche, Ms Graham said the company aims to introduce new customers to the concept and gain as many customers as possible. “We see it as our mission to constantly increase our fan base. As such we strive to promote awareness and develop our gamer base as a whole rather than moving in one particular direction.
Q&A with Paradox Interactive lead developer, Johan Andersson B: What is the driving vision behind Johan Andersson’s games?
a steep learning curve for new customers?
Through hard work. We always think carefully about the features we implement to ensure that our efforts to enhance depth, gameplay, or the ease of the B: Has the ‘real-time with pause’ learning curve do not impact the aspect used in many of your games other aspects of the game too – as opposed to turn-based - been drastically. It is a difficult balance, crucial to your success? but so far it’s been going well. I believe that has been key to B: Are there any plans to link the our success. You simply cannot periods covered in Crusader Kings, make a believable game without Europa Universalis II, Victoria and granularity in time. Turn-based Hearts of Iron II through a single games are just too abstract to game? make for a fun game and they can give you a sense of disbelief. Not at the moment - but someday we’ll come up with a cool design for B: How do you grow gameplay one such game… and depth while minimising It is a very simple vision. I want to make games that I’d like to play myself. I also want to create a “believable world”.
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digital strategy “Our starting point for every game however, is still our existing fan base - our Paradox community (Forum, Facebook and Twitter),” she said. The heavily visited Paradox forums have proven influential in connecting with the community. “We read the forums every day and reply to quite a lot of discussions. Sifting through all the comments gives us inspiration for new ideas and can nudge our current thoughts in a certain direction,” Mr Andersson said.
“We've also hired several people throughout the years who, before becoming employees, were fans on the forum themselves. Even more so, there are in fact several games, like Arsenal of Democracy and Magna Mundi that have been developed by fans directly on the forum.” Paradox have also found their developer diaries very popular. “Words cannot describe how important these diaries have proven to be for our community. We utilise them to educate people about the game and they give us insight as to what people are interested in,” Ms Graham said. As a publisher with a number of individual teams as part of its extended family, the company has a range of strengths to draw from. Paradox attempts to attend to each team based on their specific needs. Some developers might be extremely strong in their technical skills but lacking in other areas, while others might be very good at communication and strategic planning but lacking resources in areas needed to finalise their games.
Paradox Interactive producers (above) and Hearts of Iron III (below)
“As a publisher, we do have certain ‘non-negotiables’ that need to be in place in order for us to publish a game, but we try to let the developers do their own thing as much as possible,” Ms Graham said. “We see ourselves more so as facilitators – in other words the last ingredient – with the ability to give an extra little boost to a game. We also make sure games are applicable to larger audiences.”
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digital strategy
Upcoming: Pride of Nations is a turn-based historical strategy game set in the colonial era of the 19th century
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digital strategy
GamersGate is an online digital distribution service first founded by Paradox Interctive. It was created to ensure that they could provide their games to fans anywhere in the world, especially where their retail presence was weak. Having their own digital distribution channel resulted in changes to the purchasing pattern of customers. In 2008, Paradox split from GamersGate, but remains an important distribution partner. In 2010 Paradox announched Paradox Connect, a service which will provide seamless in-game and between-games experiences customised for Paradox users. Gamers will be able to use their forum profile to become aware of achievements, updates and information regarding their games.
Paradox Interactive can see huge possibilities for strategy games in the smart phone and tablet markets. “We see this as huge opportunity. This offers a chance for the development of ‘back to board game’ type games where players can choose to play alone or with others. Similarly this allows for deep engrossing games that come close to and share many qualities with the modern pc game,” Ms Graham said.
“Paradox Connect will integrate well with services from other common download portals; we aim to expand
While the Swedish company has grown beyond its original grand strategy roots, it remains passionate about the genre. “That’s where our roots lie, not to mention we still have a lot of the core people left within the company. So, you can say our passion for grand strategy games is one-third personal preference, one-third knowing that our core fan base is passionate about those games and onethird wanting to focus on what we know we can do really well. They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery and Ms Graham can see traces of imitation and “inspiration” taken from several of their strategy games that have been developed over the past decade. “But more so, when the genre of strategy games is discussed, particularly those games that are ‘hard core’, Paradox is referred to as ‘genre defining’ and a ‘strategy giant’,” she said. B 18
the experience, rather than limit it or force gamers to make arbitrary loyalties,” Paradox Interactive executive producer Mattias Lilja, said. Consoles games are another untapped market, with tower defence game, Defenders of Ardania under development through Most Wanted studios, although the medium is not ideal for strategy. “Porting strategy games from PC is not the best idea considering that consoles are too different to adequately handle a PC-centric game port. A better route is to design the game for PC and console from the get go - to use the strengths and avoid the pitfalls of the platforms involved,” Mr Lilja said. “Is there is even an audience for strategy games on consoles? We think there might be and are eager to find out for certain.”
digital strategy
Let off some
Replay the events of the first hot war of the Cold War era, the Korean War, from 1C Company. Players can select two campaigns, both set in the 1950s: the North Korean (June 25 – August 20) campaign and the US campaign (September 15 – October 8). In this title players can move their forces over the entire Korean Peninsula, managing reserves, as well as the fuel and ammo supplies. Tactical battles in Theatre of War 3: Korea are generated
What’s hot on Valve’s Steam distribution network?
Armada 2525 was an early example of the space-opera genre, released by Interstel in 1991. It was by the standards of the genre fast to play, had a rich tech tree and worked very well as a twoplayer hot-seat game.
based on the strategic situation. Battlefront.com has released a free demo of the game on their website. It is is a full featured version of the game and allows access to all the missions, features, editors, save games and multiplayer as the full version. The only restriction is that you are allowed only 60 minutes total game-play running time before the demo will expire.
Although well received, it was released just as the publisher was going bankrupt, so it never became widely popular. Armada 2526 is its spiritual successor, and replicates and builds on its
Try before you buy. 19
strengths in an up to date game. You guide your race from its first interstellar journeys. until it becomes a mighty galactic empire. Along the way, you’ll explore the galaxy, conduct research, diplomacy and trade, found new colonies, maneuver mighty star fleets, and fight epic battles. Although the game is complex with varied strategies possible, an advisor feature will help you get up to speed quickly.
digital strategy
Indie game company 11 bits studio has turned the tower defence game genre on its head with the fast-paced Anomaly: Warzone Earth.
strategically deploys power-ups such as repair kits, smoke screens and decoys. Place them in the right place at the right time and you can turn the tide of battle.
In Anomaly, the player represents squads of assailants fighting an alien race that has crash-landed on Earth and taken over Baghdad and Tokyo. The player is given direct control of a commander unit that
While you determine survival by directing your units across the map, you must also run around yourself, lay down abilities at the correct time, avoid enemy fire, and complete the level’s objective.
The game has a rich visual appeal. Units and environments are highly detailed and the screen fills with explosions, fire from alien towers, lasers and pulses of energy. Even in the middle of a massive battle, you know exactly what is going on. Once the campaign is finished, you unlock two challenge modes in Baghdad and Tokyo in which you must take out 20
control points or generators against increasingly difficult waves of enemies. Anomaly will soon give those with access to a PC touch screen the chance to experience the next generation of computer user interface. Drag and poke your squad to navigate the dangerous maze of alien turrets. The touch screen compatibility will go live on 23 June,
digital strategy
Low budget downloadable content for post-apocalyptic RTS APOX is now available. APOX: Legend from game developer BlueGiant Interactive follows the story of James Kane, from a loner in the wastelands to a leader of men, in a single player campaign that includes more than three hours of game play. Key Features of the original game included prone, cover, and realistic line-of-fire, realistic ammo and fuel supply system, multiplayer games with up to 32 players and more than 100 maps.
An add-on for Kalypso Media’s trading simulation Patrician IV, Rise of a Dynasty adds new scenarios, maps and more to the popular trading simulation.
Players can now jointly control and grow the same Hanseatic trade organisation and fight sea battles as a team; teammates can join or leave a The add-on includes eight new cities, six game at any time in multiplayer mode. scenarios and co-operative multiplayer The addition of land-based caravans for up to four players. allows the players to expand their trade empire by sea and by land New features, based on suggestions of the fan community, have been added along with numerous improvements to the city environments. Several scenarios are available, which, depending on how quickly they are completed by the player, adjust the difficulty and wealth available of later missions.
Kalypso Media attempts to channel the spirit of Bullfrog’s Dungeon Keeper in Dungeons. The game lets you assume the role of a dungeon lord who has to put up with heroes assaulting his domain in search of treasure.
New assignments and missions, include a treasure map which must be assembled from parts gathered throughout the game, providing new challenges and depth of play
Through 20 campaign missions you will need to build your underground lair, provide your minions equipment, train them and prepare for the fight.
Interior views of buildings, citizen animations and behaviors, and animated businesses add to the atmosphere.
In an evil twist, captured heroes’ soul energy can be extracted in your prison or torture chambers.B 21
digital strategy
Transform history, space and time with these three strategy titles available on GamersGate
Pride of Nations
Star Twine
Darkest Hour
How far is a great nation willing to go to lay claim to its destiny? Players can attempt to answer the question in Pride of Nations, a turn-based historical strategy game set in the colonial era of the 19th century.
Ambient sounds, unique visuals and balls of light zipping past ribbons in space converge in esoteric strategy game, Star-Twine by Eric Billingsley.
Darkest Hour is a stand-alone Hearts of Iron II game featuring a mixture of short and in-depth campaigns set across the the 20th century.
Battles unfold on three-dimensional maps where you, a small point of light, must build structures to extract energy from the threads that make up the world. Energy can be spent on new structures, each with their own unique abilities.
The 1914-1964 grand strategy game allows the player to take control of and manage nearly any nationstate during the 1914-1964 timeframe including its political, diplomatic, espionage, economic, military, and technological aspects.
The enemy AI builds while you build and reacts to your play-style. This results in challenging battles that require strategic insight and quick thinking.
It introduces a new artificial intelligence that is now able to react to hundreds of different situations simultaneously, along with a dynamic diplomatic system that will allow the player to have a real impact on the course of history. B
It’s all about industrialisation, military conquest and colonisation. This release from AGEOD allows you to play as one of eight countries between 1850 and 1920. Nations include US, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Italy It includes a global map and has a detailed world economy. Players can fight against a strong AI or engage in an intricate diplomacy model, or play with friends through a simultaneous turn-based multiplayer engine.
Think critically and space out at the same time. 22
digital strategy
Two classic strategy series, Age of Empires and Civilization hope to re-invent themselves in the age of free social media.
Image source: ageofempiresonline.com 23
digital strategy
How will a classic RTS series fair once its repackaged for free? Ads for free-to-play ‘strategy’ games fight for attention on many gaming and social media websites, but how many of them are any good? In the FPS world, Swedish developers DICE have made a bang with their free-to-play options, replacing a retail price with more subtle marketing drivers, but few such examples exist for quality strategy games.
a vibrant, colourful RTS landscape. The free package include hours of gameplay, PVP, coop, gear crafting, ‘consumables’ and use of most of the tech tree. Many additional and varied charges for premium content will also be available, including access to better equipment and technology.
Iconic Age of Empires (AOE) games developer, Microsoft hope to take the classic series to a bright new world by making the game available online for free. To be released in August, the game’s Beta is currently running 24 hours a day.
This of course begs the questions of how those that don’t pay will be able to survive against superiorly equipped paying customers.
The game will see ancient civilizations such as the Greeks and Egyptions battle it out in
Whether this is a fresh approach to gaming or just overly clever marketing will be determined in August - in the end, it won’t cost players a cent unless they choose to pay for it.
No such thing as a free lunch AOE Online will be free to play, but players will likely be left behind if they don’t spend some cash to upgrade. For $20 - a cost applied either directly, or via the purchase of the boxed retail version of the game - players will be granted a ‘Premium Civilization Pack’. The pack includes “rare and epic gear,” unique units, extra in-game cash, an unlocked tech tree and a useful civilization bonuses. There will also be $10 and $5 booster packs available.
Images source: ageofempiresonline.com
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digital strategy
The cornerstone of ancient-era strategy gives players a friendly poke. The Civilization series has always been a great way to connect with friends. It’s leisurely pace and moments of suprise offer rich experiences that can be shared with others. Facebook games such as Farmville have emulated this conceit in a peaceful way, with small hobby farms run by young and old popping up all over the world. Firaxis’ Sid Meier has been carefully watching social gaming and likes what he sees. So much so that he has personally designed the code going into Civ World for Facebook.
each era as the victor by being the first to fulfill a set of victory conditions. Don’t expct to see all of Civilization’s features in the Facebook version. Gone is the world map, with players having a single city to manage and build as they play. There will also be ‘CivBucks’ for gameplay advantages.
Facebook’s social aspect has introduced a vanity to the game: the throne room. While cities will change from game to game, players will have a In Civ World, each civilization is a personalised throne room team of Facebook users working where their achievements will together. There are no restrictions be placed on display. on team size and the end-game If Sid can transition the series’ goal will be to earn as many core strategy elements into Civ fame points as possible. Each playthrough breaks down into 14 World, it very well could be the future of digital strategy. B eras. The goal is to emerge from
Guard your resources Guard towers in Civ World will have an important role to play, allowing playerrs to expand their frontiers. The amount of space you can occupy is dictated by the guard towers; as long as you keep building them, you’ll have more land to work with.
The development of resources such as culture, food, research will come from the way each city is built. Placement of structures will influence workers, who will automatically gather resources.
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Images source: www.firaxis.com
table strategy
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction involving an era or world where steam power is still widely used - usually the 19th century and often Victorian-era Britain. Tabletiop games such as the soon-to-be-launched Leviathans, When the Navy Walked and well established Warchamchine and Dystopian Wars have embraced the steampunk genre with their game themes. Battlespace puts on a top hat and takes a look at how these systems have influenced gaming.
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Victorian-era empires take to the sky in the upcoming Leviathans steampunk game
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Leviath ans Tabletop factions have waged wars against each other using all manner of weapons - gunpowder, lasers, magic and mind. The concept of military equipment powered by steam has become increasingly popular, as seen by the uptake of Warmachine’s heavily armoured ‘warjacks’. This enthusiasm for archaic technology merging with alternative history will strengthen further in 2011, with the upcoming launch of Catalyst Game Lab’s aerial naval warfare game, Leviathans. Leviathans is a miniatures-based board
game wedded to a dynamic, alternatehistory universe based around the steampunk genre. The world of 1910 Leviathans is epic in scope. The ‘manifest destiny’ of the 1800s, combined with ‘old world’ power is mixed with the man’s imagination to conquer science and the world. Keeping the “trains running on time” at Catalyst Game Lab is managing developer, Randall Bills. While not interfacing with developers, Mr Bills found some time to answer Battlespace’s questions regarding Leviathans.
:Where did the developed a brand new game system to go along with the universe that John idea for Leviathans first come from? (and others) has continued to help us Randall Bills: John Haward has been flesh out. involved with Catalyst Game Labs in a variety of ways for several years. We’re always open to looking at new things :What is your personal interest in and he pitched us a new game/universe the steam punk-era? a few years back. He basically went and found an online piece of stock art from I believe you’re referring to a blog post a few months back at www. a computer game and paired it with a short paragraph description. Obviously monstersinthesky.com. In that blog I mentioned that in my teens I saw Hayao the universe had many pages fleshed Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the out and he’d generated an entire game Winds, and while I didn’t know what system… but the image and the one short paragraph sold us on the concept ‘that’ aesthetic was, I knew I loved it. for the universe (we couldn’t use the Obviously it’s not straight up steampunk image, of course, but it gave us just the as most would define it now…but it was right feel to head in the right direction). close enough that over the years I’ve developed a real like for the style, in all Ultimately we felt the game design its myriad forms. While I’ll always have simply wasn’t what we wanted to push as a brand new miniatures game, so we a love for giant, stompy robots (been acquired the universe rights, and I then playing BattleTech for 25 years now), 28
table strategy the chance to develop a universe that even lightly treads into styles I first saw in that long ago film has been an absolute delight. : To what extent has aerial warship battles previously been explored in tabletop gaming? A: There hasn’t been a lot of games that have tackled ‘aerial warships’ over the years. The two most notable games are Sky Galleons of Mars, a miniatures game set in the same universe as Space: 1889, and Aeronef, a wargame rules set in the Redcoats on Mars gaming universe. Dystopian Wars just launched, and while it’s more a combined-arms miniatures game, it has a significant “flying warships” element to it. All three of those games, however, are very much the ‘1800s’ setting/aesthetic; what previously would’ve been called ‘Victorian science fiction’. That I’m aware of, no one has tackled a universe and game that moves the massive, steel naval ships coming into service just prior
to WWI into the air; what previously would’ve been called ‘Edwardian science fiction;’
resources of a modern state and the marshalled might of its people.
Just as an aside, the reason I say “previously called” in both instances above is that over the last decade or so both of those terms and have mostly been subsumed into the term ‘steampunk’.
You’ve then got a legacy of “territorial waters,” which generally extended 5.6 kilometers from a coastline; the distance of a canon shot, or what a country could “expect to defend.” Not to mention a “knightly chivalry” attitude towards war.
: How has the discovery of eteroid changed warfare in 1910? A: Well the great thing about how our alternate history universe is set up is that the world doesn’t exactly know all the ramifications just yet. No nation has yet experienced a World War. For centuries wars were fought by small, professional armies, supported by nations with pre-industrial technologies, limited resources and small populations. The 1900s and WWI introduced the concept of a “bureaucratized war”: wars fought by bureaucrats wielding the massive
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table strategy In other words the world is still relatively naïve and un-prepared for what modern industry and weapons can do on a modern battlefield… and we’ve upped the anty considerably by suddenly empowering nations to fly entire fleets of multi-thousand ton vessels easily across a border, right onto a capital if a commander so desires.
Meet the team behind Leviathans Matt Heerdt is a graphic design and ‘layout machine’ for Catalyst Game Labs. His artistic flare has been vital in creating the visual aesthetics for Leviathans.
The face of warfare in the Leviathans world has been changed forever…yet the military and political commanders hardly know it… and as tensions heighten and conflicts flair, the gaming community will be right there to read and play as the story unfolds. i.e. the universe is a proactive setting that will expand and grow as the game moves forward.
Steven Mohan, Jr. is a writer and a former line officer in the United States Navy. Steve has written for BattleTech, MechWarrior, Shadowrun, Eclipse Phase and Leviathans. John Haward is a a minor minion, occasional fact-checker/contributor and frequent nuisance to The Powers That Be of Catalyst Game Labs. He sent an email entitled ‘A Modest Proposal’ to Catalyst in 2008, and thus was born Leviathans.
: What research into real-world naval combat has been done for this game?
Blaine L. Pardoe is the author of over 50 books covering a broad range from science fiction to military history. He’s a highly recognized 20th century military historian and has been a featured speaker at various television and radio programs.
A lot, actually. As you can tell by the team write-ups above, we’ve got a very knowledgeable crew concerning this era, and so there’s been discussions lasting literally weeks on some of the smallest minutia related to how you take “real world X” and turn that into “made-up universe X.” A lot of time and effort has been spent on trying to find a balance between “this is how it most likely would develop” and “but we need to tweak it like this for a game universe/system.” One of my more enjoyable spread sheets I built took every last gun size deployed by the major eight nations of the Leviathans’ universe in the real world (simply crazy how all over the place they were), and plugged them into the game mechanics of range, dice and so on. It’s a big, long spreadsheet.
Jim Rapkins’ keen interest in low-intensity historical conflicts led to positions working with several commercial computer wargames developers.
Doug Chaffee recently passed away and he will be missed immensely… yet the entire Leviathans experience will carry his artistic style for years to come. Doug’s artworks range from paintings for NASA, the military, and the book and gaming industries. His paintings are owned by top-ranking military officers, corporate 30
executives and famous authors including Tom Clancy, as well as a shuttle astronaut. Chaffee did the official program painting for the Trident submarine and his work has hung in the Smithsonian, the JFK Building and the American Airlines museum, and has been featured in magazines such as Air Force, Think, and Newsweek.
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B. Why have you documented the development of Leviathans, including some of the mistakes made along the way? Community is king. I’ve been working professionally in the industry for 15 years across four different companies, not to mention simply being a geek/fan of games and so have watched a host of games and game companies over the years. And what I’ve seen work more than almost anything else is engaging a community. The fans of your game can be your greatest strength and they do wonderful things to help you push the games they love, often without even knowing it. Add in the internet and the ability for even a small fan base to keep connected and create a vibrate community has increased exponentially. Add in the cultural/technological developments of iTunes, YouTube, epublications and so on, and you have a generation growing up (much less the transition of so many older people) with a ‘make it your own’ attitude. An instantaneous connection and sharing of information that is really awe-inspiring when I think about the few emails and one or two boards I interacted with 15 years ago starting at FASA Corporation. The idea of putting almost the entire Leviathans development experience front and center for anyone to follow seemed very logical in that context. What’s more, just as the modern culture is one of “mixing-it-up” and “experimentation,” this was an experiment on Catalyst’s part as well. What would this do in generating a new community? Ultimately, once the game releases, we’ll all see the results of the grand experiment.
Final development: un-painted, test Leviathans miniatures without bases : How will Leviathans’ game mechanics work? Wow…now that’s a question I could go on answering for a while. Leviathans is a turn-based tactical game, where initiative is rolled each turn and every turn a player will have the opportunity to move and fire his ships. Damage, in almost all cases, is simultaneous, not instantaneous, meaning damage takes effect at the end of the turn, so damaged or even destroyed ships in a turn still can take their actions. Leviathans unique game system is centered around a color-coded dice system. Players look at their attacking Ship Card and the Target Ship Card, which tells them which colored dice to select, along with a “Slot Dice”, and then roll them all together in a “Breach Roll.” The player then simply adds all the 31
colored dice together for a total value and compares that to the Slot on the target ship as indicated by the ‘Slot Die’. If the value is equal to or greater than the ‘Breach Number’ in that slot, it’s destroyed. : How important will manoeuvring be for warships? Very. Not only is it easier to hit a stationary target, but far more importantly, just like in real world naval warfare, the best possible manoeuvre is “crossing the T”. This means that the Bow and Stern (especially the latter) Locations are the weakest parts of the ship. So the best possible move is to bring your broadside to bear against a target’s Bow, or especially the Stern, as knocking out a ship’s Engine Slots will quickly immobilize it. So during game play you’ll find your fast
destroyers are trying to survive the fire-fight long enough to zip around into enemy ship Stern’s. Then you’ve got ‘screening’, which allows one ship to spend Movement Points to block attacks against another ship. Your battleship just had its Stern opened up? Move that fast destroyer in to take the damage so you don’t lose your big guns on the battleship. Lots and lots of cool fleet manoeuvres : Can players target and fire at all targets on the board? A. Yup. These are big ships, with big crews, so while a Gun Battery Slot can only fire once per turn, as many such Slots as you have can fire at as few or as many targets as are available (i.e. in range and in the weapon’s firing arc).
table strategy : What major rule changes have you made based on alpha play testing and community feedback?
That experiment, along with all the reasons I have mentioned, showed us this was a bold step worth taking.
Wow…so many changes. In fact the original version I first play tested has almost nothing to do with the current version. The original design was a pretty standard 2D10 based system, with a host of modifiers, rolling against a set target number.
It also seemed all the more appropriate as the entire steampunk culture is one of taking bits and pieces from a variety of sources and making it your own. Creative Commons allows Leviathans to fully embrace that aesthetic, encouraging gaming groups to take Leviathans in what ever direction they want. And we’ll be watching to see if there isn’t material being generated out there that we think is awesome… and we just might come calling to see if a gaming group might be interested in their material being folded into ours….
However, one of the biggest goals of Leviathans has been to try and create a table-top miniatures game that someone who was interested in the “steampunk” visual aesthetics and universe could learn to play relatively easy, yet would retain the modifiers essential to a fun, tactical game. The color-coded dice system retains all the modifiers, but hides them so there’s very few modifiers in the game and instead the players simply look at the appropriate colored circles and snag corresponding dice and roll. Towards the very end of the play testing cycle, there were some concerns over whether the larger ships were a little too weak compared to the smaller ships. We playtested and discarded two or three different complicated solutions before one of the playtestes suggested a very elegant solution that was easy to implement, felt right, and almost instantly solved the balance issue. : Do you think that publishing Leviathans under the Creative Commons will help grow your fanbase faster? A. Yes I do. Alongside Posthuman Studios, Catalyst published Eclipse Phase under Creative Commons, releasing the rulebook as a free torrent, as well as a very low-priced PDF. The results were amazing.
: What interest level in Leviathans have you seen from the gaming community? A lot, actually. The website has been up for two years now, and we’ve been running demos across most of that time at a variety of conventions. Last Gen Con in particular we ran dozens and dozens of demos…and in almost every case people walked away smiling and laughing at a fun time. There’s almost no better compliment one could ask for. : What can gamers expect to see at your Gen Con Indy 2011 events? We’re running a variety of events, from demo games, to full games, to an “out-of-the-box” tournament, to hopefully a big battle where players can join me and two dozen-ish ships on the board. You can find the full list of events here: http://monstersinthesky.com/2011/04/25/ gaming-on-the-horizon-gen-con-leviathansevents/ 32
: What will be available to gamers when Leviathans is first released? The current plan is to release the following products simultaneously: Core Box Set: This comes with everything you need to play, including rulebooks, universe book, game boards, tokens, dice, Ship Cards (and corresponding Recognition Cards), and 8 high-quality, assembled and lightly-prepainted miniatures (a battleship, light cruiser and two destroyers for the French and British fleets). British and French Fleet Boxes: The same miniatures as in the Core Box Set will also be released in their own “fleet boxes”, and will include variant Ship/Recognition Cards. Leviathans Dice Pack: A set of dice outside of the core box set to expand a player’s dice pool. After the initial release, additional Ship Boxes will expand fleets, while down the line we’ll start to release “Faction Box Sets” that will introduce rules and miniatures for the rest of the major world powers: Germans, Italians, Russians, Japanese, Americans and Austro-Hungarians.
table strategy
n a i p o t s Dy Wars
While Leviathans intends to rule the skies, another game has already conquered the seas. Dystopian Wars is a steampunk miniature wargame published by Spartan Games set in an alternative 1870. Nations have gone to war with highly advanced vehicles and weapons, including as airships the size of castles, rockets, submarines and robots. For developers Spartan Games, it was important the game be as accessible as possible for players. ”We have designed the rules to ensure a fun game with a large selection of highquality models in a couple of hours,” Spartan Games states. “The rules support naval, aerial and land models from the outset, so that you can set up battles and scenarios in any combat setting.” Dystopian Wars features highly detailed resin and pewter miniatures with which
“Our fast-play rules are
optimised for large fleet actions 33
players can roam the high seas, scour the smog-filled skies looking for enemy flying ships, or defend the cities and countryside using giant land ships. “Our fast-play rules are optimised for large fleet actions, so you can get as many miniatures on the table as you want, and still finish an enjoyable game in an afternoon or evening,” Spartan Games states. The game also makes use of game cards to allow a fog of war aspect. “Dystopian Wars is also ideal for multiplayer games, because you get to activate individual squadrons of miniatures from one player to the next.”
table strategy
Space safari
Despite taking place 60 years before humanity’s first flight to the moon and with only steam-based technology to work with, Victorian steampunk games are not averse to dabbling in space conquest.
When th Navy W e alked
The Overlords
When the Navy Walked (WTNW) by Robert Adams is a rules book and game system depicting the Martian invasion of Earth and takes heavy inspiration from Jules Verne and H. G. Wells.
The game is is intended to be played using stands of figures ranging in scale from 2mm to 15mm, with units representing whole companies or battalions. Twenty milimetre, 28mm and even According to Mr Adams, WTNW is more than just a 32mm-scale figures can be used instead, by replacing multi-figure stands with individual ‘Victorian science fiction game’ figures and doubling the distances in the “It is a springboard for imagination and a high-level game, although this changes the game’s scope game of tactics and battles set amongst a 'what if ' from massive battles to smaller skirmish level world,” he said. engagements featuring squads and platoons. In WTNW, players take the reins and command armies of men, beasts and steam-driven vehicles. “It is a springboard for “In the end, the thunder that cascades across the battlefield to settle in the souls of the fighting men will only be assuaged with the assistance of the landship,” according to Mr Adams.
imagination and a high-level game of tactics and battles
The rules book provides lists for six unit types: leaders, ground units (infantry and cavalry), artillery, machines (tanks, walkers), capital units (very large landslips and airships), and small flying units (aircraft). Changing formations and taking actions chew up command points. Firing units have a number of fire dice which they throw after receiving an order and nominating a target. There are some unique rule elements such as sabotage and espionage, which leaders can allocate points to after movement and combat. Mr Adams recently finished constructing the game’s first capital unit - the Zyklops. Germans, British, American, French and Spanish miniatures are currently underway as well. 34
awaken “Eons before the rise of mankind, before any creature drew breath on any planet, there was a supreme Intellect, guarding the Void of Existence from the Dark Ones who would destroy the blanket-like folds of space and time.” Conflict On Mars! is a miniature rules set for When the Navy Walked that covers an alternate history set during the colonisation of the ‘Red Planet of Mars’ by the ‘Great Powers’. As the Great Powers vie for control of the planet’s few resources and the Red Planet’s native Red, Green and White Martians make tenuous treaties with them, something older stirs in the depths of the planet. “Something dark and terrible that has been hidden for eons in forgotten crèches locked in a stasis of bloody dreams of conquest,” Mr Adams states. The Overlords are awakening from their deep slumber and returning to the planet’s surface once again. The Gray servants of the Skvani are gathering their Tripod War Machines. The future of Mars bears dark days of war! This Conflict on Mars supplement requires the full version of When the Navy Walked, second edition, to play the game.
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ne Warmachi
Steam-powered machines controlled by magic wage war in Privateer Press’ tabletop steampunk game Warmachine. Unlike Leviathans, Dystopian Wars and When the Navy Walked, which are based on alternative Victorian-era scenarios, Warmachine has taken an even more fantastical approach. Warmachine is a fast-paced and aggressive 30mm tabletop miniatures battle game set in the steam-powered fantasy world of the Iron Kingdoms. Battles are fought between warcasters from rival kingdoms, the large steampowered warjacks that the warcasters control, and troops consisting of humans and fantasy races. Warjacks, or ‘jacks for short, are technomagical constructs designed for waging war. They are, in general, powered by a coal-burning steam engine and guided by an arcane supercomputer-like ‘brain’ called a cortex. Heavily armored and often carrying over-sized weaponry, ‘jacks fill a role similar to traditional military armor such as tanks and artillery. Driving the warjacks forward are powerful spellcasters called warcasters. Warcasters serve multiple roles: in addition to guiding the warjacks’ destructive power, they are the army commanders and potent combatants. Each warcaster has a special feat that can be used once per battle; their effects range from subtle to explosive and can be enough to change the tide of battle.
Metal Juggernaut models from the Khador faction 35
In addition to warcasters and warjacks, armies can field supporting infantry troops of many varieties. Some are infantry or gunners, while others have more specialized roles, from warjack repairmen to spellcasters. In 2004, Warmachine won the Origins Awards for Best Fantasy Miniatures Rules of 2003 and Best Fantasy Miniatures Series of 2003. In 2005 Warmachine won Game of the Year at Origins and Gamers Choice for Best Miniatures.
Wrath of the machine
Warmachine: Wrath is set for a June release and will introduce battle engines. into the game The first studio-painted battle engine introduced was Khador’s Gun Carriage, follwoed by Retribution of Scyrah’s Arcantrik Force Generator.
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Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q
Battlespace takes to the high seas with Black Scorpion Miniature’s new pirate rule book, Cutlass!
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Fantasy pirates fight for high-seas booty in the new skirmish-level rule book Cutlass!
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Writer and games developer Gav Thorpe didn’t choose to write about pirates, the pirates chose him. It was at the Triples gaming event in Sheffield last year that he came across the Black Scorpion stand where Adam Clarke’s pirate miniatures hung from the shelves, staring at him.
a set of rules to accompany his lovely miniatures. I was up for it, as they say, and after Adam outlined roughly what he was looking for, I set to scribbling down some ideas, pushing some soldiers around on the dining table and rolling dice to see if the basic system I had in mind would work,” he siad.
“Seeing Adam’s miniatures in the flesh stirred old ‘gotta have them’ feelings, so Carl and I exchanged a look and pretty much decided on the spot that some fantasy pirate fun was to be had,” Mr Thorpe states on his Mechanical Hamster blog.
The Cutlass! rules allow players to collect a band of fighters and battle for control of a strange island in the Carribean. As fantasy pirates, players can choose to play as Pirates, Privateers and Royal Navy gangs as well as Orcs and Goblins, Dwarfs, Undead and Elves.
“Wind forwards a few months, and I was delighted to be contacted by Adam, who was looking for someone to pen
Battlespace spoke to Mr Clarke to learn more about how Cutlass! plays out.
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: How long have you been producing pirate-based minis? Adam: Black Scorpion was formed late 2005, the first Pirate packs were launched at Salute 2007. We had just two packs and two characters but demand was huge. It just went off from there. B: How fortuitous was it to have Gav Thorpe come across your stand at Triples in 2010? Well I’d known Gav from my time as a sculptor in the GW studio. I’d heard he’d gone freelance and actually already had it in my head that I wanted him to do the mechanics for the game. I only asked just after Triples when everything was in place.
B: Has the popularity of Pirates of the Caribbean influenced Cutlass! or perhaps helped make it more commercially viable? I’m not sure... pirates are just popular anyway like cowboys. It’s probably why the undead are so popular though. Once people see something in a film that makes it ‘ok’. I still get odd questions like, ‘Is there such a thing as pirate elves?’ B: What 'types' of pirates can players create? At the moment there are seven factions in Cutlass. Royal Navy, Pirates, Privateers, Undead, Orcs and goblins, Dwarfs and Elves. You can also mix in females or have an all female crew. The Orcs can even use the giant! Players can choose a traditional pirate game or involve the fantasy elements as they choose. 38
B: Are pirate roles in Cutlass! defined by particular classes or is it possible to have a wide mixture of skills? It’s very much down to the player how their crew and pirates operate. Each faction has slightly different attributes/special rules making them better at certain things. There’s a generic skills table for all and faction specific skills. At first skills are random until you roll one you already have then you can choose, allowing you to tailor the model to what role he plays. Obviously choice of weapons and which crew types you pick at the start play a huge part in defining your crew.
table strategy While the games and B: How have players taken to the 'descending action point' game system? mechanics are completely different, the concepts Very well once they’ve played a game. behind them give the At first it seems a little daunting as these same type of thrill. ‘action points’ define how many actions Basically you’re always playing you can make. When you read it you rather than waiting for your opponent think ‘well if I roll a 1 and my opponent to finish his turn. an 8 for action I’m done for!’ The reality B: How much of an impact does each is it balances out really well and is what pirate having their own dice roll type makes the game work so well. It allows have on the game? for complete interaction in the game, planning, tactics, luck and the possibility Like most games systems each of great comebacks during a game! model has characteristics. In Cutlass B: Is it becoming more important for gamers to be able to react or participate during their oppositions turn? Perhaps, if done right as I believe it is in Cutlass! it makes for a fantastic game. The concept is that there are no strict player turns. You have opposing dice roles and can never be sure when your opponent will interrupt your actions makes it really exciting. Gav compares it to the Blood Bowl turnover system.
Cutlass! uses a descending action point system to allow opposing players to be involved in each turn. According to rules designer Gav Thorpe, the rules are inspired by Jervis Johnson‘s Blood Bowl turnover rule, which can quickly turn the ball over to the opposing player.
different dice are used to represent these, ranging from D4 to D20. Using opposing roles for combat, shooting etc you can determine the outcome. All roles are open ended, meaning if you roll a 4 on a D4 you roll again adding it on and so on.. This means even the weakest pirate has a chance against a greater enemy. If you allow even extremely unlikely odds a chance to occur in the mechanics they will somewhere, creating some truly memorable games!
“My primary goal was to design a system that allowed the players to interact throughout play, rather than having to wait out their
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opponent’s turn,” Mr Thorpe states in his Mechanical Hamster blog. Cutlass! also uses different-sided dice to differentiate between the strengths of pirates. “This creates some interesting dynamics, maths-wise, because a die with more sides can score higher on a single roll but has less probability of scoring the maximum result. This serves to smooth out the differences between the skill levels and I think works rather well.”
table strategy : Do players prefer battles with meaningful objectives that carry over to other games if given the chance? I think so. Cutlass has a whole section with different encounters, detailing the objectives and how to win. Straight out fights are cool too, but it’s nice when there’s a specific objective to achieve. It brings in tactics and thought too. You may shoot and kill most of your opponents crew but if he rescued the dignitary he’s still won the game!
: Could you have explored more exotic races beyond dwarves, elves, goblins etc. or did it make sense to stick to common archetypes in such a specialised setting? There’s no limit to where we can go with it. At the moment there’s a great variety there covering the main races. One of the key reasons is I wanted the players to be able to play straight away. Black Scorpion already has the ranges available for every faction before the book was out. This is a huge advantage. Being able to include a catalogue in the book to help players choose their crew and no waiting for miniatures to be released. Of course there are still many new releases planned for the factions and one or two special characters to be made, but all the models are there to start your crew.
: What was the reaction to Cutlass! at Salute 2011? Amazing. As anyone there will tell you our stand was mobbed all day and the book sold very well. We had a few open copies on show, people were blown away by the quality of the art graphics and layout which is really testament to the great work of the illustrators and in particular, Tammy... who did all the graphics. : What future plans do you have? At first bringing out more pirate releases for Cutlass! and supporting the game. The main news is that we are planning ‘Tombstone’ for next year in a similar way, I.e... a rulebook for our cowboy range. B
: Have you heard any stories or had any personal experiences of epic 'Final Reckonings'?
B: What sort of loot can players look forward to picking up? The equipment section has many items from monkeys, parrots, spyglasses to rum and amulets! There are loot tokens in the back of the book for certain encounters. Of course players are encouraged to create their own and finding loot is a great way to bring on your crew quickly.
Not at the time of writing as we’ve only just started shipping books out and those who bought at Salute haven’t got that far yet. We’ve only just started our proper campaign. Play testing is a little different as you are looking for ‘what ifs?’ and don’t always follow a strict game/ campaign sequence. 40
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Warhammer 40,000 battle report
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The Queensland Northern Knights gaming club, Australia, pit a Warhammer 40K Daemonic army against a well-armed Grotz rebellion. Mission: capture and control Deployment: pitch battle Points: 1000 Deployment Chad’s Grotz guard deploys first in a gun line with tanks on the flanks for support. Jacob’s Daemons prepare to warp in from turn one Objectives Chad chooses a tree deep in his deployment zone and central to his gun line. Jacob places daemonic spawn in an olive grove opposite Chad’s gun line
daemon Grotz d
Objectives (above and below)
G 42
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Da histury ov da gratez Gobbo rebellion As written by Comizar Snikitz It all started bak on dat planet of Armigedon. While Gazaskull was uff bashin dose umies, we was left at ‘da camp wit only a few boyz ta ‘look afta uz’. Az the boyz pushed uz about ova and ova wez began ta notice sumin. We cud muck up and da big btutez din’t have da numbaz to stop us. I had bin waitin for dat day all my life, und now mi planz cud bez put ta work. Ova time wez began to thief and steal weaponz from da Imperical ‘pile o bitz’ dat wuz always growin thunks ta Gazaskulls Waaagh. We practiczed wid da gunz und newz em in an out coz wez alwayz fixin em for da Orkz. Wez grabbed sum armor too becuz dat makez uz tougha dan doze half-brained boyz. We evin snitched ourzselz a tank or thri and wit a little work dey eaz aaalz betta.
Afta weeks of preparitions and sneakin bout, we struk! Da boyz din’t know wat hit em. Dey tried ta bash us bak, but wez wuz too meny an too dead shooty. Da camp wuz ourz. Stupid Orkzes!
is melting under our feet. We found a nize hilz to camp on and wilz waitz till the stangeness goez awayz before we head otz to space to free our fellowz gobbo’, grots and snotlingz.
Soon we had set uff on our compayin. Not ta beat da frightened little umies or da fairy dressin spaz marinz but ta free uthaz from da tyrinicial Orkzies. Wihin a munth wez hud captored five mure campz and trippled in numbaz and determination. Wez was unstapable! After frein piles ‘o’ Gobboz and takin a lotz more gunz and tankz we wilz set onz our journey into spaace. We are all set to go but sumthingz has happened. Da skyz is getting a strange fleshzies colour and da grass
Rebel Gretchin Chad’s Grotz army is an Imperial army composed of rebel Grots models. Grots, Gretchin and Runts are a lesser Ork slave race who do the menial tasks which Orks consider themselves above. The Rebel Grots are a ragtag mob, dressed predominatly in red to them, the colour of 43
‘Da Revolushun’. Da Kommitte rules over the Grots, dictating what happens and planning raids on Mektown. Da Red Gobbo is head of Da Kommitte, and often fights with the Warbands. Under Da Kommitte are the Head Honchos, leaders of the Rebel Grot warbands.
table strategy Chad’s pre-game tactics
HQ Company Command Squad - 75 Refractor field (commander), regimental standard, two sniper rifles Elite Three Ogryn - 130 Bone Ead, Ripper guns, Frags
Two infantry squads Two ‘nade launchers, one autocannon, one missile
Fast attack Hellhound - 144 Inferno cannon, heavy bolter, heavy stubber
Troops Platoon Command Squad Two flamers
Heavy support Manticore Missile Launcher Super death missile!, heavy bolter
Two infantry Squads 1 x lascannons + nade launcher, 1 x heavy bolter
Leman Russ battle tank Battle cannon, Three heavy bolters, heavy stubber
Given the terrain, mission and my stationary guard army in respect to the extremely mobile and reactive daemon army, I needed to have a solid plan from turn one, implementing it immediately.
absorbing the bulk of the daemons assault whilst giving covering fire for the advancing half.
The advancing half would begin to move turn 2, after half of the daemon force had arrived, So I decided to split my force into hopefully taking my opponent by two parts, a stationary fire base and surprise. If all went according to an advancing force. The general plan, I would hold my objective tactic would involve the fire base whilst denying my opponents.
Grotz army Chad Teschward, Queensland Northern Knights gaming club
Platoon Command Squad Missile launcher
Total: 1040 points 44
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Total: 1040 points Daemon army Jacob Connor, Queensland Northern Knights gaming club
HQ Herald of Tzeentch - 100 Chariot, Master, Bolt of Tz., D. Gaze Blue Scribes of Tzeentch - 130
Elite 3 Flamers - 105 Troops 10 Daemonettes -145 Gaze 10 Daemonettes - 140 Eight horrors - 136 Eight horrors - 141 Changeling
Fast attack Six seekers -102 45
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Chad holds tight for his first turn preparing for the frontal assault. The grass-covered ground leading up to the sloping hill is eerily quiet as the goblins await for the daemons to emerge.
The Grotz gunline (top left and right) wait impatiently before the Daemons (above) suddenly emerge from the Warp 46
The daemon units begin to teleport onto the battlefield. Blue scribes and a unit of eight horrors attempt to emerge from the rift near the opponents main line, but are scatterd onto
the Leman Russ battle tank. Chad redeploys them in the far corner of the battlefield. The first wave of daemon forces deploy to the far left of Chad’s gun line.
The Gobbo left flank falls back from the newly emerged seekers. The right flank advances towards the distant objective. Commander orders two infantry platoons to unleash upon the dad petted, killing five. The leman Russ unleashes its deadly salvo at the seekers,
causing eight wounds and no casualties. The daemons saved all of the 4+ saves. The Manticore unleashes one of it's four missiles killing two daemonettes., The Hellhoud takes a long range shot to reduce the 10 strong daemonettes down to one.
table strategy
Chad lines up a shot with his heavy support on the offending Daemons below during the second turn
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table strategy Jacob warps in the second unit of daemoettes into the Grotz’ right flank. The Herald on chariot floats down the middle of the board with support from a freshly warped unit of horrors. The unit of horrors in the far corner slowly move across the table to engage in combat. The lone daemonette and seekers advance through cover to the goblins flank. In the shooting phase the new unit of daemonettes spread out, under the covering fire of the new horrors and herald who do minal damage to the advancing infantry unit. The seekers and solo daemoette charge into the stranded infantry squad on the far left flank. Thirty four attacks from the combined Slaneesh charge results in a completely destroyed unit with no injuries sustained what so ever. The seekers move forward but are now exposed for the waiting Grotz guns.
(From top left) Seekers emerge from the wood, assault the goblin line and decimate a squad. They are now exposed to Grotz fire.
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The flamer unit advances and engages the newly formed seeker unit. The Hellhound advanced on right flank to support the infantry platoon crossing the river. The Ogyrns advance down the middle.
The Grotz army used the terrain’s curving river to good effect as a rudimentary moat. Here a squad crosses the river to engage the Daemons.
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platoon to open on the seekers, wiping them out, but not before an errant missile takes out three of the platoon.
Grotz commands orders the central platoon to fire on the Herald, causing a wound. Ogryns cause another wound on the Herald, while the Leman Russ fires at it with all guns, leaving it with one wound.
The Changeling attempted to use it's ability to cause the Hellhound to fire on the infantry platoon, but the tank isn’t fooled and kill most of his squad. The Manticore fires on the remaining Daemonette squad, blasting four of them back to the Warp. Finally, the last platoon opened up on the last Horrors, but to no effect.
The flamer unit crisps what remains of the nearby daemonette unit. The command squad then orders the infantry
The platoon charged the Horrors and wiped them out at the cost of one of their own.
table strategy With control of the central battlefield, the Grotz move to finish off the Daemons. The Ogryns moves towards the Herald, the Leman Russ pivots to face the Blue Scribes, and the flamer unit advanced on the Daemonic flamers. The senior officer join the nearby squad of Guardsmen.
The Flamers finally arrive from out of the Chaos Warp, emerging in the forest behind the main Grotz line. The waylaid Horrors continued to advance towards the Daemon objective. The heavily wounded Herald moves out of the forest, intent on engaging the nearby infantry platoon. It blasts the gobbos with daemonic fire, killing two with its magic.
The senior officer orders his new squad to follow the Ogryns, then orders the other unit of Guardsmen to open up on the Flamers, wiping them out, to the disappointment of the junior officer. The Ogryns run forwards, while on the
Scribes cast Daemonic Gaze on the junior officer's squad, killing two. The Flamers torched the forest in front of them, leaving a wounded senior officer alone in the field. The Herald of Tzeentch charges the Guardsmen squad, while the Daemonettes assault the Hellhound. Daemonettes manage to immobilse the tank and distract the crew enough to prevent it firing next turn. The Herald was able to kill a Guardsman without suffering any damage in return, but the Grotz manage to hold their nerve.
left the battle tank opens up with all weapons on the Scribes, blasting the bickering daemons to pieces. The Manticore targets the distant Horror unit with a pair of missiles, but the supernatural nature of the daemons protected them from any damage. The Herald falters during the assault phase and is destroyed by the infantry platoon, but the Daemonettes mangle the Hellhound, ripping it to shreds.
Tick tick boom: the Grotz rocket fails to explode
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Having finished off the Grotz Hellhound, the Daemonettes race across the river to secure their own objective
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The Daemonettes cross the river and chase after the infantry platoon as it makes its way towards their objective. The Horrors moved into position to fire at the oncoming Grotz. The Horrors attempted to fire at the Ogyrns, but failed to cause any harm to
the abhumans .
The Grotz army charges forward to try and seize the Daemon objective, leaving the junior officer and his goblins to guard their own objective.
The Daemonettes catch the Infantry Platoon (after moving a massive 21" in the turn!) and, in an avalanche of attacks, kill the troopers before they can raise a weapon.
The Manticore has another shot at the Horrors, but again to no effect. The rest of the Guard units fire with every
The Daemonettes seize the objective in their deployment zone, while the Horrors move so that the Infantry Platoon with the senior officer is within range. The Horrors fire on the platoon squad, killing three gobbos. A six for extra turn is rolled, so the game continues! 52
weapon in range, but thanks to some wildly scattering munitions, only three Horrors fall. The Ogryns charge the Daemonettes, but the musician in the Daemon unit allows the Daemonettes to win combat. The Ogryns flee and are cut down.
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Chad’s Grotz army fire everything its has at the daemonnettes securing the daemon objective
Movement: Senior Officer and his unit attempted to reach the Daemon-held objective. The Leman Russ tank fires on the Daemonettes with it's weapons, pulverising four daemons. The Senior Officer ordered his troopers to run.
The Gobbo’s fire everything at the remaining Daemonettes on the far side of the hill, finishing them off and leaving the Daemon objective unguarded.
The Horrors closed in on Officer and squad, firing and leaving only him and two others remaining. The daemons charge in to the remaining gobbos, and killed the Officer and another squad member.
Assault: Horrors finish off the remaining Gobbos, and race for their objective.
Another extra turn is rolled! 53
The Horrors reach the objective. The game ends.
Result: Draw - both sides hold their own objectives.
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Chad’s post-game summary I felt that my overall battle plan was effective and it was close to succeeding. For the majority of the game my objective was securely controlled, whilst my advancing infantry unit, hellhound and ogryns attempted to contest Jacob’s objective. However, my positioning of Jacob’s horrors in the far back corner (after Jacobs deep strike mishap) eventually benefitted Jacob’s battle plan as it reduced my effective shooting
against that unit enormously whilst ensuring he had a unit to counter-attack my forward advance. If I could replay the game, I would have dedicated more units earlier to capturing my opponent’s objective, giving me more time to advance and a greater chance of a unit reaching the target. Overall, a very deserving result and I would happily verse Jacob again!
Safely secured: The Daemon army’s horrors secure the onjective and save the day for the Warp-spawn
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card & board strategy
Against the board By Geoff Engelstein, Ludology.net Co-operative games have become an increasingly popular genre of boardgames, with hits like Battlestar Galactica, Defenders of the Realm and the newly released Lord of the Rings: The Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games. This is a fertile area for designers, as the genre is still relatively new, and there is a lot of design space to explore. But co-operative games give a variety of unique challenges to the game designer to present the players with balanced opposition. One of the first decisions the designer needs to tackle is what the win ratio should be. How often should the players win? If it is too often, the game will lack challenge and replayability will suffer. If it is too difficult, the players will get frustrated and may not play enough times to garner a victory, and simply give it up. Years ago I conducted a poll on BoardGameGeek about what players wanted as a win rate in a co-operative game. My instinct was that winning 20-25 per cent of the time would give the players a sense of accomplishment, while not being too frustrating. Much to my surprise, the majority of 55
people wanted to win about 50 per cent of the time, a lot higher than I expected. If I play a four-player game I expect to win about 25 per cent of the time and that win rate keeps me interested. And I felt a similar rate would apply in the coop world. Perhaps people were just thinking of it as a two-player game – ‘us’ vs ‘them’, so each should win half the time.
games, where one or more players are secretly working against the group. Shadows Over Camelot and Battlestar Galactica are examples of this genre. Here there truly are two sides and it makes more sense to balance them against each other.
“So, for a game
to have longevity, there needs to be some element that is modified to scale the difficulty. Or perhaps people are not that selfaware, and report wanting to win 50 per cent of the time, but really would be more satisfied with much less. Or perhaps I have a skewed view. The 50 per cent win ratio is much more justified in the ‘traitor’ style
Lord of the Rings: The Card Game Image source: Fantasy Flight Games
card & board strategy In any event, the designer has the challenge of tuning the game to meet the desired win rate. This is made more complex in that, assuming there is some skill to the game, the players will be improving each time they sit down to play. So, for a game to have longevity, there needs to be some element that is modified to scale the difficulty. Some early co-operative efforts, like Knizia’s Lord of the Rings and Shadows Over Camelot have no adjustable elements. It is mainly later efforts like Pandemic and Ghost Stories that give the players the ability to play the game at different ‘levels’ that will make it easier or harder. These games change the frequency with which bad things happen to the players to ramp up the difficulty. However the game itself is the same, from a rules and strategy standpoint, which hurts the ultimate replayability and makes it more of a ‘puzzle’ to be solved than a game to be outwitted or experienced. A more satisfying solution, in my opinion, is the addition of extra features
or scenarios to the game as players advance. Ambush (a solitaire game) and Space Alert are great examples of this. The different features of the game are introduced over a series of scenarios,
will do. And yet if the opposition acts in a simplistic manner, it may not present interesting and complex problems for the players to solve.
“The random
fluctuation of these different threats presents an everchanging problem landscape
Shadows Over Camelot was an early adopter of co-operative play
with the framework of the game. This makes it fresh each time, and gives with more complexity and difficulty the players the opportunity to face a layered into the experience each time. So challenge appropriate for their skill. the players have a real sense of growing This brings us to another challenge – the with the game, and not just tossing more obstacles that get between the players bad guys into the deck. and victory. In a computer game it In Space Alert, once all the game is possible to give the forces arrayed elements are introduced, variety is against the players artificial intelligence maintained through the many different and goal-setting behaviors. That is soundtracks available (the soundtracks really hard in a boardgame, because control the action of the game) and the the players can’t be burdened with a different levels of opponents available, lot of bookkeeping and calculations to each with special power and abilities determine what the non-player forces
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There are three main approaches that designers have taken to date to deal with this issue. The first is the layering of many simple threats. This is probably the most common design motif in cooperative games right now. You can usually tell the designer has adopted this technique if there are a multitude of ways to lose, but only one way to win. For example, in Defenders of the Realm, the players can lose if one of the bosses reaches the city, if too many minions are placed on the board, if too many crystals are placed on the board, or if too many minions are placed in the capital. I think I got them all! They win only by eliminating all four bosses. What this does is create many different threat axes that the players have to deal with. And some of the players will be better-positioned than others to deal with certain threats, because of location
card & board strategy and special abilities. The random fluctuation of these different threats presents an ever-changing problem landscape to the players and keeps them on their toes. But each individual element is easy for the players to execute, usually controlled by cards or dice. It is also easy to control the difficulty ramp with this method, as the frequency with which things get bad can be increased. The second method is by a ‘programmed action’ of some type. The pieces move on preset paths, or act in scripted ways. The players need to follow the scripts to execute the actions of the pieces. Solitaire wargames (like Ambush) pioneered this method, typically by using a flow-chart or decision tree to figure out what to do (e.g. if there is an enemy with four hexes, fire your weapon. If the enemy is five-to-eight hexes, move closer, etc). The 2010-released co-op Castle Ravenloft uses a similar system, as different monsters will have simple rules to follow in terms of where to move and whom to attack. This type of fix can work, but is more work for both player and designer. These systems can start to get complex. If they are kept very simple they can The third method moves the game lack variety, and it can be simpler for the beyond a true co-operative by adding players to ‘game’ the system with their an oppositional player. This can take the omniscient knowledge of what their form of the ‘traitor’ mechanic, where a opponents will do. And if the designer crafty human works to undermine what tries to add variety to their actions the players are attempting to accomplish. complexity increases. Some games have But it can also simply be another player added different stages to the game (for that works against the players. Descent, example, when guards become alerted) Scotland Yard, Fury of Dracula and the that change the actions pieces will take. newly released Mansions of Madness
all follow this model with one human player controlling all of the opposing forces. While not a true co-operative, the bulk of the players are playing cooperatively, so in a sense this does meet the criteria. Co-operative games have a unique ability to raise tension and create a sense of foreboding in players. The unknown nature of most of the threats leads to a sense of dread that canny designers have
“Co-operative games
have a unique ability to raise tension and create a sense of foreboding in players.
exploited. But this is also a challenge – how do you make the players feel like they are on the edge of failure, while at the same time making them feel like they are on the edge of success? Pulling that trick off is the key to an engaging game. Perhaps the key technique to this is to decouple what the players need to do to win versus what the game needs to do to win. As an example, let’s take a look at Defenders of the Realm. In that game you need to eliminate all four boss monsters. But the game ‘wins’ by many methods that are unrelated to that. So the players can get stronger by gaining new abilities and eliminating some of the bosses, but the game can also get ‘stronger’ by having more pieces out on the board, and the remaining bosses are 57
closer to reaching the capital city. So the players get stronger, but run out of time. The flip situation is true in Battlestar Galactica. In that game the humans are trying to jump to a certain number of systems to claim victory. But their resources dwindle and they lose players via the traitor mechanism, which weakens them. So simultaneously they draw closer to victory as each jump as made, but also defeat, as resources are sapped. If, for example, it was a ‘zero-sum’ game, where the game system got weaker as the players got stronger (like Risk, for example), you start to get a snowball effect. There needs to be countercurrents where everyone is getting stronger in certain ways and weaker in others in order to make for an effective game design. As the co-operative game matures as a genre it will be interesting to see how all of these design challenges are tackled. I am certain there are techniques yet to be developed which will further advance the design art. B
Geoff Engelstein is a contributor to The Dice Tower podcast, and co-host of the new podcast Ludology, found at Ludology.net. He is also the designer of the upcoming game The Ares Project from Z-Man games.
card & board strategy
Battlespace talks to quirky board game designer, Alf Seegert about finding salvation through The Road to Canterbury.
wrath greed
pride
gluttony luxury
envy
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card & board strategy
Sinners and saints meet at the cossroads in Alf Seegert’s upcoming board game The Road to Canterbury. Alf Seegert cackles manicly as he adds a fresh coin to his coin purse. The pilgrims have sinned again and pardons are selling well. Greed, pride, gluttony, wrath, luxury, idleness, and envy – the infamous Christian ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ are transformed into game mechanics in the upcoming board game The Road to Canterbury. For the faithful, they instill horror. For Alf, a board game designer and history professor, they present a wonderful business opportunity.
Alf Seegertt The Road to Canterbury
In the upcoming medieval board game, participants play the role of a medieval pardoner selling certificates delivering sinners from the eternal penalties brought on by these Seven Deadly Sins. Money is gained by peddling these counterfeit pardons to pilgrims traveling the road to Canterbury. Perhaps you can persuade the knight that his pride must be forgiven? Surely the friar’s greed will net you a few coins? The miller’s wrath and the monk’s gluttony are on full public display and demand pardoning! 59
For you to succeed as a pardoner, you’ll need to do more than just sell forged pardons for quick cash. To keep your services in demand, you will actually need to lead these pilgrims into temptation yourself! Perhaps some phony relics might help? There is also one big catch. The Seven Deadly Sins live up to their name: each sin that a pilgrim commits brings death one step nearer, and a dead pilgrim pays no pardoners.
card & board strategy BATTLESPACE: Will players
enjoy the role of being a 'puppet master' influencing hapless pilgrims? Alf Seegert: I hope so! Playtests so far suggest that gamers who enjoy combining a strong dose of humour with tactics, strategy, and a little bit of chaos really enjoy it.
not just four times greater. Because of these accelerated gains, players have every impetus to wait as long as possible to forgive any sins in play, hoping they can do further tempting and money-gouging. But the catch is that other players might beat you to it by pardoning this pilgrim themselves. Or the pilgrim might actually die
etc. Each Sin that you place next to a pilgrim increases the value that it will be worth if pardoned (by placing multiple cards of the same flavor of sin, the pilgrim is committing the sin multiple times and thus needs that much more forgiveness to escape the lengthy torments of Purgatory).
Canterbury's pardoning mechanism?
“Allegedly God granted her wish by making her
The game uses a ‘press your luck’ mechanic for playing both Sin and Pardon cards. On a player’s turn, one of his options is to play a ‘Sin’ card to tempt one pilgrim to commit a specific deadly sin like envy, wrath, idleness,
The value of pardoned Sins is exponential (1/4/9/16) so pardoning four sins of Gluttony is 16 times more valuable than pardoning just one,
B: How have you balanced Road to
sprout a moustache and beard, making her hideously unmarriageable… before he can be forgiven (as I explain in detail in the rules, these are ‘Deadly Sins’ after all—when any pilgrim commits seven sins, they pass away from their corruption and rewards are then allocated.).
letting the players reap benefits by pardoning the very corruptions they themselves introduce along the road, adding the wages of sin to their money purses as they go. The relic cards are especially funny. These are bogus personal items reputed to have belonged to actual saints, like The Knickers of Saint Nicholas, The Snorkel of Saint Jonah or The Scrambled Eggs of Saint Benedict. The relics enable you to perform special strategic actions that can make a big difference in a pardoner’s success (even fake relics hold power if the pilgrims believe that they do).
My favourite relic is the Miraculous Moustache of Saint Wilgefortis. This card lets you move one ‘Sin’ card off a pilgrim—a valuable action if you B: The concept of 'pressing your luck' don’t want this pilgrim to die just yet as far as possible with pardons can - and the reason why the theme works be interpreted in a satirical manner. is because this actual saint herself Does humour play an important role wielded a strange ability to resist in how the game unfolds? temptation. Saint Wilgefortis was a The gameplay itself is pretty ‘Euro’: young woman who had pledged herself hand management, area control, card to God and resisted the advances of drafting and set collection (standard a suitor by praying for deliverance. entries in the euro-design toolbox, Allegedly God granted her wish though all implemented in fairly by making her sprout a moustache original ways, I hope). But instead of and beard, making her hideously just letting you push cubes around for unmarriageable… some abstracted version of ‘influence’, In the game you also collect nifty little the mechanics are used in the game to ‘Last Rites’ tokens (which let you take corrupt and indirectly kill off pilgrims an extra turn) as a reward for being one-by-one by tempting them to in the presence of a pilgrim when he commit ‘deadly sins’—all the while dies. The other pilgrims think you’re
A prototype of The Road to Canterbury 60
card & board strategy saving his soul with a final blessing, when actually you are shuffling that pilgrim out of his mortal coil with a little help from your stash of fatal temptations. This deliciously duplicitous act just screams Edmund Blackadder to me. So I hope these together count as my own individual contribution to Pythonesque or Black Adder-styled humor in Eurogaming. (In fact, I have to confess that if I have one private wish in the world, it would be to sit down at a table and play a three-player game of The Road to Canterbury with medievalist/ Python Terry Jones and Rowan Atkinson, the devious Black Adder. Ah, I can dream, I suppose…) B: What moral questions have you had to ask
yourself during the games' design process?
What an interesting question! I haven’t been asked this before about any of my games and it’s a good question to ask. And my two already published designs, Bridge
Troll and Trollhalla, actually do require the player to do some things that—at least from a human standard of ethics—are morally dubious at best. (Dining on bridge-crossing travelers and abducting them in your Viking troll-boat are punishable offenses in 37 states, last I checked!). I was initially a bit concerned that some might take The Road to Canterbury too seriously and see it as a mockery of religious belief. That wasn’t
“This deliciously duplicitous act
just screams Edmund Blackadder to me.
my intention. If anything, I was endeavoring to make a game rooted in Chaucer that felt, well, like Chaucer! In other words, I wanted to parody the corruption of religion and those who purport to represent God, when in actuality they seek only their own nefarious
self-interest. Thankfully, the response I’ve gotten from all religious circles so far, including Catholics and other Christians, has been laughter and excitement at playing! I appear to much enjoy making games where you get to play the ‘bad guy’ (this one is game number three out of three total designs by me that do this). I think that, my having grown up on Monty Python and Woody Allen, it’s just part of my life-grammar to find humour in cultural critique. I suspect that a little bit of C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, where a senior demon instructs his diabolical nephew, is voicing itself in The Road to Canterbury also. B: You have discussed your passion for art history
on Board Game Geek. What level of interest is there in this particular period from the wider gaming audience?
B: Do you feel you are a part of a new wave of art-
inspired games such as Pastiche and Fresco?
I hadn’t really thought that way until you brought up the question. There has been a surge in art-related games. Both Fresco and Pastiche (the latter designed by my colleague Sean MacDonald in the Board Game Designers Guild of Utah, and also by Gryphon Games), are not only occasions for displaying art but for actually making art central to the gameplay. In my own game the art is important - Bosch has a deranged and grotesquely alluring signature style - but art is not the theme itself. Although Bosch’s art from The Seven Deadly Sins is less surreal than the ‘Dr. Seuss on acid’ approach that he takes in his glorious triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, it’s still very striking.
I do know that having great art for a game does make me feel that much more accountable in making the game ‘pay its way’ with a strong connection between the theme in the art and the actual mechanics of gameplay. I would feel bad if the art were merely window dressing - I think it wants to be honoured as part of the game itself rather than a paste-on. Actually, come to think of it, I tend to think this way about game themes more generally. I almost always start with theme first so I work hard to make sure that content and form always infect each other in intriguing ways.
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card & board strategy Well, I’m actually a lot keener on the history of literature, philosophy and theology than art history. But you are right—I was drawn to design this game in part because of a particular work of art I really liked. A few years ago I stumbled upon Hieronymus Bosch’s tabletop The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, which depicts all seven “Deadly Sins” in the center circle, surrounded by four images showing death, the final judgment, and the respective destinies of heaven and a creepily (and very Boschian) diabolic Hell. I thought to myself, there should be a game for this! So I made one.
to Canterbury is not ‘yet another’ medieval game because, like Bridge Troll, it lets you play someone unusual. Instead of gamers playing yet another generic ruler out to obtain mastery of the medieval countryside, you get to play pardoner who cackles greedily at the prospect of guilting pilgrims into buying the indulgences he offers. B: What perspective does your job as a
literature professor bring to the game design process?
I’m delighted, actually, to have one of my games interlace so well with my teaching. The Road to Canterbury is not ‘yet I teach parts of The Canterbury Tales for an Honors Intellectual Traditions another’ medieval game because, course and I found myself having way like Bridge Troll, it lets you play more fun than I expected when I got someone unusual. to the Pardoner’s Tale and Pardoner’s Prologue. In fact, being forced to closely It’s probably too obvious to mention, but the late re-read Chaucer for teaching had its medieval/Renaissance period is pretty standard fare in own influence on the game: the parson Eurogames. I’ve heard critics bemoan certain new titles (not pardoner) in the centre of the board as “yet another Renaissance economics game” or “yet wanders around denouncing sins. another medievally themed fantasy game”. But I don’t The narrator’s emphasis on the pardoner’s think that the overuse of these periods has exhausted them. How you use a period or genre is as important as ambiguous sexuality (“I trowe he were a gelding or a mare”) and his compensatory showing off of his your use of one in the first place. bulging bag of coins as a surrogate ‘purse’ made me When I submitted my game Bridge Troll to Z-Man think that having actual coin purses in the game Games a few years ago, for instance, he had a might be fun. I was surprised and delighted when disclaimer note on his submissions page to the effect the publisher gave me a ‘thumbs up’ when I gave this that, ‘If it’s a fantasy game, it better be a distinctive one’. suggestion - and hiding your ill-gotten gains in your Thankfully, a game where you get to play the hideous cloth coins purse is not only thematically appropriate, troll who lives below the bridge, having to decide but also a way to keep your score hidden (and it’s whether to eat or extort those who want to cross, oddly fun - I’m inspired to cackle deviously every time was unique enough to qualify. Likewise, The Road I unlace my coin purse and add more coins to it…).
“
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card & board strategy B: How much is there to learn from
B: Is there more ground to be
covered with future literaturebased games? I think so. The tension in making a literature game is finding a way to distill vibrant elements from a story without making the gameplay into a rote script. My own game attempts to avoid this problem by detouring around it - in my game The Canterbury Tales figures in more as medium than content. I’m not out to
‘retell’ these tales, but to instead take one major character and let the players play out his role in relation to the other Canterbury pilgrims. I have certainly enjoyed designing a ‘literary’ game and hope to publish more soon. (I have at least one more currently in the works. All I can say about it for now is that it isn’t based on a medieval text. And there are no trolls in it!)
relics in the game (you really need to see history through your game? these if you haven’t). Even though both Montage and The Road to Canterbury It’s not an educational game—by which have already reached their funding goals, I mean it’s a “true game” rather than a cloaked teaching tool. That being said, the it’s still a bargain for gamers to purchase these games through Kickstarter while game is historically/literarily grounded, the promotion continues—and I’m happy so it includes a sheet I drafted up with that Gryphon Games is offering that historical context about The Canterbury opportunity. Tales, notes about the Pardoner, and B: Is online distribution the only viable some information on Bosch’s artwork. means for 'quirky' independent titles? If playing this game inspires anyone to really dig in to The Canterbury Tales or It certainly seems like a promising one for makes them want to investigate more of many people. Alien Frontiers and other Bosch’s artwork, I would be very pleased. titles like Rolling Freight certainly seem I’m happy that the emblem “Knowledge to have benefited by using Kickstarter in a Box” has gotten placed on the back of this way. A fellow Guild member is the game box, which indicates a strong tie doing the same with his intriguing game in with learning. Force of Fiction. Purple Pawn recently B: How is Kickstarter helping to make
your game a reality?
Gryphon Games recently launched Joli Quentin Kansil’s classic game Montage on Kickstarter and shortly afterward, launched my own game. Their purpose was in part to determine how much interest there might be in these games, which they liked very much—but they were not sure how many to print. In addition, Kickstarter of course helps raise funds and raises interest in a quirky title like my own. Also, by having different levels of support on Kickstarter, interested gamers can save money (all levels include free shipping and a hefty discount off the retail price). Also, Brian Kohrman created some hilarious frameready 5”x7” artwork versions of several 63
presented an article on what works and what doesn’t when attempting to raise funding for a game on Kickstarter. I don’t think that online distribution is the only place we’ll see quirky titles, though. There are still publishers interested in quirky designs—a good example would be Tim Fowers (yet another BGDG member) and his hilarious co-op dice game Wok Star. He self-produced a few hundred copies which generated so much buzz that Z-Man has since picked it up for publication. B: When can we expect to see The Road
to Canterbury?
It should be released late US summer or early fall. Thanks for these great questions! I hope players enjoy The Road to Canterbury! B
card & board strategy
The best board games of 2010 will battle it out at the Origins Awards in June. Battlespace finds out why each of the nominated games deserves to win.
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Castle Ravenloft
Wizards of the Coast
Defenders of the Realm Eagle Games
Fresco
Queen Games
Lords of Vegas Mayfair Games
Nuns on the Run Mayfair Games
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Designers: Peter Lee, Mike Mearls, Bill Slavicsek Mechanics: Co-operative play, dice rolling, modular board, variable player powers The master of Ravenloft, Count Von Zarovich, is having guests for dinner – and the players are invited. This Dungeons & Dragons-based board game is a co-operative design supporting up to five players as well as solo play. It comes with 12 scenarios and as a dungeon-crawler does not require a ‘dungeon master’.
they must complete - be it destroy a monster or find a special item. The rule book is 15 pages long and aimed at being accessible and easy-toread for players. The game includes 41 plastic unpainted miniatures, 13 sheets worth of dungeon tiles to create the board and cardboard tokens, 200 cards (encounter, monsters, powers, and treasure), and a d20.
Players build the board as they go - encountering different levels of monsters with various tactics that can Rules are a free download from the be activated. Players are driven by quests Wizards of the Coast website. 65
card & board strategy excellent solitaire gaming experience for those that like to play challenging games alone.
Publisher: Eagle Games
In the end, most people play games to have fun and Defenders of the Realm delivers a fun experience at a high level for people seeking a fantasy cooperative game that is challenging from a decision making perspective, yet easy to play from a mechanics perspective.
Designers: Richard Launius Mechanics: Dice rolling, hand management, action point allowance system, co-operative play
Q&A with game designer Richard Launius B: Why do you think Defenders of the Realm has been nominated by Origins for best board game? Richard Launius: The game is unique in that it not only captures epic fantasy world and the brave heroes that defend it. The game provides simple play mechanics, yet at the same time a challenging adventure that provides a lot of decision making and since it is cooperative, a lot of teamwork. The artwork of Larry Elmore helps bring this fantasy world to life as his iconic artworks graces the game board and cards. Defenders of the Realm appeals to a broad number of gamers because it offers co-operative play, solitaire play, expandable challenges through variants and expansions, yet can be taught to new players of all ages very quickly. B: How does the game encourage player interaction? The game is a co-operative game,
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How did you balance the different hero roles?
and a challenging one at that. Players must constantly be working on joint strategies to meet the challenges the artificial intelligence of the game throws at them. While each player will make their own decisions in the game, on their turn they will have several choices as to what is the most urgent things they need to address – their personal quest, the growing minions, collecting cards to attack generals, or gathering with others to combat a general.
Each hero has specific skills that can be maximised in various situations in the game. On the surface, some may look more powerful than others, but in game play all shine when played to their strengths. The process I used in balancing heroes was to first establish what skills fit their character type or class, so that when players were playing the wizard he felt like a wizard and if playing a paladin he felt like a paladin and not some generic
B: What does the game offer that is currently missing from the board game market? I am not sure that Defenders of the Realm offers anything specific that is missing from many other games on the market. What it does is blend an excellent set of game mechanics into a game based on the theme of the game. The end result is that players have a fun gaming experience for those that enjoy cooperative games. It also provides an
character with tacked on skills. What feedback have you received from players about questing and other game components? The feedback from players has been positive about game play, the questing aspect of the game and the components overall. A small number of players have not liked the typefaces used on some of the cards, and some do not like the map, but overall the feedback is positive as in the end most of the players had a good gaming experience when they played the game. Has co-operative board games become increasingly popular for gamers? There are certainly more introduced each year, but I am not sure if they are growing in popularity. I believe that people like a variety of game types and the key to any successful game is that they play it they find it both fun and challenging.
Image source: Mark Clark Jr, BoardGameGeek 66
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card & board strategy
Publisher: Queen games Designers: Wolfgang Panning, Marco Ruskowski, Marcel Süßelbeck Mechanics: Worker placement, simultaneous action selection
Art-based games are becoming increasingly profiled in the gaming community, as seen by the the success of conceptual ‘artisan’ board game Fresco. Players act like artisans with a crew of workers they ssend out to restore a fresco in a Renaissance church. The can be played as a base game without overwhelming new players with rules, and the expansions can be added later.
The game has a modular structure giving the players the opportunity to decide how ambitiously they want to play. The modular structure will attract casual as well as experienced players.
The driving force of Fresco’s gameplay concerns planning what you should do this round so as to optimise your actions for the next round. Therefore, the most efficient player wins. There is no direct interaction with othe players - you Each player starts with five workers and has to plan their work, day by day, largely play against yourself except when deciding which paints from including which paints to purchase, the market. mix and, well, paint. 67
card & board strategy
Publisher: Mayfair Games
Publisher: Mayfair Games
Designers: Frederic Moyersoen
Designers: James Ernest, Mike Selinker
Mechanics: paper-and-pencil, pick-up and deliver, point to point movement, dice rolling
You’re a young female student looking for adventure. The lights are out, the nuns are asleep and it’s now time to roam the grounds. One or two players take on the roles of the two nuns while everyone else becomes their choice of the six students. Make two quick stops while out and about, then head back to your room without being detected. Couldn’t be more simple? Fréderic Moyersoen presents a new take on the us-versusthem genre with Nuns on the Run. Most of the players are ‘novices’ who are eager to secretly explore the grand abbey at night in order to fulfill their ‘secret wish’. They sneak through corridors searching for keys and treasures.
Mechanics: area control/area of influence, dice rolling
prioress. These characters are controlled by other players who want to nab the novices before they can make it back into bed.
Everyone remembers their first visit to “Every time we walk into a room with Sin City. There’s the drinks, the lights, the the game, we’re not allowed to play entertainment and, above all, the gambling. anything else. People seem to love building giant casinos, trading colossal In Lords of Vegas, players represent pleasure palaces, and gambling away powerful developers in a burgeoning millions of dollars at a time. Who could Nevada city. They earn money and have seen that coming?” Mr Selinker prestige by building the biggest and told Battlespace. most profitable casinos on ‘The Strip’,
The novices move in secret by marking their movement and locations on hidden sheets. The Abbess and Prioress move on regulated paths around the board, but can diverge and chase down novices that they see or hear. The player or players who complete their secret wishes and return to their rooms win, or the Abbess and Prioress win if they catch a certain number of novices.
the town’s backbone of dust and sin.
According to game designers Mike Selinker and James Ernest, reaction to Lords of Vegas has been “off the charts”.
“I think what makes Lords of Vegas fun is the sense that it’s the right game for its theme. The game is high-energy, because Vegas is high-energy. It’s highstakes, because Vegas is high-stakes. And it’s high-volatility, because Vegas is high-volatility. James and I have spent a lot of time in Vegas, and it shows in the game,” he said.
Starting with nothing but parking lots and dreams, from there you build, sprawl, reorganise and gamble your way to victory. “Every year, I present some of the Origins Awards, and James often hosts the ceremony, as he will this year. It’s always a lot of fun. But it would be even more fun to walk off the stage with Callies for Lords of Vegas as well,” Mr Selinker said.
While sneaking through the abbey, they must remain watchful for the abbess or 68
card & board strategy
Warlords of Europe GameBuilders
Conflict of Heroes: Price of Honour Poland 1939
Catan Histories – Settlers of America: Trails to Rails
Acadmey Games
Mayfair Ganes
Conquest Gaming worked on Warlords of Europe for more than 10 years before finally being able to publish it.
Publisher: Conquest Gaming Designers: Kyle Battle, Ken Griffin, Russ Rupe
“It’s probably the most test played game ever. All in all, we are very happy with the end result, and in the fact that people actually enjoy playing it,” designer Kyle Battle told Battlespace.
Mechanics: dice rolling, area movement
Wanting to capture the essence of the medieval period meant effort and money was placed into artwork. “We wanted the map to resemble an old treasure map from the era. Obviously to be a success a game has to do more than look good, it has to be fun to play,” Mr Battle said. “For gameplay, we tried to keep the rules as simple as possible while still reflecting a medieval flavour.
Panzer General: Allied Assault Petroglyph Games
has been nominated because it's a “great strategy war game with enough familiar mechanics to be easy to play balanced by many innovations to keep every session fresh”. “The medieval theme shines through without bogging the game down in a detailed simulation of a complex time in history; the production quality is top notch; and reviews by enthusiasts of the genre have been strong,” Mr Rupe said. “Seeing this game produced was a dream come true for us, and to be nominated for Best Historical Board Game is a real honor." Mr Battle said he was equally honoured to be nominated.
“There are some great game designers nominated in our catagory. We are Co-designer Russ Rupe said the game humbled to be among them,” he said.
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card & board strategy
Publisher: Academy Games Designers: Uwe Eickert, Michał Ozon Mechanics: hex-and-counter, modular board, dice rolling Conflict of Heroes: Price of Honour 1939, is an expansion game which requires either the award-winning games Awakening the Bear (AtB) or Storms of Steel. Conflict of Heroes (CoH) follows the evolution of modern tactics, from WWII to the present and features a fast and fluid system that is easy to learn, but realistic for every unique theater of battles portrayed. Even though the game uses the same rules as AtB, the feel of it is quite different, according to Academy Games designer, Uwe Eickert. Here the Soviets must try to overwhelm the Germans with superior numbers and speed. “That is why I wanted to develop Price of Honour. It was going back to oldschool tactics with cavalry, armored cars, armored trains and bi-planes,” he said.
game again feel totally different than the other two.” Mr Eickert said that he wanted to “set the record straight” on the Polish campaign. “There was much bitter fighting and it was not an easy cake walk for the Germans. Their greatest asset was their integrated communications network and command reaction. I think this is shown well in the game.” Michal Ozon was the game’s head designer and was able to offer a unqiue perspective due to his Polish heritage. “Let me tell you, the Poles know their history and we received tons of help. I can safely say that the Polish are probably some of the most patriotic people in the world. I had to try to get across to them that three Polish infantry were not stronger than a Panzer... by the end of the discussion, they had me convinced it was true!”
“Here the tin can cars were king of the field. Old and new clashed with Polish cavalry overrunning German infantry columns, who quickly called in armored Future CoH games will cover support to counter attack. A fascinating Guadalcanal, USA and British Airborne Battles at D-Day, France and the transition in tactics, which makes this Lowlands, Crete, and Abyssinia.
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Publisher: Petroglyph
Publisher: Mayfair Games, 999 Games, Catan GmbH
Designers: George Chastain, Chuck Kroegel
Designers: Klaus Teuber
Mechanics:: variable phase order, campaign /battle card driven, modular board
Mechanics: dice rolling, route/ network building, trading
The 19th Century has arrived and Americans are heading west. Wagon trains are forming up and heading out to settle new lands and build new cities. These new cities will need railroad lines to bring in new people and necessary goods. Some head west for the adventure, some to start a new life, still others to find work.
Panzer General: Allied Assault is a quick-playing game of WWII tactical/ operational combat using a unique blend of cards and a board game. In an interesting twist, the game is based on an Xbox Live Arcade game.
Games and Catan GmbH.” Look west to make your fortune. As the population grows, resources will dwindle and the smart money seeks new sources and new markets. Finance your settlers as they head west to build the cities of tomorrow.
Allied Assault takes place during the
Game designer Klaus Teuber was happy that his game was recognised for the Origins Award. “I was delighted and deeply honored, when I learned that Settlers of America: Trails to Rails has been nominated for ‘Best Historical Game’ in the 2011 Origins Awards,” Mr Teuber said.
last phase of World War II, from 1944 to 1945. It is set during the dramatic events of D-Day, which gave the Allies a foothold in Europe, allowing them to push the Germans back to Berlin. The game moves quickly: on your turn, you draw cards and then activate each unit once, either to move or attack. Combat is interactive and takes into account effectiveness of units relative to their target’s type, the terrain the fighting units are in and nearby supporting units. Scenarios involve recreating actual battles such as Utah Beach, Operation Market Garden and the infamous Battle of the Bulge in the hopes of turning back the German tide. Build, customize and fight with your personalised deck of 60 cards.
“I put a lot of thought and time into designing, testing and refining this game with the help of my wife Claudia as well as my sons Guido and Benny. I am also grateful for the development support by Mayfair
It includes more than 12 solo and twoplayer scenarios depicting combat situations between the German and US. 71
card & board strategy
By Professor Rex Brynen, PAXsims blog With notable exceptions of Battle for Baghdad (MCS Group, 2009), Labyrinth (GMT Games, 2010) and the satirical War on Terror (Terrorbull Games, 2006), there have been few board games published to date on the insurgencies and counter-insurgencies (COIN) of the post-9/11 era. Part of the reason is the ongoing nature of these conflicts and the difficulty of designing a game around an asyet incomplete history. Part of the reason might also be the sensitivity of wargaming ongoing wars. The Medal of Honor videogame (Electronic Arts, 2010), for example, generated some controversy for allowing players to play as the Taliban (who were re-labeled as “OPFOR” in multiplayer mode in response to criticism). However, at a time civil war rages in Libya and NATO is increasingly focused on the challenge posed by armed non-state groups, stabilisation operations and so-called ‘hybrid threats’, it seems inevitable that insurgency and COIN will become increasingly important board game themes.
“It seems inevitable that
insurgency and COIN will become increasingly important board game themes
Designing an insurgency-themed boardgame poses a number of 72
challenges, however. What are these, and how might they be overcome? First, major force-on-force confrontations can be quite rare until the very closing stages of the war. Instead, hit-and-run guerilla tactics predominate. The ‘fog of war’ becomes very important, as insurgent units hide in peripheral areas, difficult terrain, or (as Mao famously observed) as insurgent ‘fish’ in the larger ‘sea’ of a sympathetic populace. While it can be difficult to perfectly recreate this uncertainty in a board game where both players can see the map, there are several mechanisms that can be used. In Hearts and Minds: Vietnam 196575 (Worthington Games 2010), for example, Viet-Cong units are placed face down and some are not units at all but rather ‘bad intel’ that triggers random events when revealed.
card & board strategy Hidden movement or plotting can be written down rather than indicated by pieces on the board (provided, of course, that there is some kind of record that players can subsequently check to deter insurgent cheating!). Card-driven gaming systems allow all players to keep some of their strategic and tactical operations hidden from the other side until utilised.
A second challenge is the need to model the asymmetrical nature of insurgent warfare. One can simply make guerilla units weaker on some numerical scale, but does that adequately capture the differences? Should they be assigned different kinds of abilities—for example the very different roles that might be played by political agitators, front organizations, informers and intelligence assets, and terrorist cells as well as more conventional military capabilities?
of the struggle. In cases where foreign intervention is involved, the attitude of external parties may also be important (as may be public opinion within those countries). In Ici, c'est la France! The Algerian War of Independence 1954-62 (Legion Wargames 2009), Algeria: The War of Independence 1954-1962 (Fiery Dragon Productions, 2006) and Hearts and Minds: Vietnam 19651975, game actions and counterinsurgent losses can take a heavy toll on French and US public opinion respectively, ultimately determining who wins or loses the war. Labyrinth places great emphasis on American prestige, which affects the ability of the US to effectively conduct ‘War of Ideas’ operations intended to strengthen governance in Muslim countries and blunt the growth of al-Qaida-type terrorism.
In Liberia: Descent Into Hell—The A third challenge is modeling the Liberian Civil War 1989-1996 (Fiery social, economic and especially political Dragon Productions, 2008), players aspects of insurgency. Certainly, some can individually appeal for support to insurgencies can be treated largely as a variety of domestic and international semi-regular confrontations, especially if groups, the attitude of each is tracked the game focuses on this stage of the war separately. Liberia also models some of or the conflict itself was characterised the ethnic/tribal aspects of the Liberian (as in the Spanish or American civil civil war, with this determining what wars) by a predominance of open groups can be recruited and led by what warfare. However, in most civil wars factions in what areas. political legitimacy and popular support An even more sophisticated treatment plays a key role in shaping the course of the politics of insurgency was offered
Pictured: The typically congested IIICorps sector in Hearts and Minds: Vietnam 1965-1975
by Nicaragua (Strategy & Tactics 1988) in which the FSLN was given the option of adopting different ideological platforms, each of which appeals to a different degree to different social classes. The recent computer game Tropico 3 (Kalypso Media, 2009) does this in greater detail, with different government policies appealing to, or alienating, different constituencies. If you alienate enough people, and your military power is insufficient, 73
the result can be open rebellion. Another interesting approach to this was found in the classic Star Wars-inspired science fiction boardgame Freedom in the Galaxy (SPI 1979, later rereleased by Avalon Hill), which combined both character-based card play and chitbased military units. The game modeled both the impact of identity politics (the ‘domino effects’ of revolts were most strongly felt in nearby systems and those inhabited by a similar race) and the role of key rebel, Imperial and local leaders.
card & board strategy
For those interested in some further reading: · BoardGameGeek has an interesting list and discussion of more than 60 different insurgency and terrorism-themed board games, stretching back to the early 1970s (http:// boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/6478/insurgency-and-terrorism). · Small Wars Journal features a thread of professional discussion among military personnel and others on wargaming such conflicts (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/ showthread.php?t=2781). · The PAXsims blog (http://paxsims.wordpress.com) is devoted to simulations and games concerning fragile and conflict-affected countries.
A final challenge is posed by the multiplicity of actors involved in some civil wars and insurgencies. Battle for Baghdad, for example, allows for up to six sides (US, Iraqi government, Shiites, Sunnis, non-governmental organisations, jihadist groups) in its highly abstracted representation of conflict in post-2003 Iraq. GMT Games’ forthcoming Andean Abyss allows for up to four factions (the government, drug cartels, the FARC, and right-wing paramilitary forces) in its representation of civil conflict in Columbia. While most multiplayer games can be played in twoplayer versions too, but there is often something of a trade-off: a game designed for many players may not play as well when played with two, but two-player games are much easier to organise (even if they involve some simplification of a conflict). Interestingly, there are very few hobby games that attempt to capture the challenges of contemporary peace operations in which a third party is attempting to deter, contain, mitigate, or resolve local conflicts. While ECOWAS/ ECOMOG peacekeepers make an appearance in Liberia, they are fairly secondary to the game. Battle for Baghdad’s NGO player has some unique abilities, but in other respects is rather similar to the various armed factions. All of these insurgency-specific considerations need to be balanced, of course, against the general requirements of good game design. The game system has to 74
be playable, and no more complex than is necessary to capture the essential dynamics of the conflict. It needs to be practical in terms of map size, the number and quality of components, and so forth. It also needs to be playable in the amount of time that the target audience is likely to want to spend on the game. Finally, being a game, it needs to be enjoyable. This might come from the fidelity of the representations, the immersiveness and sense of historical setting imparted by the game, the strategic dynamics of game play, the sense of excitement and challenge posed by victory conditions, or (ideally) some combination of all of these. However realistic it might be to simulate hiding in the jungle for weeks on end, or having endless meandering conversations with local leaders over tea, very few gamers really wants to devote hours of their life hunched over a table ‘playing’ that. With insurgency, as with any other historical boardgame, finding the right balance between fun and simulation is essential key to good game design.
Rex Brynen is Professor of Political Science at McGill University, where he specialises in peace and stabilisation operations and Middle East politics. He is also co-editor of the conflict simulation blog PAXsims (http:// paxsims.wordpress.com).
card & board strategy Prolific Magic: The Gathering player, deck designer and writer/social commentator, Mike Flores talks deck strategy with Battlespace
“I knew it was the most
he so well read online?
Who is Mike Flores and why is
Mike Flores: I am a writer, player, marketer and dad based in New York, NY. I have played on and off on the Pro Tour since it's second season; and written online since before there were Magic websites.
powerful strategy you could play in Standard... so I figured out how to overcome all the ways folks thought they could disrupt my combo.
I am not sure how to answer the second part of the question... I suppose most of it has to do with consistency and approach. I have been doing a pretty good job of Magic technology and storytelling for something like 15 or 16 years now, and I try to do lots and lots of what my readers like (which ends up as lots of articles people like to read). I am a generally positive, broad thinker, and it seems people find that attractive in a writer.
ask provocative questions that engage readers and followers, and ultimately I have formed legitimate relationships with several Twitter people, and helped propel them onto the realisations of their own goals in Magic publishing.
“I am about the
most popular Magic personality in social media
In addition to conventional writing I innovated Magic podcasting with Brian David-Marshall over at Top8Magic.com and I have my personal blogs at FiveWithFlores.com and FloresRewards.com so I think my readers have a sense that they know me, know who I am, and have actual Also I was a pretty early adopter of reasons to want to support me, which Twitter. I am about the most popular Magic personality in social media, and is different from writers who just post I have more followers than any website. deck lists and tournament reports and I think the reason is that I actually talk what have you. I know Top8Magic. com went a long way in reversing the back to my followers, rather than just ‘broadcasting’ a message. I like to share positions of some former haters for just that reason. funny or otherwise enchanting links,
- Mike Flores
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card & board strategy metagame at the time. Contrast this with the G/W deck Brian Kibler used for a US Nationals Top 8... That deck was I don't know if there are any general just super good against both Affinity rules for this. I just won a TCGPlayer 5K and Goblins (the dominant decks at the here in NYC, playing a unique deck that time), so way more metagame-driven. I had actually published on Star City one day earlier. In that instance I knew it was Honestly, there is no one single answer. the most powerful strategy you could play in Standard (Deceiver Exarch plus B: At a recent local PTQ, there Splinter Twin), so I figured out how to were seven different standard decks overcome all the ways folks thought they in the top eight. To what extent do could disrupt my combo. you believe that experience/practice When I made Naya Lightsaber (Andre influences your results rather than the Coimbra's World Championship deck), raw power (such as Caw Blade) of a I was just concentrating on playing the deck? best threats, and getting them out with This is a flawed question in my opinion. consistent mana. In the abstract, the better prepared, With Napster (Jon Finkel's US National better player wins about 90 per cent of Championship deck) I started with an the time in Magic. There is lots of luck, idea... and worked really hard to make but that affects both sides and Magic that idea effective in the context of the gives us lots of opportunities to lay out B: When starting from scratch, how do you go about designing a deck?
of bad situations. Remember, though, B: Do you believe that Caw Blade will that the better prepared player will be the deck to beat until the release of usually have some edge on deck, so there M12? is a non-zero relationship there. No. CawBlade is the greatest ever, but I think it's unquestioned position as ‘Number One’ is already over with the advent of Exarch Twin... It might just take most people a while to catch up.
“CawBlade is the greatest ever, but I think it's unquestioned position as ‘Number One’ is already over
Since you brought up CawBlade... think about a player like Edgar Flores. The guy is a stone-cold assassin of CawBlade, a master who has won more CawBlade mirrors than the next two players put together. Is Edgar a practiced trigger man? Pretty obvious here. But his success is nevertheless inextricable from the work he put into that deck (which is, I think at this point, the greatest Standard deck of all time).
5. In several of your previous articles, you have written about a Mono-white Eldrazi Control deck. What cards do you think it needs to become a popular alternative to current tier 1 choices? If I had written this prior to the release of New Phyrexia I would have just said it is a metagame deck. I would be confident with MWC agains the best decks (CawBlade and RUG), and most decks that aren't blatantly trying to out mid-range you. However the deck is less reliable against Primeval Titan strategies.
“There is lots of luck, but that affects both sides and Magic gives us lots of opportunities to lay out of bad
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card & board strategy For it to have been more successful in that context would have relied on the Jace decks to successfully hold down the Titan decks, and to dodge those decks early, und the reliance that the Titan decks would be less likely to advance, With New Phyrexia I would just say pass. MWC was a deck I thoroughly
In a word, pass. B: What is your opinion surrounding the prolific use of multimedia in magic strategy articles? Is the art of writing entertaining and informative articles (which you do so well) being lost to only results-orientated content?
“I think it's the
same as always. The Web gives us context. We try to beat the hive mind. enjoyed playing in the previous format but I just don't see a payoff to making it competitive in the age of Exarch Twin. Exarch Twin has incentivised CawBlade to run Spellskite (sometimes over Squadron Hawk itself!), so your Mortarpod strategy suddenly sucks. Previously you could just kill all of CawBlade's guys with Mortarpods and sweepers and call it a day. But now? CawBlade goes from a favourable matchup to a much less attractive one and RUG itself has adopted Twin combo.
Sometimes it's right to netdeck (like Ravager in Mirrodin Block); usually it's not right, but also usually you haven't put in enough work to say if your brew is actually better than the Deck to Beat. B: Do you believe that the introduction of planeswalkers has been beneficial or detrimental to Magic?
I mean, I basically invented running multimedia (podcasts and then game play video), so I am a big supporter of these formats. Like I said previously, I think the podcast part actually gives us a lot of opportunity for entertainment and personality.
More Magic players than ever. Sales are great. Good players are making great decks and winning with them. I think Magic is pretty great right now! 9. What do you hope will be in the upcoming Innistrad expansion?
I have always written with a mix of content and character both. I really don't see anything negative here. In fact, I see opportunities for more, different Magic personalities to emerge, from new formats, from Evan Erwin to the boys at Yo MTG Taps. Lots of room for different strokes in our community.
Don't even know what that is. I assume it will be awesome. B: Where do you see Magic in 10 years time? Do you believe that it can grow indefinitely? I assume it will continue to be awesome, given the direction we are going, the strategic growth of the player base, and the curation provided by Aaron Forsythe, Mark Rosewater, Worth Wollpert, and all those guys and gals in Renton, WA. My guess is I am still as in love with it as I was 10 years ago, and that Magic continues to be a driving force in my life.
B: What are the biggest obstacles in creating a new, competitive deck in the era of online deck reporting? Should I build from scratch or netdeck before the tournament? I think it's the same as always. The Web gives us context. We try to beat the hive mind. 77
INCOMING! products Gaming table offers easy storage South Australianbased Monty Haul manufactures gaming tables that provide an easy storage solution. Their tables have a sunken play surfaces where maps and miniatures can be kept in between play sessions. A Monty Haul customer said that he uses the eight-seater table for his D&D games, which allows room for half the table as normal and half opened for maps.
“We never have to pack up, we just leave our stuff in there ready to go next time. We swap ends, leaving half the table covered up and using it as regular tabletop for each game,” the customer said. “Another sneaky benefit of the six and eightseater is that you can leave the drawer in front of you rolled in if you want to be closer to the tabletop/ map,” he said.
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In Rune Age, the upcoming card game from Fantasy Flight Games, designer Corey Konieczka “brings an array of innovations to the deckbuilding genre”. The games’ scenario-based gameplay delivers varying degrees of player interaction, offering an experience that can be customised depending on your individual tastes. Rune Age can be played as a fully cooperative (or solo) game and has four versatile game modes
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Modeller’s Warehouse’s F531 ‘steppe spring’ with an Orc Boyz placed for scale comparison and detail
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The Brisbane, Australia, based company’s terrain mat are handmade with a variety of structural elements that create a clever and very realistic scene for a wide variety of scenarios - desert, swamp, rocky outcrops, dense bush, forests, etc. The Modeller’s Warehouse website
has a full range of terrain mats, bushes, flowers, ferns, weeds, tufts, alpine trees (spruce and larch), deciduous trees (lombardy poplars, scots pine, oak, apple trees and other various species), palm trees (royal, washington, canary, date, generic) and even no-mix water. “Modeller’s Warehouse is alo the only Australian supplier of a full-colour range of static grass (loose fibres) in four lengths 1mm, 2mm, 4.5mm, 6mm,” Mr Hodgkiss said.
commercial product based on the ‘Griffin Terrain System’. The philosophy of UTTT is that the game is more important than the result. Gamers will spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of manhours to assemble highly detailed (and hopefully, highly motivated) armies. It’s time they had a battlefield of the same quality.
Explore a new world
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gaming events
Battlespace talks to Allan Carey and Mark Edwards about building a gaming dream
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gaming events
Two UK gamers living in Australia have built a gaming dream from the ground up. The dream of launching a large gaming event can quickly turn into the stuff of nightmares. Auscon organiser, Mark Edwards had several nightmares leading up to the first day of the Brisbane, Australia, event in April. In them, he and co-organiser Allan Carey stood in an empty gaming hall, surrounded by angry, glaring vendors. As the event drew nearer Mark’s nightmare began to change, morphing into the vision of an overrun, packed hall closed down by the fire brigade. Mark need not have feared, as neither nightmare came true. Hundreds of tabletop, card, and board gamers, along with painters, re-creationists and curious observers enjoyed three days of tournaments and social gaming at Auscon from 29 April to 2 May. The inaugural event included tournaments for Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, Flames of War Early and Late War, Anima Tactics, Blood Bowl and Magic: The Gathering. Game demonstrations for the Napoleonic era, World War II, Dystopian Wars and other systems were on display throughout the three days. Miniature painting was
Final day: Allan and Mark pack up board games at the end of Auscon 81
well covered, with a high calibre of entries entered into the Wizards of Oz painting competition. Painting experts, sculptors and terrain makers provided intimate workshops during the event. Mark and Allan were keen to ensure everyone enjoyed the tournament and that it wasn’t just the first and second winners going away with all the prizes. Random prize draws were organised, raffles for charity, showbags and giveaways provided throughout the event.
gaming events Building a dream Considerable pressure was placed on Mark and Allan to make the event work, with many companies and gamers giving their trust to them. Various ideas for Auscon had been kicking around in various forms for a few years, but it was Mark who instigated it. As the man responsible for establishing Games Workshop in Australia, he is fond memories of the “good old days” of gaming tournaments.
“No disrespect to the modern Games Day, but the old Games Day were great because it wasn’t just Games Workshop,” Mark said. “There was Dungeons and Dragons and all sort of gear. You could walk into a hall and it was literally like a ‘nerdgasm’, there was so many things to see, touch, hold, look at, (it was) brilliant. And since I’ve come to Australia, there’s nothing much like that (here).” After speaking to a few key people in the industry, Mark called Allan to see what he thought about starting a premier tournament. “We realised there was a need to perhaps create something for elite gamers in general. Because there was no event for grown ups, there’s no event where you can go to have a drink, plays games, play on premium scenery. Nothing in Australia,” Allan explained.
Auscon organiser Allan Carey with WarPuppy Games director, Michael Molyneaux
Vendors for the event were approached, but instead of pushing a particular sales technique they instead tried to convey their passion for gaming. “We didn’t say, ‘Hey, we can promise you this’,” Mark said. “We said, ‘We can’t guarantee a thing, we can’t promise anything, but we’re passionate and here’s where we want to be in five years’.” Having pulled it off, Mark and Allan were a little amazed at how it came about. Wizards of Oz painting competition winning entry
“Thank you isn’t enough. To the retailers who paid to have a stand, we can’t thank you enough. A lot of these people put a lot of trust into us.”
The League of Extroadinary Gamers gaming club helped raised money for Multiple Sclerosis Australia 82
gaming events
Players enjoy a game of Blood Bowl at Auscon
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gaming events “What we wanted to create here was something that was basically uniquely Brisbane and encompasses all sort sorts of different things and perhaps a different look on things, a bit of a fresh outlook. So that’s where it came from: Mark said. “And also, unlike most traditional Pommies, we might have a whinge but we try to fix things. We felt there was something missing here in Brisbane and so we put it together. There’s a lot of growing to do but for the first year, very excited and very happy.” Despite Australia’s small population, the two gamers believe that Australia is a strong participant in the industry’s current “golden age”.
“I think gaming and gamers have matured. I think because, as you said, we have so much choice, so many things to do, (we are) so well supported. The clubs that have been around have been around for years. So they’re not just stumbling along like new-born foals, everyone’s sort of grown up and matured,” Allan said. “I used to think (Australia) might be lagging behind the UK, but I’m really not sure any more (due to) my exposure through Auscon to all the gamers, games and industry. I’m not sure if Australia is really lagging behind anything, I think it was me that was lagging behind and I actually think we have a good thing going (here).”
Battlespace ‘babe’ Carmen with the Flames of War Early War Grand Tournament winner
On the weekend following Auscon, Allan and Mark could be found at the Blind Pig gaming club in south Brisbane. They were both bone tired, but were still alert and buzzing despite a lack of sleep from unpacking and moving assets from the game hall. The club had rows of tables covered in gothic buildings, blasted landscapes and erupting Tyranid spines. A few dozen gamers were in the midst of a friendly Warmachine tournament, while outside the club patron prepared the barbeque for lunch. It was a place of rest for two gamers needing to collect their thoughts.
“It was an absolute blur, to be totally frank,” Mark said looking back on the event. “We initially had floor plans drawn and we had tables evenly laid out and in such a way. The moment we started laying the tables out that went to plot, it didn’t work. Gamers don’t like long banquet-style set ups. So we threw that in the bin in the first five minutes. We had to make a lot of those decisions on the fly and it will be things that we will be able to make use of next year.” Mark and Allan hope the event will be the start of a rejuvenation of the city’s gaming community.
Allan Carey relaxes at the Blind Pig gaming club on the weekend following Auscon 84
HUD << HUD Mark agrees with Allan that Australia lagging behind the rest of the world is a misconception.
happen again and again and again. The response was great, but like anything, we need to make improvements which we are going to “If you look at overseas (at events) do. But I want to play games again, I such as Salute and Adepticon… we want to paint again, which I haven’t automatically assume that they are done for six months because I’ve been the ‘be all and end all’ because they get 5000 or 10,000 people through the so bloody busy doing Auscon. I guess door. Now because of that we assume, I lost track of what this is all about, which is games,” Mark said. therefore, that Australia’s behind. We’re not. You look around this club Mark and Allan have little time to here and this scenery, quite frankly rest, however. In October they will you can walk into any club in the be running a Brisbane conference UK or America and I don’t think the dedicated to RPGs, cosplay, console scenery is going to be of this quality,” games and live-action role playing. B he said. “I don’t think your going to meet gamers that are any more passionate than Australians are compared to Americans etc. In that respect, no. I just think (in terms of) conventions, because there hasn’t been the backing for the conventions here, because there hasn’t been the money for it and because there’s potentially not the business interest for it, conventions are lacking.” Mark and Allan agreed post-Auscon they would reasses their future plans. Future ideas they have floating around include a campaign map to work alongside the tournament games, Auscon ‘ambassador’s’ to introduce people to new games and static displays to engage non-gamers. “We’re want to make this thing
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(above) Warhammer Fantasy Iron Man tournament winner, Chris and (right) Warmachine tournament winner Kieren Moore 85
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