Battlespace Aug/Sep 2011

STRATEGY GAMING MAGAZINE

Insight with Alessio Cavatore DIY game design Wings of War battle report Startup Fever Heroes of Armageddon

Sengoku

Digital strategy

Miniatures

Tabletop strategy

Bushido

Ninjato

Tabletop strategy Board strategy

Sake & Samurai Card strategy

The quest for game design’s holy grail

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editor’s column James Dillon Editor-in-chief editor@thebattlespace.com www.thebattlespace.com

Turning Japanese For those of you recovering from the excesses of GenCon Indy held in early August, we hope this issue will help prolong the sense of gaming goodness. By all accounts the “original, longest running and bestattended gaming convention in the world”, based in the US, was yet another success for those lucky enough to attend, with many new games launched.

This issue's theme is all things Japanese gaming related. Despite Battlespace launching earlier this year with a Shogun II: Total War focus, the sheer number of Japanese-themed games still coming out made it hard to pass up the opportunity to re-visit the ancient orient. The Japanese games we look at this issue are shown at the bottom of this page (not clickable in the PDF version) Paradox Interactive, featured in last issue’s digital gaming section, have just released Sengoku, a strategy game that follows in their epic strategy style of province management. We take a look at how the game works and provide some advice on fighting for a foothold in the bloody world of clan domination.

Jonas Svensson from Mura Miniatures has provided a detailed article on getting started with Japanese miniature gaming. If you don’t normally dabble in miniatures or historical settings for your tabletop

Sengoku

previous page

Miniatures

games, its well worth a read to see if it sparks any interest. Also in related tabletop news, Battlespace interviewed the creators of Bushido, a fantasy tabletop game set in a mystical oriental world of samurai and monsters looking to make an impact.

Representing board games is Ninjato by Adam West and Dan Schnake. This seven round game has ninjas darting all over the board training skills, influencing important characters and stealing treasures from a seemingly endless array of guards. Not bad for a single nights work.

A card with a drinking problem is Sake & Samurai, a fast-play game by Italian publishers Albo Pavo.

Two notable Japanese-related games that didn’t make it into this issue are Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan and Ikusa. The first game uses hidden movement and is based in the world of Legends of the Five Rings, while Ikusa is a an updated iteration of the classic 1986 board game.

There’s plenty more to gleen from within the pages of this issue, including interviews with influencial game designers Alessio Cavatore and Rick Pristley, a look at do-it-yourself gaming, a game mechanics discussion by blogger Zack Hiwiller a new form of ‘strategy card games’ in Conquest Tacics and more.

As always, we hope you enjoy your gaming. B

Bushido

Ninjato

Sake & Samurai

gaming news

BATTLE ESCALATION Bracknell Forest Gamers, UK, will hold an Escalation-style Warhammer Fantasy battle tournament in September. Ticket are available at £12 per player.

The Berkshire group meet every Monday night and play Games Workshop games, Magic the Gathering, Warmachine, Munchkin, Risk, D&D, Urban War and other games.

NO RUSH FOR FUEL APOCOLAPYSE The release of naval real-time strategy game Oil Rush has been postponed to autumn 2011 in order to ensure that it doesn’t become “yet another tech demo” according to Unigine Corp.

“We have a deeper objective: we want to create an old-school game with deep storyline and really fun gameplay. Oil control conflicts are already a topic for heated discussion, but we want you to experience fuel apocalypse from the first row.”

Oil Rush is a real-time naval strategy game based on group control. It combines the strategic challenge of a classical RTS with the fun of a tower defence game.

PREDICT A TURN The upcoming iOS game RoboArena will include a ‘prediction cam’ allowing players to calculate movements and see a little ways into the future.

“If you approach a particularly tricky part of a level and don’t know which way you should go, you can now fire up your prediction cam and see the next 15 moves play out so you can plan appropriately,” the RoboArena admin team posted on their website.

RoboArena is a top-down turn based casual strategy multiplayer action game inspired by the board game classic Robo Rally.

Oil Rush YouTube gameplay video

Image source: www.oilrush-game.com

MANTIC GAMES THREE-YEAR PLAN REVEALED

Image source: www.manticgames.com

Games manufacturer, Mantic Games released a three-year-plan video for their fantasy wargame Kings of War in early August.

The coming year for Kings of War, which was released in 2010, will be focused on balancing the new army lists and getting the rules out as a full colour booklet with eight armies and 100 new units.

The third year of the plan will see a full

rule book with special characters, magic items and special rules.

Mantic Games recently asked Alessio Cavatore to update the first five army lists and write army lists for the newly created armies, including Goblins and Twilight Kin. Kings of War is a fantasy battle game written by Alessio Cavatore with quick, easy to learn rules with big armies.

gaming news

PARTNERSHIP BRINGS GAMING TO WIZARD WORLD

Defender’s of the Realm artist, Larry Elmore will be one of many guests featured at Wizards World. Image source: larryelmore.com

FUND TO HELP GAMERS IN NEED The Jack Vasel Memorial Fund was started in April this year in memory of Jack Vasel, son of Tom Vasel.

Mr Vasel is an influential voice in the board gaming hobby and the community rallied around him in his time of need. From this experience he was determined to help others who might undergo similar tragedies.

The fund will collect and provide financial assistance to members of the public who are part of the gaming community and who have suffered personal hardship.

“It is our hope and prayer that the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund will provide Jack with a legacy to help out the entire gaming community,” Mr Vasel posted on www.jackvasel.org.

The Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) commenced a partnership with Wizard World, producer of North America’s largest pop-culture tour.

GAMA is supporting two shows with a trade day and gaming events at Wizard World Shows.

“GAMA is thrilled to be partnering with Wizard World,” executive director John Ward said.

“GAMA and Wizard World are totally dedicated to making this a success. I think this program provides a great crossover between the two entities.”

Wizard World CEO, Gareb Shamus

$31,057 Amount in US dollars raised for Doctors Without Borders by the Heroes of Armageddon Warhammer 40k army charity build and raffle.

said he was excited about teaming with GAMA to highlight tabletop gaming, which has been an important part of Wizard World events.

“We are also pleased that Chicago Comic Con will serve as a venue to showcase the prestigious Origin Awards,” Mr Shamus said.

The first show, Chicago Comic Con, will take place at the Donald E. Stevens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill., 11-14 August, and the second, Mid-Ohio Comic Con at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on 22-23 October.

gaming news

FANTASY FLIGHT GOING TO A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) has announced it will be releasing a series of games based on the Star Wars movie franchise universe.

that puts 1-4 players in command of the Rebel strike force and mission team.

Players will launch fleets of starships and direct characters from the Star Wars galaxy as they confront the might of the Empire.

FFG will be releasing the X-Wing miniature game and Star Wars: The Card Game in early 2012 as well as hinting that By working together, players can fend these games are “only the beginning”, off Imperial assaults and complete their with more to be announced soon. mission, winning the game.

X-Wing will be a tactical ship-to-ship With a wealth of characters, starships, combat game in which players take missions, and enemies, Star Wars: control of powerful Rebel X-wings and The Card Game immerses players in nimble Imperial TIE fighters, facing galactic conflict. them against each other in fast-paced FFG’s first two Star Wars game lines will space combat. Star Wars: The Card Game is a cooperative ‘living card game’ are scheduled to launch in early 2012.

HELL DORADO ENGLISH RULES FINALLY SHIP

CHICAGO GAMES DAY VIDEO INSIGHT

Cipher Studios have shipped the Hell Dorado rulebooks and the latest miniature releases.

DIY terrain released footage from Chicago Games Day in July.

We have just gotten the next wave of Hell Dorado figures shipped off to distributors! Also, in the last two weeks, we have received the Hell Dorado book and shipped all outstanding distributor orders and pre-orders from our web store. So, if the book hasn’t already made its way to your FLGS, it is on its way. Along with Samael, Li Tsu Tsin, Wormpile, Berber Chasseurs, and the Missionary.

The video has highlights from the day, including terrain with flowing water, extravagant titans, a good look at Necromunda table and a massive Space Hulk table.

gaming news

LINE AQUISITION

IN THE NAME OF THE FORGEFATHER

JC Figures is selling the rights and molds for their samurai, modern US marines and insurgents lines to Victory Force Miniatures.

Mantic Games is running a contest to find a name for one of their Forgefather units from their Warpath sic-fi game. A squad of five resin Forge Father Heavy Troopers are up for grabs.

“These lines will be a fantastic addition to the existing Victory Force figure lines,” Victory Force Miniatures stated.

“These resin figures are masters of the original sculpts that are being turned into plastic resin and are absolutely gorgeous, though you will have to wait a little longer to see them,” a Mantic Games spokesperson said.

“JC is a fantastic sculptor and anyone who likes the Victory Force lines will be equally pleased with JC’s figures.

“The vampiric Soul Reaver knights, Abyssal Dwarf Decimators and the Dwarf Ironwatch are examples of where the community got it right and gave us a brilliant name. Well, we’ve taken our naming competition to the next level with Warpath.”

Gamers ahve until 15 August to post a submission on the TableTopGames thread.

Image source: www.victoryforce.com

You can expect to see the lines for sale in the Victory Store within the next month.

TRADE WITH INDIA

PEN AND PENCIL WAR ON YOUR TABLET

Indus Miniatures is now open for business, offering a range of 28mm miniatures for the War in India period.

Turn-based ‘pencil and paper’ tablet war game, Lead Wars was updated to version 1.2 in August.

Lead Wars is a turn-based pencil and paper war game, where skill is just as important as strategy.

Indus miniatures will cover the period 1650 to 1850 but some figures could be used for earlier or later periods.

Lead Wars simulates the kind of games which were popular in the days before portable gaming devices.

Players control a fleet of planes, tanks and artillery units around a hand-drawn battlefield on a piece of paper, making long curve shots and strategic moves to try and outwit and out-skill your opponent.

“We will be producing elephants, camels and artillery. These figures are being sculpted to be compatible with most other 28mm ranges on the market now,” Indus miniatures stated on their website.

Maratha infantry and cavalry miniatures have been cast and should be available soon.

Image source: indusminiatures.mybigcommerce.com

Plays can battle single player against the CPU, two-player on the same device or sign-in to Game Center and play online head-to-head.

gaming news

ITALIAN DESIGNER TAKES OVER WAR OF THE RINGS Ares Games, a new Italian games publisher, has acquired the rights to publish the acclaimed War of the Ring board game from Sophisticated Games.

First published in 2004, War of the Ring was created by the Italian game designers Roberto Di Meglio, Francesco Nepitello, and Marco Maggi. The game was nominated for the 2007 Golden Geek “Best Wargame” Award.

War of the Ring and a 2006 expansion Battles of the Third Age were released in the US by Fantasy Flight Games, but both the basic game and the expansion are currently out of print.

“We are proud to be able to bring back to the international gaming market a prestigious game like War of the Ring. The game has been out of the market for a long time and there is a big anticipation for this second edition, which we forecast to release within the end of this year,” Ares Games CEO Christoph Cianci said.

The revised edition will include several changes from the previous version published by Nexus Editrice and NG International and will have an entirely new graphic design based on the original illustrations by artist John Howe.

A version of the War of the Ring map coloured by Xooklib for online play

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP TO BRING AWARDWINNING GAMES TO IOS DEVICES Console video game developer Incinerator Studios and Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership to bring games from the AEG catalog to iOS and mobile platforms.

AEG’s latest IP, Nightfall, will be the first game released.

Pictured: Ascension card game for iOS. Image source: www.incineratorstudios.com

in mobile board games and TCGs, and we look forward to collaborating in this space.”

“The first time I held an iPad I knew I was holding the future,” AEG CEO, John Zinser said.

“AEG is very excited to enter into a partnership with Incinerator Studios. We think they have a “AEG has been a leader in tabletop great vision for bringing tablegaming for nearly two decades, top games to this exciting and and we are excited to be bringing growing platform. We expect this some of their key properties partnership will do more than just into the digital realm”, said Joel provide a new way to enjoy AEG Goodman, CEO/President of games. Our shared vision is much Incinerator Studios. “From day bigger and exciting.” one, AEG saw the potential

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esigners continuously quest for the holy grail of game design, according to Alessio Cavatore. The managing director of River Horse Games and independent game consultant believes each and every game is an opportunity to find the perfect set of rules. Whether they can truly be found is another matter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think that experience (of making games) has taught me that the grail will never be found, but that it is the quest itself that is important â&#x20AC;&#x201C; striving towards rules that are best suited to the size/style of the game in question,â&#x20AC;? Mr Alessio explained to Battlespace.

With a variety of games designs to his name and with several diverse projects currently underway, the game designer, rules writer and consultant has done plenty of questing in his time.

After studying biology at the University of Turin, Italy, Mr Cavatore moved to the UK at 25 to work as a translator for Games Workshop.

One year later he became a games developer Battlespace talks to for the hobby behemoth, where he stayed for another fifteen years. While there he worked on Alessio Cavatore about independent several game systems and supplements such as Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer 40,000 game design and the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

By James Dillon

Pictured: Alessio Cavatore

In 2008 he decided to strike out on his own and publish games of his own making. The first River Horse game he has produced is Shuuro, a game of creative chess, which was soon followed by its four-player expansion, Turanga. As a consultant he has worked with Warlord Games on Hail Caesar, an ancient battle rule book and is currently engaged with Mantic Games on a new sci-fi tabletop project, Warpath. He is now moving into the digital space with an electronic translation of Shurro with Legenday Games.

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(Left): Shuuro: Wrath of the Elements allows you to register and pick from four factions, each wth its own elemental background.

The games uses the same mechanics as chess, except for several major changes. Players can select which units they bring into the game while random square pillars transform the board. In this game the units have been selected (left) and the units placed against a random online opponent (below).

Shuuro the board game is a variant on chess, except players are not assigned a fixed set of pieces. Instead, they are free to choose what pieces they are going to deploy, creating an army that best suits their skills and tactics. It can be immediately appreciated by two categories of people: those who know and like chess and those that enjoy threedimensional wargames.

The idea for the digitised game was solidified over pizza and beer with Legendary CEO, Ewan Lamont, who Mr Alessio had worked with while at Games Workshop.

“We both agreed that we found Facebook games quite addictive, but also quite easy to grow bored of, as they definitely lack challenging/intereseting gameplay. We then decided that the ‘economy system’ that is inherent to Shuuro, when you use points to buy pieces, was perfect for an online game,” Mr Alessio said.

“I think our best customers are the people that, much like me, like playing chess but are not good enough to be ‘professionals’.

The most common comment we hear about our game is that ‘it made me rediscovered chess’, the word ‘refreshing’ is also used a lot.”

The game allows people that enjoyed chess at some stage during their life to renew their passion for this exceptional game.

The word Shuuro is Sanskrit for ‘warrior’ or ‘skilled one’. The choice of this ancient Indian language is not random, but it’s because the origins of the game of chess can be traced to India in the antiquity.

Through the centuries, Buddhist monks,

A Shuuro game at GiocaTorino 2008. Creative Commons photo credit: Gianni Cottogni

caravans on the silk road, Persian and then Arab traders have contributed to spread its use, until it reached Europe in the middle ages.

“I think our best customers

are the people that, much like me, like playing chess but are not good enough to be ‘professionals’.

Shuuro: Wrath of the Elements takes the board game online, and pits the four elemental powers of the Shuuro follow up, Turanga, against one another. The game is designed to be playable on any device that has an internet browser, so that includes laptops, smart-phones and tablet computers. Players take their turns at their own pace, with up to 24 hours to decide their moves, but also with the ability to play 'live' against opponents who are online at the same time.

The game borrows heavily from the elemental themes used for the Turanga expansion and sculpted chess pieces that

insight match the ones in the electronic version are being designed.

Alessio said.

The game will fill for fast play and Shuuro: Wrath of the Elements is now easy-to-learn and teach It will also available to play both via this site, or on highly suitable for tournament play, Facebook. The game is still in open Beta, with rules focused on a simple, fastso features and improvements are still paced game for the mass market. being implemented, but feedback and Mr Alesso said he hasn’t tried to suggestions is wlecome on the Legendary innovate the turn system from previous Facebook Page. game rules.

Currently a two-player game, Legendary “No, as the game has to handle large Games are working on a Turanga app for armies, and for that the good old ‘I the iPad. Legendary are building their go-you go’ remains the best in my own games portal so that non Facebook opinion. Other system are more suited users can play. Other games they are to more detailed, skirmishy systems, I working on include an ordinary chess think,” he said. game for purists and in the near future Having worked at the world’s most well-

“I loved the chance of beginning from the background

and then getting into the rules. I immensely enjoyed creating the galaxy-spanning back story Year 0, a post apocalypse war-game. The first proper turn based war-game on a social platform.

In July Mantic Games released the beta rules for Warpath, Mr Alessio said the rules received an enthusiastic response and he appreciated the fact that people seem to be as excited as he was in the game’s background and can’t wait for more to be revealed.

Development of Warpath has been as much about the history of a new universe as well as a new set of rules.

“I loved the chance of beginning from the background and then getting into the rules. I immensely enjoyed creating the galaxy-spanning back story,” Mr

established hobby company, Mr Alessio said it was refreshing to work with a small outfit such as Mantic Games.

“There’s so much creativity and positive energy and desire to do more there... very infectious. I definitely hope that Mantic will establish itself solidly in the market and, with growing confidence, will start to push the boundary of their IP.” The final rules should be available in late September or early October, in time for the October release of the Forgefathers and Marauders boxed game.

Pictured: Mantic Games’ Warpath Forgefather concept art

insight Despite years of experience at designing games and the ability to discern what rules will work, Mr Alessio is finding it increasingly challenging for his games to have an impact.

“I’ll answer this one after my accountant has finished doing those tax returns,” Mr Alessio said with a laugh.

“Seriously speaking, it has been an amazing year – very intense,

“I believe it’s both easier to find good examples of

Pictured: Mantic Games’ Warpath Marauder concept art

rules solutions to take inspiration from, but also more difficult to stand out in the crowd of systems that are released every year,” he said.

“I believe it’s both easier to find good examples of rules solutions to take inspiration from, but also more difficult to stand out in the crowd of systems that are released every year,” he said.

very hard work... I felt (and increasingly feel) like my brain is melting, but on the other hand it has also been very rewarding. So many gaming products out there (some of which you know, some of which you don’t know yet..)

The transition from tabletop will bear the little pink hippo games to digital ones has made use of some of his skills combined logo... it’s very cool!” with a new way of thinking.

Even though it is now easier then “There are elements that are very ever to self-publish, Mr Alessio different, due to the social aspects still advocates for hopeful game and world-wide interaction of a designers to find work with an Facebook game. At the same established company. time there are elements that are definitely more familiar, like balancing gameplay and the economy system, similar to balancing an army list in a wargame.”

Whether the move to independent design was the best financial decision remains to be seen.

“Get yourself hired by a gaming company, no matter in what position. It’s a lot easier to work your way to that designer position from the inside,” he said.

“And write rules, and get honest feedback from people, don’t just ‘think’ you can write rules - better to know in advance whether you ‘have it’ or not.” B

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O

Game designer and educator, Zack Hiwiller discusses the importance of words and definitions when designing games.

ne of the frustrations I’ve had as both a game designer and educator is the lack of a vocabulary that allows us to discuss games and issues with games in a prescriptive way. There are boundless ways to describe games and what genres or commercial areas they fall in, but is there a vocabulary we can use that can help designers talk about how we create experiences?

Inspired by the work in that article, a framework based on mechanics, design and aesthetics (MDA) was developed with the work of designers Marc LeBlanc, Robin Hunicke and Rob Zubek.

Let us look at a simple generic board game as an example. All that you are presented with when you buy a board In 1994, veteran designer Greg Costikyan game are the pieces and the rules. A penned an article in a British role-playing consumer reads the rules and plays the journal titled (in an homage to sci-fi game by exercising those rules. When he writer Harlan Ellison) I Have No Words or she does, those rules become a system and I Must Design, which lamented the (often pedantically called the ‘runtime lack of formal definitions in the field of behavior’ of the game). We see holes game design and attempted to start an in rules not solely by examining them, examination of possible definitions. but by how they play out to become a In 1999, Doug Church (of System Shock system. As the game plays out the system elicits some sort of response from the and Thief fame) penned an article for Gamasutra called Formal Abstract Design player. In many cases, we just aim for Tools which also attempted to answer the ‘fun’. But that is too vague. Sometimes we question of how we explain this magical aim for tension or horror or drama or to make a societal or political point. experience one gets while gaming.

“We

see holes in rules not solely by examining them, but by how they play out to become a system.

insight This three-tiered system is the MDA framework.

Except instead of the previously mentioned words we have these three more ‘expensive’ words: mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics.

Mechanics refers to the rules and building blocks of the game. In my interpretation of MDA, I like to include the ‘milieu’ the game is in, in addition to the formal mechanics. This is both the art and sound of the game (if applicable) as well as the cultural setting and assumptions of the game. These all can lead to wildly different dynamics and aesthetics.

Dynamics refers to how that game plays out as a system and aesthetics (while a loaded term philosophically) refers to the subjective qualities that players experience.

When designing a game, the only ‘knob’ that you can turn in this machine is the mechanics knob. This is my own reading of the framework and is debatable.

You can affect the rules of the system by changing the mechanics and seeing how that affects the dynamics.

You do this primarily by playtesting. Farther down the line, you are aiming for some sort of aesthetic response.

If you are making a survival horror video game, you cannot add more ‘scary’, but you can build monster closets (rules as to where monsters will spawn i.e., mechanics) to create situations where the player is trapped having a monster between him/her and safety (dynamics), which can in affect be ‘scary’ (aesthetics).

Realising this is the only knob you are able to turn is a great discovery when prototyping. It allows you to examine strictly the effect of mechanics changes on the systemic results instead of sort of firing blind in a guess-and-check manner. In strategy board game design, this is unconsciously done by sticking to a particular theme and examining how your mechanics match the theme.

GAME DESIGN PRINCIPLES The less formal version of game design

Rules

System

Fun

MDA game design

Mechanics

Dynamics

“If

Aesthetics

you are making a survival horror video game, you cannot add more ‘scary’, but you can build monster closets

insight The following examples may help you understand the MDA concept.

Notice that the mechanics are the only things the designers can directly touch.

Hasbro’s Monopoly Mechanic: Any property in Monopoly not purchased after a player lands on it goes into auction. All players can bid on this property. The highest bid takes the property. Bids can be as low as $1.

Electronic Arts’ Army of Two Mechanic: Players enter a ‘back-to-back’ level where time is slowed and the two players are situated back-to-back. Enemies spawn from all directions.

Dynamics: Since players are back-to-back, they have full coverage and must rely on each other to ‘cover them’ by eliminating any enemy forces in their view.

Aesthetics: Tension and cohesion/adversity with teammate.

Dynamics: Instead of buying everything a player lands on, players may hold back money to bid up an unpurchased property that an opponent lands on.

This can be to further the player’s own interests or to spend money to avoid another player from consolidating power. Money becomes tighter.

Aesthetics: The game gets highly tactical (puzzle-solving), teamwork strategies burgeon (social).

Comment: Generally, people who hate Monopoly the most tend to be the ones who play by ‘house rules’ that ruin the game. Two easy examples are a rule about auctions and the house rule that gives people free money for landing on Free Parking. By examining the dynamic situations these cause, designers can see why adding a few simple house rules can turn a tactical game into a random game.

area/code’s Parking Wars Mechanics: Place a car on the street of a friend. While you cars are parked, they make you money. There generally are not enough open parking spots to park all of your cars legally, so you must resort to parking illegally. If your friend finds you parked illegally on his/her street, your friend can ticket you and take the money you have earned. Parking rules change from day to day so what is legal today may not be legal tomorrow.

Dynamics: If you know a friend is on vacation or somewhere he or she will not check Facebook, use his or her street to park illegally and reap the rewards. Or enter into a mutual parking agreement with a friend where you can park illegally on each other’s streets.

Aesthetics: Social engineering - a combination of fellowship, competition and puzzle solving. B

Zack Hiwiller is a game designer, educator and writer. He’s designed games professionally since 2005 on everything from the Game Boy Advance to the iPad. He teaches Design Tools at Full Sail University. Between his blog at www.hiwiller.com and his cross-posts at sites like Kotaku and GameSetWatch, he has received over 1.5 million hits.

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Why wait for the perfect game when you can make it yourself? Battlespace looks at some tips and tools for strategy game self-publishing.

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Helping gamers get their hands dirty in the publishing world are services such as EveryGame, The Game Crafter and Kickstarter.

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espite the difficulties involved, many gamers yearn to design and publish their own games.

Countless permutations of mechanics, rules, themes and gameplay ideas have been imagined by millions of gamers, but few have come to see the light of day.

More people have walked on the moon than been financially successful at independent game design, according to UK-based Treefrog Games designer, Martin Wallace. Speaking to a group of hopeful game designers at Australia’s Auscon conference in January, Mr Wallace discussed the challenges along the path from paper to profitable publishing. Designing workable rules involves countless hours of testing.

The cost of manufacturing thousands of game units can be prohibitive. And there is the added challenge of finding a market willing to pay. Widely popular games such as Carcassone have been regaled as elegant and accesible - but what if you want to add depth and complexity to your game?

While finding the perfect combination of rules is a matter of continued debate, the tools available for creating, designing and publishing games have never been greater. Three in particular - The Game Crafter, Everygame and Kickstarter have proven to be excellent methods for independent designers to make their mark in the game industry.

Digital dream builder The Game Crafter (TGC) is a US company that produces tabletop game components and custom print-ondemand card games and board games. In July 2009 the company launched a printon-demand game publishing service that allows game designers to build and print custom card games and board games through a web-based system. Customers upload designs for cards and boards and choose from over 280 game parts. Users also have the option to add rule sheets, stickers, and more.

professional-quality games was his personal efforts, a post-apocalypse adventure role-playing game deadEarth in 1999, followed by a family-oriented card game about the “absurdity” of the US election process called Campaign Secrets. Moving into the online game space, Mr Smith used WebGUI software from one of his other companies, Plain Black, to build the initial TGC site.

The TGC team has learnt a lot in the two years since they began.

“In some ways not knowing these things has hurt us, as we haven’t been able to move forward as quickly as we liked. However, in other ways I think it’s helped,” MR Smith told Battlespace.

“I’ve always been a tinkerer, and I’ve started or helped start a dozen businesses now. Those two qualities have helped me Driving the business is JT Smith. Prior take a different perspective and allowed to starting TGC in 2009, Mr Smith’s only us to keep TGC moving forward in a background in printing or publishing market where everyone else has failed.”

Pictured: Components from Warpgate, a highly successful The Game Crafter-based board game

insight According to Mr Smith, the types of games he has enjoyed designing and publishing haven’t had mass appeal, instead aimed at very targeted niche audiences. With traditional print runs of 2000 to 10,000 copies out of scale with his ambitions, he knew he had to find an alternative publishing method.

“I figured, there had to be more people out there that like to make games the way I do,” he said.

“There’s a lot of people who design games that have huge aspirations, but need a prototyping service. So with that, I figured we had a large enough audience to do an experiment to see if TGC could work.”

The website’s ordering system includes a game-building wizard that allows designers to upload images for boards, cards, stickers and other components. Videos show users the steps involved in completing a game before it can go on sale. Game profits were originally shared between TGC and designer with a 50/50 split, but in July this was replaced with 70 per cent designer, 30 per cent TGC.

Judging by the number of games available on the website, there are plenty of gamers that have fancied themselves as a game designer.

“Many start off just designing alternate versions of their favorite games, because they think they can do it better.

Sometimes they’re right, and sometimes they’re wrong,” Mr Smith said.

using the service to make a name for themselves before going to traditional publishers. In 2010 Games Magazine website declared one of TGC’s games, Jump Gate, as the ‘Game of the Year’.

“So while not everyone has the design

“Jump Gate is probably the best known game to come out of The Game Crafter. However, ‘success’ is something that can be measured in many ways.

For example, our best selling game of all time is Mathino. We’ve also had a lot of success with games branching out into niche markets. For example, we sell a lot of Tarot decks like The Decktet. And there are several games that are tied to external things like books, such as Social Mania,” Mr Smith said.

“The beautiful thing about them using TGC to test their theory is that they haven’t risked their life savings to find out if they have design chops or not,” he said.

“So while not everyone has the design chops, clearly some do and we’re really happy to help people reach their dreams.”

chops, clearly some do and we’re really happy to help people reach their dreams.”

In general, the website’s users have been happy with the The BoardGameGeek.com community has also been quality of the games they produce, according to Mr Smith. instrumental in promoting both The Game Crafter and its designers.

TCG has had quite a few successes, with some designers

notable TGC board games

Ninjistics is a family-friendly game of “stupid human tricks”.

Each player is a ninja in training to become a master ninja. In order to prove that you are a master ninja you must complete a series of challenges ranging from reading minds to feats of stunning acrobatics.

Wild Pursuit is a family-oriented game where you take on the role of a big game hunter.

Jump Gate was Games Magazine's Game of the Year for 2010

Rejection Therapy is one part game one part self-help.

Fast paced, easy to learn, Diggity is how to make a simple game the right way.

insight “We really can’t say enough great things about Board Game Geek,” Mr Smith said.

App-centrentic

Mr Dirksen said that even though Sharing TGC’s technology leveraging EveryGame uses an XMl file is the EveryGame app for iPad tablets. structure, it is “very easy” for nondevelopers to make their own game as Beyond BoardGameGeek, Facebook EveryGame is a combined iPhone/ modules can be created without even iPad game app with support for has had an impact and with a new touching an XML file. Board and classic games such as Chess, Reversi launch website, Facebook and Twitter will become more integral to and Go. The iPad version has support piece images just need to be named correctly and copied onto the iPad. to create and play your own games their business. In the end, the most through an XML description file that EveryGame will then create a playable effective way for the TCG team to game module out of them with some images can be added to. gauge the impact they have on the basic functionality, such as letting you industry has been at trade shows.

A number of app board games have move them around the board, shuffle been created through it, although “We often have teary-eyed game cards and roll dice. unofficial adaptations of already designers come up to us, hug us, and say something like, ‘Thank you published games can only be used for “Ideally, we’d like EveryGame to be truly universal, so that you could use personal use and not shared. for making my dream come true.’ it to make any game. I feel that we’re The first few times that it happened EveryGame developer, Nathaniel getting pretty close to that goal, but it freaked us out, but now it just Dirksen told Battlespace he was that there’s still a lot that we could do seems normal.” surprised by how eager gamers have to make creating games easier, and playing them more intuitive,” Mr We often have teary-eyed game designers come up to us, Dirksen said.

“

hug us, and say something like, ‘Thank you for making my dream come true.’

TGC will soon move out of its its experimental stage and into full production. They will offer customprinted packaging, foldable game boards, new sizes of cards, more parts, and new ways to buy and sell games.

been to make use of the $3.99 app.

“When we started, we primarily wanted to get our own games onto the iPad, and figured that the App Store would be an easy way to distribute EveryGame to family and friends. We figured a few other The service will also be offering a people would find it cool and pick full API for businesses that want to it up, but certainly didn’t expect the private label their service, and are working with one of the most popular amount of response it’s gotten,” Mr Dirksen said. card games of all time to provide a personalization service for them.

“It’s been really exciting though, and “We have more than 100 planned improvements to the service before the end of 2011. It’s a very exciting time for us and our users,” Mr Smith said.

all of the ideas and feedback that our users have given us have really allowed us to make EveryGame far better than we initially imagined.”

“For instance, you’ve always been able to roll a single die in EveryGame, but people wanted to be able to make buttons that roll many dice at once.

We’re constantly adding new features to let you interact more efficiently with the game, so that modules act more like applications tailor made for a particular game.”

If you are after more complex behaviors, editing the XML game file is an option.

If you like the improvements made in a particular EveryGame, you can copy the XML fiels and make use of them.

There is also online documentation that ships with EveryGame to help users get started.

Pictured: above and below: EveryGame apps

insight

EveryGame tablet app

insight “If you’re trying to do something completely new, sometimes it’s a bit of puzzle to work out the best way to do it. Once you get into it though, it actually can be fun to try and figure out ways to achieve complex behaviors from the simpler building blocks EveryGame provides,” Mr Dirksen said.

“We’re also are always adding new features, so what’s complicated one release may be easy the next one.”

Co-operative game FlashPoint: Fire Rescue from Kickstarter crowd funding

EveryGame,” he said.

However, for prototyping a board game in development, it can be a useful tool. Once you have an idea of what you want, generating a playable prototype is easy.

“And as you make changes, they can be made, distributed, and tested digitally, which is going to be a lot easier than with paper copies,” he said.

EveryGame has certainly improved with every release, Mr Dirksen said one of the most impressive games with major updates added at the end of July. The made using EveryGame is the Arkham Horror module. release included the ‘Easy-Game-Maker’ XML-less game module creation, Bluetooth-enabled card hands, “It’s an absolutely huge game, that has been fully play by email functionality, off-screen tabs for hidden digitised and condensed down to the size of the iPad. It’s also great to see people creating a their own original information, zooming/ panning of game board, and on device editing/ debugging content and graphics, making new games that look really great. The Playing Cards module in the latest Project greenlight version of EveryGame looks fantastic,” he said.

Breaking all manner of games genres is crowd“There’s a dominoes module that is really impressive funding platform Kickstarter. Many Battlespace due to the story surrounding its creation. Someone readers keeping up to date on gaming news will be in a BoardGameGeek forum asked if a dominoes familiar with the effect it has had on the industry. module existed, and the next posting was someone Every week, tens of thousands people pledge had actually created one for them within a few hours millions of dollars to creative projects, which has of the original request. also including funding towards board, card, tabletop and digital strategy games. As of July 2011, 180 “Finally, I’m always really impressed by people who successful game projects were funded through find ways to implement complex behaviors in their Kickstarter. In all, 10,388 projects have been games by combining the simple tools provided by launched through the service, a 44 per cent success EveryGame in innovative ways. One fine example there is the Dungeons of D module, which uses all sorts rate. A seelction of successful Kickstarter games are featured on the following page. of fancy techniques and has gone on to inspire some fancy new features.”

The games that people create are always owned by the designer as long as they do not break any copyright and EveryGame is simply the program used to display them. Games created with EveryGame can feature high-quality graphics and interaction, although Mr Dirksen doesn’t foresee them taking the place of commercial board game applications on the iPad. “Many people want an AI to play against, and this is outside the realm of what is currently supported by

Co-operative game FlashPoint: Fire Rescue on Kickstarter

insight

Kickstarter projects The following games on Kickstarter projects have successful reached their financial goals and have, or will, be published.

Alien Frontiers Alien Frontiers is a game of resource management and planetary development for two-to-four players. It had an original Kickstarter goal of $5000 but received $14,885 on 26 June, 2010.

Winning the game requires a mix of strategy and luck as you assign your fleet, integrate alien technology and territory bonuses into your approach, and block your opponents from implementing their own plans.

Alien Frontiers is now in the process of planning its second printing.

Eminent Domain Sometimes family members can be roped into fundraising pleads. In his video for space empire building card game Eminent Domain, the game designer brought out his two children to plead his case. The strategy worked, as the game made an enormous $48,378 in late 2010 and was printed and demonstrated at this year’s GenCon. In the game you choose a role each turn and you boost its power by playing cards that match. Even though everybody starts with the same deck, strategies quickly diverge as the game progresses.

The Road to Canterbury Kickstarter can helps raise funds and interest in quirky titles, such as The Road to Canterbury.

“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),” designer Alf Seegert told Battlespace.

“It certainly seems like a promising (opportunity) for many people.

Alien Frontiers and other titles like Rolling Freight certainly seem to have benefited by using Kickstarter this

way. A fellow (BoardGameGeek) guild member is doing the same with his intriguing game Force of Fiction,” he said.

“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 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.”

Glory to Rome Kickstarter can even be used to repackage old classics. Glory to Rome

by Carl Chudyk, was presented in a new "Black Box" edition reimagined by Heiko Gunther with graphic design and top-quality production to make GTR look as elegant as it plays.

digital strategy

Samurai clans battle for control of Japan in Paradox Interactiveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recently released Sengoku

digital strategy

The Sengoku period of Japanese history, also known as the time of the warring states, saw social upheaval, political intrigue and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. Having created epic strategy games spanning the greatest conflicts thoughout history, it was only a matter of time before Paradox Interactive turned its attention to this bloody period of medieval Japan.

Paradox Interactive games are known for their depth and complexity and Sengoku is no exception. With more than 350 areas of Japan to conquer and cast of hundreds of characters to choose from, getting started

can be a daunting experience. The object of the game is to control 50 per cent of Japan, declare yourself shogun and then hold that title for three years. Challenging you are dozens of factions, ninjas, provincial management, raging warlords and your personal sense of honour.

Helping to ease players into the game is its soothing music and visually-appealing map, an improved from previous Paradox Interactive titles. It is the map that dominates throughout the game and the hundreds of individual provinces can be colour switched depending on what you are after - allegiances, clans, vassals and more.

The first vital steps are to assign councilors

to positions in your court and give them tasks. Sengoku places its emphasis on characters and their interaction instead of putting the focus on running a country.

Your player character can be a daimyo, clan leader or a mere kokujin. The position of kokujin can be particuarly challenging as you will have no direct control over raising your army. As your character can only control five or so kori (provinces) himself you must rely on other characters for micro management, which in fact becomes the heart of the game.

Characters have statistics for areas such as military skill, health, fertility and intrigue and gain traits throughout the game.

digital strategy Different characters are in charge of different roles, including masters of ceremonies, arms and guards. The ceremonies role relies on diplomatic ability to perform given tasks, such as improving the village of a province or to improve the relations between you and other lords. The master of arms uses his martial attribute as the ability affecting how well he does his tasks, such as improving the castle of a province or raising levies. The character selected for the role of master of guards should be the one that has the best intrigue attributes as he will be in charge of hiring and protecting against ninjas.

Sengoku’s help screens attempt to guide you through the game

One of the useful tasks the master of guards can perform is improving guilds in a province, which slowly unlocks manufactory slots, where you can build some unique and special buildings.

In Sengoku, every province has a village that can be expanded with eight new buildings, giving mainly bonuses to tax income and your force limit. To build one of these, you assign this task to your master of ceremonies. This means that you can only build one of these at a time, so choose wisely. These buildings have no upfront cost but instead heavily decrease your tax income during the construction time. Every kori also has a castle that can be upgraded with four new castle levels that increase the size of the local levy as well as four defensive upgrades.

A faction brings its armies together and marches on an opposing province

With your council organised its time to create an army. Combat is a ‘simple’ affair, especially if you are used to more hands-on tactical games. Feudal levies can be raised during times of war and

as you progress through the game you can retain retainers - samurai leaders that come with their own troops. Maintaining the loyalty of generals is crucial as they demand titles and flirt with the possibility of deserting you just before battle, creating opportunities for political intrigue. If you keep your conquered provinces under your control your vassals will become angry - rewards of titles, gold and lands, titles, should be handed out reguarly.

Particular characters can keep showing up throughout the game as they join and leave your faction, helping to create the atmosphere of a thriving feudal society.

Independent rulers have the opportunity to declare war on another ruler, although how much this will affect your honour will depend on the conditions in play.

Sengoku uses the concept of honour as a form of currency.

Actions that are considered ‘bad’, such as attacking a friendly neighbour, cost honour. The honour cost for declaring war on someone depends on your relationship to them and attacking someone you dislike is not as bad as attacking a respected neighbour.

You can increase your honour by giving out land to retainers or committing seppuku if you have low honour and a heir. Going below zero honour equals death.

digital strategy

Twenty historical ninja clans are present in Sengoku. Unlike other clans, these will not hold any land or titles and will instead travel around Japan in search of a temporary employer who wants to claim their services.

To increase the chance of one of these clans turning up in your domain you can give your master of the guard the task of recruiting them.

Once a ninja clan show up in one of your koris, it will stay there for a period of time before moving on. During this time you have the choice of hiring them to perform one specific mission, such as assassinate or kidnap a character, rescue a hostage or weaken the defense of a castle in an enemy kori.

Every mission will have a difficulty level as well as a discovery chance, and each ninja clan will have two stats that will determine how well they will perform these missions - ability and stealth.

To defend yourself against attacks from ninja clans hired by your opponents, the intrigue skill of your master of the guard will be essential.

In Sengoku, fighting and conquest all occurs within the same country and there are no formal negotiations over which clans controls which village or castle. With the breakdown of central authority, the right of control is settled on the battlefield.

The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;plotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mechanic adds to the sense of political maneouvering as you can set goals and then try and find partners who want the same as you. As a clan leader you can use the plot to plan an attack on a opposing clan and get other clans to join you.

Diplomacy and managing other clans is vital as your character is likely to die before the game is over. Train your heir and ensure he is in favourable terms with your factionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s characters.

There are tips given for first time players when accessing different functions and screens to help people along. The game runs continuously in daily turns and can be slowed down, sped up, or paused as the player chooses.

With relatively lush graphics, different camera perspectives and an intuitive interface, Sengoku is a welcome addition to the epic strategy pantheon. B

digital strategy

Nature (modify)

The god-game genre makes a comeback with Ubisoft Montpelierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new sandbox simulator, From Dust

Tribe (protect)

digital strategy

From Dust

The spiritual heir to Populous has returned. French game designer Eric Chair, responsible for 1991’s platformer Another World, has teamed up with Ubisoft Montpellier to create a modern day god-game only available via digital download.

Winning this year’s E3 Game Critics Award for best strategy game, it was published in late July for Xbox and will be distributed online via Steam, OnLive, GamersGate, and XBLA. In From Dust, players assume a godlike first-person perspective from which they manipulate an archipelago environment in an effort to save, and enlighten, a nomadic tribe. An essential aspect of From Dust is the environment simulation, which

underlies the player’s interactions with the world. Developers intended that the world appear as a ‘living thing’, a dynamic and spontaneous entity, irrespective of the player’s actions upon it. With a spherical cursor, the user controls matter (soil, sand, lava and water) in real time. Lava cools to form solid rock, vegetation propagates in soil and spreads naturally once a village is built and moving water erodes terrain.

Physical changes to the world occur extremely rapidly, allowing players to restructure islands within minutes.

Campaigns in From Dust are structured as a sequence of missions. Completing certain objectives expedites the tribe’s progress and bestows additional powers, such as the capacity to jellify water.

digital strategy

POWER OF THE GODS

Three classic Bullfrog strategy games that place you in the sandals of an omniscient power.

Brutal Earth During From Dust, Tribal shamans alert the player to natural disasters, notably tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, shortly before they occur. These disasters can be inhibited through creative, physical manipulation of the environment: a tsunami can be jellified, wildfires extinguished and lava flows diverted. Reshaping the land is not as instantly dramatic as playing god in other god games, as crafting earth takes time and requires plenty of forethought.

The people in From Dust build new villages as they move and prosper. An accidental drop of lava on the village will burn them and instigate the rebuilding process. Although there is no ‘explicit sandbox’ mode, developer Mr Chahi stated that each mission features a distinct map, which the player can return to and manipulate further. From Dust greatest surpise is its dynamic, beautiful miniworlds that will grab and draw you in the lives of the people you must save.

Dungeon Keeper Before Black & White, Peter Molyneux and Bullfrog Productions released Dungeon Keeper in 1997. Player attempts to build and manage a dungeon or lair while protecting it from (computer-controlled) ‘hero’ characters intent on stealing the user’s accumulated treasures and killing various monsters. The player begins with a small number of creatures that can dig tunnels into the surrounding soil, capture enemy rooms and Portals, mine gold and gems, set traps, and even attack when desperate or threatened. As your dungeon expands you can build further improvements and introduce more powerful units to your lair.

digital strategy

The classic board game Puerto Rico has been tablet-ised by Codito Development.

Puerto Rico designer, Andreas Seyfarth finally has a reason to buy an iPad tablet. Even though he doesn’t own one, the game designer was impressed with the experience of playing his own highly regarded plantation trading board game in digital form for the first time.

“This conversion (between the board game and the app) was really successful. And what I’m even more excited about is that all the game play modes have been enhanced: online-mode, solo-mode, several difficulty levels - everything is there,” Mr Seyfarth said.

Puerto Rico was originally published by Ravensburger in 2002 before being converted into zeros and ones by Codito. Ranked as one of the the top board games on BoardGameGeek.com, both companies recognised the pressure was on to get it right.

“We all worked very hard to meet those expectations, and we think we will succeed,” Codito developer, Chris Ewington told Battlespace before the game was

recently added to the Apple app store.

“The iOS board game market is really booming, so fans have very high expectations,” he said.

Players will be able to play the game in three different modes; solo against up to four computer opponents of varying difficulty levels; ‘pass and play’ or ‘table top’ with any combination of two to five human and computer players; or online using Game Center to auto-match with or invite human players.

The iPad version allows all players to see everyone’s ‘island areas’ in one place, so that there is no paging through screens and no craning your neck to see whether someone else has any goods to ship.

This also gives the app a more immersive and realistic feeling, where you can see the island being developed over time: crops growing and being harvested, occupied buildings puffing smoke, and ships rocking gently in the water ready to be loaded.

Have any aspects of the board game been removed from the digital version to make it more elegant?

A select number of beta testers were introduced to the game. What was their reaction?

And, of course, the game has been sped up by eliminating extra work like dealing out plantations and goods. You still get a great feeling of involvement and achievement, but the mundane micro-management has been eliminated.

What excited us even more, however, was the reaction of newcomers to the game: the comprehensive tutorial we created and the in-game help, combined with the customary iPad user-friendliness, really made the game more accessible to even non-gamers.

The reaction from beta testers has been unanimously Chris Ewington: Nothing has been removed, more like positive. This is such a great game that so many people enhanced. We’ve moved from a bunch of playing areas love and have played countless times, and seeing it and piles of resources to a single, clean presentation of realised in such an intuitive and easy to play adaptation everything you need to play the game. has everybody very excited.

How does Puerto Rico compare to other game apps currently available on the store?

It has all the features gamers are expecting (multiple modes of play, varying levels of computer opponent, tutorial, online multiplayer, player stats) and, of course, it has the award-winning mechanics and design of Puerto Rico. The graphical style we chose is based on the theme of the game, so it has a softer look which we think works well and suits the game. In general, we think it will compare favourably to other board game apps and also introduce casual gamers to an accessible game with perhaps a bit more substance than they are used to.

digital strategy

Retr o take games a s a lo r ok a e hotter are r t geome than ev e-sh t apin ry-inspi er. Battle g dig r s ital s ed game pace s tha trate gy t

digital strategy

Visages of geomteric shapes haunted designer Michael Brough for several years before he could finally complete Vertex Dispenser. From 2005 Mr Brough has worked on the game through various stages, turning pixel connections into an esoteric nodebased strategy game. It’s been quite a journey for the designer but the game is now complete and ready for digital download.

craft travels along a grid of vertices and captures nodes by shooting them.

“It's fantastic and I'm so excited to finally get it out so others can play it.

I hope you like it,” Mr Brough stated on his blog.

Power ups allow you to destroy enemy vertices or capture more and can have a devastating effect on the game.

Vertex Dispenser is a RTS verging on an action puzzler where players attempt to defeat their opponents on abstract 3D worlds, claiming territory vertex by vertex. A small

The game requires ample use of resource management, which come in the form of nodes in seven different colours each ranging in value. The more nodes of a colour you own, the faster that resource replenishes, but the node’s colour is dependent on the colours of the adjacent nodes.

The combination of cerebral puzzler and action shooter can be jarring and cause some mental grief while playing the CPU, but its multplayer capabilities can prove an enjoyable time sink.

digital strategy

Blue, green and red illuminations flash out from the screen as Frozen Synapse’s units move through Tronlike corridors. Snipers fire off bullets that result in small caricatures of soldiers bursting with pixelated blood sprays. The simultaneousturn-based game wrapped in a slick user interface may seem like a topdown action shooter at first, but on closer inspection revealts itself to be a game requiring planning, waypoint selection and plenty og guessing.

Players can take part in the single player campaign or multiplayer

hostage rescues, disputed territory firefights, exterminations and charges. The secure scenario involves a bidding-based mode where opposing teams attempt to outbid for space on the map.

Features include an advanced map generator, email notifcations for a ‘play by email’ and community features such as friend lists, ratings, in-game comments and rankings.

It also comes with Facebook and Twitter integration to add to the bragging rights.

Frozen Synapse games can be captured, posted on YouTube and then linked to Facebook

digital strategy

Star-Twine is a strategy game that features simple but effective graphics and sound design coupled with an infinite number of levels to play on. Battles unfold on sprawling 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. Star-Twine has a straightforward position-based strategy with unique mechanics, very capable AI opponent and online multiplayer. However, a low income cap frequently leads to stalemates as both sides will be able to spawn the same number of units ad naseum. The randomised nature of the maps insignificantly varies strategy and discovering how to actualy win the game takes some trial and error to figure out the strategies available.

Despite this, you will be able to explore complex strategies and intense gameplay within a relaxed, atmospheric experience.

table strategy

Glory to the

Ancient warriors clash in the recently released Hail Caesar rule book. Battlespace takes a look at the combined effort of UK-based Warlord Games and legendary game designer, Rick Priestley.

table strategy

Covering a thousand years of warfare in a single book with flexible rule options would be a daunting task for most game designers, but not when the designer in question is Rick Priestley. Having left Games Workshop in November 2010 to work with Warlord Games, Mr Priestley is also enjoying the role of an independent game designer. Following on the success of Warlord Game’s 2009 Black Powder rule book, Hail Caser allows players to field skirmishing armies as diverse as Roman axillaries, Viking hurscales and Persian Cataphracts.

At the heart of Hail Caesar is a speedy sociable wargame, driven by the enjoyment of evening games with friends while eating curries. As an adaptation of Black Powder it carries over many of its broad rules, making it both easier and harder for Mr Priestley to design.

“I had to re-work the stamina values and completely revise the move rates and combat rules. Figuring out what I had to change was the hardest bit because I already had the Black Powder ‘mind set’ at the start of the project and that does tend to blind-side you sometimes,” Mr Priestley explained to Battlespace.

command and control,” Mr Priestley explains.

“Hail Caesar really approaches things from the opposite end - it’s all about command and control and the vagaries of movement and decision making. Of course, that means I had to work harder to represent arms and armour and all that detailed stuff that WAB handles so well - but that’s While Hail Caesar may be the direct descendent of Black the nature of things. I wouldn’t say one was more realistic Powder, much of its lineage can be traced to Mr Priestly’s than the other - you have to take a view on these things from what you know and what you learn.” involvement with Games Workshops’ Warmaster th Ancient Battles (WAB), based on the 4 edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, which he wrote alongside Jervis Johnson. “(WAB) is a very adaptable game engine - but based on a ‘ground up’ skirmish system. That means it is very good at representing the detail of arm and armour - but you have to work at it to cope with unit formation and

table strategy In Hail Caesar, the unit’s orders must be stated out loud, then a die roll determines whether the unit can make zero, one, two, or three moves to complete its orders. This puts the players into a ‘roleplaying’ situation - though how much they want to indulge in that is up to them.

“It works better where you have teams of players as they can support each other’s efforts and decry those of the enemy without creating any ill-feeling,” Mr Priestley suggests.

Units in Hail Caesar have four different fighting stats, namely clash combat, sustained combat, short-ranged combat and long-ranged combat. Long-ranged combat is only used for shooting over a distance, but all the other stats are used during hand-to-hand fighting – including the short-ranged combat stat. These stats are generally referred to as clash, sustained, short and long.

The clash value is the number of dice rolled in the first round of any hand-to-hand engagement regardless of whether the unit charges or not. We assume that troops who would naturally press forward into a fight would do so even where they are not ‘charging’ as defined within the game. This clash value therefore reflects the impetus from such troops.

The normal value is five for light infantry, six for medium infantry, and seven for heavy infantry. In the case of cavalry, clash values are generally a bit higher, eight for medium cavalry and nine for heavy and cataphracts. Light cavalry have a clash value of seven but are often fielded as small units which generally have clash (and sustained) values two lower – so five.

Hail Caesar Normans v Saxons from www.edmontonwargamegroup.com

There are no armour saves, although the morale save serves a similar function. Each unit has a stamina value - if a unit takes more hits than this value, it becomes shaken and suffers various penalties. Under certain circumstances, units being attacked in ranged or handto-hand combat also must take a break test to see if they hold, give ground, or break and run away. Mutual support between units is crucial to holding your line.

“Just think of each division as a group of mutually supporting units - so keep troops arranged in lines where you can - and a rear reserve is a useful way of adding support where it’s needed. Support is critical with heavy infantry armies - less so with horse archers of course. Generally speaking, a broadly historical approach with multiple lines will naturally produce self-supporting formations,” Mr Priestley recommends.

Hail Caesar also includes a number of useful optional rules to add historical characteristics and flavour to various units. The rule book is oriented toward scenario play, with little emphasis on points-based armies and includes seven complete sample scenarios.

Historical gamers have reacted positively to Hail Caesar, with many WAB players trying it as well as Black Powder players and established ancients gamers.

“I think people do appreciate that it’s a very different game from the regular run of ancients rules. Whilst Hail Caesar might not suit everyone all the time, it has certainly found an enthusiastic and growing audience,” Mr Priestley said.

table strategy Making use of a wide variety of units has been a major issue in historical wargaming. Units in Hail Caesar can come in varying sizes: standard, large, small, and tiny. Unit frontage is a key factor, and most units are at least two ranks deep. A variety of unit formations are possible.

“I think people are willing to give a game a try if they don’t have to muck about rebasing all their models.

Anyway - my friends and I are pretty anarchic about this sort of thing so we have to take account of what we have. The WAB game has tended to establish a standard based on Games Workshop WFB basing - so 20mm frontage for infantry and 25mm for cavalry - and as it happens that does suit most of the larger ‘28mm’ figures available these days,” he said.

Rick Priestley’s path through the wargaming industry has left an interesting trail. Hail Caesar’s rules are flexible enough to be used for fielding fantasy armies, and so a line of development can be traced from Warmaster Fantasy Battles to WAB, on to Hail Caesar and back to fantasy versions of Hail Caesar. This blurring between ‘reality’ and fantasy rules has never bothered Mr Priestley’s design ethos.

“I’ve never had any problems with that - if you read the sources you pick up on things and, if anything, they inspire you with ideas for rules,” Mr Priestley said.

“Because a lot of other ancient wargames rules are built up from details of weapons and armour, it’s common for some players to equate ‘realism’ with differentiations between one type of spear or another, or different shaped shields, or whether a man’s armour covers his forearms or not. That’s a terribley literal-minded way of thinking about these things - and when it comes to hard evidence, well it’s a bit sparse to put it mildly,” he said.

“The more I read of ancient sources the more I tend to agree with Woody Alan when he said (and I’m going from memory here so don’t quote me!) ‘The bigger they are the bigger a beating they’re going to give you!’”

Mr Priestley has maintained a core group of game testers that help him with rules design, although working with Warlord Games with publishing has provided him a new perspective on the game design process.

“When we wrote the original WAB way back when, it was mostly Jervis, John Stallard and the Perry twins who were the regular players - and the same was true with Black Powder. The book production is a bit different from GW produced games in that the Warlorders are a bit more up on their subject - where at GW it was often just another job for the guys and sometimes things got banged out to cost,” he said.

Rick Priestley testing his Hail Caesar rules ideas

“Paul (Sawyer) at Warlord really knows his stuff and has an eye for page design - I think the BP and HC rulebooks are top notch from the point of view of design and layout.” B

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tabletop wargaming Mura Miniatureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jonas Svensson discusses the history, rules and strategies of samurai tabletop gaming.

Tabletop wargaming is a special hobby in that it involves researching, collecting and painting your armies in a way that will probably take a lot more time than your actual gaming. That said, the accomplishment of a well assembled army is enough for games like Warhammer 40,000 and Warmachine to be very popular.

as solemn duels, stalwart honour and cunning backstabbing, the rise of an elite mounted archer caste that is only to be toppled by ranks of drilled pikemen and muskets. Even if you can somehow decide what of all this you want to recreate on the tabletop, you are left with a range of rulebooks, miniature scales and manufacturers. I am not able

Given the samurai theme of this issue, I am going to present just a cursory introduction to ways to explore tabletop wargaming using samurai swordsmen instead of space marines.

to give a review of everything that is out there, but I will cover a few topics for the new hobbyist to keep in mind.

Taking samurai warfare to the wargaming tabletop can look daunting at first, as you are met with more options than you can shake a katana at.

The silhouette of the samurai invokes images of chaotic battlefields as well

Hopefully it will be enough for those who are sitting on the fence to leap in without regretting their choice. Since we are talking about tabletop wargaming based on a historical era, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take a brief look at the most popular samurai periods for wargaming.

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Choose your time period

There are two time periods that are by far dominant when it comes to samurai miniature wargaming. The first is roughly around the Gempei War of 1180â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1185, and the other is the Warring States period or Sengoku Jidai of mid-15th century to 1615. Each period is different in both aestetics and type of warfare, so it is kind of a good start to figure out which one of these you prefer.

1180

1260

1311

The mounted samurai were followed by retainers on foot, often wielding naginata or spears, not fighting in individual units but rather as bodyguards for their mounted lords.

The battles were on a smaller scale than later wars, with a heavier emphasis on individual feats of bravery and duels between famous warriors. The emphasis on mounted archers with infantry The earlier period of Gempei was a time when the samurai were still bodyguards made the cavalry less mobile than one might think, and defined by what made them the the infantry doctrine was lacking. top dogs of Japanese society in Much of this style of war came to the first place: being undisputed masters of horse archery. The bow an abrupt end when the Mongols played a very important role, so be invaded and showed the Japanese their inefficiency by kicking prepared to paint a lot of archers. their asses on the battlefield. The Armour design emphasized large wavy helmets, colourful lacing and Mongols themselves provide an historical non-Japanese enemy boxy torso armour suitable for mounted archers. With the famous for the historical wargamer, coming roughly a century after the back banners yet to be invented, colour came from the spectacularly Gempei War but close enough to died silk clothes of these relatively use the same miniatures without problems. small groups of elite soldiers.

Horse archer. Image source: Killer Katanas II rule book

by Brian Bradford

1479

1598

1650

table strategy Small tense skirmishes A tabletop battlefield can be populated by anything from a handful of miniatures to hundreds, even thousands of tiny pewter men. The size of the battles you want to play will most likely affect every other decision you make.

Divided but organised in the warring states The Warring States period is a popular period that includes almost all of the commanders and battles known to the average gamer. This is the period of the massive armies with flapping backbanners so well known and loved from Kurosawa's movies. However, the rapid development of tactics and weaponry makes early Warring States period very different from the siege of Osaka in 1615, so even here you have lots of room for variety.

Generally, the period saw the decline of the bow and the mounted archer, and the rise of the arquebus and mass infantry tactics. Your samurai are more likely to be either lance armed cavalry or dismounted with spears, and the retainer bodyguards are exchanged for large units of

ashigaru foot soldiers with simpler armour and either long spears or arquebuses.

The rapid increase in army sizes means that battlefield communication and identification becomes more and more important, leading to the extensive use of flags, back banners and signal fans.

These decorative elements makes sure that the army remains colourful even as the armour is simplified and starts to be mass produced.

The surge in army sizes means that this period is perfect for large battles, and there is no lack of historical battles for the gamer who wants to re-enact rather than just throw armies around, and the invasions of Korea means that Korean and Chinese armies can be fielded as historical enemies.

all the time you saved by not collecting a huge army, but on the other hand you will end with something looking spectacular.

There are many rules for samurai skirmish fighting, the majority of them home-grown rules that are available online for free or for a small fee. A very accessible way to try Skirmish-level games involve individual models and man-on-man combat. Even with out gaming with a handful of miniatures is a streamlined system you will probably only to download the rules for Mordheim that are available for free on Games Workshopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ever need a few dozen miniatures, making homepage. You can easily adjust the game by this a good option for the person (and striking items from the lists that would not wallet) that dreads collecting and painting be available in medieval Japan, and the basic throngs of soldiers. However, a skirmish Mordheim game provides a good skirmish tabletop without terrain looks very barren game with solid rules for a roleplaying style and makes for uninteresting games, so be campaign. Since models are individually prepared to either improvise a lot of terrain based it is very easy to just start collecting (books, coke cans etc.) or to build a lot of some miniatures and try out several gaming houses. Building an elaborate board filled systems until you find one you like. with fences, buildings and woods will take Japanese military history saw the decline of the bow and mounted archer to the rise of arquebus and mass infantry tactics.

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If you feel like fielding vast armies of samurai, this is where things start to get interesting. Army strategy games are quite different than skirmish games, using abstracted rules for combat as dozens or even hundreds of troops fight each other at the same time in large formations. Instead of moving individual soldiers you are concerned with entire flanks, with movement and morale becoming at least as important as hand-to-hand combat.

Army-scale gaming offers many options for the prospective samurai overlord. When you go shopping for a historical gaming system you might find yourself in the position of choosing between access of opponents and how much the system fits the theme of samurai warfare. The easiest way to find opponents is to fit a very popular game. Unless you are blessed with a vibrant local scene for historical gaming, chances are that the most similar army scale game you can find is Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Like many others, I have found that the easiest way to play with my late 16th century 28mm samurai army is to proxy it as an Empire army against other Warhammer Fantasy players.

You might also see some players using a cavalry-heavy samurai army as a Bretonnian force, a High Elf force etc.

Needless to say, this is very far from a historical game, but it lets you roll dice with samurai on the table and have fun with friends.

The next level would be a generic historical system. These systems provide dozens, sometimes hundreds of army lists and means that if you can’t find a samurai collector buddy, at least you might play against a Roman history buff’s Late Imperial army, or Charlemagne’s knights. While these systems are inherently more historically correct (given their lack of orc, for starters), they are all simplified to a certain degree to suit many periods and armies. Good examples of these are Field of Glory, Warhammer Ancient Battles, Impetus and DBA, which all have various samurai army lists and a large number of players compared to most historical games. The upside is that you are more likely to find opponents, the downside is that there is nothing separating a samurai foot soldier and a Roman legionnaire in DBA, which gives you an idea of how you might find a lack of thematic feel to the rules.

you will have to collect and paint up two opposing armies to even have a chance to get anyway to play you.

Massive army strategy sounds like it would require large and expensive armies, but the genre actually offers ways to play with few actual miniatures.

Games like DBA and Impetus uses quite few models per unit, and you can field a DBA samurai army with around 50 miniatures. On the other hand, you can use Killer Katanas II to re-fight the Battle of Sekigahara with thousands of miniatures on each side.

Unlike skirmish systems you need to consider basing, since many gaming systems use specific basing conventions with several miniatures on one base, with the size of bases varying depending on grade and type of troops.

For example, Impetus can call for eight troopers on a single big base to represent a unit, Field of Glory supports three or four miniatures per base for infantry while The final level would be to use a Warhammer Ancient Battles uses thematic historical system. Games like individual square bases. Unless Taiko, Battles in the Age of War and you are fond of re-basing Killer Katanas are made specifically to miniatures it can be a good idea play out samurai warfare, with all its to test out some games with just unique traits. So you might find rules the bases to see if you like the for taking heads of generals, historically system or not. accurate formations and wavering loyalties. You will also find vastly more Unless you are fond of rebasing miniatures it can be researched army lists and scenarios. a good idea to test out some While these rules systems will bring games with just the bases to see you the closest to accurate tabletop if you like the system or not. historical wargames, chances are that

Dynasty war Hideyoshi’s Korean Invasion is a recently released 90+ page supplement for Killer Katanas 2.

Written by Brian Bradford with the assistance of Stephen Turnbull and Kenneth Swope, it deals with the Imjin War fought between the invading Japanese and the Ming and Choson Dynasties.

Nearly 10 years of research has gone into creating this book and much of the information inside it is being presented in English for the first time. While intended for use with Killer Katanas 2, the book is by no means limited to these rules and the information inside can be used for many other rule sets.

It includes army organisation and game rules for the Ming and Choson Armies A major part of the book deals with modeling the armies of the period and contains seven black and white plates illustrating the appearance of the armies and their flags.

“This book is also valuable to any painter or modeler who is looking for uniform and flag information on the Ming and Choson Armies of the war,” Mr Bradford told Battlespace.

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Historical wargaming comes in all shapes, and most importantly, sizes. When setting out to collect an army you will have to choose which scale you will collect, depending on your favourite manufacturers, the size of the force you want, your budget and how you like to paint. This can easily be the hardest choice, as you can not really mix and match between them.

90mm, 54mm Scales that are well suited for decorative pieces, but less so for wargaming. You might still want to check out what companies like Pegaso and Andrea have to offer, if only to get inspiration for your smaller figures.

First of all, despite what your gut feeling might say, it gets easier the smaller scale you paint. Since there are fewer details you can churn out dozens of 6mm miniatures in the time it takes to consider the colours of a kimono pattern in 28mm.

Also, I would recommend that you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get stuck on the details, especially if you are new to painting.

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t attempt to paint every single detail if it means that you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t finish any miniatures at all.

40/42mm A very unusual scale, with a small but existing following. The extra size of the miniatures make them recall the tin soldiers of olden days and the higher cost means that they are most suitable for small skirmish games. Mostly supported by Steve Barber Models. Pictured above is a Steve Barber Models 42mm ninja against charging samurai.

Ashigaru XV 75 scale model from Pegaso

Samurai might be the scariest prospect in historical tabletop wargaming, with all the patterns, lacing and multitude of colours. Instead of trying to cover it here, I am just going to give some basic advice.

1/72 This is a very peculiar scale. It is the standard for the small boxes of various small soldiers made from a softish plastic that you will see all over hobby stores that are more geared towards scale model collectors.

The material is harder to paint

than metal miniatures or the harder plastic you might be accustomed to, and the boxed sets makes army collection harder to plan. But they are cheap. I won't give a list of manufacturers when Plastic Soldier Review does the job so well.

Finally, with all the multitude of colours, it is easy to go to town and end up with a force that lacks any uniformity. This is actually what most samurai armies looked, but it might not be exactly what you wanted. Back banners with recurring colours, similar shades on clothing or even mantlets with family crests in front of your units might bring it all together and leave you with a striking army instead of a dark smudge filling your deployment zone.

Japanese armies painted by Brian Bradford, Killer Katanas 2

table strategy 28mm The scale that was popularised by Games Workshop, and most likely what you think of when you hear tabletop miniatures. This scale is right on the border where both large scale battles and detailed skirmishes are just as suitable for the miniatures. It also has the advantage of a large number of manufacturers, easily supporting most samurai periods and still providing many options as to quality, price and aesthetics. I would still recommend that you ask in a historical gaming forum for size comparisons, as ‘28mm’ ranges can be anything from 25mm to 32mm tall. Manufacturers you might want to check out are Perry Miniatures, West Wind Productions, Kingsford Miniatures, Museum Miniatures, Black Hat Miniatures, The Assault Group, Curtey’s Miniatures and Old Glory Miniatures.

6mm Finally we get to the small 6mm miniatures, which is the option if you want really vast armies. As far as I know only Baccus 6mm and Irregular Miniatures make samurai for this scale. I find this to be a very nice scale for very large army games, as you can make regiments that really look like regiments, without breaking the bank.

15mm A classic scale that is huge in historical wargaming and pretty unknown in fantasy and sci-fi wargaming. While you can use the scale for skirmish, this is really the standard scale for large army battles today.

It’s affordable to buy big formations, you don’t need huge bags to carry them around, and they are quicker to paint than 28mm scale miniatures. Just like with 28mm scale you should be careful about how you mix from manufacturers, as sizes and proportions can vary a lot. 15mm samurai miniatures can be found at Essex, Old Glory 15s, Two Dragons, Peter Pig, Eureka and many others.

In addition you have Khurasan Miniatures for the really unusual pre-samurai Japanese.

This article has only scratched the surface of samurai tabletop wargaming and will probably raise as many questions as it answers for the budding samurai wargamer.

For more information on topics such as making thematic tabletop terrain, please make a visit at my homepage, Mura Miniatures.

I would also recommend a visit at The Miniatures Page, which is probably the biggest community for historical wargamers with a message board that is quick to answer specific questions.

Finally, The Samurai Archives is a very good source for historical information and tons of inspiration for your paint jobs. B

10mm Another unusual scale, mostly covered by Pendraken, AIM and Irregular Miniatures. As you might expect it sits inbetween 15mm and 6mm in both cost and painting style, enabling some more detail than 6mm and higher model count than 15mm.

Perry Miniature’s mounted Red Devils of li Naotaka with yari

Dixon Miniatures samurai cavalry

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Battlespace talks to GCT Studios about fantasy tabletop wargame, Bushido.

GCT Studios is made up of a group of British friends that met regularly to play wargames and boardgames. After a couple of major skirmish games disappeared from the market, and perhaps after one too many beers, they decided last year to release their own game.

In Bushido, each player commands a force of no more than a handful of individuals, represented by 32mm metal miniatures.

These forces meet on the battlefield and the commanders try to outwit, outfight and

outlive the opposing force and fulfil their battle objectives while denying the enemy.

“We wanted to ensure that we had the financial backing to produce a product that wouldn’t just fade away,” Odin explained to Battlespace.

“We wanted to ensure that our player base could rest assured that we would always be a year ahead with our sculpts.”’

Battlespace asked GCT Studio’s Odin, Toby, Carlos and Gordon about what makes the game stand out.

: How does Bushido stand out from other skirmish tabletop games?

: Will players of Warmachine and Hordes find Bushido an easy fit to move into?

Carlos: Well, samurai and ninjas and big demons and little demons and zombies. Add to that, high-quality sculpted miniatures, back up that with some serious well thought out rules and you’ve got Bushido.

in the day when it was more of a skirmish game one warcaster and a few steam robots...

I think anyone that have played a wargame of any kind (or Risk) for that matter will have no much trouble getting the hang of the rules.

Odin: We genuinely believe that our game is Odin: Well for a start it will fit on a table quite easy to pick up and have a play, while top, the game is currently played on a two the nuances and complexities of the game by two foot board, comfortable on anyone’s will develop as players gain experience. Any kitchen table. We are also proud of our game gaming experience will be an advantage to mechanic believing it always keeps both this. ‘Warmahordes’ players (which includes players thinking and involved in the game. Oh most of us) will have no problem at all. and we’ve got a master monk riding a tortoise! Carlos: Well I used to play Warmachine back

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: How much of Japanese mythical lore is the game based on?

Odin: Japanese mythical lore just gets more and more extensive as you research it. We absolutely love it and want to draw on as much as possible. We do however see Bushido as set in the Jwar Isles which is not feudal Japan, merely based on it. We have much more to come that is inspired by Asian folk lore.

Toby: The game is set in an oriental themed world that takes influences from all across Asia. We really liked the myths and legends of Japan but didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to prevent ourselves from looking at other ideas that we felt were interesting and so decided that our world would be based on feudal japan but with elements that make it our own. : How has the game's back story been developed?

Toby: The games back story is being released slowly over the next year or so, we have gone for an individual approach looking at the characters in the world and using them to explain the setting and their goals within the world. There is an overarching story but also lots of small stories and sub plots. We are also looking at getting the players involved in driving the story forward by tying it to our tournament scene.

table strategy Have you found much interest in Japanese culture and history amongst gamers?

Toby: Our gamers are a font of knowledge that really amazed us, in a good way. On our forum we have some individuals who have a huge amount of knowledge; from the military terms used to beer adverts. We have also read a lot around Japanese culture and history to cherry pick the ideas we liked but do so in a way that could be understood by a university lecturer and would seem cool to the kid who plays in his LGS. Players must choose between allocating attack or defense dice for their characters. Does the game boil down to this critical decision?

Odin: We designed our game to ensure that as many decisions as possible were important. You have rightly identified this as an important aspect. Rather than critical from a game point of view we see it as critical from a fun point of view. It ensures players have tactical decisions whether it’s their turn or not. It also allows players to play to their own style, adapting this in any given combat.

Toby: No, we feel the game is full of decisions from which model to activate, when to spend your Ki, when to make the “push” but we are really happy with how the combats are resolved and the engaging nature of the game. We wanted to create a game where both players had to play tactically in order to win.

You offer your game rules free to download. Is this the best method for miniature sculpters looking to gain market share?

Odin: We’ll let you know (smiles). On a serious note we certainly think so. We are proud of our game and want as many people as possible to give it a go. We are confident people will enjoy the tactical elements and be drawn back.

The rule book lists many types of traits. What are some of the best to have?

Carlos: Anyone that make you hard to be shoot at allow you to kill your oponent easier and make you harder to kill...

Toby: Armour, toughness.

Gordon: Brutal blow.

table strategy What are some of the game's strategic objectives?

Carlos: You have the perfect excuse to meet your friends, have a couple beers and discuss international politics...

How many miniatures are you currently producing for Bushido?

Odin: We currently have four factions, their starters include between them 23 miniatures.

What plans do you have for adding more models to your line?

Odin: We intend to release a model from each faction every two months.

This will double our range over the next year. We also have lots of plans to release further factions, some of the concept art for these factions is available in different places including our QSR. What progress is being made on game distribution?

Odin: We were very proud to announce Wayland Games as our UK distributor. Bushido is now available in the US via Warpath Games Distribution. We are currently in discussions with a European distributor. GCT Studios is also in a position to distribute to Retailers directly if they fall outside of these areas.

Pictured left: Bushido faction painting competition winners

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table strategy WarPuppy Miniature & Hobby House’s Mick Molyneaux and Adam Norris (Queensland, Australia) fly through a surveillance scenario from Wings of War. This battle report scenario links in with the common historical roles of WWI aircraft. Adam and Mick picked an advanced scenario called A Hard Task from the Wings of War: A Game of WWI Air Combat Revised Deluxe Set rules. Adam and Mick also chose to play the variant version of the scenario in which the Allied player is the attacker with a DH.4 (two-seater) and a SPAD XIII fighter aircraft as escort and the German player defends with two fighter aircraft; a Albatros D.Va and a Fokker Dr.I triplane.

use of the photo recon rules, which meant that in order to successfully take a photograph, the DH.4 would need to perform a stall manoeuvre at a point where the middle of the plane’s base is within half a range ruler distance from the target location while at an altitude of one or two.

Setting up for the scenario was easy.

Adam and Mick decided to make the playing area smaller than suggested for a quick game and set out one of the Wings of War battle mats. On the mat towards the defending German side of the field a target card was The objective of this mission is for placed to represent the target point the Allied player to use the twofor the photo recon. Adam elected seater DH.4 to take a photograph of to be the Allied player and grabbed an enemy target, while the German player defends with their patrol of two the SPAD XIII (27th Aero Squadron) F Luke Jn aircraft from the deluxe fighters. This scenario required the

box. To this he added an AIRCO DH.4 (American Expeditionary Force) two-seater from the series II range of planes. Mick in the role of the German defender grabbed from the deluxe box the Albatross D.Va (Jasta 5) P Baumer aircraft and the Fokker DR.I (Jasta 11) M von Ricthofen, the legendary Red Baron.

The triplane for the scenario is not supposed to be the Red Baron, but Mick and Adam just couldn’t resist the chance to bring him into the game.

The aircraft were positioned about half a range ruler width from opposite ends of the field, all at altitude two.

With that done the mission was a go!

Allied (attackers) DH.4 SPAD XIII Objective

Germany (defenders) Fokker Dr.I Albatros D.Va

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When you think of World War I (WWI) aircraft, what immediately springs to mind is the ‘ace’ fighter pilot: a modern knight dog fighting in his biplane, twisting and turning in deadly duels, with the resounding dakka, dakka, dakka of a machine gun.

Certainly, those famous aces became popular heroes and their experiences shaped the future of aerial combat, although many younger gamers might not realise just how new aeroplanes were to military use at the beginning of the WWI. Initially the iconic biplane was used predominantly for reconnaissance: photographing enemy trench systems; artillery ‘spotting’ and ‘contact patrol’ missions which sought to follow the course of a battle and communicate with advancing infantry while flying overhead. The technology of the day did not allow for radio communications at first, so crude methods of signalling where used, which included dropping messages from the planes to ground forces.

Flying reconnaissance missions was extremely dangerous and some historical reports suggest that the average life expectancy of a British pilot on the Western Front was only around 93 flying hours.

Initially WWI air-to-air combat was

extremely rare and was secondary to conducting reconnaissance missions.

There are tales from the war of crew from rival reconnaissance aircraft waving at each other as they flew by. Despite those amicable beginnings the air war escalated and crews started to use makeshift weapons such as thrown bricks, grenades and even rope to tangle an enemy aircraft’s propeller.

Eventually pilots started shooting handheld firearms at each other. But it wasn’t until aircraft were fitted with machine guns that real dog fighting began and this lead to the development of the fighter aircraft, a plane designed primarily for air-to-air combat, and the air combat techniques that saw the rise of the ace.

The fighter aircraft was the key to achieving air superiority and a means to deny vital intelligence to enemy aerial reconnaissance patrols. Fighters were sometimes used to attack enemy observation balloons, strafe enemy ground targets and defend friendly airspace from enemy bombers. However, the primary role of fighters was to attack enemy two-seaters which were often used in reconnaissance and artillery observation, or escorting friendly two-seaters and defending them from enemy fighters.

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Allied air force Adam Norris, WarPuppy

AIRCO DH.4

SPAD XIII

Squadron: American Expeditionary Force Pilot: Unamed Move Class: H Damage Deck: A/A Damage Rating: 15

Squadron: 27th Aero Squadron Pilot: F Luke jn Move Class: A Damage Deck: A Damage Rating: 16

Adamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pre-battle plan Right o chaps! The dastardly Hun has been a hive of activity of late and Top Brass want to know what they are up too. We have been tasked with a photo recon mission behind enemy lines. The information we retrieve is vital if we are to keep the Hun on the back foot and our chaps on the ground safe.

For this mission the squadron has at its disposal an Airco DH.4 fitted with photographic gear and a SPAD XIII for fighter support. Observation of the region indicates limited enemy air support, so, fly hard for the target, take your photographs and then high tail it out of there. Simply put, this is not a time for personal glory seeking. For King and Country!

My strategy is simple, fly the DH.4

straight at the target, soaking up the damage as I go. With the high damage value on the two-seater aircraft, Mick will have to be pretty lucky to shoot it down with the limited turns I plan to give him. The SPAD will hang back to provide cover and make the enemy fighters think about having a fighter on their tail blasting away at close range.

Once within half a range ruler from the target, the DH.4 has to perform a stall maneuver to photograph the target. All that then remains is to exit the playing area. Once I have taken the photo the enemy doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t score any victory points for my aircraft leaving the playing area, but, can still score victory points for shooting me down, so a quick exit is essential.

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German air force Mike Molyneaux, WarPuppy

Fokker DR.I Squadron: Jasta 11 Pilot: M von Ricthofen Move Class: D Damage Deck: A Damage Rating: 13

Albatros Squadron: Jasta 5 Pilot: P Baumer Move Class: B Damage Deck: A Damage Rating: 15

Mike’s pre-battle plan Intel shows Allied forces mustering and Command suspects there is a pending attack. They have ordered air patrols over our lines to ensure German air superiority deny the enemy vital recon to disrupt any plans they might have. The mission is simple, patrol for enemy aircraft, engage them and shoot them down.

There will be no fancy aerobatics, just sound tactics and good marksmanship.

Ah, the plan! The first casualty of war, it is said. My plan was based around the concept that it was going to be very challenging to shoot down an Allied aircraft in the three odd turns that this game would likely last. So I figured that to win I needed to concentrate my fire on the DH.4 two seater as that was the aircraft which needed to

take the photo. If I could shoot her down before she left the field I’d win. If not, well it probably didn’t matter who was left flying in my patrol. My plan hinged on the more manoeuvrable Fokker DR.I triplane, with the Albatross D.Va in support.

In order to have any chance of success in such a short game I needed to be direct. So I intended to take the Allied aircraft head on, hopefully get a couple of shots off and swing around on their flank and rear to chase them over the target zone and finish off the DH.4 two seater before it could escape with it’s vital Intel. This would be a touch mission and I’ll need to maximise my opportunities to fire on the DH.4 if I’m to have any chance of winning.

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Wings of War: A Game of WWI Air Combat is played in turns that consist of a planning phase and three movement and fire phases. In the planning phase the players are required to pre select three manoeuvre cards from the planeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s manoeuvre deck and place them face down on the planeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s game board.

This is done in secret and so each player needs to anticipate their opponents move while planning their own flight path.

Once all players have planned their movement, they reveal their first manoeuvre card and place it in front of the corresponding plane. All players do this at the same time. The planes are then moved as detailed on the card to their new position and the card is removed. Once all planes are moved any firing on eligible targets is resolved. This completes one Phase of movement and firing. The process of moving and firing is then complete again for phase two and three, which completes a single Turn of the game.

Baumer jinked his Albatross left and right to get the attention of von Ricthofen, using hand signals to alert the Red Baron that he had spotted two aircraft approaching. Von Ricthofen acknowledged and focused his attention over a sea of green fields and rolling hills to the dark shapes flying low over the landscape. There were not supposed to be any German flights in the area, so he signalled back for a closer look. Throttling up, he urged his Fokker on to identify their guests.

Adam selects his movement cards (top left) places it under the Albatros D.Va during the first phase (above right) and completes the movement (above)

The first phases of the game are often moves used to jockey for position before entering the battle proper. So this first phase of movement was pretty straight forwardâ&#x20AC;Ś literally.

Both Adam and Mick elected to close the distance and moved directly forward with their aircraft. At this early stage of the game all planes were well and truly out of range, so there was no firing.

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The markings and shape of the Allied aircraft where quickly recognised by the keen eye of von Ricthofen. Signalling for Baumer to cover his right flank with the Albatross, the Red Baron adjusted his course to engage the two-seater recon plane.

The enemy had managed to get in close to the German airfield without detection and with any number of vital recon targets on the ground they would have to act quickly to chase the enemy off.

Adam revealed his second movement for Turn One and continued his headlong advance on the target point. Mickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second move with the Fokker DR.I revealed a correction to bring his line of attack in favour of the DH.4 two-seater recon plane, the main target for the German defence. Meanwhile the Albatross D.Va continued its forward movement, closing the distance on the Allied planes with hopes to position for a shot on the two-seater in the third phase of movement.

Adam leans in to move his planes (above) while the two sides line up for a head-first attack (left)

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F Luke Jn had already seen the Germans alter course to intercept his SPAD and the American DH.4. Luke was glad to have to Yankees on this mission. God knows they needed the help. The Germans were fewer in number but highly trained and whilst they matched them for numbers in this engagement, and out matched them for firepower with the rear gunner, it was still anyone’s game. Gathering his thoughts, Luke drew in a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh, “Once more into the breach, dear friends.”

Adam’s headlong advance continued as his encroached into firing range and commenced the Allied run through the gauntlet. Mick brought around the Albatross D.Va in a left bank hoping that this final move of this first turn would give him a long ranged shot on the Allied DH.4.

player places the card face down on the corresponding aircraft game board and must keep track of the damage taken and play out any special damage effects. Once an aircraft has taken as many or more damage than the green numbered damage rating on the plane’s base it is shot down.

To determine if you can fire on an enemy aircraft you must first ensure that the shot lies within the firing arc printed on the attacking planes base.

Then using the range ruler you must measure from the shooting plane’s centre stand to any point on the targeted enemy aircraft’s base.

In this instance Adam drew 3 points of damage.

A solid hit! Adam checked for firing too and found that he can take a shot with his SPAD XIII at the Albatross D.Va and returns the favour.

Mick secretly drew a Damage Card A and finds that it was only a graze, delivering 1 damage.

Smiling to himself Mick placed the card face down on the game board.

A quick check with the range ruler found the distance too great and the Albatross D.Va could not shoot at the DH.4. Since that target was denied the Albatross D.Va turned it guns on the SPAD XIII as it was an eligible target at long range. Waste not, want not. Since the SPAD XIII aircraft was controlled by Adam, he drew one damage card, taking the card from Damage Deck A, which was determine by the attacking Albatross D.Va damage rating.

Meanwhile on the other flank Mick advanced with the Fokker Dr.I, the Red Baron’s itchy trigger figure was aching to squeeze off a few rounds. But unfortunately the tight turning arc of the triplane was more than anticipated and Mick found the DH.4 lay outside of the Fokker’s firing arc.

This was not the case of for the DH.4 which Damage cards are drawn secretly by the player fired on the red triplane delivering 2 damage as whose aircraft is hit. The cards show a number machine gun rounds tore through the fuselage. of points of damage that is delivered to plane With a curse the Red Baron began to consider and sometimes a special damage effect. The his next move.

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Now they were in the thick of it! The Allied planes surged forwards making a run past the German defending patrol. Luke’s hopes rose as he saw the DH.4 take first blood on the Fokker. Then the aircraft banked hard right, rolling over towards him and revealing its distinctive red colouring. “Oh, bugger!

The Red Baron! I guess they forgot to mention this at the briefing.” Pulling his SPAD over into a right turn he moved to provide cover for the recon plane, passing dangerously close to the Albatross in the process. He

gave a quick glance over his right shoulder to check the path of the Albatros and offered a friendly ‘wave’ with his left middle index finger. Refocusing on the task at hand Luke could see the American rear gunner twisting around in his seat left and right as he looked for German aircraft, before actioning his weapon.

Luke saw the rear gunner signal the pilot his readiness with a couple of hard slaps on the fuselage with his left hand and then swung his machine gun around to take a bead on the Fokker.

Adam stuck to his plan. The first pass was better than he expected, as the DH.4 escaped unharmed. He set out a course that would bring him within range to photograph the target location in the start of his next turn. With the SPAD he decided to make a right turn to cross paths with the German planes and hopefully get a few shots off before joining the

DH.4 on the last leg of escaping the playing area.

Adam revealed his first movement for the turn.

Unsurprisingly the DH.4 continued straight on flying directly for the target location. With the SPAD Adam turned right in an attempt to get a shot off on the Albatross and position for a shot on the Fokker in the next movement. Unfortunately Adam misjudged the move and found that his SPAD and the Albatross ended the move with their bases overlapping. When this occurs neither plan can shoot at the each other.

second time. The Red Baron was not happy!

Micks Phase One move brought the Fokker around hoping for a shot on the recon plane, but he too found their bases overlapping and so was denied a shot for a

Mick’s plan hadn’t quick worked out. He was hoping to have had a shot with both his aircraft on the recon plane in the first turn but had misjudged the positioning.

There wasn’t much to do at this point other than to swing around and attempt to chase the DH.4 down.

Meanwhile the Albatross turned left to line up a shot on the recon plane. Even though the Albatross’ base was overlapped by the SPAD Mick could still take the shot as overlapping planes do not prevent you from shooting other aircraft, or block line of sight. Measuring the distance with the range ruler Mick found that the shot was at short range. When this happens two damage cards are drawn instead of just one. Adam drew two Damage Deck A cards and got a 2 and a 0: A rather disappointing result for the German defenders.

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Von Ricthofen maintained his hard right bank to pull around on the recon plane. He could see the SPAD moving in and knew that his best chance would be to close the distance quickly, to get in real close and deny a target to the advancing aircraft. With luck the rear gunner on the recon plane will be too concerned about hitting the allied SPAD to risk a shot at him as he crossed their field of fire. Von Ricthofen brushed past the SPAD and refocussed on the recon plane, just in time to see the muzzle flash of the rear gunner’s weapon light up. “Crazy Americans”, he cursed!

He could hear the machine gun fire whiz by all around him over the sound of his own roaring engine and the thud, thud, dank, of rounds impacting his Fokker. A searing pain arc through the Red Baron’s leg as shrapnel tore through flight suit and flesh.

Adam continued his headlong rush on the target location with the DH.4, and moved the recon plane directly forward again. He turned right with the SPAD hoping to get a shot off on the Fokker, but ended up overlapping bases with it, denying him a chance to fire.

Double ouch!!

This was a lot of damage for the lighter Fokker which was at 9 points damage in total now. 4 more points would see the Red Baron downed. Pilot wounded was also less than ideal and meant that the Fokker would not be able to fire Mick’s move with the Fokker brought it in close behind the after completing a steep manoeuvre, Immelmann Turn, recon plane and he had hoped to bring it into the firing Split S, or a climb. In addition if its guns jammed it would arc of von Ricthofen to shave a few more points of damage take longer to clear. off it. Yet again the DH.4 escaped and lay just outside the With the Albatros Mick had planned an Immelmann Turn arc of fire. Not so for the rear gunner and Adam took full which would allow him to bring the aircraft about and opportunity to let loose a close range shot. Mick drew two double back on his targets. To complete this manoeuvre cards from Damage Deck A, as determined by the rear it requires three specific moves. The first being a straight, gunner stats. He drew 4 points of damage. Ouch! And 3 which Mick executed this phase. points of damage with a special damage pilot wounded.

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Baumer pulls back on the stick and throttles up to execute an Immelmann Turn and double back on enemy. Gritting his teeth to pain of his wounded leg, von Ricthofen attempts to create some distance for a better line of attack. The rear gunner of the recon plane continues to track his target and tears hole after hole through the Fokker. The Red Baronâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s engine sputters and black oily smoke begins to billow from his machine, trailing a long plume behind him.

In the final phase of Turn Two, Mick sought to reposition his planes for a final run at the Allies. While Adam sought to consolidate his position, ready himself to take his photo, and scoot off the playing area to victory.

Mick swung the Albatros around with an Immelmann Turn which allowed the plane to move forward then about face. This also caused the aircraft to gain one altitude, and so Mick adjusted the stands on his plane to reflect that.

He also took out a straight token to remind himself that in the first phase of next turn he needs to move straight ahead to complete the Immelmann Turn manoeuvre. Adam continued to bear down on the target location

with his DH.4 and at the same time managed another shot with the rear gunner on the Fokker.

Because this is the second phase of shooting on the same target the rules for aiming come into play. This means that second (and subsequent) phase of consecutive fire will result in +1 damage.

Mick drew another damage card and suffered one damage, that becomes two under the Aim rule. This was lucky as the shot could have easily brought down the Fokker. The Fokker is now on 11 damage and just 2 more points would spell the end of the Red Baron. That card also had the special damage of smoke track, which meant that the aircraft cannot perform a tailing manoeuvre.

Wounded and with his plane heavily damaged, the Red Baron could see defeat looming and there was only going to be one last chance to stop the Allies escaping with vital Intel on

For Adam there was really only one focus for this turn. Execute the stall manoeuvre required to take his recon photo. Then get the hell out of there!

Mick needed to take down the DH.4 if he was going to deny the Allies victory.

German positions. Von Ricthofen was not going to give up without a fight and swung around to chase the DH.4, guns blazing.

This would be an almost impossible task at this late stage, as the recon plan was only lightly damaged. The Albatross was largely out of the fight now and so everything would rest on the shoulders of von Ricthofen.

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Completing his sharp right hand turn von Ricthofen wasted no time and opened up with his machine guns. The rounds tore through the DH.4 scoring only minor damage, far less than he had hoped for. This engagement would not be a German victory, he feared. In return the rear gunner continued to strafe his Fokker, but only lightly, which was fortunate as she would not take much more.

Adam checked the range from his DH.4 to the target location and found it to be within short range. He revealed his first move, being a stall, and so successfully took his recon photo. Adam marked the recon location with a camera token to represent that. The SPAD made a run for the edge of the gaming field with plans of escape. Now that Adam had achieved the scenario objective he needed to escape the field with the DH.4 in order to secure 2 victory points. Also, as long as he did so he will forfeit no points for his aircraft bugging out.

he managed to scrap in a short range hit. Adam drew two more Damage Deck A cards, getting a 2 and a 1 damage.

This was minimal for the larger recon plan and brought the total to 5 points of damage, a long way off the 15 needed to bring her down. The DH.4 rear gunner returns fire. Adam found the angle caused him to just miss out on a short range shot. Mick drew a damage card and took 0 damage, which was very, very lucky for him. This goes to 1 damage under the Aim rule. The Fokker is now on 12 points of damage. One point off being downed.

Mick revealed another right had turn for the Fokker and pulled in tight behind the DH.4. At this angle of attack

The Albatros continued forwards and completed itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Immelmann Turn.

Von Ricthofen pursues the DH.4, his guns ablaze. His first shot grazes the recon plane with little damage. Yelling a curse the Red Baron takes pause to aim and squeezes off another burst that tears through the upper wing mountings. Debris flies off the aircraft Adam revealed his cards for this phase and moved both his planes toward the edge of the playing field. One more move would see them off the board. Victory was at hand!

Mick revealed a right hand turn for the Albatross and it pulled around to chase the DH.4, but at this stage there was really little it could do. The Fokker continued its move forward to pursue the DH.4. The range was still close and the Adam drew two more damage cards. The first was 1 damage, that will go to 2 due to the Aim rule (this is the second continuous phase of fire on the DH.4), which brought the recon plane to 7 damage in total. Not even half way towards

as the wing gives way and tears free. The DH.4 lurches awkwardly and begins to spiral downwards in a death dive. The rear gunner still focused on his target continues to fire striking the Red Baron once again, the rounds impacting the engine. bringing her down. Adam drew a second damage card to reveal an explosion symbol!

The explosion symbol is an Ace Kill and results in his plane being automatically destroyed. Adam revealed the card to Mick with a groan, removing his DH.4 from play.

But the phase was not over yet, as all damage is resolved simultaneously. Adam checked his range for the rear gunner to fire and finds he was able to make a short range shot too. Mick drew a damage card, realising it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really matter what he drew, because this will be an Aim hit again. Drawing a card for effect, he draws a 1 and the Red Baron was shot down.

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The final phase saw Adam bug out with his remaining SPAD XIII, denying the Germans any chance to shoot it down..

Shooting down the Fokker earns Adam two victory points. Though by failing to escape with the DH.4 he forfeited his two points for taking the photo and gave the Germans one point for the SPAD bugging out. The Germans also earn another two victory points for shooting down the DH.4.

Allied Forces â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2 VP German Forces â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 3 VP

Mick and Adam finish the game on friendlier terms

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Mick’s post-game summary Well what can I say? A bit of luck can go a long way. I think the general plan I had was right, but I was frustrated by the cramped conditions as the planes came together. After the first couple of turns of the game and my failure to effectively target the DH.4 I thought that all hope was lost. The rear gunner was deadly early on racking up a massive amount of damage on my Fokker. I had misjudged my Immelman Turn thinking it would bring me around quick and back into the fight.

But it opened to much distance between the Albatros and the Allied planes and this took Baumer out of the fight. By this stage

I figured I may as well try to do as much damage as possible to the DH.4 before it exited. And in the final moments of the game I snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with a lucky card.

This scenario is a really hard one to defend in, even if you play on full sized area. But the challenge can be what makes it fun. Scenarios are a great way to play Wings of War as it gives the game more purpose and sets up specific challenges to meet. There are quite a few scenarios in the deluxe set and it’s easy enough to make up your own.

Adam’s post-game summary What a game! Overall I think my strategy was sound. Flying straight for the target as fast as I could limited the turns Mick had to shoot me down. I was lucky that when our aircraft closed as there were a few turns there were Mick’s fighter’s bases overlapped the DH.4’s. This meant Mick was unable to fire at the DH.4 as the aircraft were too close. The DH.4’s tail gunner was obviously on the ball dealing a massive 7 points of damage to the Fokker in one turn. This lead to a few edge of the seat turns as the Fokker tried to nail the DH.4 and the DH.4 returned fire. The damage cards just weren’t with me unfortunately after that point. Having taken my photo I thought I thought I was home and hosed until I drew

the “explosion” card. Goodbye DH.4! With one card, Mick grabs 2 points for shooting down an aircraft and prevents me from getting my 2 points for exiting the gaming surface after taking the photo. To minimise my lose I was forced to exit the SPAD and give Mick another 1 point.

I really enjoy the scenario play of Wings of War as a change from the “shoot ‘em up” style of game. The scenarios provide a clear goal and end conditions for the game. They also prevent the game from degenerating into aircraft endlessly flying around in circles that can sometimes happen with a pure dogfight game.

I thoroughly suggest giving scenarios a go.

Adam and Mick are the owners of WarPuppy Miniatures, Games & Hobby House. Both are avid gamers who have been playing for a long, long time. You can find out more about WarPuppy and their range of miniature, card, roleplaying and board games and warpuppy.com accessories at warpuppy.com.

If you are interested in exploring Wings of War: A Game of WWI Air Combat further, be sure to tune into Australia’s Worlds End Radio podcast for a further review with Adam, Mick and JJ at worldsendradio.com. Also be sure to visit WarPuppy’s A Dog’s Life in the article section of the website for a video review of the Deluxe Set contents and game.

card & board strategy

BUZZWORD ParadigM DIVERSITY ngency

ynerGy

CETIME BALIsATION

IMPACT

EVERAGE

Win-W

Startup

marketin

custom

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lerated depreciation above the

Silicon Valley tech companies battles for employees in the upcoming resource-management board game, Startup Fever

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The idea of using a paper board game to represent employee management in the rapidly changing world of Silicon Valley may seem anachronistic at first, but Meetpoint’s Louis Perrochon may have found a way to distil the concept into a game.

a company, but over time are more likely to move to competing companies, unless they get further (monetary) incentives.

First conceptualised in autumn 2010, Startup Fever came to life in the following nights and weekends, taking up all of Mr In Startup Fever, players are company founders Perrochon’s spare time.

“I fear I used up all the goodwill of my friends,” that hire ‘nerds’ (engineers) that create the first-time game designer admitted to products to attract users and generate money.

Battlespace.

Hiring ‘suits’ (sales) generates more money, which can be used to hire more nerds. At the “I also haven’t played any other game for about end of every year the best products steals users the first six month, and often I didn’t even play mine as I just watched. Once the Kickstarter from the other products during showdown. funding started, I more or less stopped playing Employees initially are very eager to stay with any games.”

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While Mr Perrochon intended Startup Fever time, both to further their own objectives as to be quite simple to play, layers of rules have well as to hinder other players. kept adding to its complexity.

The various iterations of the board’s design, “I actually wanted to design game with very illustrated by Gary Simpson, have all been simple rules, and I was sure it was simple circular, reinforcing the product and user until I started play testing with people other cycle. than me. Later, as I tested with people I “I started with the number 10,000,000,000 didn’t know before, it became obvious that as the maximum number of users the rules are a lot more complex. That’s (approximately, once you get all humans when I started removing some of the cruft to go online). The user track would just that was in there from the early design follow the zeros from the right to the left. iterations,” he said.

Later, that vanished, and I had to find ways “I see casual gamers and even some nongamers picking it up easily. The game has a slow first round so new players can figure out the basic mechanics before it gets more complex. But some experience with board games helps. Settlers of Catan is a much better starter game.”

Each player starts with two-to-four products - depending on how many players there are - and four event cards. The game is played over several years. Players adopt users, based on the number of engineers and a die roll. Then they earn revenue, based on the number of users and the number of suits.

Third, the player can use money to hire more employees.

During the product show down at year’s end users shift towards products that invested wisely. Outside the regular turn order, event cards can be played by any player at any

to arrange the elements on the board. The circular layout was just the one that worked best, as everybody needs to constantly access everybody else’s employees,” Mr Perrochon said.

If Apple’s Steve Jobs were ever to be inserted into the game, Mr Perrochon knows what type of meeple he would become.

“He’d definitely be considered a nerd, his foremost contributions are IMHO product design. As are Bill Gates or Larry and Sergey,” he said.

“Making great products is the most important factor for profitability, and in the game that’s what the nerds do. But it’s not enough, you need to interact with your users, partners and customers, and that’s where the suits come in.”

Unlike traditional Euros where a focus

S%$t happens Players receive a supply of event cards that can usually be played at any time. Some cards have events that benefit a particular company or product, but many of them are very brutal. Massive effects such as forcing an opponent to discard half their money, or being unable to manage their workforce on a product, essentially keeping them from poaching or adding new nerds and suits during a round.

card & board strategy A total of $30,287 was pledged to Startup Fever on Kickstarter. Those that pledged $50 or more were sent a copy of the game and had their name included in the rule book.

Pictured left: Startup Fever Beta version

on personal efficiency is a likely reason for winning, in Startup Fever players can actively exert their influence over others. When the pool of potential employees has depleted, players must steal (or ‘poach’) employees from other players. The other players try to spend their money to prevent poaching from happening, turning the game into a grab bag of shifting employees. “(Losing an employee) is often not a problem, but if you lose many, it is. You can prevent this however, by paying your employees more.”

“I used to have complex benefits (healthcare, etc.), but they never really worked in play testing, so I reduced it all to money. You can’t model everything in a game,” Mr Perrochon said.

Each player gets a hand of event cards and can play events at any time, placing extra burden on players and introducing strategy into the game.

“All of us have played games where you take your phone out and start checking email while the other players go through

their turn. I tried to minimise such down time by having players play several times per ‘year’ and by event cards, which can be played anytime, whether it’s your “turn” or not,” he said.

Mr Perrochon has used the term ‘realtime board game’ to emphasise the idea of players being able to interrup each other at any point during the game.

As discussed in this issue’s DIY insight feature, Kickstarter has been pivotal in getting many games off the ground, including Startup Fever. Just like the technology companies represented in his game, the power of society has been leveraged.

“Kickstarter changed publishing in a spectacular way. One of the changes the digital economy brings is that it allows anybody to make stuff and have a chance to be successful: books, movies, games, art, anything. Sites like Kickstarter remove the barriers put in place by the various traditional industries. There is no limit to creativity,” Mr Perrochon said. B

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Ninja warriors train, kill and steal their way to victory in CrossCut Games’ new board game, Ninjato.

Copies of Ninjato sold out in five minutes at this year’s GenCon, boding well for the latest board game designed by CrossCut Games and published by Z-Man Games, IELLO, and White Goblin.

In Ninjato, the 12th century Minamoto and Taira clans vie for power while retired Emperor GoShirakawa plays his rivals against one another. In the shadow of these elite powers, ninja scheme to exploit the chaos. Battlespace delved into the shadowy underworld with Ninjato co-designer, Adam West. : Ninjato seems to have it all – ninja’s fighting with guards, treasure collection, clan diplomacy, gaining skills and tallying honour. Is there any Adam West: At this moment, I couldn’t be more way to have made the game more fun? excited. It’s a wonderful feeling to work hard on Fun is very subjective. We weren’t really a project and see it completed. I believe we’ve trying to cram in every aspect of a ninja, but made a game that is not only visually stunning, I think we’ve gotten closer than any other but also very solid in its game play. It’s a bit game. Many other ninja games have taken unnerving to push your work into the public.

How do you feel looking back on the game you have created?

card & board strategy the wire-fu, black pajamas approach to ninjas - a bunch of stereotypes really.

Sometimes I’m all in for silly stuff. But in Ninjato, we’ve designed a game with a more serious take on what a ninja is and what they did. Still mingled with myth and legend of course - and all the qualities you point out. But if you’re up for a full-on ninja experience and a deep strategy game, Ninjato delivers on fun.

B: How would you describe the ‘scene’ set by the board llustration?

The scene is a dark village right after dusk.

The houses are ready for sleep, shadows have fallen over the area and only a few lamps provide light. it’s a great moment for a ninja to strike! It came about when I told Drew we wanted this village to set the tone for the game and I really wanted an bird’s eye view. We were looking at the game board for Witch of Salem and Yspahan. But of course it had to accommodate the design as well.

Drew had never done a full game board before. I think it turned out wonderfully.

Very evocative of the theme.

That’s alot to ask, but I hope so. In some ways, being associated with another well known game is a good thing. But you don’t want to be so close that you look like a rip-off.

Ninjato isn’t a rip off of any of these games. By crediting things, you’re giving credit to those designers who have poured their sweat into mechanics and design and influenced yours. I believe art builds on the past. Sometimes you break out with something completely novel.

Ninjato has a central mechanism that none of these games share and that I’ve never seen before. So for that, I hope we’re seen as a great game with original ideas. : Is there a way for a player to win by concentrating on a particular location on the board, or is it necessary to balance between the dojo, pavilion, clan house etc.?

You absolutely have to use all parts of the game to win. This creates a flow - you ready yourself in the dojo, you learn skills at the sensei and have to attack houses and you must influence envoys - and spread a few rumors too.

In this game, you can’t ignore your opponents at all. Every move you make must anticipate their move. No move can be wasted. So even while playing, you have to think like a ninja, : You have credited Stone Age, Incan Gold train like a ninja and strike like a ninja. The and The Prince of Florence as significant influences on your game design. Do you hope game plays differently each time out because it evolves differently and depends on the play that Ninjato will stand out as an important around the table. piece of work in the history of gaming?

Players have three shuriken they can place on the board to perform their actions.

The entire board is a village - so you can place your shuriken in the dojo and take cards that represent your martial arts, at the sensei to learn ninja skills, or invade a house to steal treasure.

After collecting treasure, players can give them to envoys of the clans at the palace to gain their influence or use them to spread rumors at the pavilion.

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turn track

An experienced player will win every time. A group of experienced players is a game of tense focus. One false move and you’re finished.

finished in about 60 minutes. We got to seven rounds over many play tests. It feels right.

: The game has seven rounds – how important was it for Ninjato to be a fast-playing game?

: The clan management adds an interesting 'political' dynamic to the game. What typically happens between the players as that dynamic plays out?

Very important. A game has to know when to get off the table. We had versions that played longer, but our goals was always a tight, shorter game. Also a game must have an arc - a story line to it. When the story is done, the game should be done.

Yes, we did want a fast playing game - one that

This is the most important (and I think fun) part of Ninjato. It creates tremendous tension in the game - because you have to get the treasure that an envoy wants. Envoys come out randomly - you’re never sure exactly how many chances you have to get into a clan and gain majority. So that’s incredibly cool.

And you have to have the right pile of treasures at the right time. Almost all envoys will take a variety of treasure - usually in sets of the same kind. So you can collect up valuable treasure (worth more points) or not.

It’s easier to get low value treasure - that let’s you get the envoy a touch faster than an opponent. But on top of all that is defeating a house. If you topple a house - beating every guard - you get a nice pile of treasure.

But more importantly, you get to remove the clan mon and corresponding score from the house. So you’re attacking a house for different reasons - to stop a score about to happen for an opponent. Or maybe just to slip in to get that one treasure you need.

card & board strategy Typically, players go after a single clan - but that doesn’t always mean victory. You have to have your clan on houses too. It’s really an experience.

There’s not enough yet that’s for sure! I love the whole space myself. I think the preBushido code era of Japan is almost completely untapped in gaming.

: How much hand management does the game allow?

: How eye-opening was the book The World Turned Upside Down with developing the game?

This is an extremely important part of the game. In your hand of dojo cards, you’ll want a run that goes together - mostly low value cards or mostly high value cards. And you’ll want a kicker or two just in case. It depends as well on the sensei skills you’ve acquired.

They’ll lead you high or low (typically) and you’ll want a hand that matches. But if you spend too much time getting the perfect hand, you might lose the chance to attack the house you want. Again, tension develops. Do you wait and get a hand that is sure to topple that house? Or do you go in quick before an opponent? Yes, there’s push your luck - but you can get a hand that will almost be a sure victory. So you want a perfect hand - just the exact number of cards - because if you can empty your hand in an attack, a visit to the dojo pays off more.

I like a great theme. That book is packed with theme ideas from 11th/12th century Japan.

I could make another half dozen games at least from that book. It’s fascinating stuff to me - lots of intricate details in how the world developed in Japan, how the Bushido code came to be, how politics swirled, how power was held and how the economy developed.

And it came at just the right time in development, creating a frame for the game.

A theme creates constraints, motivation and direction for a game. This was the book to describe the story arc. Before that point, the game was moving forward, but not focused. : Will Ninjato change how people think of ninjas?

Attacking a house is the center piece of the game. Everyone leans in to watch. You’re in the spot light. Calling ‘Banzai’ is a declaration that you’re going for it. You’re deciding it’s time and you’ve got the guts to risk it (or you’re sure there’s no way you can lose). It’s a spectator sport! The fun truly centers in on that moment.

Historically, there isn’t alot known about ninjas. Most is made up or from stories.

Ninjas are cool no doubt. I love how they are iconic. But maybe Ninjato can push a bit more real coolness into the space. Ninjas sneak around, they don’t want to be found and they had loads of ways of blending in but still get the job done. The job nobody else would do. We’ve got a bit of that history in the rulebook too so maybe it will influence a person or two.

: Can there be such a thing as too many ninja-oriented games on the market?

Ninjato should be available in late August in game stores everywhere Z-Man games are sold. B

: How much fun is it to call out 'banzai' when taking on a new guard?

card & board strategy

In a card game environment transitioning to a ‘living’ card game concept, how can a new collectible card game hope to survive? Battlespace talks to Zeitgeyser about the strategyfocused Conquest Tactics.

When Andrew Niggles plays a fantasy card game, he wants to see warfare unfold before his eyes. With few gamess meeting his expectations, he and the team at Zeitgeyser decided to strike out on their own.

The creator of Conquest Tactics, a new collectible card game, agrees with a specific theory of game evolution.

Whenever a new kind of game comes around and is successful, the market is soon flooded with derivatives trying to secure a share of this new genre and market. Dominion for deck-building games, World of Warcraft for modern MMOs, and Magic the Gathering for the modern concept of a collectible card game. The last two decades have been filled with derivatives trying to tap into that market, but nothing has quite stuck, he believes.

“The key element missing here is that eventually a game is supposed to usurp the original and evolve the genre, but that never happened for CCGs,” Mr Niggles explained to Battlespace.

Having played several CCGs since middle school, Mr Niggles disappointment at the abstract and random nature of gameplay grew.

Every game seemed to consist of one or two rows of cards, with little or no emulation of a battle taking place.

“Cards weren’t deployed strategically as often as they were deployed simply because the resources were available and it was the only option in your hand,” he said.

He now hopes that Conquest Tactics’ innovations break enough away from the pack to change all that.

card & board strategy “Spells that were supposed to simulate being ‘cast by a mage’ were used once and then discarded. Did the mage suddenly forget that spell? The shortcomings were pervasive through the entire genre, so I decided to do something about it,” he explaines.

Enter Conquest Tactics. Mr Niggles believes the game evolves the genre by re-examining its most common assumptions and tossing out what doesn’t work. Drawing one card at a time, one-time-use spell cards, random starting units and units that can only do one thing per turn were all were outdated and changed in Conquest Tactics. But cutting what doesn’t work is only half of good design, the other half is adding new features that do work.

existing CCGs, but we believe that this is a step forward for the genre.”

Knowing that these changes to common gameplay mechanics could seem overwhelming to players, the team decided that the game would need to be as streamlined as possible, with complexity becoming the main enemy in design.

The card game makes use of strategy concept of bases, items, victory conditions and resource points, elements that Mr Niggles believes have been missing from fast-paced card games to date.

”While bases and items have been present in CCGs in various incarnations, victory conditions and (non card-based) resource “We added the grid-based movement system, a points have been reserved more for miniatures tactical points system to allow units to perform games and video games, which is a shame more than one action per turn, the ‘Knowledge because they allow for much more strategic Pool’ to allow spells to be used multiple times depth in a game. Both of these elements are and rules that allow initial deployment to based around the idea of options, options for allow people to start strategically rather than what you want to achieve and options for how randomly,” Mr Niggles explains. you want to achieve.”

“These features challenge the precedents set by

A game of Conquest Tactics played on a battle mat

card & board strategy Lying between opposing players in every game is the ‘battlefield’ grid board, one of the core elements of the game. The movement and positioning it allows gives the game an extra dimension of tactical depth. Like chess, your opening moves are crucial for establishing a good position on the field and controlling the momentum of the rest of the game, which will be dictated by the victory conditions you’ve chosen.

“If we had used all our other innovations and not the board, our game would have ended up much different,” Mr Niggles said.

“If you’re looking to win by outnumbering your opponent and invading their side of the field, it isn’t in your best interest to start out by rushing straight into combat. The true depth of victory conditions though is the fact that your opponent can see them from the outset of the game, so you aren’t simply trying to achieve your goals while blind to your opponent's, you’re actively trying to thwart their plans as well.”

When it comes to balance, the term ‘overpowered’ has become a curse word amongst the developers. They have done their best to balance all the skills, spells and troops without “nerfing” them into vanilla stagnancy.

“I will say that among the spell and skill types there are branches that will be used less than others, but that’s simply because there are fewer troops that can use those branches in the present set. There was so much to introduce in this initial set that we couldn’t fit everything we wanted. As we expand the card set and fill out these factions (while adding new ones) each branch will come into its own,” he said.

Complicating the issue is the fact that they are appealing to many different types of gamers.

“Board gamers are used to knowing exactly what they’re purchasing in one big box, Miniatures gamers are used to buying individual troops or small groups, and CCG players are used to trying their luck with random packs which are also great for booster draft tournaments.”

card & board strategy

Conquest Tactics takes place in Yen Sen, a world similar to ours but rich in magic and history. The story begins in The Fire Continent set, and revolves around the battle between Humans, Kaborha and the Malice.

Lore and history play a big part in Conquest Tactics, shaping each of the the factions.

“We try to explain as much lore as we can on the flavour text of the cards, but to supplement that we have lore posts

on our blog as well,” Mr Niggles said.

“That said, there is only so much that words can do to expand and stand out from the well-trodden standard fantasy tropes, which is why we have several other projects for investing players (veteran and newcomer alike) in the lore of Conquest Tactics. Two come to mind, both of which our team are really excited about, and neither of which I can discuss at the moment,” he said with a smile.

card & board strategy

“Balancing these competing expectations is one of our greatest current challenges, but I can assure you we’ll come up with a distribution model that will address players’ needs,” he said.

gets the types of cards that they want and need without overpaying is difficult with the existing distribution systems available.

The distribution system for Conquest Tactics is a hot topic among the team at Zeitgeyser, as it’s a major challenge due to the structure of the game. With eight different card types and three of those card types each have three subtypes, Mr Niggles admits ensuring a customer

my groomsmen in my wedding, and we’ve only strengthened our friendship by undertaking a challenge like this.

We couldn’t be more thrilled to launch, and we can’t wait to see where the game goes in the future,” Mr Niggles said. B

“Recognising we may have a dichotomy For the initial release they decided between board gamers and CCG to stick to pre-constructed decks, a players, we’ve tested the pres-orted familiar territory for most gamers, a faction deck against customised decks standalone product for board gamers which included cards that haven’t been and an introduction to the game before released yet, and still saw the pre-sorted more cards are released for card gamers. faction deck able to come out on top.

Therefore, we know its possible for a “We believe we’ve taken the best superior player to win using only what elements from card games, board is found in this initial release.” games and miniatures games and combined them into something that The team working on Conquest Tactics could appeal to any of those three is small but they have a close bond with gamer types. More precisely, we believe the momentum of the recent release Conquest Tactics will appeal most to behind them. two kinds of gamers: hybrid players “It’s been over two years since we who play two or all of the game types, started this business, and we couldn’t and players of one game type who are be more excited to finally be bringing curious about another type and are it to consumers. These are my best looking for a comfortable transition.” friends I’m in business with, they were

Conquest Tactics’ ‘Knowledge Pool’ is one of the features the team is most proud of. Positioned to one side of the game board, the pool allows spells to be used over and over, as well as allowing different troops to use the same spell.

“So if your mage is killed, that fireball spell he had cast isn’t wasted, the fireknight you have can cast it as well,” Mr Niggles explained.

“To give you an idea of the level in which it’s present in the game, we’ve seen testers grow their Knowledge Pool to over 10 cards in a single game.”

While it might be tempting to stockpile a large pool of spells, is it an effective startegy?

“We’ll leave that for players to figure out,” he said.

card & board strategy

Battlespace pulls up a bar stool to chat with Matteo Santus about sloshed samurai slicing and dicing in Albo Pavoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new card game, Sake & Samurai.

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card & board strategy

In Sake & Samurai, players become fierce and thirsty samurai warrior, willing to do anything to get the last cup of sake. The winner is the most drunk samurai (in game terms, the player who has collected the most sake drink counters) at the end of the sudden death round. Drinking too much will dull your wits and mastery with the sword, as each drink of sake prevents you from using one of your resources, be it a weapon, item or skill. On the other hand, you will be able to burn up some of the sake you have drunk to obtain significant bonuses which may well save your life.

BATTLESPACE: Albe Pavo's first game, Munera, involved the management of Roman gladiators. Why the change to a fast-play Japanese card game?

Matteo Santus: Because we love games, not just ancient history managing games!

Sake & Samurai was born from an idea and suddenly grew up to a solid game structure and is indeed very fun to play.

B: One of your stated goals is to make games that are funny, innovative and also easy to learn. Does Sake & Samurai meet all three expectations?

I think so! It is funny: you play drunken samurai doing anything (including throwing chopsticks and ramen) for the sake of Sake. It is innovative: you never leave play because the dead become â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Spirtis of Enmaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and play in team against the Samurai killing each other playing cards from the other side because they are passed away and see the world from

bechind! And also there is the sake which is a winning point but also an handicap because the more you drink, the less you can use your weapons, and objects and even your own skills.

It is easy to learn, the rules are simple and very fast and a game is abut 10 minuts per player.

B: Did you have to do any research into Japanese history for Sake and Samurai?

Yes, we did and we choose the greatest samurai of all times. For example, we chose to portray Date Masamune and he had just one eye. Also there is Tomoe Gozen, who was a battle maiden, so we portrayed her in battle-armor.

B: What types of weapons can the samurai use to attack each other with?

In our game you can attack with katana, wakizashi, no dachi, naginata, yari and also yumi. Everyone of them is different.

card & board strategy B: How does sake's ability to negate special ability affect player's decisions?

Sake dips are the winning points. The winning is the player that drank the most sake dips in the game. But, as alcohol does, the more you drink, the weakest you become. So when you drink, you have to place the dips on yourself and on your object and they simply prevent you to use them. If you drink too much, you become a mindless and stupid Sake flask being slaughtered by your dangerous drinking mates, so you have to plan carefully.

B: What are some of the actions the cards allow players to perform?

Move, attack, defend and drink sake. And also there is the Iaido strike and many eventum special actions.

B: The 'Ghosts of Enma' rule allow dead players to keep playing the game. How do players react to this mechanic?

Players love it! It is so funny to become a Spirit of Enma because you play in a completely different way, using the back of cards to torment and haunt the living samurai trying to have then killing each other to have more Spirits in play and becoming stronger to steal the precious sake and winning!

B: What sense of style has guided the game's artwork and design?

We chose to have a design style inspired by the art of Ukiyo-e, the famous japanese art style from the 18th century. Then I spiced it up a little with some â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;mangaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; elements, just to focus our specific target. Sake & Samurai is an humoristic party game, just a little bit

rich and deep in confront of a standard partygame, but we search for a design that could reflect all elegance of a samurai, and the grotesque of his drunkness.

B: Where did the idea for 'step counters' between players' samurai come from?

It one of ours first ideas! It came from the famous stepstones of japanese gardens, but at first I thought about the samurai sitting around the table trying to grab the Masu cup: being around the table the only possible distance is between the samurai on your sides. Combining that thought with stepstones (or Tatami) was not too difficult and worked out very smoothly!

B: Have you had any memorable experiences drinking sake? What about drinking sake while playing this game?

Obviously we tried it using real sake instead of sake tokens: it was really funny! We are planning a celebration: when the game will finally be published in Septembe) we will play a game with a rare and old sake bottle, in the honour of the old samurai. We hope to have no Ghosts of Enma tormenting us!!!

B: What's it like to work at Albe Pavo?

It's a work of great and deep passion. We do it with our heart because we love to design games and always hope to create something that could give happy times and funny things to remember to anyone who play our games.

B: Is Samurai & Sake the ultimate drinking game?

Only if you do not drink too much, or you will get killed! B.

INCOMING! products Add abstract blocks to a board Fans of abstract strategy board games like Chess and Reversi might like to try the iOS app CubeSieger by Rozetta Corporation.

CubeSieger is a two player abstract strategy board game. Anyone who learns its simple rules can enjoy this game. The player can enjoy the sense of the virtual game board set before them.With a bit of free time, how about some profound thinking?

The game involves moving a single pawn and adding a series of blocks to the board.

The object of the game is to corner your opponent and render him immobile.

The app also features online and bluetooth modes for human opponents.

INCOMING! s t c u d o pr

Hard science diesel war Company B co-founder Brent Dietrich and fellow alternative science enthusiast, John Cunningham have secured a license from Dream Pod 9 to produce their genre-making Gear Krieg alternate WW2 ‘Combat Walker’ figures in 28mm scale.

Gear Krieg is the original ‘hard science’ Weird War setting that mixed fantastic technology with real human engineering to create a realistic, gritty Weird War 2 setting. The new product line will be called Gears and Guts and will include 28mm Gear Krieg combat walkers and vehicles as well as other WW2-themed weapons, miniatures and accessories.

Return to the dark Fantasy Flight Games has announced the upcoming release of Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition. This updated version of the classic board game of dungeon-delving adventure features a host of enhancements, including new heroes and monsters, streamlined rules, a class-based hero system, campaign play, and much more.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition features eight neverbefore-seen heroes, ready to face off against nearly forty all-new monsters in nine distinct types.

INCOMING! products Steampunk sculpt

Shocking module

Frozen Planet Studio announced the release of their new Steampunk Dragonfly Flying Machine resin kit. With its 10 inch wing span, it makes an impressive sight on the game table.

Combat Mission Shock Force – NATO is the third module in the Combat Mission: Shock Force family of contemporary land warfare simulations.

The company also makes scale buildings, sci-fi minis, fantasy minis and more.

Ultimate boards Warlord Games added the 1:56 scale WWII German Sturmtiger to their Bolt Action WWII range.

The fearsome Sturmtiger was designed to devastate towns. Armed with a naval rocket launcher not many were built but it did see action in the crushing of the Warsaw uprising. It’s vast bulk and heavy

This module introduces forces from three additional NATO countries: Germany, Canada and the Netherlands, as well as some new, much requested, units and vehicles for the Syrian side.

armor makes it a slow and poderous beast.

The Sturmtiger is armed with a 380mm rocket launcher carrying 14 rounds weighing 376kg each!

This is a great model for use in scenarios. Why not pikc one of these beasts up today and take advantage of the free shipping worldwide offer in August?

Explore a new world

times with each of the five nations in Designer Bernd Eisenstein has opened the game (Egyptians, Persians, etc.) having a special power. preorders for two new titles from PAX has players as escaped slaves in Irongames: Pergamemnon and PAX, Roman times, with the players trying with rules in English, German and to increase their strengths in various French being available for both titles. categories to outdo their Roman rulers Pergamemnon is “a deck-building game of direct conflict” set in ancient or secretly join them.

gaming events

Armies of The Heroes of Armageddon Warhammer 40K army-building project demonstrates how gaming can benefit society.

gaming events

Gaming for good The Heroes of Armageddon project raised $31,657 for Doctors without Borders in July. Four Warhammer 40K armies were built and raffled to raise the money: Space Marine’s Steel Legion and Blood Angels opposite Ghazghkull Thraka’s Horde and the Wazdakka Gutsmek’s Speed Freaks.

Doctors without Borders doctors and nurses were chosen for the charity as they volunteer to provide urgent medical care in countries with victims of war and disaster regardless of race, religion or politics.

“They need support and our incredible gaming community has stepped up to the plate,” the Heroes of Armageddon website stated in July.

The project first started in April and accomplished what it set out to do: build four armies modeled and painted to the highest standards while staying as close to the 3000 point goal as possible.

“All in all, it has been a tremendous effort, having models come from all over the American continent, from Hawaii to Canada to Virginia,” the Heroes website stated.

The armies travelled to Games Day in Chicago on 30 July and were displayed on a custom-built six by eight foot gaming table built by Brian Niro from Gentleman’s Ones.

Chris Borer's Steel Legion Master of Ordinance won a Golden Demon on the day and the Heroes of Armageddon table display won best club theme.

The Heroes of Armageddon Club Table at Chicago Games Dayy Kirill's Yarrick in the Golden Demon Contest display

Bloggers, John (Santa Cruz Warhammer), Brian (InnerGeek), John (Drathmere/40kHobby Blog) and Brian (Gentilemans Ones)

Members of the painting crew, Jawaballs, Alex "Red Beard" Kallend, Kirill "Mad Russian" Zhilkov, Dave Taylor, Chris Borer and Cho. The Armageddon banner

gaming events

Battlespace talk’s to Heroes of Armageddon’s John Dickerman about helping to make the project a reality BATTLESPACE: How does it feel to have spent four months assembling four armies and raising $31,057 in the process?

John Dickerman: It’s awesome, I could see the pride in the other guys faces as we stood around the table at Games Day. B: The projects involves many sponsors, weekly give aways and organisation. How was it possible to bring it all together?

After the success of the Storm Wardens Project last year, it was pretty easy, as we had lots of offers to help out. My blog partner Mike handled most of the donation/ weekly giveaway stuff, which was no small task.

B: Can gaming be used as a tool for positive world change?

I have been continually surprised by the generosity of our fellow bloggers/ blog readers as a group. I think when you give these folks an outlet, they will rise to the occasion.

B: How have the raffle winners reacted to winning their armies?

Mostly disbelief, then excitement, it’s

seems they were just pitching in to help out and didn't think they would win something.

B: How can gamers get involved with future projects?

We are talking about creating a website as a destination for these project ideas like scholarships traveling seminars and club resources.

Keep an eye on our blog as the details fall into place: santacruzwarhammer.blogspot.com B: Who would you like to thank for helping to make this reality?

That is a long list, but Mike, Dave Taylor, Chris (Jawaballs), Goatboy, Brian (Gentleman’s Ones) and the guys on their build teams including the Golden Demon winners that donated hero models, John Shaffer, Bolter and Chainsword & Rob Ellis III, Battlefoam, Chessex, Gale Force 9, Secret Weapon Miniatures and Dragon Forge, all the other folks that donated prizes, all the folks that donated money, all the fellow bloggers who helped spread the word, and the families of all of the above for putting up with us and continuing to support us while we worked on the project.

gaming events

Wazdakka Gutsmekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Speedfreaks

Built by Goatboy and his team

table strategy

84 boyz and four nobz, painted by Mike de Boer and Tess Church

Defdred, painted by Rob Baer

Purity Seal/Icons with litanies by Rob Ellis II and donated by The Bolter and Chainsword

Ghazgkhull Thraka, painted by Mathieu Fontaine

Vendetta painted by Pat Ohata from Senji Studios

Three Warbuggies, painted by Goatboy

Wazdakka Gutsmek by John Shaffer

HUD << HUD

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