Play to Z ist ein kleiner Brettspiel-Verlag, der aber von einem Veteran gegründet wurde. Ich spreche mit Zev über seinen Werdegang, über die Entstehung seines Verlages, aktuelle Neuheiten und mehr. Play to Z Neuheiten, Einblicke, Pläne und mehr News Spannende Einblicke in den kleinen Verlag erhalten ihr im Folgenden Interview. Hallo Zev. Bitte stell dich […]

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While I have not played a bunch of games focused on the Punic War, the few that I have played are very good and I am always interested in a good Ancients combat game. Last fall, GMT Games announced a new 2nd Punic War game called Punicus: The Second Punic War designed by a newcomer in Carlos Oliveras. I have been very eager to learn more about this game and reached out to Carlos recently for an interview and he graciously accepted.

*Keep in mind that the design is still undergoing playtesting and development and that any details or component pictures shared in this interview may change prior to final publication as they enter the art department.

Grant: Carlos welcome to our blog. First off please tell us a little about yourself. What are your hobbies? What’s your day job?

Carlos: Thank you for supporting the hobby in these times. As for me, I’m a guy—well, more like a man with presbyopia now—who’s starting to struggle to read the counters without glasses. I’m into the same things most people of my generation grew up with: films, books, and music, plus a hobby that wasn’t nearly as widespread in Spain in the ’80s and ’90s: games—Eurogames, role-playing, video games, and above all, wargames. And to pay for all that, I work as a naval architect.

Grant: What has motivated you to break into game design? What have you enjoyed most about the experience thus far?

Carlos: I’ve been involved in wargames for quite a while. For instance, I was the rules editor for Mark Simonitch’s Stalingrad ’42, I put together the player aids for Craig Besinque’s Conquest & Consequence, and I translated Successors into Spanish—so I suppose the next natural step was this: designing my own game.

There are a lot of fun parts to creating a game, but there’s one aspect that may not be strictly “design” and yet is genuinely enriching: working with so many people from so many different places. You realize that despite differences in countries, cultures, and ways of being, people—if they want to—can understand each other, and we’re not as different as we sometimes think. If there were more wargames, there’d be less war. Coming away with that conviction leaves you with something genuinely positive.

Grant: What is your upcoming game Punicus about?

Carlos: I haven’t exactly found some untouched topic that no one has ever made a wargame about — honestly, I wasn’t that original. It’s another Second Punic War game: Hannibal, Scipio, and the whole cast. It’s a block wargame with cards of medium complexity, designed to be playable in an afternoon.

Grant: What games gave you used in inspiration for your design? Why?

Carlos: Punicus is built on Craig Besinque’s Hellenes System, one of my all-time favorite games—one of Craig’s real gems. I’ve played it so much that I always wanted to see it applied to other settings: the Second Punic War, the Gallic Wars…I kept hoping Craig would eventually design something along those lines. In the end, I got over my hesitation and decided to do it myself.

Grant: What is the scale of the game? Force structure of units?

Carlos: Because this war is so long, if I want the game to be playable in an afternoon it has to take a very strategic, high-level view. Each turn represents one year. As for the units, given how diverse (and sometimes contradictory) the sources are, I’ve adapted the order of battle to what produced the best balance during playtesting. For example, even though it seems Hannibal began the war with more elephants than his brother, in the game they both start with the same number of elephants.

Grant: How are the units represented? What is the layout of the blocks?

Carlos: The units are essentially wooden blocks with stickers. In short, the sticker shows the unit type (infantry, auxilia, cavalry, etc.); its Combat Value (the number of dice it rolls in combat); its Combat Rating, which determines when it attacks (in alphabetical order) and what it hits on or uses to cause routs; its Movement Rating; and, very importantly, its Home Box, which tells you where that unit can be recruited.

Grant: What advantage do blocks offer the design?

Carlos: Basically, it’s the fog of war. And not just because you don’t know what unit is in a given block—you also don’t know its exact strength state, since a single block can have up to four step levels. On top of that, there’s the physical feel of handling something solid like wood, which—without taking anything away from cardboard counters—is simply satisfying. I know that’s not strictly a design point, but it matters. If I have the choice, I’ll always prefer playing Punicus on the table rather than on Vassal.

Grant: Why was this a subject you wanted to create a game on?

Carlos: I love history, and I have to admit that when I was a kid, Hannibal’s campaign really blew my mind—elephants, crossing the Alps…to me it was like a movie, with the extra thrill that it had actually happened. Years later I was lucky enough to play Mark Simonitch’s Hannibal, and it made me feel like a kid again. So when I found myself with the chance to create a Second Punic War game using the Hellenes engine, I didn’t hesitate. And yes—designing it has been just as fun as discovering who the Carthaginians were back then, and as fun as playing Hannibal years later.

Grant: What are the unique features with the system used for the game?

Carlos: If we compare it to Hellenes, what sets Punicus apart is basically three things. First, the addition of non-combat units such as Generals and Catapults. Generals, for example, improve the units they are stacked with, and if that general also happens to be an active leader for their side, they can apply their special ability. For instance, Marcellus’s special ability improves the assault capabilities of the units with him. Second, new actions like production, piracy, and diplomacy—yes, you can take cities by sending ambassadors and persuading their citizens they’ll be better off with you. And third, the addition of a personal player board where each side can invest Supplies into researching projects, letting you shape your long-term strategy.

Grant: What unique elements of the Punic Wars did you want highlight in the game?

Carlos: I’d like the game to capture two things. First, the asymmetry between the sides. Carthage starts with tremendous striking power, but its enemy is far away. Rome is a sleeping giant: it loses battles, but it keeps standing—unyielding, impossible to discourage. You know it will wake up; how long it takes, and what form that awakening takes, will shape the rest of the war. Second, I wanted to reflect how the war evolves. Early on, players have fewer options, but as the campaign advances new possibilities open up to explore—investing in projects, diplomacy, piracy, and so on. The idea is that turns shouldn’t feel repetitive as the game goes on.

Grant: What various unit types are included in the game? What is unique about these units?

Carlos: There are three classes of units: Civians, Barbarians, and non-combat units. Civians represent the era’s city-based forces: Infantry, Auxilia, Cavalry, Elephants, and Fleets. Each unit type has something that makes it distinct. For example, Cavalry can perform a special attack called Harrying. Elephants are a powerful arm, but with the drawback that they can panic your own troops. Barbarians are slow but hard-hitting units, with the key trait that they dissolve in Winter—unless they are with Hannibal. Finally, there are the non-combat units: Generals and Catapults. They cannot operate on their own, but they can significantly influence battles.

Grant: How are cards used in the design? What are Action Points?

Carlos: The game is played in Years. At the start of each Year, each player is dealt six cards. In each of the seasons that make up the Year, players choose one of their cards face down and reveal them simultaneously. The card’s orientation determines whether the player will resolve its event or use its Action Points—one or the other. Each Action Point allows you to take one action, chosen from: Movement Actions (from standard Maneuvers to Piracy actions), Building Actions (recruiting and reinforcing), Production and Diplomacy.

Grant: Can you share a few examples of the cards?

Carlos: Yes, of course. Here is the “Hannibal Leads Carthage” Card and its key features. This card starts on the Carthaginian player board. It is a Leader card: while it remains on the player board, it grants its player its Leader Value (additional Action Points) and also gives Hannibal’s block a Virtus, or special ability—in this case, it means that any Barbarians with him do not dissolve in Winter. You can also see a value labeled Damage. When a unit crosses a mountain border, or a Fleet runs into a storm, you draw a card to see whether it takes damage.

Grant: How are cards used for research?

Carlos: At the start of the Year, players still play their cards either as events or for Action Points, but in this segment those Action Points are not used to take actions. Instead, they are used either to make an offering to a god (which will allow future appeals to that god to do things like reroll dice) or to invest Supplies in projects. This is the only time projects can be researched. That means that if, in the previous Year, a player didn’t produce Supplies—or spent them on maintaining troops during Winter—they may have no opportunity to research at all.

Grant: What different research options are available and what are their benefits?

Carlos: There are basically three branches: one that boosts production, one that increases naval power, and one that benefits land forces. It’s also worth noting that the projects for each side are not 100% symmetrical, which further differentiates how Rome and Carthage play.

Grant: How does activation work?

Carlos: Units don’t activate on their own; players have to spend their cards’ Action Points to move them. In other words, if a player plays a card as an Event, they won’t be able to move their units that season—the only combat they might still carry out is siege attrition from sieges established in earlier turns. Likewise, if a player plays a card for Action Points but it only provides 1 AP and they spend it on something other than movement—for example, using that AP to produce—then their troops won’t move that season. So each turn you have to think carefully about what you do, because your Action Points are limited: if you do one thing, you can’t do another. It’s that Twilight Struggle feeling of always being short on points—more or less.

Grant: What is the layout of the player boards?

Carlos: The player boards are dual-layer boards, so units and Supply cubes can sit neatly recessed in place. Each player board has a Praetorium, an area that holds units the player cannot recruit at the start of the game; these units will enter play later through Diplomacy Actions or Events. There is also the Proiecta section, where players invest and accumulate Supply cubes while researching projects. At the top, there are slots to hold groups of blocks in case the stack becomes too large to keep on the main map. At the bottom of the player board are the Rostra, where each side places the cards of its active leaders.

Grant: What key choices are forced upon the players?

Carlos: Each season, the player has to ask themselves which card to use and how to use it: for Action Points or for the Event. On top of that, the decision must factor in that the number of Action Points has a direct impact on initiative—who will act first that season. In principle, you don’t know in advance whether you will go before your opponent or not, so even what you intended to do with your Action Points when you committed the card may have to change, because your opponent has altered the board situation. That card-use choice is a recurring one every turn, but there are more decisions. For example, when you are besieging a city and the battle phase arrives, you have to decide what to do: attrition or assault. And for the defending side, when you are assaulted you have the option to capitulate—you lose the city, but in a less dishonorable way than if you were to lose the assault. Also, in battles a side can always choose to withdraw at the start of its round to execute an ordered retreat and limit losses.

Grant: How does combat work?

Carlos: It’s fairly straightforward. In a battle, blocks are revealed and sorted alphabetically by their Combat Rating. Blocks attack in letter order (A/B/C/D…), with defenders acting before attackers when the letter is the same. A block attacks with a number of dice equal to its printed Combat Value, and it scores hits and routs according to its Combat Rating. For example, an A2 block would attack first because it’s an “A” unit, scoring hits on 1–2 and causing routs on 5–6. Each hit reduces the strongest opposing block, and each rout forces the weakest opposing block to leave the battle. When all blocks in the combat have attacked, the Combat Round ends. Combat Rounds repeat until one side is eliminated or retreats. Combat also changes depending on the battle type. For example, in an Assault, the forces inside the city are treated as A2 blocks and they also receive a defensive bonus.

Grant: How is victory achieved?

Carlos: There are different types of victory. A Decisive Victory requires reaching 15 points and controlling an enemy Core City. A Negotiated Victory can be achieved with only 12 points. If neither of those victory conditions is met and the game reaches the end of its campaign years (which, in principle, players also won’t know in advance), a final comparison determines who wins—or whether the game ends in a draw.

Grant: What do you feel the game models well?

Carlos: What I think the game models well is the overall course of the war. It’s not that it perfectly models individual battles or grand strategic movements, because the game is somewhat sandbox in that respect. It’s more about the feeling that, with the sides being so different, both players are under constant pressure to perform at their best—because one mistake can swing the whole game. It feels like a war, not just a series of skirmishes. For example, Carthage starts with an impressive striking force, but its native recruitment base is far away and the war is long, so there’s constant pressure: victory can’t rely on a single great general forever. Rome, on the other hand, knows its potential is enormous, but it has to survive long enough to actually bring that potential online before its opponent brings it down.

I have come to Italy not to make war on the Italians, but to aid the Italians against Rome. – Hannibal Barca

Grant: What has been the experience of your playtesters?

Carlos: I think they’re having a good time. The fact that they want to play it again means the game has them hooked. And beyond that, their help has been invaluable—adding rules that turned out to be fundamental, or even almost creating cards like Mutiny. We’ll most likely put out a call for a new round of playtesters in an upcoming GMT newsletter, so if anyone’s interested, keep an eye out.

Grant: What are you most pleased about with the design?

Carlos: What I’m enjoying most is that the playtesters (including the developer, Joe Dewhurst) have had very few questions about the rulebook wording. It also helps that I started from a very polished manual like Hellenes.

Grant: What other designs are you contemplating or already working on?

Carlos: Right now, almost all my time goes into Punicus, but I have rough outlines for a block game about the Spanish Civil War (something like Spain Front, maybe) and a solo game about a certain Julius Caesar.

I love a good block wargame! And, in my opinion, this game looks extremely interesting and I am very much excited to learn more about it. I also very much like the idea of investing in technology and projects. Just such as neat addition to any wargame as you have to balance investing in replacements for your lost troops or new abilities and strength.

If you are interested in Punicus: The Second Punic War, you can pre-order a copy for $69.00 from the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1196-punicus-the-second-punic-war.aspx

-Grant

I love a different style and focus of wargame. A game that takes a look at an important but somewhat obscure or rarely addressed topic such as espionage or intelligence. And this past month, GMT Games announced such a game in Checkpoint Charlie, which is a solo or cooperative game focused on SIS espionage missions in Berlin in the 1960’s designed by Russell Brown. I have reached out to Russell and he was more than willing to provide some great insight into his design.

*Keep in mind that the design is still undergoing playtesting and development and that any details or component pictures shared in this interview may change prior to final publication as they enter the art department.

Grant: Russ welcome to our blog. First off please tell us a little about yourself. What are your hobbies? What’s your day job?

Russell: Happy to be here to talk about Checkpoint Charlie! My wife and I live in a lovely town called Waukesha, just outside Milwaukee. I retired a little early from a career as a software developer and went back to the University of Wisconsin to study creative writing. That led to my main hobby, which is writing science fiction novels. On most days, I leave my house, walk to downtown Waukesha, and write at a local university library or public library or down at my favorite coffee shop. Basically, I’m livin’ the dream.

Grant: What motivated you to break into game design? What have you enjoyed most about the experience thus far?

Russell: I’ve done a lot of freelance writing for tabletop RPG publishers, but what got me interested in historical game design was solitaire bots. A couple years ago, I found a bot for Command and Colors: Ancients created by Paulo Miranda, and I had a blast playing against it. I expanded it for Samurai Battles and had fun with that. I decided to create a full bot, with no decisions made by the player, for one of my favorite games, Here I Stand. It took months, but I ended up with deck-based bots for each power that had their own personality and did some basic negotiating with the players and the other bots. In my last game against them, as France, I came in fourth. After that, I made full bots for Talon and Combat Commander: Europe. The next step was to develop a solitaire game from scratch, and the idea of a game about espionage in Berlin had been bouncing around in my head for decades. What have I enjoyed most about the experience? The answer is strange, but I think I actually miss being a programmer. Game development uses those same parts of my brain. It’s very different than writing novels.

Grant: What is your upcoming game Checkpoint Charlie about?

Russell: Checkpoint Charlie is about managing British Secret Intelligence Service espionage missions in early 1960’s Berlin. You play as a case officer, a mastermind if you will, not an individual agent. It’s inspired as much by the fictional works of authors like John le Carré as it is by accounts of actual espionage operations. If you’re familiar with le Carré’s novels, you play as George Smiley, not one of his field agents.

Grant: What games have you used as inspiration for your design?

Russell: That’s a tough one. I struggled to find a game mechanic that evokes the feel I want, a lack of complete control over agents and the situation. I’ve probably been more inspired by computer games with simultaneous movement, maybe something like RimWorld, than by any particular boardgame.

Grant: What is important to model or include in a game about the British Secret Intelligence Service?

Russell: The first question is, who is the player supposed to be? I didn’t want to model the experience of an individual field agent. What fascinated me most about accounts of these missions, including faithful fictional accounts, is the way all the assets work together and adapt to a changing situation. I want the player to experience that, all within the context of secrecy, of trying to not be discovered and compromised. To fully experience that, the player has to be a case officer, a person leading and coordinating the mission. What that means, however, is that the player doesn’t have full control of every individual action taken by every agent.

Grant: What challenges did the subject cause for the design? How have you overcome them?

Russell: I’ll limit my answer to what I think were the two biggest challenges. The first was creating a game in which the player doesn’t have complete control, but still has enough agency to successfully complete a tough mission and feel like they did something amazing. We’re working on an article about this for the Inside GMT blog, but the solution mostly comes down to the card draw movement mechanic. Most of the movement and actions that take place on the map of Berlin happen based on which card the player chooses from the draw area. That one choice triggers the movement of up to five assets and KGB agents and also affects where surveillance and intel appear on the map. The second challenge was making a game about missions taking place in secret over hours or days, with fictional agents, feel at least somewhat historical. I hope we accomplished this by using actual locations on the map and including historical events to anchor the missions in this period.

Grant: What type of missions do players undertake?

Russell: I hope Checkpoint Charlie will be perceived as a “toolkit” game. For me that means there are enough components there, and enough interacting mechanics to be able to create many different missions that feel unique. Specifically, there are missions that are basically pick up and deliver with a KGB agent on your tail, missions where you set a trap for a KGB agent by planting a piece of tempting intelligence, a mission where you have to cross the Berlin Wall to deliver instructions to a dissident Russian scientist, and a mission where you have to protect a Soviet defector and get him safely to the airport with identification papers in hand. If you play Checkpoint Charlie in campaign mode, you’ll uncover evidence of a mole in your station and run another mission to get them to expose themselves. Every mission requires you to worry about the basics of moving assets around on the map, but beyond that each mission is unique. There are twelve missions included, and so far, we haven’t run out of interesting ways to combine all the elements provided in the game.

Grant: How does the game work in its cooperative mode?

Russell: When playing solitaire, the player has four cards in their hand. With two players, each player gets three cards, and with three players, only two. However, each player contributes one of their cards to a shared hand available to all players. In this way, each player always has four cards to choose from. This also helps reduce the issue of a player holding a card that’s important for the mission, but it isn’t their turn when it’s needed. The game also includes optional secure communications rules, where players cannot discuss plans or strategy or future game states except when they exhaust a meeting token to pause the game and have a discussion.

Grant: How do players work together?

Russell: The players are all working toward the same mission objectives, taking turns going through the turn sequence. They work together by having the same plan so they’re not working against each other. They work together by being smart about which cards they contribute to the shared hand. In secure communications mode, players have to save their meeting tokens for those critical moments when they’re presented with a new challenge or it’s clear that the existing plan has gone off the rails. The cards contributed to the shared hand are even more important in secure communications mode, because they can signal basic agreement on a plan without having to call a meeting.

Grant: As a solitaire game how does the bot work? What are its priorities and how does it make decisions?

Russell: The opposition basically emerges from two mechanics in the game. The first is the surveillance pawns placed in locations around the map. These appear when a surveillance card is drawn from the mission deck and they are placed based on which cards are showing in the draw area. When an asset moves into a location under surveillance and fails a save roll, they become detected, along with any items they carry. The second mechanic is the movement of KGB agents on the map. They move around based on which card the player takes from the draw area, in the same way that the player’s asset’s move. Running into a KGB agent almost guarantees an asset will be detected. In addition, when an asset or item is detected, every KGB agent gets a free move every turn and converges on that asset or item. If a detected asset or item is ever in the same location as a KGB agent at the end of a player turn, they are compromised and removed from the mission. There are some very simple priority rules governing which location KGB agents will move to if they have a choice, but otherwise the logic of how they move is the same as for the player’s own assets.

Grant: What type of experience does the game create for players?

Russell: I think the word is “constrained,” or maybe “desperate.” The game is designed to make players feel like they don’t have much control of the situation, when in fact they do have enough to successfully complete the missions. Toward the end of a mission, when the players look at the cards in their hands and the draw area and see that there is a path to victory, despite the fact that their key agent has been detected and KGB agents are closing in, I want them to breathe out and realize they haven’t truly relaxed for thirty minutes.

Grant: What decision points face players?

Russell: Good question. Players will feel, with good reason, that the most important decision they make each turn is which of the two cards they take from the draw area. That decision effects so many parts of the game, and often involves making difficult tradeoffs. But players also make many other decisions each turn. When assets and KGB agents move, they often have a choice of two destination locations, and the player can usually decide between them. The player also must decide which card to play at the start of their turn, and this can significantly impact the outcome of everything that follows. The player can spend Intel cubes to look ahead at the next card, or to improve the odds of a detection save. They decide when an asset picks up or drops an item. In a multi-player game, they choose cards to add to the shared hand and decide when it’s necessary to call a secret meeting.

Grant: What is the layout of the board?

Russell: First, I need to point out that this is all just my own prototype artwork for playtesting. The two most important areas on the board are the map of Berlin and the card draw area. The map is roughly a five by four grid of iconic locations connected by travel lines. It’s made up of sixteen locations in West Berlin and four in East Berlin, on the other side of the Berlin Wall. The player’s assets will move around this map, gathering intel, interacting with items and other assets to complete the mission, and hopefully avoiding detection. The KGB agents also move around this map and are the players’ primary adversaries. Below the map is the card draw area, a row of five face-up cards representing locations, items or assets. Above each card location is a spot for a chit representing one of the moving tokens on the map – the assets and KGB agents. The draw area is the core mechanic of the game, determining where assets and KGB agents move, where surveillance and intel cubes are placed, and even where some historical events take place. In addition to these two areas, the board also contains locations for intel collected by either side, as well as unused surveillance pawns available to the KGB.

Grant: Why was a point to point layout of locations your choice for the board?

Russell: Checkpoint Charlie evolved from a smaller card game in which the player built up the map of Berlin by placing cards in a grid, so I think that led to a point to point map. It’s also important for the paths between locations to be immediately clear and easy to process for the players, since they’re often calculating which is the shortest path between two locations. Perhaps the main reason we’ve stuck with this layout, instead of say, going to an actual map of the city divided into regions, is that it allows us to highlight iconic locations Instead of entire neighborhoods. Assets move from Checkpoint Bravo to the Berlin Hilton, or from Café Adler to the Tiergarten. It allowed us to give the whole game a more narrative feel.

Grant: What is the purpose of the draw area at the bottom of the board?

Russell: The basic mechanic is that players can only draw one of the two cards on the ends of this row of five cards, and then all the other cards shift before refilling the empty position. No card stays in the same location from turn to turn. This is important, because these cards are used to determine where tokens move on the map. Each card location can have a chit above it corresponding to an asset or KGB agent on the map, and every turn, after the cards shift, that asset or KGB agent moves toward the location, item, or asset depicted on the card below their chit. In this example, the Dentist token will move to Mehringplatz, because that’s the card below her chit. Jester will move one location closer to Checkpoint Charlie, and Svetlova, the KGB agent, will move one location closer to the 1958 Rambler item currently at RAF Gatow. In addition to their role in moving tokens on the map, each card also has an effect printed on the bottom that applies whenever that card is showing in the draw area. As cards are drawn and new cards replace them, these effects come and go and can have significant impacts on the mission. Finally, the five cards in the draw area are also used to determine where surveillance pawns and intel cubes are placed.

Grant: How does the game use cards?

Russell: Cards are used for a few different systems in the game. When they are showing in the draw area, they determine where assets and KGB agents move, apply special effects to their depicted location, item or asset, and are used to place surveillance and intel. When a card is in a player’s hand, or in the shared hand in a cooperative game, they are only used for the played effect printed at the top of the card. There are also cards in the mission deck used to trigger historical events and the placement of surveillance pawns and intel cubes.

Grant: What types of cards are included?

Russell: The three most important types of cards, and the only cards that will ever end up in the draw area or a player’s hand, are location, item, and asset cards. The draw deck for the mission, referred to as the mission deck, contains one card for each of the twenty locations on the map, plus one card for each asset and item involved in the mission. The mission deck will also include a variable number of surveillance cards, intel cards and event cards, depending on the mission.

Grant: Can you provide us with a few examples of the cards and explain their uses?

Russell: Certainly. Let’s start with the location card for Checkpoint Bravo. On the map you’ll find the Checkpoint Bravo location at the bottom left. In reality, this was the main entry point for road traffic coming into West Berlin from West Germany, and it was actually a much busier crossing than Checkpoint Charlie. The name and the image on the card make it easy to match it to its corresponding location on the map. At the top of the card is the played effect. This is what happens when the player plays the card at the start of their turn, and it generally isn’t optional. At the bottom of the card is another printed effect. This is the active effect and applies as long as the card is showing in the draw area. The Checkpoint Bravo card is actually quite powerful. It moves a KGB Agent of the player’s choice one location closer to Checkpoint Bravo. The active effect of this card is very good, as well. As long as the card is showing in the draw area, the player may spend an intel cube to make a detected asset entering Checkpoint Bravo become undetected.

Next let’s look at the Papers card, arguably one of the most important items in the game. This card will only appear on missions that include the Papers item marker. If a detected asset has picked up this item and is carrying it, playing this card can make them undetected. For some missions, the active effect at the bottom of this card is even more important. Dotted travel lines on the map cross over the Berlin Wall and assets normally can’t traverse them, but while this card is showing in the draw area, an asset carrying this item can cross into East Berlin, or back.

Finally, let’s look at an event card. This is the Powers Abel Exchange card. It represents the 1962 CIA prisoner exchange of Soviet spy Rudolph Abel for captured U.S. U-2 aircraft pilot Francis Gary Powers at Glienicke Bridge, as depicted in the movie Bridge of Spies. When this card is drawn, it has the printed effect and then is set aside for reference. Event cards never stay in the draw area or go into a player’s hand.

Grant: What types of missions confront the players?

Russell: I’ve mentioned a few, but others include transferring intelligence documents through a dead drop to throw off enemy agents, making sure a West German Stasi agent finds evidence that the KGB has infiltrated the West German secret police, using radio receivers and any means necessary to gather intel from East Berlin, and planting a bug on the other side of the Berlin Wall.

Grant: What happens when a mission fails or succeeds? 

Russell: If you’re playing a single mission, completing the objectives of the mission means you’ve won. There are no victory points, just success or failure. If you’re playing through missions as part of the campaign, then whether you win or lose a mission may determine which missions you’re assigned in the future. If you successfully deliver instructions to the dissident Russian scientist, then at some point you’ll be assigned a mission to cross into East Berlin and extract him to the West. If you failed to deliver the instructions, you’ll be assigned a different mission. Most importantly, your score in the campaign game is based on how many of your eight missions you complete successfully. Losing a mission also typically implies that one or more of your assets were compromised, which may limit their availability for future missions.

Grant: How is victory obtained in the game?

Russell: Each mission has one or more specific objectives that must be completed. As soon as those conditions are satisfied, the players immediately win. Conversely, there are one or more conditions that immediately end the mission in failure. In the campaign game, the player is rated based on how many missions they completed successfully.

Grant: What role do intel cubes play? How are they acquired and what do they offer?

Russell: Intel cubes represent intelligence available in the city that is pertinent to the mission. This could be coded signals, special documents, or known informants. Missions typically start with a couple intel cubes already on the map, and every time an intel card is drawn from the mission deck, an intel cube is placed on the location represented by the rightmost card in the draw area. Whenever one of the player’s assets moves into a location with an intel cube, the cube is collected and can be spent by any player during their turn for various benefits. For example, spending a cube allows the player to look at the next card in the mission deck. When a KGB agent enters a location with an intel cube, that cube is placed in the next box of the numbered KGB Intel track, and mission-specific events are triggered when specific numbers are filled. For instance, a mission may specify that another KGB agent is added to the map when the KGB Intel track reaches space 3.

Grant: What role does surveillance play?

Russell: Each time a surveillance card is drawn during a mission, a location in the draw area is placed under surveillance, signified by a red surveillance pawn. This means KGB surveillance resources have been allocated to that location. Some card effects remove surveillance pawns, while others place locations under surveillance. Each mission has a limited number of surveillance pawns, so when surveillance is added in one location, it may be removed from somewhere else. When an asset moves into a location under surveillance, they must roll a 10-sided die and pass a save or become detected. Some locations improve this roll, as do some items, and some assets are just better at avoiding detection. Some event markers, like demonstrations, also affect this save. As I mentioned earlier, once an asset is detected, KGB agents will move toward them and they will soon find themselves compromised and removed from the mission.

Grant: How does the campaign system work?

Russell: Players undertake eight of the twelve missions and are rated based on how many are successful. The set of missions assigned depends on success or failure of some of the earlier missions. Some of the intel cubes gathered during one mission may carry over to the next, and compromised assets may have to sit out a mission or two. Any historical events that occur are also removed from the campaign so they’re not repeated in later missions.

Grant: What do you feel the game models well?

Russell: I think Checkpoint Charlie shows that the mission is going to move forward one way or another. You have to guide it and use what resources you have to nudge it back on track when it strays. You can try to force it by drawing cards that always move your favorite asset to their best location, but that probably means your other assets are going to stumble into a KGB agent, or the KGB agents are going to gather too much intel and trigger some unwanted event. This is a game about making intelligent tradeoffs and using what control you do have to mitigate the bad effects when there aren’t any good choices.

Grant: What has been the experience of your playtesters?

Russell: The pleasant surprise for me has been how quickly they adapt to the way their assets and the KGB agents move. Compared to other games with movement points or action points or an activation system, Checkpoint Charlie is very different. They’ve figured out the whole draw, shift, move process within a couple turns. It is different, but it’s actually fairly simple. It has also been fun to see them view the components of the game, and particular card events, as part of a narrative. The game is telling a story.

Grant: What are you most pleased about with the design?

Russell: I’ve played this game a lot, in all of its iterations. I’ve been through all of the missions many times, and then played through them all again to make sure we didn’t break them after we adjusted some rule or changed the effects on a couple cards. What pleases me most is that when I play this game, even after playing it all those times, I still really enjoy it.

Grant: What other designs are you contemplating or already working on?

Russell: I’m working on solitaire bots for Virgin Queen and for Combat Commander: Pacific. I have three board game designs in various stages. The first and farthest along is Allied Advance, a small, one-hour solitaire game where the player commands allied forces in Europe from the capture of Monte Cassino to the fall of Berlin. The second is Gilgamesh, a three-player game of Mesopotamia’s Early Dynastic Period, where the winner is the ruler whose reign inspires the most memorable epic. The third is Bletchley Park, a two-player game that spans all of World War II in Europe, with one player as the axis commanders encoding the details of large military operations, and the other as allied observers and codebreakers trying to undermine those operations without revealing which codes they’ve broken. It’s going to be a lot of fun figuring out the bot for that one.

Thank you. I’m grateful that I had this chance to answer your questions.

In my opinion, this game looks extremely interesting and I am very much excited to learn more about it. I am so glad that this topic is being covered here and look forward to playing this one day soon.

If you are interested in Checkpoint Charlie, you can pre-order a copy for $48.00 from the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1211-checkpoint-charlie.aspx

-Grant

Martin Melbardis began his design career with Campaign: Fall Blau from Catastrophe Games. This was a very interesting little dice chucking solitaire game on Operation Barbarossa during WWII. Since that time, he has started his own independent wargame company called Solo Wargame and has designed 13 different and very interesting roll and write wargames on a plethora of subjects including World War I (Trench Tactics), World War II (Operation Barbarossa, Lone Wolf: U-Boat Command and War in the Pacific), Napoleonic Wars (Siege Works), the Crusades (Crusade: Road to Jerusalem) and Ancient Rome (Rome Must Fall). His newest game called Fliegerkorps is focused on the airwar during WWII and looks really interesting and I reached out to Martin to get a bit more information about the game.

At the time of the posting of this interview, the campaign for the Kickstarter is active but time is running out and you can back the project at the following link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/105281170/fliegerkorps

Grant: Welcome back to the blog. What is your new game Fliegerkorps about?

Martin: Hello everyone, great to be back! Fliegerkorps, my newest game, is a solo operational air war game where you command a German Fliegerkorps (air corps) across one of three historical campaigns, The Battle of Britain, Barbarossa, or the Mediterranean. At the very beginning of the game you build your Fliegerkorps by choosing a commander to lead them and choose four aircraft cards to make up your air corps. During each of the fixed 12-turn campaigns, you manage your aircraft, fuel, and squadrons under mounting enemy pressure from air, land, and sea. You must complete enough missions to rack up Victory Points (VP) to influence the campaign before attrition grinds you down.

Grant: Why was this a subject that drew your interest?

Martin: I’ve always been in love with military aircraft for as long as I can remember, but honestly, it started with late-night YouTube rabbit holes on the Battle of Britain with those grainy clips of Spitfires vs. 109’s which got me hooked on the subject recently. After a few days, I came to the realization that I’ve never seen a wargame about managing an entire air corps. I’ve seen plenty of games about dogfighting or perhaps controlling a squadron of aircraft…but never at the corps level where you must deal with logistics, maintenance and planning sorties. I soon came to the realization that I wanted to design something that felt like you were commanding from a smoky ops room in 1940, watching your force slowly bleed out through attrition and sorties while high command demands more. One night I sketched a rough game design document on the idea and couldn’t sleep until I had the basics down.

Grant: What is your design goal with the game?

Martin: My goal was to create a light-to-medium operational solitaire air game that feels tense but stays streamlined and abstracted. I wanted players rolling dice, making meaningful decisions, and constantly weighing risk versus sustainability. Most importantly, I wanted to capture that operational rhythm of launching, suffering losses, refitting, and launching again.

Grant: What sources did you consult to get the historical details correct?

Martin: Core was the Rand McNally encyclopedia of World War II for consulting on general WWII aircraft histories, campaign overviews of the Battle of Britain, Barbarossa, and the Mediterranean Theater, as well as aircraft production and deployment timelines. 

I’ll admit that I’m a total visual guy, and that shapes everything I design. YouTube documentary dives into Battle of Britain dogfights, early air war chaos, and Luftwaffe ops kept me fired up, motivated and increasingly informed on the subject throughout the entire Fliegerkorps development. 

Grant: What battles are included in the game?

Martin: Battles in Fliegerkorps are more or less abstracted into missions rather than recreated tactically. For example, something like the potential invasion of Malta is represented through a Campaign Mission rather than a detailed operational scenario.

The game includes three campaigns: the Battle of Britain (1940), which focuses on an air supremacy grind, Barbarossa (1941), which blends air and land operations on the Eastern Front and the Mediterranean (1942), centered around convoy strikes, the siege of Malta and desert support. Each campaign has its own mission structure and pressure profile, so while the core system remains the same, the overall challenges change depending on the theater.

Grant: What elements from the early air battles of WWII did you need to model in the design?

Martin; I wanted this game to lean heavily into the simulation aspects of controlling an air corps in WWII and leave out much of the unit tactics involved in battles. Several key elements needed to be represented in the design were aircraft rotation between the Operational and Refit rows, logistical limitations, and escalating enemy pressure tracked through the Air, Land, and Sea Campaign Dice. I also wanted the game to reflect the reality that these campaigns were multi-domain efforts. Air operations rarely existed in isolation, they influenced and were influenced by events on land and at sea. It was important for me that the player could meaningfully affect the larger campaign across all three theaters: Air, Land, and Sea.

Grant: How does the player have to balance their missions, fuel, aircraft losses and worsening strategic conditions?

Martin: In the Mission Phase, all existing mission timers are reduced by one (if they reach zero, you fail the mission) and so missions can’t be ignored for long. If you allow timers to expire, penalties escalate with VP losses, Campaign Dice increases, or additional enemy cubes entering play. If you choose to engage those missions, it will cost fuel and you risk aircraft losses. Launching aircraft costs fuel and after attacking, you move the squadrons to the Refit Row on the aircraft card for maintenance. Larger aircraft like bombers take longer to recover than lighter fighters. So every turn becomes a balancing act. The tension builds steadily over the 12 turns, and that operational pressure is really what the game is about.

Meanwhile, Campaign Dice track strategic pressure in the Air, Land, and Sea sections. As missions and events accumulate, those values can possibly creep up. If a Campaign Die ever reaches 5+, Saturation penalties will apply and certain section-specific restrictions will come into play. This will reduce your options and make future attacks on that section even tougher.

Grant: How does campaign pressure from air, land and sea campaigns affect the player?

Martin: All Campaigns have on their gamesheet containing three Campaign Sections…Air (red for enemy fighters), Land (green for ground forces, AA, and infrastructure), and Sea (blue for convoys, naval logistics, and supply lines). Each one has its own Campaign Die that tracks how bad things are getting in that section. The higher the number, the worse conditions are getting for the Germans. Things such as more enemy pressure, tougher challenges, and nastier effects kick in. If a section becomes Saturated, it seriously lowers your effectiveness when dealing with that Campaign section. In addition, that sections’ specific penalty applies (like in the Battle of Britain, where the Land die at 5+ blocks any chance of rerolls.) Ignore any section too long, and the pressure snowballs across turns.

There is also the chance of a Campaign Collapse which happens if any two of those dice ever hit 6 at the same time (Air + Land, Sea + Air, whatever), the whole campaign falls apart and you lose immediately. No VP tally…it’s game over. It’s a tipping point where one front collapses and drags everything down with it.

Grant: What is the dynamic mission system? How does it work?

Martin: Missions are the central heartbeat of Fliegerkorps, popping up fresh each turn right in the Mission Phase. Each Mission has a die as a timer that you tick down by -1 each turn and meaning no mission lasts forever, and can expire if not completed in time. This does really well to reflect history by adding a sense of urgency to each mission.  

Usually Missions are generated by rolling a 1D6 on the Standard Mission table for routine ops like fighter sweeps or convoy strikes and deploy enemy cubes in the section. However, if you land on a green spot on the Timeline? You Skip the roll and generate a Campaign Mission with bigger risks, but juicier rewards. Campaign Missions are unique, historical operations like the London Blitz or the Encirclement of Kiev.

Grant: What choices does the player have for building their Fliegerkorps?

Martin: I absolutaly wanted to include some sort of customization or army building mechanic in the game to allow players to build their own Fliegerkorps using a tight 25 Victory Point (VP) budget.

Before each game you start by choosing a Commander card and pay its VP cost. Commanders simply provide a single, but powerful, special ability.  An aggressive option like Richthofen boosts offensive output, while others may reward efficiency or control. Always choose one that matches your style.

Next, choose exactly four Aircraft cards, keeping in mind theater and year restrictions. A mix of fighters, bombers and some Recon aircraft is usually best.

If you have unspent VP, you can always buy extra black Fuel cubes or white Iron Cross cubes (for clutch rerolls.) In Campaign-mode, after each Campaign, you get a chance to further upgrade your Fliegerkorps by buying upgrade cards, or exchanging aircraft cards as new aircraft become available in later campaigns.

Grant: What does an aircraft card look like?

Martin: Aircraft cards are the real stars of Fliegerkorps, they include fighter, dive-bomber, recon, bomber, or even heavy fighter wings, with 2-4 grey cubes each to track the strength of the squadrons that make them up. I honestly think one of my best design decisions for the game was to have an airfield diaroma on the top half of each of the aircraft cards which is further divided into the Operational Row for launch-ready aircraft cubes and the Refit Row, just below, for beat-up aircraft nursing wounds, maintenance and parts.

Each card also has attack ratings vs. Air, Land, or Sea, plus a special ability that will help you during the Campaign. In addition, each card also lists if it’s a Large or Small aircraft type (which affects some actions, the reasoning behind this is that bombers are much more “hangar queens” than small fighters.) Finally, all cards have a VP cost to buy them in your 25 VP build, a year availability and sometimes icons for Recon. 

Grant: What is the ultimate player goal for the game?

Martin: The goal is all about how well you balanced your aircraft sorties to complete as many important missions as possible before time runs out. At the end of an intense 12-turn campaign it really boils down to pushing aggressive launches and attack tempo, against refit, recovery and the logistical limitations of WWII Germany. At the end of the game, you tally up those hard-earned VP’s from mission completions and lowering Campaign dice enough and check them against the Victory threshold table on your game sheet. 

Grant: What is the layout of the Game Sheet?

Martin: The Game Sheet in Fliegerkorps is laid out so everything’s visible at a glance. I always try to make it as easy as possible for solo play without over-complicated charts or even flipping pages. The top left has the Timeline with 12 slots or turns. Green spots on the Timeline for triggering those rare high-stakes Campaign Missions and with the VP thresholds just above the Timeline.

The center is dominated by the three Campaign Sections (Air: red fighters, Land: green AA/ground, Sea: blue convoys and naval forces) while the top right lays out the Standard Mission and the Campaign mission tables. Finally, the Bottom right has the all-important Action Boxes.

Grant: How are Action Cubes used by the player?

Martin: In the Luftwaffe Phase each turn, you grab four Action Cubes (think of  them as your command orders), and allocate them one by one into any empty slot inside any of the Action Boxes at the bottom-right of the game sheet. Slots are limited on certain actions and some slots cost more Fuel or gives less options than others.  For example, the Logistic action allows you to pick three options such as recover a loss aircraft or gain fuel. However, using the same action a second time limits you to picking only two options. I felt that adding diminishing returns for repeated use of the same action would help prevent players from spamming certain actions.

Grant: How is the number of Action Cubes available determined each round?

Martin: Action Cubes are fixed at four Action Cubes every Luftwaffe Phase. Campaign effects, Commander abilities or upgrade cards can sometimes alter the available actions in a turn, but for the most part you will always be given four Action Cubes per turn. 

Grant: What different orders does the player have access to? How do they affect the game?

Martin: Orders, or Actions, are where the player get’s a chance to react to the evolving Campaign.  Some actions require Fuel and each action resolves immediately once placed. The available actions are:

Launch/Attack: Launch aircraft from the Operational Row of one Aircraft card to target a Campaign Section. Successful rolls remove enemy cubes, which may be placed on Mission objectives if possible. After resolving the attack, those squadrons move to the Refit Row.

Recon: Use Recon-capable aircraft to gain Recon points, which can be spent to re-roll dice, ignore Saturation, gain an extra action, or adjust missions and events.

Refit: Moves squadrons from the Refit Row back to Operational status. Larger aircraft recover more slowly than smaller fighters.

Logistics: helps manage fuel and/or aircraft losses.

Grant: How is “victory” achieved?

Martin: At the end of the 12-turn campaign in Fliegerkorps, you simply total your VPs from completed Missions and any Campaign Die bonuses earned for keeping pressure under control. You then compare that total to the Victory threshold. Each campaign has its own required totals. The difference between Victory and Brilliant Victory is simply a matter of having a few extra VP’s to upgrade your Fliegerkorps at the end of the campaign (not to mention bragging rights) 

In Campaign Mode (or Linked-Campaigns), any VP earned carries forward and can be spent on upgrades for your Fliegerkorps, such as additional Fuel or Iron crosses as starting resources, upgrade cards or exchanging aircraft cards .

Grant: What are the loss conditions?

Martin: You lose in one of two ways…First, if at the end of the 12-turn campaign your total VPs fall below the required threshold of Victory listed on the Game Sheet. For example, in the Battle of Britain you need at least 11 VP to achieve Victory. Anything below that is a loss.

Second, you lose immediately if a Campaign Collapse occurs. This happens if any two Campaign Dice reach 6 at the same time. For example, the Air and Land Campaign sections both maxing out. When that tipping point is reached, the campaign ends instantly. This reflects the idea that sustained pressure across multiple fronts can overwhelm theoverall campaign of your Fliegerkorps. Ignore one theater too long, and the consequences will cascade quickly. 

Grant: What type of experience does the game create for the player?

Martin: I’ve always enjoyed fast-playing management-style games where you’re juggling resources and trying to prevent systems from spiraling out of control. That feeling was something I really wanted to reflect with Fliegerkorps. At its core, the game is a compact operational simulation themed around running a WWII Luftwaffe air corps. Each playthrough runs about 30 to 40 minutes. I also added options for different force builds and campaign theaters to try and create strong replay value. 

Grant: What other topics are you planning to create games for in the future?

Martin: Firstly, some big news… Catastrophe Games will soon be launching a boxed edition of my game, Campaign: Bagration on Kickstarter. It’s the direct sequel to Campaign: Fall Blau, but this time you’re on the Soviet side in 1944. 

I’ve also begun designing a new game called Shock & Awe, centered on the 1991 Coalition air campaign against Iraq’s integrated air defense network. I’ve also been exploring something completely different, a fast, arcade-style air combat experience centered on piloting a single Cold War-era fighter such as an F-15, MiG-29, or F-16. It’s still in the conceptual stage but the idea will evolve.

Beyond that…my solo print-and-play pipeline always remains active where I’m planning to continue my epic WWII Roll & Write series, focusing next on a North African campaign or possibly D-Day. Smaller games like this allow me to finish them relatively quickly while keeping the designs accessible and portable. I may also put out a voting poll to backers soon to help shape ideas for a future project. There are simply so many wars and time periods still worth exploring, and to me, community input is always valuable. As you can probably tell, I have far more game ideas than time to fully develop them all!

As mentioned above, the Kickstarter campaign has just a few days remaining so if you act quickly you can still back the project at the following link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/105281170/fliegerkorps

-Grant

Der Verlag Frosted Games hat sich mittlerweile zu einem Schwergewicht in der Brettspiel-Landschaft gemausert, vor allem für Vielspieler. Mit Stefan (aka Hesy) konnte ich über aktuelle Neuheiten, kommende Spiele, interessante Einblicke und vieles mehr sprechen. Viel Spaß. Frosted Games Neuheiten, News, Traumprojekte und mehr Einblicke mit Hesy Mit Stefan spreche ich über das beeindruckende Neuheiten-Lineup […]

Der Beitrag Frosted Games Neuheiten, News, Traumprojekte und mehr Einblicke mit Hesy erschien zuerst auf Abenteuer Brettspiele.

Hexasim has really been stepping up their game recently with some great looking wargames. Late last year, they announced their newest game called La Der des Ders – The War to End War, which focuses on World War I and is designed by Arnauld Della Siega. We reached out to Arnauld and he was more than willing to provide us some insight into the design.

Grant: Arnauld welcome to our blog. First off please tell us a little about yourself. What are your hobbies? What’s your day job?

Arnauld: Hello, everyone. Despite my Italian-sounding name, I am French. My hobbies? Gaming, of course. Formula 1. American football and flag football – I am assistant coach for my youngest son’s team. Oh, and I play badminton. And when I had a little more time, astronomy. Add Motörhead and Lovecraft to that, and I think you’ll have a pretty good idea of who I am. My real job? I’ve been working for Hexasim for three years. I mainly handle communication and game development (clarity of the rules, layout of the rulebook, some of the graphics).

Grant: What motivated you to break into game design? What have you enjoyed most about the experience thus far?

Arnauld: I think this is true of many designers, but my brain is constantly buzzing, whether I’m writing stories or inventing game systems. I wanted to create something to give shape to the ideas swirling around in my head. Then, and perhaps most importantly, to leave something behind for my descendants. Creating is more frustrating than rewarding, but seeing your game released is a bit like the birth of a child. A culmination.

Grant: What is your upcoming game La Der des Ders about?

Arnauld: La Der des Ders is the story of the First World War in its entirety, from the early stages to 11 November (and even a little beyond). It follows the timeline of the war and focuses on technological developments. La Der des Ders is a grand-strategy game in which you control sectors. You decide how to allocate your resources between recruiting new soldiers to rebuild your forces, technological research and preparing offensives. La Der des Ders is a revised and corrected version, with greatly improved artworks, ergonomics and rules, published in VaeVictis Magazine #145.

Grant: What is the translation of this French phrase La Der de Ders?

Arnauld: La Der des Ders means « the last of the last ». You may translate it by « The War to End War ». I asked my testers and Boardgame Geek whether to use a French or English title. The players unanimously opted for a French one.

Grant: Why was this a subject you wanted to create a game on?

Arnauld: After creating No Man’s Land – Trench Warfare 1914-1918 from Ludifolie Editions, I had acquired a good amount of knowledge about the First World War at a tactical level. I thought it would be a good idea to take a step back and look at the First World War from a different angle. That’s how La Der des Ders came about.

Grant: What are the unique features with the system used for the game?

Arnauald: It depends on what we mean by ‘unique’. Are there any truly unique games? When it was released in 2019, La Der des Ders was, to my knowledge, the only solo game covering the entire First World War. What makes it unique is its focus on technology (the game includes 41 levels of technology). It is also this abstraction, which facilitates the narrative without distorting it. This is particularly evident in the Collapse Tracks (which will be discussed later), which manage the erosion of the belligerents.

Grant: What is your design goal with the game?

Arnauld: What I look for above all else in a game is elegance. I like it when a lot of thought has gone into it, both in terms of the ergonomics and the gameplay. For La Der des Ders, I wanted to create a game that was easy to learn, designed for solo play, and with engaging mechanics. A game made to be played and able to learn more about the historical WW1.

Grant: What unique elements from WWI did you feel important to model in the game?

Arnauld: I think that sometimes a game is less about ‘what is important to model’ than ‘what the designer wants to model’. I like the ‘technical’ side of conflict. For this reason, 1914 interests me much less than 1918. I love all the technologies that abound. It was the shape of those funny steampunk-style tanks that made me love WW1 (basically, I’m more into Francis I, the Assyrians and the like).

Grant: As a Strategic Level wargame, what economic or political elements are included?

Arnauld: The entry of neutral countries into the war is managed by events. I did not want countries to be able to adopt a stance different from their historical one. That would have had too much of an impact on historicity. Neutral countries will therefore certainly enter the war in the same year as historically, but players do not really know on which turn (1 turn = 4 months).

The economy is managed by Resource Points awarded each turn. These Resource Points are the heart of the system, as they act somewhat like Action Points. Each sector contributes to the overall amount of Resource Points. The British and American navies also contribute an ever-increasing number of resources. The Naval Control Table simulates the war between merchant ships and U-boats.

Grant: How does the Collapse Track work?

Arnauld: The Collapse Track represents both a sector’s willingness to fight and its military potential. With each loss, a cube moves to the right, towards surrender. These losses also reduce the number of Attack dice a sector can roll during an offensive. Spending resources allows you to counteract this slow erosion and regain power.

Grant: What technologies can be developed?

Arnauld: There are six categories of Technology (Attack, Defense, Artillery, Air, Naval and Raid). Each category is divided into several levels, specific to each side.

Once unlocked, Technology levels grant bonuses in attack or defense, Artillery dice, rerolls, bonuses during the Naval Control Phase (which reduces the number of Resource Points available to the opponent), or the ability to cancel some events.

Grant: How does the game use cards?

Arnauld: There are two types of cards. Cornflower Cards are used to manage the solitaire bot.

The other cards are Events. Three are drawn at the beginning of each turn, and the effects are applied. Events are classified by year, and one card remains at the end of each year when the new year’s deck is brought into play. This adds variety to the game without sacrificing historical timeline.

What I am most proud of with these cards are the top banners. I made sure to copy the headlines from newspapers of the time, even going so far as to put a credible date and, above all, a number that, unless I am mistaken, should be correct. Yes, I had a lot of fun.

Grant: What different types of cards are included? Can you provide a few examples?

Arnauld: There are several types of Event Cards. Blue cards, such as the Schlieffen Plan, are only available in 1914. Red cards are Pivotal Cards that cannot be cancelled. These include cards that bring countries into the war, such as Lusitania and Zimmermann Telegram. Finally, green cards, which are the most numerous, allow players to obtain Resource Points, additional bonuses by attacking a particular country, but sometimes penalties. I looked for the most important events of the conflict, thought about their impact on the course of the war, and then translated that into game terms. A little tip: each color has a specific design, which means that color-blind players are not at a disadvantage.

Grant: How does combat work?

Arnauld: Combat is referred to as ‘offensives’. A single sector can only launch one offensive per turn, and a single sector can be attacked by multiple sectors. The player chooses the attacking sector and designates its target. They spend a number of Resource Points equal to the number of dice they wish to roll. This number cannot exceed the current Operational Value of the attacking sector (indicated by the position of the cube on the Collapse Track). To inflict a loss on the enemy, the player must obtain a certain value (often 5+). However, the dice roll is modified according to the technologies unlocked by the attacker or defender.

Artillery technology is important, as it allows black dice to be rolled that will not be modified. This highlights the power of artillery during conflict.

Grant: How are historical events handled?

Arnauld: By drawing three cards at the beginning of each turn. The cards do not go into the players’ hands. They are applied during the current turn. Some are applied immediately, others during offensives, and a few during the Resource Collection Phase. Some cards remain in play for several turns, such as Von Lettow, which allows the Germans to launch free offensives in Africa until the end of the war.

Grant: What variants are included?

Arnauld: The Fast Play variant speeds up games by bringing this version closer to the original version published in VaeVictis, removing the two new Technology categories and not charging sectors for implementing unlocked technology levels. I don’t really like it when a designer offers variants. It makes me think that they haven’t taken responsibility and are leaving it up to the player to figure it out.

You know what? I’m going to offer your fellow readers a great variant. This variant is for use in 1 vs 1 games, if you find it too difficult to win with the Entente.

Here it is:

Countries that are still neutral do not pay to implement an unlocked technology. Once the sector is at war, they must pay as normal.

You can consider this variant official. It has been tested.

Grant: How does the solitaire mode work? How are the Cornflower Cards used?

Arnauld: For each phase (Reinforcements, Technological Research, Offensives), the player draws a card and refers to what is indicated on the card.

It’s very simple to set up and effective. No need for endless dice rolls, referring to multiple tables, or having to make decisions for your opponent. Everything is indicated on the card. It’s elegant. Players seem to love this simplicity and the relevance of the decisions made by the bot.

Grant: How is victory achieved?

Arnauld: Victory can be achieved in several ways. Either by forcing France or Germany to surrender, or by earning 6 Victory points (obtained by forcing the enemy sectors to surrender), or at the end of the game (triggered when the Peace Negotiations Card is drawn) when the side with the most Prestige Points (calculated according to the position of the cubes on each of the Collapse Tracks).

Grant: What do you feel the game models well?

Arnauld: You can really feel the Entente gaining strength, with more and more resources at their disposal thanks to British and American support, and Germany’s obligation to finish the war as quickly as possible before the task becomes insurmountable.

But I also particularly like the story that the game tells, which is very close to the actual historical timeline.

Grant: What are you most pleased about with the design?

Arnauld: I like the fact that it is both simple and interesting. I like the fact that Dad can play with Junior. I like that players learn things while playing. I like the way it looks. And I like the price: we decided to make this game as affordable as possible so that more people could enjoy it. Games should not be a luxury item.

Grant: What other designs are you contemplating or already working on?

Arnauld: I have several projects in mind, mostly solo games. Some are well advanced, but I feel like I’m at a crossroads. I mean… there are too many games coming out. Designers need to learn to restrain themselves and, rather than flooding the market with games that are sometimes barely finished, take the time to polish them as much as possible and perfect the rulebook (which is often really awful). Given the price of games, I believe we should respect players and offer them flawless products. Fewer games, but higher quality. And that’s good, because that’s exactly Hexasim’s credo. If sales of La Der des Ders are fantastic, we can plan a sequel, perhaps World War II, to please as many people as possible, and/or fantasy. The ratings received on Boardgame Geek will decide.

If you are interested in La Der des Ders – The War to End War, you can order a copy for 49.90 € ($57.52 in US Dollars) from the Hexasim website at the following link: https://www.hexasim.com/en/4165-La-Der-des-Ders-The-War-to-End-War.html

-Grant

Der polnische Verlag Board&Dice ist seit vielen Jahren besonders für Eurogame-Fans sehr spannend, denn er erscheinen dort viele anspruchsvolle Neuheiten. Deshalb habe ich mich sehr darüber gefreut mit Karolina von Board&Dice über aktuelle Neuheiten, spannende Entwicklung und mehr News zu sprechend. Board&Dice Neuheiten, aktuelle Entwicklung, Pläne und das Thema KI Karolina vom Verlag Board&Dice stand […]

Der Beitrag Board&Dice Neuheiten, aktuelle Entwicklung, Pläne und das Thema KI erschien zuerst auf Abenteuer Brettspiele.

Several years ago, we posted an interview with Matt White, who is a very talented graphic artist and budding game designer, that focused on his artistic talents and love of tanks. He has since designed several very interesting small scale wargames, with his most recent series being a World War II tactical wargame series for 1-2 players pitting the British Airborne versus the German Wehrmacht called Until the Bitter End. He then designed the next entry in that series called Until the Bitter End – US Airborne followed by Until the Bitter End – Tanks. He has also done a few others including Would Be Aces, Operation Biting and Today Another Battle that have done very well. Recently, a new game appeared on Kickstarter from Matt called Saving Angels WWII Solitaire Wargame Print and Play, which is a wargame based on the American and guerrilla raid of the Japanese held Los Baños prison camp in World War II. We reached out to Matt and he was more than willing to share on the project.

If you are interested in Saving Angels WWII Solitaire Wargame Print and Play, you can back the project on the Kickstarter website at the following link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1564988876/saving-angels-ww2-solitaire-wargame?

Grant: What is your new project on Kickstarter?

Matt: My new Solitaire game is called Saving Angels and it covers the bold US Airborne and allies, raid of the Japanese held Los Baños prison camp during WWII.

Grant: What was your inspiration for the name? What do you want it to convey about the design?

Matt: I came across the history of this subject, whilst researching the Operation Biting game (which is also an Airborne raid, only British) and the name refers to the US 11th Airborne Division, as they were described by the prisoners, who they rescued.

The main element of the design is that you command the paratroopers and guerrillas on this daring rescue mission. With most wargames, the mission is often defeat the enemy or hold a point, etc., but with this design the rescuing of the prisoners is your objective.

Grant: What about this historical event made you want to create this game?

Matt: The main inspiration really was the story, but from the prisoners point of view. They had been treated terribly, for the most part, from their captors. The prisoners were from all walks of life, civilians rather than soldiers who had been captured. I felt it was important to cover this story from WWII, which has not really been covered before. 

Grant: What research did you do on the subject?

Matt: I read a lot of history subject books so naturally I read as much as I could on the subject. There are also a few really good videos on YouTube that are also well worth watching.

Grant: Is this the start of a new series of games?

Matt: This is my third game in my Raid Series – the other games covering the British paratroopers, with this one being the first game in that series featuring US forces and where the main objective is the rescue.

Grant: What games have inspired your design?

Matt: To be honest, the biggest inspiration really is the history side rather than other wargames. I think also the first two games in the series was a natural source.

Grant: I know the design is a Print and Play offering. Why do you feel this model is best suited for your designs?

Matt: I like making print and play games as it forces you, as the designer, to make every component count and making the most of the physical space on a sheet of paper. I find that challenge one of the most interesting parts of the creative process.

Grant: I know you are not only the designer but you do the art as well. Please show us a few examples of your great art.

Matt: Here are several different pieces from the game.

Grant: How do you create your art? What is the process and what graphics tools do you use?

Matt: I use a variety of tools such as Sketchbook and Photoshop. I pretty much draw in a traditional method, just using a Wacom pen and laptop.

Grant: What difficult decisions do players have to make in the game?

Matt: The player must try and maximize their units to the best of the counter’s abilities. Each unit will have strengths and weaknesses so coordinating your units is crucial for success.

Grant: What dangers and threats meet the players with their airborne and amphibious landings?

Matt: As the player pushes towards the prison they may encounter Japanese enemy threat but also the risks associated with such landings.

Grant: What objectives does the player have to accomplish?

Matt: The player’s goal is to get to the camp, free the prisoners and then escort them back to the pick-up zone to make good their escape. This was a daring mission as the Japanese defended the area and the player will have to fend off Japanese reinforcements as the player makes good on their escape.

Grant: What is the purpose of the 2 different maps?

Matt: The game comes complete with 2 maps. The first map is for the approach to the Prison Camp and features both Airborne and amphibious landings. The second map is the Prison Camp itself where the player must locate and rescue the prisoners before escaping back across the first map.

Grant: How do players control these units and give commands?

Matt: During the game’s turn the player controls movement of their Units whilst the game’s AI will control the enemy Japanese.

Grant: What is the goal of the game?  How is victory obtained?

Matt: Get to the camp, rescue the prisoners and escape, whilst fending off the Japanese enemy. It will take co-ordination of the player’s units, using them to the best of their abilities and a bit of luck!

Grant: What are you most pleased about with the design?

Matt: I really wanted to create the strong narrative experience, that’s quite tense, of having multiple objectives (with rescuing all the prisoners) whilst dealing with an unrelenting enemy.

Grant: What kind of an experience does the game create?

Matt: For me, the game creates the idea that sometimes you have to be bold, push your luck and try and achieve success by utilizing the resources you have to the best of their abilities.

Grant: What other designs are you currently working on?

Matt: I have a plate of other games I am working on, mostly WWII! I’d like to cover more of these historical daring raids whether they are land, sea or air. 

Thanks to Matt for his time in answering our questions and for his great little print and play games. I love it when one of these new games is brought to light as I get to oodle over the art and see what new things he has created!

If you are interested in Saving Angels WWII Solitaire Wargame Print and Play, you can back the project on the Kickstarter website at the following link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1564988876/saving-angels-ww2-solitaire-wargame?

-Grant

Schmidt Spiele ist bekannt für Brettspiel-Klassiker und Familienspiele. In den letzten Jahren erschienen aber auch ein paar anspruchsvollere Spiele. Mit der Produktmanager Anatol Dündar spreche ich über aktuelle Neuheiten, spannende News, die Spiele-Entwicklung ein mehr. Schmidt Spiele News, Spiele-Entwicklung, KI und mehr mit Anatol Interessante Einblicke und aktuelle News erfahrt ihr im Folgenden. Hallo Anatol. […]

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Shem Phillips kennen sicher viele von Garphill Games, aber inzwischen ist er auch beim Verlag Arkus Games aktiv. Ich habe mit ihm über seine Arbeit bei Arkus Games gesprochen, gehe auf aktuelle Neuheiten ein, schaue ein wenig in die Zukunft und einiges mehr. Arkus Games Neuheiten, kreative Ideen, KI, Pläne und mehr News Shem ist […]

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Mit Weird City Games hat Tim Eisner einen kleiner aber sehr spannenden Brettspiel-Verlag gegründet und einige spannende Spiele veröffentlicht. Er berichtet über seinen Weg zum Spieledesigner, besondere Herausforderungen, kreative Ideen und was er sonst noch so macht. Weird City Games Neuheiten, Tim Eisner, Idee, Herausforderungen und mehr Tim gibt im Folgenden sehr spannende Einblicke in […]

Der Beitrag Weird City Games Neuheiten, Tim Eisner, Idee, Herausforderungen und mehr erschien zuerst auf Abenteuer Brettspiele.

Mit dem aus London stammenden Gründer von Play Monkey Games spreche ich unter anderem über sein erstes veröffentlichtes Brettspiel. Zudem geht es um seinen Einstieg ins Hobby, Herausforderungen beim Spieledesign, keative Ideen und vieles mehr. Play Monkey Games Neuheit, Spieledesign, Ideen, Pläne und mehr Spencer gibt im Folgenden wirklich viele sehr interessante Einblicke in seinen […]

Der Beitrag Play Monkey Games Neuheit, Spieledesign, Ideen, Pläne und mehr erschien zuerst auf Abenteuer Brettspiele.

Mit DMZ Games gibt es einen kleinen spannenden Verlag aus Barcelona, der vor allem mit Leidenschaft und Liebe zum Brettspiel-Hobby geführt wird. Ich konnte mit dem Inhaber über seinen Weg ins Hobby, die aktuelle Situation in der Brettspiel-Welt und natürlich seine aktuelle Neuheit Urban Sketchers sprechen. DMZ Games Neuheit, Spieleentwicklung, Anspruch, Professionalisierung … Im Folgenden […]

Der Beitrag DMZ Games Neuheit, Spieleentwicklung, Anspruch, Professionalisierung … erschien zuerst auf Abenteuer Brettspiele.

Mit Phantom Epoch hat sich Tysen von Doteira Games einen großen Traum erfüllt und seine Karriere als Spieleautor geatartet. Im Folgenden erfahrt ihr, wie es dazu kam, welche Herausforderungen er meistern musste und vieles mehr. Doteira Games Neuheit, Herausforderungen, Spiele-Entwicklung und mehr Tyson gibt spannende Einblicke in seinen jungen Verlag. Hallo Tyson. Bitte stell dich […]

Der Beitrag Doteira Games Neuheit, Herausforderungen, Spiele-Entwicklung und mehr erschien zuerst auf Abenteuer Brettspiele.

dlp games bringt zur diesjährigen SPIEL wieder ein paar interessante Neuheiten mit. Unter anderem eine Erweiterung für Pirates of Maracaibo. Im Folgenden erfahrt ihr, welche Neuheiten es sind, wie die Zukunft von dlp games aussieht und einiges mehr. dlp games Neuheiten, Zukunftsplanungen, Jubiläen, Partner und mehr News Anja gibt spannende Einblicke und interessante Infos zur […]

Der Beitrag dlp games Neuheiten, Zukunftsplanungen, Jubiläen, Partner und mehr News erschien zuerst auf Abenteuer Brettspiele.

Auch in den Niederlanden werden fließig neue Brettspiele entwickelt, unter anderem bei Wulfhorn Games. Welche Neuheiten es da in diesem Jahr gibt, an welchen Projekten gearbeitet wird, wie neue Ideen für Brettspiele entstehen und vieles mehr erfährst du heute. Wulfhorn Games Neuheiten, Spiele-Design, Ideen-Findung und mehr News Ruud berichtet über seine Arbeit als Spiele–Autor und […]

Der Beitrag Wulfhorn Games Neuheiten, Spiele-Design, Ideen-Findung und mehr News erschien zuerst auf Abenteuer Brettspiele.

Der PD-Verlag hat schon ein paar Klassiker veröffentlicht und bringt nun immer mehr spannende Neuheiten auf deutsch heraus. Im Folgenden geht es unter anderem um interessante Spiele-Neuheiten, heiße Concordia News, die Ausrichtung auf Expertenspiele und einige mehr. PD-Verlag Neuheiten, Concorida News, Expertenspiele und mehr Im Gespräch mit Jan Philip gibt es wirklich sehr interessante und […]

Der Beitrag PD-Verlag Neuheiten, Concorida News, Expertenspiele und mehr erschien zuerst auf Abenteuer Brettspiele.