Morris' Wargaming Escapades

 * Get my Napoleon in Egypt Campaign going. I've got the campaign map hanged on the wall (see below) plus enough Wofun miniatures for the French, British, Mamelukes and the two Ottoman factions. What am I waiting for? The Directory is not happy with this delay in launching the expedition. Stop studying the map at the Topographical Bureau and get to sea!! * Paint enough  Black Powder Epic Battles  strips to have at least 9 units for the French and 9 for the British. * Consolidate all my house-rules for Simplicity in Practice in a document (I love this ruleset! Pure alchemy achieved by distillation by Neil Thomas). * Maybe? get into naval wargaming in the Napoleonic Era. I have been looking at old rulesets that appeared in MWAN such as As per Margin  by Aelred Glidden (MWAN 109), and the simple rules in Donald Featherstone's Naval War Games by the likes of Tony Bath. Also very tempted by the idea of converting the SPI boardgame Fighting Sail (1981) to t...

Today I played a game of 1814: Empire's End , a 2p wargame designed by Eric Walters. During his career in the army,  the designer applied conflict simulation as a teaching tool in the Marine Corps and the Joint Advanced Warfighting Division within the Institute for Defense Analyses. You can read an interview about this approach HERE . This accumulated experience tells in the game. The rules are very simple (it takes 15 mins. to learn them), but conceptually and without unnecessary die-rolls they show a deep understanding of the important factors in Napoleonic warfare: supply lines. stragglers, forced marches, bypassing fortresses when time is a factor, etc.. In short, with just 16 counters and a letter size map, it is one of the most elegant designs about the period one can play. As a bonus, admirers of Napoleon's strategical brilliance playing the french side get to unleash his characteristic one-two punch-and-move maneuvers.             ...

Today being August 15, the birthday of Napoleon, I decided to replay the first position in the battle of Roliça. The gamebook is Mike Lambo's Battles of Napoleonic Europe , but played in the recent spruced up French version. This time Delaborde outdid history and managed to hold the hill, but he died while directing personally an artillery battery. Wonderful solo game with 20 customs AIs tailored to each scenario.  

 I had fun playing this solo sci-fi card game that recreates an experience akin to the legendary videogame Elite with just 20 cards. The designer Kelvin Soong did a good job. It has trading, bar events, private jobs, tech upgrades, orbital mishaps. The game can be be bought at Gamecrafter or downloaded for free as a PNP at: https://thekealf.itch.io/space-privateer-command And with a better formatted manual at: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/space-privateer-command Spaceships are from my collection and do not come with the game

 Classic dogfight match-up (Spitfire Vs ME-109E) in a game from the Battle over Britain series from Minden Games. Volume 5, Tally Ho! (2018) is the one with more scenarios and it includes the base rules, although I think a re-release is coming named Dogfight! The game models very well the differences between planes with minimal rules overhead. Gary Graber knows his stuff!  As it stands, it is a wonderfully fun and quick 2-player game (especially with the 7 or 13 games campaign).   Tally Ho comes with solitaire rules, but I find them somehow lacking. I am working on alternatives solo rules and this afternoon I had a chance to test them.  

Long Range Recon Patrol, by Mike Lambo. The elements that make it such a good reconnaissance solo game are:  It creates a thrilling narrative each time. There are many decisions to be made because the different dice results overlap several possible orders. It has several push-your-luck mechanisms: do we fast move in a jungle? Risk entering a village? Force a river crossing?

This game belongs to the new crop of solo book/boardgame hybrids championed by designer Mike Lambo and published through Amazon. You get a physical book and then you have to craft a small number of counters that are printed on the last page or downloaded from boardgamegeek.com. In The Fields of Normandy 2 units have much more maneuverability than in the first iteration of the game and it has some very nice additions, like smoke cover, bocage, panzers and, above all, a six linked scenarios campaign. Impressed after the first play.    

 First play of Battles of Napoleonic Europe by Mike Lambo and already convinced that it's great. Lost on the last roll of the last turn in true Lambonian fashion. IMHO opinion for this one watching the playthrough video is a must. Not that is complex, but it's full of subtleties that fit together nicely in actual play.