NEW RELEASE
War and Peace, 6th Edition
War and Peace, 6th Edition is Mark McLaughlin's classic game on Napoleonic conquest is here, revitalized and enhanced with completely updated graphics and production, all new campaigns covering all of Napoleon's career, and a completely revamped rule book that incorporates all known errata, and the best official variants and optional rules along with a few new surprises. War and Peace will be given the deluxe treatment in this re-issue. This new edition addresses all errata from the previous edition.
Indian Ocean Region
Indian Ocean Region simulates possible future conflicts, circa 2025, from their political beginnings to military endings with the same game mechanics as used in South China Sea. Players assume the roles of nations or groups of nations and deal cards in multiple rounds of play each representing three to seven weeks to advance their separate agendas. Each card play might trigger armed conflict. If violence comes to pass, the time scale compresses to three to seven hours per turn and players deploy their military units to resolve matters by force. Those forces include: individual capital ships, pairs or triples of smaller vessels, squadrons of aircraft, and battalions of ground troops all waging war at the far end of logistical shoestrings.
PREORDER
Chivalry at Bay: Tactical Battles of the Hundred Years War
Chivalry At Bay is a low to medium complexity game depicting many of the individual battles that made up the Hundred Years War. Players control armies involved in each conflict that attempt to drive their opponent from the field of battle. Each battle can be completed in roughly two hours, allowing several battles to be played in a single sitting. The game takes several novel approaches toward simulating these eighteen individual battles.
REVIEW
Virgin Queen: Wars of Religion 1559-1598
The Players' Aid reviews Virgin Queen and shares their thoughts on large, multi-player wargames. This is a follow-up to Here I Stand and is a card driven wargame that looks at the Wars of Religion from after the Reformation to the end of the century and deals with the military, political and religious conflicts within Europe during the reigns of Elizabeth I of England and Philip II of Spain.
Crusade & Revolution, Deluxe Edition First Look
An unboxing video in less than two minutes? Yes, it's true! Stuka Joe presents this unboxing Video of Crusade & Revolution, Deluxe Edition, a game designed by David Gómez Relloso and published by Compass Games in 2018 (first printing) and 2021 (second printing).
REPLAY
ASL Festung Budapest Replay
James Lowry provides this after action report of the FB16 Crossing the Bloody Meadow scenario from ASL Festung Budapest. The Soviets are making their final attempt to take the Central Rail Station, and while the German defenders are completely cut off, there is a relieving force on the way.
INTERVIEW
Interview with Mark Simonitch
The Players' Aid interviews the designer of Salerno ’43, coming soon from GMT Games
OTHER NEWS
Wargame Book Club, Episode 1: Philip Sabin's Simulating War
The premiere video episode of Wargame Book Club, hosted by Fred Serval, features a roundtable discussion about Philip Sabin's Simulating War book. Panel members include Natalia Wojtowicz, Riccardo Masini, David Thompson, and Cory Graham.
SPONSORED LINK
One Small Step
Lead the Space Agencies of the United States and the Soviet Union in their epic race to the moon in this engine building, worker placement board game.
Organized Gaming Venues
For those who enjoy attending in-person events, it's been more than a year since we've been together. While the return to on-site events is underway (several smaller venues have already occurred), The World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) Board recently decided to cancel WBC 2021 due to continuing Covid-19 concerns.
We've witnessed the rise of virtual gaming events over the past year to help fill the void, which got a big boost when BoardGameGeek acquired Tabletop.Events to help drive virtual events moving forward. Two venues of note are this week's SDHistCon, organized by Harold Buchanan, and Armchair Dragoons Digital Convention (ACDC), organized by Brant Guillory. These venues bring gamers together virtually with a gaming conference format including online gaming, play tutorials, designer interview, seminars, and more. We expect virtual events and hybrid virtual/in-person events to grow in popularity moving forward, witness by the upcoming Connections Conference 2021, a virtual event hosted by Army University and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, scheduled for June 21-25, 2021.
For those looking forward to "old-fashioned" in-person gaming events, our very own 20th annual event, CSW Expo, starts in less than 100 days. We have taken various precautions, such as limiting total attendance, and we are excited to see on-site gaming returning to the fold. But rest assured, virtual gaming is here to stay and it's a welcome addition to help connect gamers across the globe.
In closing, we hope you enjoy the articles we have curated for this issue. For all the news, visit us at consimworld.com.
John Kranz