The Storm Over Area Impulse Series has been around for a while and includes games such as Storm Over Arnhem (1981) from The Avalon Hill Game Company, Storm Over Stalingrad (2006) from Multi-Man Publishing and Storm Over Dien Bien Phu (2014) from Multi-Man Publishing amongst several others. The hallmark of the series is relatively low complexity for a wargame and a very simple combat system that calculates total attack versus total defense and adds a roll of 2d6. The losses from combat can be absorbed by either retreating from the attacked areas or destroying units. The game system has mostly been used to model more modern wars including the Franco-Prussian War, World War II and the French conflict at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam.

We have never had the pleasure of playing any games in the series to date, but once Storm Over Jerusalem was announced last year, we pre-ordered a copy and eagerly awaited its arrival. Storm Over Jerusalem: The Roman Siege is a 2-player wargame that simulates the Roman siege of Jerusalem during 70 AD. One player controls the mighty Roman forces, who are truly master of siege warfare with their siege towers, ballista, battering rams and onagers, and the other player controls the Judean forces, which are divided into 2 separate factions with different leaders. The game is 8 turns long, but can be shortened by the play of a few event cards, at the end of which time the winner is determined by calculating victory points that come from overall losses, holding of certain VP areas and keeping the Romans out of the city.

I wrote a First Impressions post after our first play and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2023/06/07/first-impressions-storm-over-jerusalem-the-roman-siege-from-multi-man-publishing/

I also published an interview with the game designer Scott Blanton and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2023/06/19/interview-with-scott-blanton-designer-of-storm-over-jerusalem-the-roman-siege-from-multi-man-publishing/

-Grant