Last year, we began a correspondence with a new and interesting designer named Daniel Hernández. He was working on a solitaire game at that time covering the Spanish Road during the Thirty Years’ War (1614-1648) called The Spanish Road (El Camino Español), which was specially designed for the 6th edition of the Bellota Wargames and Historical Games Convention that is held in Badajoz, Spain with the stunning artistic talent of Nils Johansson. Since that time, he has agreed to have his game printed in the upcoming issue #37 of C3i Magazine from RBM Studio. We reached out to Daniel to get more information on the design and he has provide us with answers to our questions.

If you are interested in The Spanish Road, you can pre-order a copy of C3i Magazine #37 from the RBM Studio Store at the following link: https://c3iopscenter.com/rbm-studio-store/#!/C3i-Magazine-Nr-37-Pre-Order-p613193796

Grant: First off Daniel please tell us a little about yourself. What are your hobbies? What’s your day job?

Daniel: Hi Grant and Alexander first of all thank you for your interest in The Spanish Road and having this interview with me, as I really enjoy reading your articles/interviews on the blog and watching your videos so it is my pleasure to have this interview with you.

My name is Daniel Hernández and I live in the beautiful city of Sabadell, which is close to Barcelona in Spain. I have lived 7 years in Norway (Stavanger and Ås which is a city near to Oslo), where I studied for a Masters Degree in International Hotel and Tourism Leadership and another in International Relations, besides working with several students’ organizations and cooperating for international students academical and cultural inclusion in the country. This work allowed me to be in contact with the Norwegian government, universities and more than 30 embassies.

In my daily job, I work as freelancer in education advisory programs, as well as with embassies and consulates and also with the America’s Cup sailing, as next year’s event will be held in Barcelona but since 2023 there are several events and meetings to work with.

My hobbies are reading books mostly from history and biographies, but I am open to any good book topic suggestion (there’s always room to learn more with a good book!), playing volleyball and hiking (something I enjoyed a lot in Norway where every weekend I had free I went to explore the country and hike places such as Trolltunga, Kjerag, the Pulpit Rock, Galdhøppigen or Månafossen waterfall among others). And of course, playing board games, and especially wargames with my friends.

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

Daniel: I have enjoyed playing wargames since 2013 when I discovered For the People but when I played A Distant Plain from Volko Ruhnke and Brian Train with its focus on Afghanistan, same as my master thesis research topic, I felt that wargames could lead to critical thinking about history and learning from the past. From that moment, I started to think about other wargames that I played and that could lead to the same situation while enjoying playing with history. After meeting Volko Ruhnke in person in 2020 at Bellota Con wargames convention in Badajoz (Spain), I felt if I could design myself a game (called The Collapse) about a topic not-well known especially outside Spain and without many games about it as is The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) which encouraged me to break into game design with a game about a topic that I loved and that I would like to play.

But what I enjoyed about the design experience so far, was although I spent about a year with historical research besides my previous knowledge on the topic, that I still have the chance to find new historical sources, articles, opinions from people and historians, and this is very interesting to me to continue learning more as well as meeting new friends and playing games together, and sometimes playtesting my designs to get new insights and options to adjust them.

Grant: What is your game The Spanish Road about?

Daniel: The Spanish Road is a solitaire game where the player takes the role of the Spanish army marching from Lombardy (northern Italy), until reaching Flanders (what is actually Belgium, but at that time was known as ‘Flanders’ or ‘Spanish Netherlands’ depending on the historical sources), and the system (or AI) performs the enemy responses and challenges faced during their march.

However, the game represents The Spanish Road logistical challenge, but also the need to prepare properly the route while facing unexpected situations (with events turn table) and also enemy units that tried to block the path in a short-time play (about 45 minutes of gameplay, however the first games may take a bit longer). The game tries to be simple, with some design abstractions taken in order to ensure a good balance between historical accuracy and simulation, while challenging and fun for players but easy to understand its mechanics and rules.

Grant: What does the title of the game reference? What should it convey to players about the situation?

Daniel: The Spanish Road presents the history of the route with the same game name that the Spanish military veterans called ‘Tercios’ used to march from Lombardy (northern Italy), crossing Savoy, Franche Comté, Alsace and Lorraine regions until reaching Flanders (what is actually Belgium, but at that time was known as ‘Flanders’ or ‘Spanish Netherlands’ depending on the sources). The march across the Spanish Road, although quite complex was well organized in order to ensure that the military units had military experience and were well trained. It started with recruits from the Iberian Peninsula (mainly from Castille region) with few or no real military experience that moved to the Spanish territories in Italy such as Sicily or Naples where they replaced the garrison troops (with fighting experience against the barbary pirates or the Ottomans), which moved to Genoa and from there to Lombardy where they met the Spanish veterans in the region, so those troops gathered in northern Italy marched to Flanders. 

‘The Spanish Road’ was used mostly by the Spanish ‘Tercios’ by the Duke of Alba in 1567 until it was finally blockaded by France with the invasion of Lorraine in the mid 1630’s and their formal entry in the Thirty Year’s War in 1635, so the game focuses in the period between 1567 and 1634.

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

Daniel: The ‘Spanish Road’ drew my interest as it is not a well-known topic outside historians and people very interested in the topic, as maybe often are more known the history of the Spanish ‘Tercios’ but not that path. Because the ‘Spanish Road’ was crucial for the efforts of Spain to confront the revolt in Flanders, that finally led to the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia. Without the ‘Spanish Road’ it would have been almost impossible to stand for Spain in Flanders.

Grant: What is your design goal with the game?

Daniel: My design goal with the game, was to show that despite the challenges faced from 1567 (including the French blockade in the mid 1630’s) and the Spanish defeat at the naval battle of the Downs in 1639, the ‘Spanish Road’ continued to provide a source to send military units and resources to Flanders for about 80 years and keep the military might of Spain and the ‘Tercios’ as is known with the historical quote that says:

“España mi natura, Italia mi ventura y Flandes mi sepultura”

(“Spain my birth, Italy my life and Flanders my death”)

Grant: What elements from the history of The Thirty Years’ War is most important to include in the design?

Daniel: During The Thirty Years’ War the most important things to take into account in the design are several concepts important to the history:

  • The Thirty Years’ War was in fact not ONE war but SEVERAL wars connected between them due to some nations that took part in some of them, but with the relevance that they took part in shaping a different Europe at the end of 1648 than was the original situation in 1618. For instance, we may talk among others about the Bohemian War (1618-1620), Palatinate War (1620-1623), Danish Intervention (1625-1629), Mantua Succession War (1628-1631), Swedish Intervention (1629-1648) or the French Intervention (1635-1648).
  • Regardless of the conflict during The Thirty Years’ War logistics were crucial in ensuring a nation’s success, and this includes marching through the most secured route and this includes the reflection of the history in the game of the ‘Spanish Road’
  • Armies during The Thirty Years’ War were supplied (pay, food and other resources) generally with resources from the regions that they crossed through, which implied ravaging regions, conquering cities and receiving financial resources mainly from foreign countries (commonly known as ‘subsidies’).

Grant: What research did you do to get the details correct? What one must read source would you recommend?

Daniel: For the research process of The Spanish Road, I used mostly historical data and information from the research done for my game The Collapse that covers the entire Thirty Years’ War, since the ‘Spanish Road’ is also included in the game and serves as a mini-game to better understand The Collapse mechanics and gameplay. But the bibliography that I would recommend will be first of all The Thirty Years’ War from Geoffrey Parker and the books from the Thirty Years’ War from William Guthrie in order to better understand the relevance of the whole war, and more specifically about the ‘Spanish Road’ the following sources:

‘De Pavía a Rocroi’ (‘From Pavía to Rocroi’). 6th Edition (Despertaferro). Julio Albi de la Cuesta (In Spanish)

El Camino Español y la logística en la época de los tercios. Aportación de Calatayud y comarca. Fernando Martínez Laínez y Víctor Javier Sánchez Tarradellas. Centro de Estudios Bilbilitanos Institución ‘Fernando el Católico’. 2013 (in Spanish)

The Flanders Army and the Spanish Road 1567-1659. Geoffrey Parker

Una Pica en Flandes. Fernando Martínez Laínez. (In Spanish)

Grant: What is the scale of the game and force structure of units?

Daniel: The game scale is approximately one week for each turn, and the force structure of units is a value which abstracts the strength of the armies. For instance, for the Spanish Army (the player’s army) at strength 7 at start that may drop during the game and also increase if successfully received reinforcements with a Reinforcement Operation.

Grant: As a solitaire game how does the AI work? What are its possible actions and priorities?

Daniel: After the initial phases of the game (diplomacy and event impact), the player performs its actions and once done it is time for the AI to react and perform its own operations. Then, for each enemy army not in a region with the player army rolls a 6 die-roll and moves to region matching the dice result. That way the enemy movement is randomized and unpredictable for the player, also because it moves first so the player is unsure if by moving first will be safe or later on at a region with an enemy army.

The random movement of the enemy armies is designed as a “spiderweb” where the enemy armies move chasing you, but with the fear that if two enemy armies move to same region will merge into a stronger “Allied Army”, so the player may think if it won’t be better to take the chance to fight smaller enemy armies before they may merge at the expense of losing time? Will this affect the time (turns) that they need to reach Flanders? Very important and challenging decision for the player to take into account.

Finally, I would say that the AI priority is designed so if the player doesn’t fight them, they will go to chase them and most likely will increase its strength with a random and surprising movement.

Grant: Who are the three Spanish leaders the player can choose?

Daniel: The three Spanish leaders are:

Ambrogio Spínola: 1st Marquess of Los Balbases and 1st Duke of Sesto (1569–1630) was an Italian military and nobleman from Genoa, who served as a Spanish general and won a number of important battles and sieges like Ostend (1601-1604), Breda (1624), Palatinate Campaign 1620-1623).

Duke of Alba: Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3rd Duke of Alba (1507–1582), known as the Great Duke of Alba, was a Spanish noble, military and diplomat who is most known for its actions since 1567 in Flanders during the Eighty Year’s War (1568-1648), but also for its participation in the Battle of Mühlberg (1547), the Italian War (1551-1559) and the Spanish conquest of Portugal in 1580.

Cardinal Infante Ferdinand: Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand (Don Fernando de Austria) (1609-1640), was a Spanish prince and Catholic Cardinal who served as Governor of Flanders and was a Spanish military durante during The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) including his famous victory against Sweden at the Battle of Nördlingen (1634).

Grant: How can players affect the difficulty level?

Daniel: The player can select the difficulty at the game setup selecting how many turns they have to reach Flanders or will lose the game as 10 turns (difficult), 12 (medium) or 14 (easy). Therefore, the turn variability may give more time to face the challenges that may occur during the march which players may adjust probably taking the easy difficulty mode for their first game play and then adjust it at future games.

Grant: What is the makeup of the enemy army?

Daniel: The enemy armies make up is based on the historical nationalities that were part of those armies, most of them with a German origin (3 enemy armies), and one Swiss and one Italian enemy army reflecting the fact that often soldiers from those nationalities were either hired or recruited as mercenaries to support the enemy armies that were mostly made of German units. However, when two enemy armies merge at the same region, they form what the game calls an “Allied Army” (limited to 2 in the game) which is stronger reflecting that an enemy army was made of units from different nationalities.

Grant: How are these armies’ setup?

Daniel: During the game setup, the player rolls a 6-sided die and the result determines which region from the 6 possible in the die-roll will be empty of enemy armies. For example, the player rolls a, which in the game table included at the rulebook means that Alsace will start the game empty of enemy armies. Then, the 5 enemy armies (not the 2 “Allied Armies”) are flipped to their backside (which has no information of their strength and nationality) and shuffled, and finally placed randomly one at each of the 5 regions that didn’t match the die-roll number (Baden, Lorraine, Savoy, Württemberg and the Lower Palatinate).

Grant: What is the general Sequence of Play?

Daniel: The general Sequence of Play is as follows:

Game setup where the player: 1. Selects one of three Spanish leaders (each has some special benefits for the game at battle, siege or ‘Tercio Momentum’), 2. Places the Spanish Army strength marker, Turn marker and ‘Tercio Momentum’ at the corresponding spaces and 3. Selects the game difficulty.

Determine the region empty of enemy armies, and place the 5 enemy armies on the map

‘Diplomacy Phase’ (only during turns 2 to 6), with a possible diplomacy impact from foreign countries.

‘Event Phase’, with possible good or bad things happening to the player for the rest of the turn.

‘Operations Phase’, where the player may perform up to 2 Operations per turn from several options.

Enemy movement, where enemy armies may move.

Victory Check

‘Te Deum Phase’, where the players if has not reached a victory moves to the next turn.

Grant: What operation choices do players have to choose from? 

Daniel: The player may choose up to 2 Operations (they can be repeated twice) from the following options with a cost of 1 Operation each:

  1. Take Reinforcements, the Spanish Army may increase its strength by 1 (automatic if at Lombardy or depending on a die-roll at other regions).
  2. Move, the Spanish Army moves to an adjacent region with a possible attrition (reducing the Spanish Army strength by 1 if crossing the Alps, and a logistics roll which may cancel the move if the region is not controlled.
  3. Battle, if the Spanish Army is at the same region with an enemy army (or “Allied Army”).
  4. Siege Warfare, in order to take control of the region fortress (if any)
  5. Building a part of the Spanish Road at a region controlled without enemy armies.

Grant: Why is there a focus on building the Spanish Road?

Daniel: During the period presented in the game, the ‘Spanish Road’ was designed to be a safe way to move the armies which included the use of diplomacy for the regions crossed, but also that the route was safe (with small fortifications, mostly castles built across the route) and also the need to send engineers (like the famous engineer at the Spanish army ‘Gabriel Rebellón’ in advance for that purpose. Therefore, the focus of building the ‘Spanish Road’ with a marker reflects in an abstract way those aspects that will help the player a safer route and also more points if they reach Flanders.

Grant: How does a battle work in the design?

Daniel: If the Spanish Army and an enemy army are in the same region, a battle takes place.  

  1. The Spanish Army and the enemy army roll a number of dices simultaneously, based on the army strength modified by the Spanish leader battle bonus (if any at the counter) and a possible event effect.
  2. Each side scores one hit for every two pair of 5s and 6s it rolls. This can be two 5s, two 6s, or one 5 and one 6, being the side with most hits the winner of the battle (enemy wins ties).
  3. The Spanish Army’s strength is reduced by 1 for each hit received from the enemy army, and if it reaches zero you lose immediately the game.
  4. If the Spanish Army survives and wins the battle, remove the enemy army from the map.

Grant: How do Sieges work?

Daniel: The player may decide to either lay siege to a fortress or assault the fortress.

  1. If the player lays siege to a fortress, the Spanish Army strength is reduced by the fortress value, which reflects that the player has left some forces to continue the siege (in game terms the fortress is controlled).
  2. Assault the fortress, were the Spanish Army and the enemy roll a number of dices simultaneously. The Spanish Army rolls a number of dice based on the army strength modified by the Spanish leader siege bonus (if any at the counter) and a possible event effect, and the enemy 2 for each level (strength) of the fortress.
  3. Each side scores one hit for every pair of 5s and 6s it rolls. This can be two 5s, two 6s, or one 5 and one 6, being the side with most hits the winner of the battle (enemy wins ties).
  4. The Spanish Army’s strength is reduced by 1 for each hit received from an assaulted fortification, and if it reaches zero you immediately lose the game.
  5. If the Spanish Army survives and wins the siege assault, the enemy fortress is controlled for the rest of the game.

Grant: How is victory attained?

Daniel: Victory is attained in The Spanish Road if the player reaches the Flanders region with the Spanish Army. If the Spanish Army doesn’t reach Flanders, or is reduced to strength zero due to a battle or siege, the player also loses the game. But because the player only wins if they reach Flanders in the allotted time (turns) decided at the start of the game which makes the game despite being simple possible to adjust according to what players prefer if they want an easier or more difficult game. This difficulty adjustment, together with the different regions the player may cross on its way to Flanders, makes each game feel unique and with a high replayability while keeping at the same time a very good historical simulation.

And once Flanders is reached, the player determines the number of Victory Points gained for different game actions (building ‘Spanish Road’ markers and if possible, in a row between regions, winning battles and sieges or for each Spanish Army strength when arriving at Flanders), and reduces its value for each enemy army remaining on the map. Then compares the result, with the victory points table to determine the type of victory and its narrative.

Grant: What is the Te Deum Phase?

Daniel: The Te Deum Phase is the last turn phase where if the player has not reached Flanders and is the last turn of the difficulty mode selected on the game setup it loses the game. Otherwise, the player proceeds to the next turn.

Grant: What is Tercio Momentum?

Daniel: ‘Tercio Momentum’ is a game abstraction that reflects the Tercios soldiers’ superior skills as elite soldiers, and that can be used once per turn to perform extra actions or re-rolls.

Grant: Why was it important to include these elements?

Daniel: ‘Te Deum’ was a term used to define as a celebration for the success or the contrary as recognizing a defeat which helped the design to determine a defeat or success which if it is not achieved the player moves to the next turn, while ‘Tercio Momentum’ is a concept important to present exceptional performances at certain moments by the ‘Tercios’.

Grant: What do you feel the game design excels at?

Daniel: I strongly believe that in a short play time (usually a game takes place in about 45 minutes), players get the tension of making important decisions at each moment with scarce resources. And also, to present in a simple and fun way the relevance of such a crucial logistical route for the Spanish Army.

Grant: What other designs are you currently working on?

Daniel: The most important design that I am working with at the moment is The Collapse from NAC Wargames, which is a strategic wargame about the entire Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) for 2 players (with up to 6 multiplayer options). The game has its mechanics ready, and we are playtesting on Vassal and face to face, and adjusting game balance and materials with the game graphic designer Donal Hegarty well known for games such as Labyrinth, Fields of Fire, Mr. President, Fire and Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683 among others. The game doesn’t have a publication date yet from the publisher to open the P500 reservation in English, but it can be reserved without compromise at the following link (click ‘apúntame’ which is register me in Spanish, and a registration form in English will appear): http://tinyurl.com/yfkkdbc3

I am also working to have ready with Sergio Ortega The Defense with the stunning art from Nils Johansson, which is a solitaire game about the Anglo-Dutch Siege of Cádiz (south of Spain) which we gave for free at the Spanish wargames’ convention Pax Lúdica 2023 in Cádiz and that we are open to consider publisher options.

I am also working currently with the development of the solitaire system for The Troubles from Compass Games by Hugh O’ Donnell about the Northern Ireland Conflict (1960’s to 1998).

Furthermore, there is one more game that I am working on which is very challenging about a late 18th century historical moment which is presented in C3i Magazine #37 and that I encourage people to reserve the magazine, and read in an article about it and also the vibrant and fun Spanish wargames convention besides enjoying The Spanish Road game!

Thanks for your time in answering our questions Daniel. We appreciate the great insight into this cool looking solitaire game and we cannot wait to get a crack at the final version. We also are excited about your other projects and look forward to hearing from you in the future.

If you are interested in The Spanish Road, you can pre-order a copy of C3i Magazine #37 from the RBM Studio Store at the following link: https://c3iopscenter.com/rbm-studio-store/#!/C3i-Magazine-Nr-37-Pre-Order-p613193796

-Grant