Raymond Weiss has designed some pretty solid wargames over the past few years including titles like SCS Rostov ‘41 from Multi-Man Publishing, 1950: The Forgotten War from Conflict Simulations Limited and 1914: At Villers Cottérêts also from CSL to name just a few. These games are pretty good and we have seriously enjoyed playing them. But recently Ray appears to be on a bit of a design journey. What I mean by this is he is playing all types of games not just wargames, including Euros, Roll and Writes, Card Driven Games and even some trick taking games, all in an effort I believe to see how these mechanics and forms fit into wargaming. He is experimenting and recently we played one of his new experimental games called The Great Northern War from Conflict Simulations Limited. The Great Northern War covers the conflict between Sweden and a coalition between Russia, Denmark, Poland and Saxony in the early 18th century. The conflict commenced once Charles XII of Sweden ascended to the throne and this struggle was over control of the region. As many of you may know, at the time, Sweden was a major player in the area and had a significant military presence known for their skill in battle.

The concept of trick taking is usually found in card games such as Euchre, Hearts, Pinochle and Spades or any other number of games. The players will use their cards to outduel each other to win a trick that will be held for points later in the round. Typically, these games have what is called a Trump Suit that can be used to overpower all other suited cards in a single trick to win unless someone else plays a higher valued Trump card over yours. The mechanic keeps a game lite but creates great moments of strategy as players have to decide how to play their cards and in what order when they are in control. If a player plays their cards properly, they can smoke out other Trump cards or can win tricks by simply having the highest valued cards of the suit that is played. Understanding the table and what cards the other players might be holding based on the contents of your hand and what has been played in the round is also very important and I see this as the single most in common element of trick taking games with wargames. I enjoy Euchre a lot and played tons of it in high school and at college but have gotten away from that type of game over the past 10 years or so.

The game utilizes a normal deck of cards, but there are namely 2 types of cards in the game. Normal cards in a player’s hand range from 2-10 and represent all 4 of the major suits including Hearts, Diamonds, Spades and Clubs, and then all the face cards and jokers are Decision Cards, which can be bought by either player and then be used to break rules within the framework of the game, and/or get modifiers for manipulating hand size, movement or combat. Decision cards are open to each player and can be bought at any time with some exceptions for various cards which require other things to take place on the map first, such as controlling an objective.

The main driving mechanic of the game involves trick-taking, so a vale/suit which a player leads with whenever taking an action is more about their tactics. The really interesting part of the game is that the current round’s Trump-suit is randomly determined each round which makes every turn truly unique. This happens as the first card of the round is turned over from the deck and then players take note of the suit as it will represent the Trump for the round. Players then are going to play a card from their hand against each other to win this card. This is called the Planning Tricks and is a very important aspect of the game to grasp. Winning the trick is great if the card that is showing is a good card, meaning the number value is high (either a 7, 8 or 9) or it belongs to the Trump Suit. This is really one of the great parts of the design and gets the players thinking and considering how they are trying to build their hand for the upcoming turn and for what purpose. This war off aspect is simply comparing the numbers of the played cards and the player who played the highest card or a Trump Card will win that trick and claim the faceup card. The loser will get to draw a random card off the top of the deck, which can be a blessing or a curse as you just don’t know what you are going to be getting. This is done 2 times and the players will add 2 new cards to their drawn hand. We very much enjoyed this one and have played it several times.

If interested, we posted an interview with the designer Ray Weiss on the blog and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2024/04/15/interview-with-raymond-weiss-designer-of-the-great-northern-war-from-conflict-simulations-limited/

You can also read more into my first impression thoughts on the game at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2024/04/23/first-impressions-the-great-northern-war-from-conflict-simulations-limited/

If you are interested in The Great Northern War, you can order a copy for $49.99 from the Conflict Simulations Limited website at the following link: https://www.consimsltd.com/products/the-great-northern-war

-Grant