Buckeye Game Fest 2025 Daily Debrief Series – Day 1

We arrived safely on Tuesday evening at around 6:00pm and got checked in, unpacked, organized and off to the War Room to get setup and see what was happening.

We found out that this year they have sold nearly 60 badges for the War Room and there was already some good activity as we arrived with games of Triumph & Tragedy and Conquest & Consequence joined from GMT Games, Littoral Commander from The Dietz Foundation, OCS Smolensk from MMP and Pacific War from GMT Games ongoing.

We found our corner of the room and planted our flag as we began setting up a few games that we plan to demo and introduce folks to over the next few days including Eylau 1807 from Sound of Drums and Red Dragon / Green Crescent Deluxe Edition from Decision Games.

We had a lot of work to do to get these games ready for play but we decided we wanted to knock off a game from our Shelf of Shame called Crusade and Revolution: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 Deluxe Edition – 2nd Edition from Compass Games. Crusade and Revolution is a fairly traditional card-driven game system that mimics Paths of Glory but adapts it to the specific circumstances of the Spanish Civil War. Each player, the Republicans and Nationalists, has their own unique deck of strategic cards, which are the heart of the game, and must make difficult choices on their use through-out the game. Each card has four possible uses, but only one of them can be chosen each time the card is played! The possibilities included using it for Ops points to move and attack, the printed Event, Replacement Points to be able to rebuild damaged and eliminated units and Strategic Redeployment to place these units out onto the board.

We played the introductory 5-turn scenario that covered the War of the Columns and very much enjoyed our experience. We played about 2 hours on Tuesday night and finished on Wednesday morning in another hour.

The game did come down to the end where Alexander’s Nationalists needed to attack and take Madrid to get the required number of VP’s to win but I had placed multiple units into the spaces leading up to and in his path toward Madrid while also building some key improved positions to give him a column shift to the left on his attacks. This coupled with the column shift fur the mountains he was unable to get at Madrid and ran out of steam.

In the end, I took a risk and counterattacked into Torreleguna before he could attack Madrid and rolled really well ending his chances. This game is very good and we very much enjoyed its streamlined system. The actions and cards worked well together to create a game with lots of choices and key decisions about how best to use your hand. This is the first Shelf of Shame Dust-Off Event game we have played in 2025 and we are very glad we did.

We also got a chance to show off our demo games and had some great conversations with a few new wargamers who are interested in expanding their options. We chatted about good introductory wargames, like Commands & Colors and the COIN Series as a crossover series, and there were intrigued by the concept of hex and counter. I felt like we were Evangelizing as we try to expose people to many different types of games.

Next up we played a lighter cooperative but seriously thematic game called Black Orchestra from Starling Games. The game is focused on the various coup and assassination attempts on Hitler near the end of World War II. We did the full 5-player game and had a blast with it.

The game uses some special abilities of key historical conspirators such as Stauffenberg, Beck, Bonhoeffer and others who each bring a unique set of abilities and advantages to the effort. On their turn, players may take 3 actions, such as moving, revealing an item, drawing a card or, at the cost of one action per die, roll the dice in an attempt to gain even more actions — at the risk of attracting the suspicion of the gestapo. This dice rolling Conspire action allows players to make bold moves when most needed and is such a difficult and risky decision.

We felt the game was great, very thematic and kept each of us on the edge of our seats and our only real complaint was that it was a bit too long but maybe that was our group and our penchant for discussion. But ultimately we ended up having 2 opportunities at well laid out and planned coup attempts (both sniper shots) that unfortunately just came up short. The dice are fickle and in this game you are dependent on their outcome and have to come up with ways to mitigate the bad and accentuate the good if you have any hope at victory.

But a great cooperative game and all had a great time! I will play that one again at anytime and in fact I have backed the expansion and various upgraded components on the Gamefound campaign.

Next up was a game that I purchased off Amazon for $18 a few years back and have been wanting to play called 1714: The Case of the Catalans from Devir Games.

The game tells the story of the death of king Charles II of Habsburg, which left the throne vacant and started a war all over Europe to settle the matter of the Spanish Succession.

The players in the game represent the powers of the Grand Alliance and will fight the Bourbon forces composed of French, Castilian and Bavarian troops. The overall goal of the game is to obtain the best commercial and territorial concessions, and conquer the Bourbon territories gaining VP from control. But this is not a true cooperative game as only 1 player will win.

Cards are purchased and used for the events or operations points to take various actions such as gaining resources, recruiting units, moving and attacking. The catch here is that each action is available only once for each turn and the players cannot execute the same action in two consecutive turns. This causes some competition for the best cards and then the actions needed to further their goals. The cards are very interesting as well as they incorporate the most relevant historical battles, events and characters throughout the war.

The game is a bit weird (in a very good way) and I really, really liked it. Lots of interaction. Lots of negotiation and mean spirited actions. The game has some intrigue as well as you have to fight each other control of the large VP spaces like Paris and Madrid and need to somewhat work together but keep your own interests moving ahead. I very much liked this game and am looking forward to playing again in the future.

In the end, my Dutch win the War of Spanish Succession in 1714: The Case of the Catalans with 20VP. This actually tied me with the Duchy of Savoy but I won because I had more money. Great little wargame!

The final game of the day was Congress of Vienna from GMT Games, which is a diplomatic card driven wargame. It is based on Churchill designed by Mark Herman and is the 3rd game after Churchill and Pericles in the Great Statesmen Series. The game is set during the years of 1813-1814 and sees players take on the role of the main characters of the struggle between the Napoleonic Empire and the coalition of Russia, Austria, and Great Britain with their Prussian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swedish allies.

The game has two different but related phases including the conference table where players debate over the control of issues that are then used on the battlefield to recruit units, attack and take overall command of battles. The cards also can be used in battles to add DRM’s and battles are fought by adding up a bunch of DRM’s with +1 for each furor involved and then a battle track is consulted to determine losses.

Congress of Vienna is both a diplomatic and strategic military conflict. Congress of Vienna is similar to Churchill in the mechanics and organization of its rules, diplomatic display, and its military map. But it very much feels more like a true wargame and was extremely interesting. We are still learning and need to keep playing this one but I did enjoy what it was that we were doing.

Tomorrow is another jam packed day as we will be shooting videos with Steve Jones with Blue Panther and possibly Mark Holt Walker and Denver Walker with Flying Pig Games. We also plan to play Crisis: 1914 from Worthington Publishing, Into the Whirlpool from Blue Panther and maybe get a look at a prototype for Rebels Against Rebellion (David Thompson’s ACW game) and the first published copy of Line of Fire: Burnt Moon (Undaunted 2200, but as a pure card game, no board). A big day and I am looking forward to it!

-Grant