Today’s entry is going to be very concise because I am completely exhausted. After 4 1/2 days of gaming, I can honestly say I’ve had enough. At least for this trip. We ended up playing a total of 14 games. Yes you read that currently. 14 games including: Crusade & Revolution from Compass Games (just amazing!), Black Orchestra from Starling Games (I’m just sad it took us so long!), 1714: The Case of the Catalans from Devir Games (a real shocker this one…so very good), Congress of Vienna from GMT Games (I want to play more), Tattered Flags No. 1: Into the Whirlpool from Blue Panther (2nd time and I liked it even more!), Rebels Against Rebellion from Flying Pig Games (going to be sneaky good), Divine Right from Pungo Games (glad we played but I’ll take a pass), True Command from Catastrophe Games (surprised how much I liked this one), Crisis: 1914 from Worthington Publishing (an instant classic), Successors 4th Edition from Phalanx (I think I’ve had my fill of this one for a while), Nations & Cannons RPG from Flagbearer Games (we did it again with something supernatural (a werewolf) finding its way into history), Time of Crisis from GMT Games (always fun to share this peach of a game, New Cold War from VUCA Simulations (gorgeous and interesting CDG) and finally The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick Taking Game from Office Dog (a really solid game). And we are already planning what we will play and do next year. We had a great time! Now into a quick synopsis of today’s 3 games.
Bright and early at 9:00am, we hosted 2 teach and play sessions of Time of Crisis from GMT Games. Time of Crisis is a hybrid wargame that covers the Crisis of the Third Century, where the Roman Empire nearly collapsed in the face of calamitous internal and external strife, including civil war and barbarian invasions from all sides. The game uses deck building as players attempt to spread their influence, establish her or ships in provinces, develop infrastructure and fight off barbarian invaders and other pretenders as they try to take control of Italian and seat themselves upon the throne. This game is a fantastic introductory level wargame that plays in about 90 minutes and that looks really great on the table.
Alexander taught a group of 2 and played while I had a group of 3 and also played. The games were very fun and I think that we made some initiates into the genre and enjoyed our time.
Here you can see the final situation in my game as my red emperor was able to establish himself early in Italia and fight off several pretenders to the throne. It was great to teach a new type of game this year and taking a break from our usual COIN Series teach and play was a breath of fresh air.
After we finished Time of Crisis, we had scheduled a game of New Cold War from VUCA Simulations. We have very much been looking forward to this game and were vetted eager to get it to the table.
New Cold War is a game about geopolitics that takes place from 1989 to 2019. It begins with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and ends with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. Players (from 1 to 4) take the role of the great powers fighting for the new world order: Russia, China (forming the Red Bloc), the United States and the European Union (Blue Bloc). The allied powers will have to cooperate with each other (exchange of cards, media marker…), but victory will be individual. There are two victory conditions: a power must declare two of the hidden objectives on its agenda during the game or lead the victory point score at the end of the last turn of the game. The game consists of nine turns divided into three decades with a game duration of 2 1-2 to 3 hours.
New Cold War is a Card Driven Game and features the 135 most important events of the 30 year period covered by the game. Your power’s cards can be played as an event or as operations, while opponents’ cards and your own negative cards are played as OPS and the event is executed for or against the power to which it belongs. OPS can be played in six different ways: 1) placing or removing influence on countries on the map (based on their stability, geopolitical value and initial alignment), 2) by staging a coup d’état, 3) stabilizing or destabilizing countries to protect or favor access to them, 4) advancing on the prestige marker, 5) advancing on the media marker, either alone or in cooperation with your ally (it is a track that is contested by blocks) or 6) creating a reserve of OPS to play in later rounds or game turns.
We really enjoyed the game and in the end I was victorious with the United States of America. There was lots of discussion about the trouble of playing as the Chinese and the Russians as they have a lot to overcome and we wondered if they are possibly underpowered. We also discussed some of the concern with the size of the writing on the board, the color choices and the general clarity of all of the parts. But the game is very good and will be worth the effort that you have to put into it to learn it and to play it multiple times to get the strategy down. I will play it again and would recommend the game to anyone that loves Twilight Struggle.
After this game, we headed to the vendor area and purchased 4 more games including Amateurs at Arms: The War of 1812 from Clash of Arms Games, Save South Vietnam from Fortress Games, Blind Swords Series Grand Havoc from Revolution Games and Blind Swords Series Thunder at Dawn from Revolution Games. Some really great titles for a great vendor from Virginia named Age of Glory. We purchased too many games and needed these about as much as we needed holes in our heads!
The final game of the night was The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick Taking Game from Office Dog. This is a game we loved up at Miniature Market while attending Basement Con in St. Louis in March and we have played about 10 times now. The game is a cooperative trick taking game where players have to work together to navigate the story of the Fellowship of the Ring as Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin and their companions must make their way to Rivendell with the One Ring meeting new characters and completing special quests. The game has about 20 individual scenarios and sees the players using their cards to win (or not win depending on their objectives) tricks by playing suited cards without table talk. It is really lite, interesting, challenging and fun and we played 3 rural scenarios in about and hour. I highly recommend this game!
Well there you have it. Another Buckeye Game Fest in the books and we are exhausted and ready to return home tomorrow morning. We are planning to shoot a car video debrief and have some video content to shoot this week in quick overviews and reviews of several of these games. Thanks for following along and I hope you enjoyed reading this updates.
Here are links to the previous day’s posts:
-Grant
The Players' Aid 
Another great recap.
New Cold War is on my radar / want list, just waiting for some US shops to get in stock as that shipping is brutal so an easy pass- at least for now.
Hope with future plays it gets a better review also.
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