Day 2 dawned early and we were out the door by 7:45am for breakfast and made it to the War Room around 8:30am where we finished up our game of Blind Swords Volume 12: Gettysburg: The First Day from Revolution Games. We should a video review and then I walked around the War Room to see all the games that people were playing. I saw Battle Britain from PSC Games, which is a fun beer and pretzels air war game with cool little plastic minis, Littoral Commander: The Baltic from The Dietz Foundation, Company of Heroes: The Board Game from Bad Crow Games, which is a fun and lite miniatures based wargame based on the successful video game franchise, and a new and interesting looking prototype game called Arsenal of Democracy.
With the prototype, no one was at the table though and I found out that the designer had been here but had to leave for the day but would be back later. The game looks to be a card based game that deals with the production of armaments for the war effort during World War II. I am keenly interested and will definitely want to get a closer look at this one soon.
We then sat down with Leslie Jerome to have him introduce us to the Line of Battle Series with Volume 3 To Take Washington: Jubal Early’s Summer 1864 Campaign from Multi-Man Publishing.
Line of Battle is a regimental-level American Civil War wargame system designed for fast-paced, non-stop action by eliminating excessive paperwork and combining fire phases with movement. I feel like this system is a highly playable classic ACW system with lots of very interesting mechanics including activation, order reception and relay, closing rolls, morale checks and close assault. In fact, I love how it creates a great narrative with some of the terminology and naming conventions such as the Blood Lust result fur close assaults and the Cowardly Legs from broken units.
Just a really solid system and we hope to explore more of it in the near future. We do have the next volume in the series on pre-order called No Turning Back: The Battle of the Wilderness.
We then sat down with Steve Jones (aka Steve Panther or Steve Blue as we affectionately refer to him) with Blue Panther Games and did a summary of all of their upcoming projects and fakes incurring getting an early look at Dawn of the Zeds Designer Edition designed by Hermann Luttmann.
This one looks awesome and is a revision of the original game with some added content and rules that realize Hermann’s true vision for the game.
We are playing this with Hermann and Steve tomorrow afternoon and I cannot wait. It’ll be damn good old fashioned gaming fun!
After lunch, we broke out Chicago ‘68 from The Dietz Foundation. Chicago ’68 pits revolutionary spectacle against civil order at the Democratic National Convention riots of 1968. Players take the role of either the Establishment, consisting of the Chicago PD and Mayor Daley, or the Demonstrators, including the Yippies and MOBE, and is a fast-paced game of street battles and political maneuvers.
Each side plays from two asymmetric decks of action cards. The Establishment positions tactical forces and police platoons to co-ordinate mass arrests while working the convention floor. The Demonstrators, on the other hand, can pivot from direct clashes to radical street theater; their tactics can be reactive and unpredictable, allowing for wild cat-and-mouse chases and mischief-making across the tear-gassed avenues of downtown Chicago.
This game is an area control/area influence game that uses cards to take a predetermined set of actions that can be upgraded and replayed with better actions as the game progresses. Each player will fight for control of the delegates to the convention as well as exposure to the nation through the media. Just a very well designed game that was a ton of fun to play.
In the end, Alexander’s Yippies/Mobe coalition won the exposure battle and took home the victory. Very tight game though that came down to the last few card plays. What a great area control/area influence political style tug of war. Loved it!
Our final game of the evening was the long anticipated China’s War: 1937-1941 from GMT Games, which is volume 13 in the COIN Series. China’s War examines the first five years of the conflict, when China stood alone against the Japanese Empire. Each player takes the role of a Faction seeking to attack or defend the Republic of China: the aggressive Japanese, the harried Government (represented by the Guomindang party), the rebellious Chinese Communist Party, or the unruly, fractious Warlords who are obedient when convenient but have their eye on gaining state power. Using military, political, and economic actions and exploiting various events, players build and maneuver forces to influence or control the population, extract resources, or otherwise achieve their Faction’s aims. A deck of cards regulates turn order, events, victory checks, and other processes. The rules can run non-player Factions, enabling solitaire, 2-player, or multi-player games.
This feels like a classic COIN Series game with 3 insurgent style factions against the powerful Japanese. But the focus really centers on the control of the Lines of Communication or LoC’s, which was a very refreshing approach that created some really interesting interplay.
In the end my Japanese were able to bully the other 3 factions and control the LoC’s to take home the victory in an early 3rd Propaganda card . The scores were Japan +3, Nationalists +1, CPC -3 and Warlords -4.
We very much enjoyed ourselves and can’t wait to play again soon.
A great day where we played 3 full games, shot 5 videos and had a lot of fun. Tomorrow is already booked and we are playing Cross Bronx Expressway from GMT Games, Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars from Ingenioso Hidalgo, Dawn of the Zeds Designer Edition from Blue Panther and then a 4-player game of War of the Ring: The Card Game from Ares Games.
See you tomorrow night!
-Grant
The Players' Aid 
Great job so far men. Will you have an opportunity to see or play “Song For War”?
Jim
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I’d like to but neither of them are here.
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Wow, an eventful day. I am eager to get China’s War to the table as well. And Chicago ’68 looks really interesting!
Looking forward to the vids to hear more details.
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what kind of camera do you guys use? Is that a Sony ZV-1?
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Yes. That’s it exactly.
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Did you ever get to play Arsenal of Democracy? Can you tell us the designer?
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Never was able to connect but the designers name is Pete Shelling.
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Hello Garant and gang.
Unfortunately,/ fortunately I was also attending the Ohio Safety Congress conference at the other end of the Convention center, That was certainly a boon to my travel budget– being on expense accounts for work– but the going back-and-forth between the two didn’t allow me to get fully engaged in either. Like a board game with multiple paths to victory, sometimes it’s better to just pick one and focus!
About the game:
Grant– thanks for the mention and you guessed correctly – ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ is a card-based game focused primarily on industrial production in the USA during WW2. Players vie to build the stuff that completes military operations for victory points. (No real ‘combat’– you build the ships, aircraft, tanks and trucks required for say ‘Operation Husky’ and you get the VPs). There are ‘side quests’ that lean into political activity, Lend-lease shipments and Home Front morale for possible victory points as well. ,
As for mechanics — I call it:
“Terraforming Mars (many unique ‘project’ cards) meets Kingsburg (roll dice for your industrial build potential) meets Race for the Galaxy (discard cards to play others). So there are lots of dice rolled and cards played. Hey, you know what Picasso said — “Good artists borrow. Great artists steal”
At the beginning of each quarter (15 in the ‘full’ game) roll your dice pool, then in turn place the required pippage on the city to build that asset and/ or gain resources. (Detroit and New Jersey built lots of end products, whereas Cleveland and Chicago built parts for those things.) Your personality or process cards in play may modify those capabilities or help compete the Operations. For example, Admiral John Towers helps you get naval aircraft, whereas Patton and Eichelberger add to Operational strength. cap drive provides more steel resources ach quarter and Andrew Higgins gives an extra production die Need more pips on your dice? Turn in a Rosie the Riveter chit to re-roll or add a pip. When all players have placed all their dice, the quarter ends.
Everyone starts with an industrial or political leader (much like a Corporation in Terraforming Mars or leader in Dune Imperium,) but you can trade yours in mid-game by putting 12+ on Washington DC.
I have tested with some folks in my ‘Euro game’ club and the results were encouraging. This is a group of people who just want a good game and overall they did feel that the contract fulfillment mechanic worked well enough and offered solid choices without getting bogged down into AP every turn. I have not yet played with a group that is spiritually invested in the subject matter and might offer some feedback on my asset values or personality card powers. (Was hoping to get to it this past week, but had too many other commitments to get a good ‘sit down’ going.) I don’t think I have too many layers, although some suggested Lend -Lease might be that layer. My take is: you can ignore it altogether and still do well.
Next up is to start putting the rules on paper (Alas, that is not the ‘fun’ part)
I will most certainly bring to WBC if anyone here is interested,
Again– thanks for the nod, Grant!
Pete (yes my muse takes me away from ASL scenarios sometimes)’ Shelling
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OOps – how I edit my post?
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