Day 3 started off a bit slow as we dragged in the morning getting ready and didn’t get out the door till around 8:15am and after breakfast didn’t make it to the War Room until almost 9:00am. But, upon arrival we got right to gaming by setting up Cross Bronx Expressway from GMT Games with Russ Wetli from Cardboard Conflicts as our third.

Cross Bronx Expressway is the 3rd game in the Irregular Conflicts Series and attempts to simulate the socio-economic processes of urban development, and the human costs that result, as a competitive city-builder with collective loss conditions in the South Bronx between 1940 and 2000, with their unique faction pursuing their own goals while cooperating to keep the borough viable. Through a card driven sequence of play, they will work to solve the economic challenges facing the area by building infrastructure and organizations, forming coalitions, mitigating the multitude of issues facing the vulnerable population, and managing resources to stay out of debt. 

Cross Bronx Expressway is a very interesting and engaging way to learn about the history of American cities as an economic simulation of sorts. Players will have to deal with the conflicting incentives and complex factors shaping urban life and together determine the fate of the Bronx.

We very much enjoyed this one and felt like it was a very insightful and thematically connected with the subject and the times to crest a very brain melting but interesting experience. I felt like o really had no idea what I was doing…but very much liked it.

We ended up losing the game as it is semi-cooperative and players can lose together due to bankruptcy or the overcrowding of prisons that will lead to higher social difficulties. But we learned a lot and I very much look forward to playing this one again.

We then played our 1st game of the interesting COIN Series like game Werwolf: Insurgency in Occupied Germany, 1945-1948 from Legion Wargames with Dave and Ardwulf. The game is designed by Clint Warren-Davey and Benjamin Feine and is an alternate history game, but the story that is presented is entirely plausible. Werwolf (I’ll say here that the game uses the German spelling, dropping the second “e”) was a real underground guerrilla group, comprised of SS and Hitler Youth members. It was intended to lead an insurgency against the invading Allies and Soviets when it became clear that Germany was losing the war in a conventional sense. They did in fact have a few successes and American intelligence officer Frank Manuel said that the Werwolves were prepared “to strike down the isolated soldier in his jeep, the MP on patrol, the fool who goes a-courting after dark, the Yankee braggart who takes a back road.”

The game allows players to take on the role of the occupying Soviets and Western Allies along with this Werwolf insurgency and the Edwlweiss insurgency.

We very much enjoyed exploring this one and I want to emphasize that the game feels very kinetic with lots of action and with each choice being important. There is no passive faction that simply exists between the cracks and all players are actively engaged in winning the game in their own way.

After about 3 hours we finished 3 decks and the Werwolf Insurgency was declared the winner. All had a good time and I am looking forward to taking this to WBC in July and playing again.

I then sat down with Tim Densham with Catastrophe Games and he gave me a look at several of his upcoming games.

First was a look at War Cabinet which is an economic and logistics focused take on WWII in the European Theater of Operation.

Next was Afghanistan: Decades of Strife which is an area control game in the Conflict of Wills Series.

Then Brothers of the Sword: Baltic Crusades which is set in 1100 AD.

All of these games will be coming to Kickstarter in the next 6-8 months and I am very much interested in them all. I was able to shoot a 30 minute video interview with Tim and that’ll be on the channel soon.

We then sat down with Steve Jones from Blue Panther and Hermann Luttmann to play the new Dawn of the Zeds Designer Edition which will be available for pre-order in May and published at the end of July.

You know well the original Dawn of the Zeds from Victory Point Games and this has now had the rights reacquired by Hermann who is working with Steve to bring it back to life with new art, a new combat system with custom dice and some new characters. We played for about an hour and had the same fun we have always had with the game and I am very much looking forward to this new edition.

We shot a 20 minute video with Hermann and that’ll be up on the channel soon.

We then played our final game of the night. A 4-player game of War of the Ring: The Card Game from Ares with Cullen and Russ.

This was our 1st play and while it took us a good amount of time to get comfortable with the mechanics, and about 3 hours to play the entire game, we all had a great time and very much enjoyed what it was doing. The art in the game is just amazing and the game play is smart, with lots of bluffing and gamesmanship on how to play and manage your limited cards. just a very solid multi-player card game.

It is now well after midnight and I am tired. Sorry for the brevity of my comments in the games but it’s just too late.

Tomorrow we have a full 6-player game of Here I Stand from GMT Games at 9:00am and then an evening role playing game with a WWII historical RPG called War Stories from Firelock Games. Should be a blast!

-Grant