 |
||
|
Avalon Hill, 3M Parker Bros. Business European Mystery Politics Space/Fantasy |
EXCERPTS
FROM THE SUMMER 2000 GA REPORT
AXIS & ALLIES: EUROPE (The Avalon Hill Game Company/Hasbro Games; about $45) The Gamemaster Series of games pioneered by Milton Bradley in the mid 1980s are noted by their grand scale, grand themes and beautiful components... In Axis & Allies: Europe, the series shifts from the Milton Bradley imprint to the new Avalon Hill logo to finetune the focus to the Western Front of World War II action.Axis & Allies: Europe comes large boxed with over 300 nicely sculpted plastic pieces representing different weaponry and forces, control markers, plastic chips, 12 dice, various assorted play aids, a 32 page rulebook and a nicely mounted mapboard of western Europe, divided into land territories and sea routes. (Some areas are numbered to indicate their Industrial Production Certificate [IPC] value.)...Several differences separate A&A: Europe from its older sibling. For example... two new combat pieces - destroyers and artillery - are introduced. Players are restricted from entering or flying over neutral countries. Battleships and submarines have new powers and abilities. There is even a "Lend-Lease" situation where Allied forces entering into the Soviet Union may be controlled by the Soviet player.To begin, each player places their color-coded units in their territories... On a turn, a player may purchase combat units, move, resolve combat, make non-combat movement, place new units onto the board, have submerged subs resurface and repair damage to battleships and finally, collect income. New combat units may be bought by using IPCs but they may not enter play until later in the turn. Units move anywhere from one to six spaces (depending on the type of unit). If entering into an area occupied by enemy units, combat occurs. Combat is resolved via dice rolls with each situation determine separately. The attacker rolls one die for each attacking unit. (Units score hits depending on what type of unit they are...) Even if hit, the defending forces have a chance to return fire. Once all forces (attacking and defending) have fired, all casualties are removed. At that point, the attacker may retreat to an adjacent friendly area and end the combat. Otherwise, combat continues until one side or the other (or both) is destroyed. (Naval combat is similar except that attacking submarines may fire a "first strike" or submerge without firing. Another difference: battleships need to be hit twice to sink. One hit only damages them and they may be repaired later on in the turn.) A territory is captured if at least one surviving land unit can occupy a territory. The IPC value of the newly conquered territory is added to the National Production Chart of the winning nation.The object of the game if you are the Soviet Union, Great Britain or the United States is to occupy Germany and hold it while maintaining control of your home country. (This counts as a group win. An individual winner may be determined by seeing which Allied country has the greatest increase Industrial Production Certificates [IPCs[ which are the currency of the game.) If playing Germany, you win if you can occupy Great Britain, the United States or Moscow and hold it while also controlling Germany Axis & Allies: Europe is an impressive addition to the Gamemaster Series...While it is true that dice are an important factor in the game (combat resolution), A&A: Europe does provide would-be generals room for strategic and tactical planning making the game more than an exercise in dice-rolling.... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Herb Levy
FROM "BITS & PIECES": BATTLE CRY (The Avalon Hill Game Company, $45.95) There are so many good things going in Avalon Hill's Battle Cry that I almost can't believe I'm about to write a rave review of a Civil War game.Now this is the type of game I've been waiting for Avalon Hill/Hasbro to produce! Gorgeous plastic pieces complete with sticker flags-a-waving, piles of cards, tons of dice, a big ol' hex-based gameboard and moveable tile pieces to indicate terrain conditions.... Battle Cry is a two player game created by Richard Borg and he's really done a nice job. The game comes complete with a full color instruction book full of scenarios to set up different battles. The goal for each battle is basically the smae: capture six of your opponent's flag pieces.Players start with a fixed (but variable depending on scenario) number of three basic unit types: infantry (foot soldiers), cavalry (soldiers on horseback) and artillery (cannon). Infantry units include 4 infantry figures, one with flag. Cavalry units include 3 figures, one with flag. Artillery units include 2 units, one with flag. As members of a unit are defeated, their pieces are removed from the board. The flag unit is the last piece to go so to get it, you need to defeat an entire troop. Tough to do. There are also Generals (who carry their own flags) and are extra tough to defeat because they receive protection when attached to a unit plus give the unit an attack bonus. Battles are resolved through dice rolling. Different types of units have different attack ranges and attack with different numbers of dice. There are two main innovations here. First, the dice are labeled stickers: two infantry, one cavalry, one flag, one artillery and one crossed-sabers. To defeat an enemy piece, you must establish a line of sight (trace a straight line from your attacking hex to the opponent's hex) and try to roll your opponent's piece on the face of the die....Sabers are wild and flags force you to retreat. The second innovation is the number of attack dice you roll. This number is fixed and not based on the number of attacking troops. If half of your unit has been defeated, you still get to roll the same number of attack dice on your turn! This makes a single infantry unit as dangerous as a full unit! Battles are initiated through card play. According to each scenario, the Northern and Southern forces each receive a number of command cards. On a turn, players get to play a command card to order their units and, after the turn, pick up a new card. Order cards direct you to attack using some number of your troops from some region of the board. More powerful order cards and special order cards allow you to make multiple attacks, set up defensive barriers, take a free shot at a general or even attack with every troop you have on the board. There are may different types of cards. Some players have complained about the unbalanced command cards but I think this really makes the game tense and fun with the better player using cards to set up devastating attack combinations. Each battle can be set up in any number of ways. There are tiles representing trees, houses, water, bridges, orchards, hills, fences, and even field works. These tiles affect play by limited line of sight, increasing or decreasing attack ranges and restricting movement. The terrain effects are listed in the book but, in one of my few disappointments in the game components, I would have preferred a terrain effects card or sheet for each player to use during the course of a game. That's basically how the game works. Battles last from about 30 minutes to two hours. Not bad for a Civil War game where some hardcore simulations could take upwards of 8 hours to complete.... Battle Cry was designed with the player in mind. It's simple to set up a new battle every time using the terrain hexes and balancing the troops for each player even easier, just use the scenarios in the instruction book. This is a great introduction to wargaming and miniature gaming. It's also simple enough to teach younger players but includes enough strategy to satisfy older gamers. I've never really been a fan of historical wargames. However,... Battle Cry...mixes wargaming, miniature gaming and some boardgame mechanics into a well-oiled machine...Highly recommended. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dave Rapp
FROM "K-BAN'S KORNER": WEB OF POWER (Rio Grande Games; $29.95) Michael Schact's Web of Power (known as Kardinal and Koenig in Europe) is a short duration, 3-5 player game set in the 12th century. The
mapboard depicts western Europe divided into 9 countries. Eight of the
nine are paired by identical background color with Frankreich (France)
having its own color. As usual Rio Grande Games has done a superb job of
simultaneously releasing a German game for the English speaking world
using the same components and including a clear, concise rulebook that
makes learning the game a breeze.
Each player receives a supply of cloisters (wooden houses) that eventually get placed on cloister spaces on the board. They are connected by roads and, once placed, cannot be moved, removed or have joint occupancy. Players also receive a supply of wooden cyclinders as "advisors". Advisors get placed on a country's coat of arms on the map and are used for determining alliances. Players are dealt a hand of 3 cards from the deck of 55 cards that represent the four pairs of countries plus France. Two cards from the deck are turned face up. On a turn, a player may play 1, 2, or 3 cards from his hand and place cloisters and/or advisors on the country indicated. Placement of pieces is subject to several restrictions. A player may play one or two pieces to one country in a given turn by playing one or two cards for that country. If a player places the first cloister in a country, he may only place one piece that turn. Two identical cards can be played together as a joker to represent ANY country. The placement of advisors is limited to the number of cloisters held by the player with the most in that country. After cards and pieces are played, each player replenishes to three cards, drawn from among the two face up cards and/or from the face down draw pile. When the deck runs out for the first time, there is an interim scoring for the cloisters that have been placed. Players earn points (marked on the perimeter's score track) based on the number of cloisters placed. The player with the most cloisters in a given country earns one point for each one played, REGARDLESS of color! The player with the second most cloisters earns one point for each cloister placed by the player with the most. Third place earns the same as the number of cloisters placed by the second place player and so no down the line. When the deck is exhausted for the second time, players take one final move so that all have had the same total number of turns. Cloisters are now scored again in the same way. But now, 15 different alliances are also scored. Each of the alliances consist of a pairing of two countries. If a player has the most advisors in BOTH countries (and ties count), he scores one point for each advisor in BOTH countries. The last scoring is for chains of four or more cloisters connected by roads. One point is earned for each cloister in a chain (but no cloister can count towards more than one chain). After the second scoring round, whoever has advanced the farthest along the perimeter score track is the winner. Because there is only two scoring rounds, Web of Power usually is completed in 30-45 minutes. The choice of which cards to play and trying to achieve a balance between cloisters and advisors are essential to victory since most of the points are scored in the second scoring interval.Web of Power has surprising amount of depth for such a short game with relatively simple rules. Due to its brevity, Web of Power is the kind of game that demands frequent and/repeated plays, a sure sign that you'll get your money's worth. - - - - Steve Kurzban
FROM "POINT OF VIEW": CITADELS (Hans im Gluck; about $12) Last year, Marcel Andre-Casola Merkel's game, Verrater (Winter 1999 GA REPORT) received a Spiele des Jahres nomination, somewhat unusual for a $7 card game. However, the game boasted an unique mechanic allowing players to choose a personality and an action on each turn and played like a boardgame, also somewhat unusual for a card game... France's Bruno Faidutti was impressed and went a step further...coming up with the brilliantly conceived and executed Ohne Furcht und Adel, which translates as "Without Fear and Nobility" and is known here as Citadels... Citadels is a raucous, fun-filled adventure in city building. Each turn, the players get to choose who they will play from a list of characters, most of whom have special abilities. For instance, the Assassin, gets to do away with one of the other characters (NOT a player per se but a character assumed by a player), the King gets to choose his character for the next round first, the Architect can erect two buildings on a turn, the Thief can steal all of a character's gold, the mercenary can burn down a building etc. Since the process of choosing characters is secret and at least one of the characters remains hidden from all, you're never really sure who is whom and your chosen action may not work as planned... Players start with a hand of four building cards. The deck has building worth as little as 1 Victory Point and as much as 8 VPs. The cost for construction is essentially the same as the number of Victory Points... The player with the King marker announces each character's turn in a specific order. The Assassin plays first. If the character has not been chosen or has been assassinated, the King announces the next character to play. On a player's turn, he can take the top two cards from the building deck and keep one or take each turn's allotted income of two gold pieces. Then, the player may build by playing a building card from his hand to the table and paying its cost in gold pieces... Buildings come in five different colors. Having at least one of each color is worth a bonus of 3 VPs. Purple coded buildings allow a special ability like the Biblioteque (Library) which allows the player who builds it to take an extra card on his turn. A four point bonus is awarded to the first player to construct his seventh building and anyone else who is able to construct a seventh building receives a bonus of two VPs. When a seventh building is constructed by any player, the end of the round is also the end of the game. Citadels (Ohne Furcht und Adel) is a wonderful little game in a beautiful package. That the game has won not a Spiele des Jahres nomination but has also made it to the short list for the prize...is a testament to the game's value. In this case, good things come in small packages. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Al Newman
|
