Tanks!

Andy and I continue to fight The Great War from Plastic Soldier Company. Now with added tanks.

Defending against these behemoths is tough. Even with a tendency to get bogged, their guns can remain damaging. It is possible to win as the defender, but it takes a bit of luck and a real focus.

Leaving the trenches behind as the assault at Cambrai begins

The gunners stand and fight over open sights

There is a Kickstarter live at the moment that adds French models and new rules (that the British and Germans can also use). Andy and I enjoy the base set and the tanks add new challenges. However, The Great War is already one of the more complex Command & Colours games, and we both a little underwhelmed by the latest offer that takes the game back to trenches by adding additional rules to remember.

There is a lot of the first world war yet to explore – the Gallipoli campaign, where the limited artillery and machine guns could be so devastating within the narrow gullies; into the desert (camels, anyone?); the vast armies on the eastern front. Any of which might present challenges beyond the trenches.

I have no doubt that the Kickstarter will go well (it has already achieved its funding goal, and PSC will deliver) and adding the French may help bring this challenging game to a new (European) audience. The minis look ace, and focusing on Verdun seems entirely appropriate for a set that launches the French.

The Kickstarter may be a nice way to get into the game- there are options to get the base game, or the expansions, with or without the French extension.

Do you have a World War One game that you like?

D.

 

Oh! What a Lovely War

There is an embarrassment of riches here at Faith and Steel, with not just one but three packages landing within a week! I picked up some partizans from one of the many sales at Black Tree Designs that I think will be perfect for delivering lots of theme in smaller Bolt Action games. I also took advantage of Warlord Games buy a rule book, get a box offer. More on that later.

The biggest parcel, coming at 3.5kg, was the arrival of the joint Richard Berg-Plastic Soldier Company Kickstarer, The Great War.

I suspect that this game will be a worthy addition to the Command and Colours family. It improves on the high production values of the Memoir ’44 series by including a nice range of 15mm hard plastic miniatures from Plastic Soldier Company to accompany the nice looking, full-colour cards, map and tokens.

Inside the box: oo! shiny

Straight from the box

The cuts are clean and the pieces come out easily

The hex board is double-sided and the terrain will make for flexibility and easy expansion, just like Memoir ’44

The funky dice are used to resolve combat. This is very abstract but makes for fast, tense games.

There are 8 dice; this shows the proportion of the symbols

The highlight for me are the new miniatures from Plastic Soldier Company.

One of the three German sprues

The British have the same mix but different poses

For board gamers the naked plastic will serve quite adequately. However, I think taking the time to paint these will make quite a spectacle.  My friend Andy converted me to this point of view when I first saw his Memoir set with painted 20mm plastics. It makes for a visually stunning game. So this means washing before getting some paint on (it’s too windy to head out to the backyard to prime, so things will have to stop here for a wee while)

Here is my first niggle. I love it that the Brits have fixed their bayonets ready to get stuck in, but you need to be very careful removing them from the sprues or you will break bayonets and even barrels.  The Germans did not seem subject to this, so I don’t know if the different colour has different properties or it is the pose itself. Whatever the cause, clippers and patience are required.  Apart from that there is no real clean-up required, the models are pretty much ready to go.

Being Kickstarter there were some bonus material:

Some bonus scenarios (always useful), sets of German and British artillery (that don’t appear directly in the base game but do look very nice) and a set of metal generals:

Perhaps indicative of future releases, even if not useful on the board.  I’m personally looking forward to the Turks:

I haven’t played yet, but the rules look like they will capture the challenges of trench warfare pretty well. Machine-guns are going to be very dangerous and I cannot see how to cross no-mans land without enormous casualties.  So, the title of this post is ironical, just like the musical I pinched the title from. But it does look like it will be a lovely game.

D.

‘ere be treasure

I’m not role playing at the moment, but if I was I think FATE could well be the system that I would be playing. It is a sweet little system that really challenges the whole group to build a narrative together, still with a GM but giving they players a bigger voice in the plot.

One of the mechanisms for this is trading good results for bad to gain fate points that can be used later to modify future bad results. It sounds weird but there are better explanations than mine.  One can be found in a short video at this really cool Kickstarter for FATE tokens by Campaign Coins

While you’re there I recommend subscribing – this project is going to go off, and the tokens are really nice (I’ve already jumped in).

Cheers,
David