I am moving the game to the “bucket o’dice” system of combat resolution for a variety of reason. First, it enables me to move the game to strength point combat losses, rather than just steps. Plus it makes the game feel more tactical, for instance, when you attack a unit in two (or more) adjacent hexes, then your fire must be split. A unit with five strength points would have to attack with 3 into one hex and 2 into the other, the player’s choice. This forces a kind of extended line feeling to the game, by which I mean that hitting an enemy with attacks from two or more hexes forces your opponent to split their fire.

The combat system is really quite simple, with terrain having a base “to hit” number on a ten-sided die. A “0″ is always …

“Across Five Aprils” is a game I designed back in the early 90′s and which was published by Victory Games to some acclaim. A second edition, with more battles, was planned from the start but my career in high tech just prevented me from working on. That has changed.

“Blue and Gray Battles” design began about five years ago and the game has been play tested a number of times by various people, and all of them have enjoyed it. The goals of the design are:

Keep the game scale the same (brigades) and the time to play the same (fast)
Enhance the combat system – use the bucket’o dice method
Change the sequences of combat so that attacking is deliberate, not the result of enemy moves
Stay compatible with the first game, just new counters and rules needed to update
Make the game playable as …

“Blue and Gray Battles” (formerly Across Five Aprls 2) is the “Duke Nukem Forever” of board games: originally announced in 1992 and never shipped. We’re working on it. The first task is to get an updated set of rules out there, which we intend to do before summer. More updates to come soon.

subject: design diary
author: Eric Smith