I am very happy to be building this new game for Shenandoah Studio on John Butterfield’s most excellent Battle of the Bulge design. It will be great working from another of John’s thoughtful and exciting designs as the launching point for my treatment of El Alamein. For those who are not familiar with the turning point in the North Africa campaign here are a few highlights.

in a desperate fight the British halted the German offensive

In late August of 1942, Rommel – aka the Desert Fox – had just taken Tobruk (June 1940) and after a rapid refit launched what he hoped was his final offensive to capture the Suez Canal. August 31, 1942 saw the spearhead of the Afrika Corps strike at Montgomery’s defensive positions at Alam El Halfa Ridge where in a desperate fight the British halted …

I’ve spent most of today playing games. And before anyone jumps through the Internet to stab me from envy, let me clarify that: I’ve spent most of today playing one specific game. Battle of the Bulge. We’re working hard to get Miguel up to speed, which means he needs to understand the game. The only real way to grok a game is to play it, so that means I’ve been taking him through the game from both sides. It’s good fun-although not so good for my ego, since he’s now whipped me two games running. But that’s all right. It’s only a game…and besides, my revenge will be swift and certain.

Like any creative process, making games only really works when you bury yourself in it.

In college, when I was young and foolish and fancied myself a creative writer, …

Since Pat’s been doing a great job these past few days showing off some of the artwork he’s done for “Battle of the Bulge”, I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk a little more about the game itself, how it plays, what my role is, and where we are right now with development. This will probably end up being a two or three parter, finishing early next week.

My introductory post on the game (you did read it, didn’t you? If not, go ahead- I’ll wait) covered most of the basics. Bulge is a design by John Butterfield, a member of the Charles S. Roberts Awards Hall of Fame and probably one of the best wargame designers working today. He’s especially noted for solitaire system designs, on games like Ambush, RAF, and D-Day at Omaha Beach. As a budding game …

I included optional rules so players can explore some of the what-ifs of the campaign. One of the biggest hypothetical was Napoleon having an improved command structure. Soult was unsuited for staff work, while both Ney and Grouchy had their shortcomings as independent commanders – the former was too aggressive, the latter not enough, though Grouchy did manage to win a creditable victory at Wavre. You can assign your leaders to where you think they will do their best.

You can assign your leaders to where you think they will do their best.

I did not include any special rules for committing the French Imperial Guard. I consider one of the more overblown myths of the campaign the idea that Napoleon held the Imperial Guard in reserve for only the most critical of situations, and that its defeat at the …

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 …

One of the unique design features is the Chief of Staff rule. Waterloo Solitaire gives the often unsung staff its due recognition. In game terms, the chief of staff can translate morale points into practical advantages on the field, such as pre-battle recon or purchasing special tactics markers. The player can assign a French marshal as chief of staff, and each has different abilities. Having the right man for that job can make the difference in what you can do in the campaign.

Both sides were operating on shaky ground

The Bulletin cards provide random events,  fog of war and friction factors. Some of these include morale checks for various events. The morale checks are important since they reflect the importance of the non-material factors as well as the political situation. Both sides were operating on shaky ground. The Anglo-Allied …

“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

…it was time for another play-through of Waterloo Solitaire

Wednesday nights are gaming nights here at The Shenandoah Studio, so while Eric et al tried out some different stuff in the conference room I grabbed my marching boots and went to see if I could kick Wellington right out of his Wellingtons. Yes folks, it was time for another play-through of Waterloo Solitaire.

subject: design diary, playtest
author: Jeff Dougherty

The Battle Results Table outcomes are based on an analysis of what happened during the actual fighting. The combat system is a little on the involved side–though bear in mind in the computer version it will be executed automatically. This was because individual battles often had profound effects. Therefore, I did not want them decided by single die rolls. Shifts for leadership, morale, Tactical markers, etc., can be more important than the raw combat strength of a force. This also adds in an element of unpredictability because you have to consider qualitative as well as quantitative factors.

The French can be devastating in the offensive if they can get in there with a Grand Battery

This is where Tactical markers come in. They show the unique strengths of each army at a level below the scale of the unit counters. …

This evening Dr Roger Mason and myself playtested Waterloo Solitaire. We played  collaboratively as the French Napoleon Command. We used the 16 June 1815 scenario, with Napoleon facing Blucher at Ligny, and Ney up against Wellington at Quatre Bras. Napoleon handed the Prussians a minor defeat, forcing them back, while Ney won a somewhat more substantial victory. But in the ensuing turn, Wellington got a March to the Guns campaign card, gathering up several stray units and piling onto Ney in a major counterattack, knocking him back on the French lines of communications.

We decided to march Napoleon and the French army westwards and take Wellington in the flank

Since the Prussians seemed to be out of commission, we decided to march Napoleon and the main French army westwards and take Wellington in the flank. We left behind two  cavalry …

This is the first in a series of posts regarding my design of Waterloo Solitaire.

–Joseph Miranda

Waterloo Solitaire

puts the player in the boots of Napoleon during those fateful June days of 1815. There are four forces in the game: the Napoleon Wing, the French Detached Wing, the Anglo-Allies, and the Prussians. The player controls the Napoleon Wing, with the game system controlling the other three.

The map covers the entire theater of operations from the French frontier fortresses to Brussels, Namur to Mons.  Time scale is one half day per turn, 15-19 June 1815. There are scenarios which start the game at various points in the campaign.

The game’s central system is in the Campaign cards, the artificial intelligence if you like. The cards generate game actions for the forces which are not controlled by the player. The player has to deal …

Given how long I’ve spent on the project, it’s actually amazing (and possibly a bit depressing) just how many things from that first page of notes are still part of the game. The patrol-level search grid, drawing cards to resolve attacks, the threats your sub will face, and even the four depth bands are all on that page. The labels have changed a bit, but by and large the concepts haven’t. Despite some scribbled references to angles and torpedo engagement angles, I knew at the start I wanted the game to have a lot of abstraction involved in it, for two reasons.

First, my major design influence at that point was the work Steve and I had done on Hell of Stalingrad, which left me with a very strong conviction that simpler is better in games. (I still think it’s true …

Greetings and welcome to the Project Simonsen design diaries.  We’re hoping to make this an occasional feature where designers of games currently in development talk about their projects, what’s going on with them, and a bit about their creative process.  Since I work right across the desk from Eric I was the obvious first victim of contributor to this feature.  So, welcome!

I started the War Patrol project because I was at a point in my life where I literally had to either start designing a game or go completely insane.  (Looking back on where it’s got me, sometimes I feel like I split the difference, but that’s another story…)  I’d worked in biological research ever since graduating from college a few years before and started medical school, but left a few months before when the workload and stress just turned …