Відео

On the BGG forum for the game (Subject: "Basic" Rules - Really Fun, 14 April 2024), Christopher Moeller wrote: "Yes, the Basic game is meant to be an alternate form of play, not just an intro. Especially when playing the Chronicle, with all six kingdoms, you need a lot of table space to manage the extra display and the cards. Playing using the basic rules can really cut down on the amount of space required, as well as keep the game going at a decent clip. Of course, I play the Advanced game primarily, I love all of the crazy storytelling moments, but the basic game has its own version of that with the randomness of combat and the different kingdom/unit abilities."

Great discussion / review :) Hope you keep posting these podcasts :) Having them a single click away on UA-cam makes a small - but important - difference :)

Army of the Heartland! I've had this game on my shelf for ages, bought it thinking it'd be cool to have a prequel to MMP's Battle Above the Clouds but then the idea of learning an entirely new system just for this one game has kept me from playing it. Really excited to hear your thoughts! The Tullahoma campaign (if that's the one you're going to play) is all maneuvering and almost no fighting, should make for a nice contrast with Fredericksburg!

Well done, giving space to express different opinions and avoiding the echo chamber! I have not paid attention to the criticism of the game, but from how it is described, it would not surprise me if some of those who react most emotionally, also ironically support modern groups who on purpose use the iron cross. Sometimes, probably too often, it is more about frustration than deep thought. Personally, this is probably a game I will avoid. I find it too speculative to offer a real alternative history. Scenarios are limited to WWII, but the machinery behind the cruelty was established long before that, and at the time it was unfortunately not that difficult to find sympathizers and collaborators all around Europe. Ideas expressed by the Nazi regime could be found in many institutions in the West as well. It did not come from within an vacuum, but it ultimately put a stamp on it and gave us a universal label. Hence why we talk about the "Late Victorian Holocausts", it got a context and it was rooted in similar ideas.

<3

I really love rebel fury's feel. Mark did a great job making things simple but deep. Edit: Fredericksburg is my least favorite of the battles in the box as it feels the most railroaded. The 2 overland battles are my favorite

I cannot wait to "liberate" this scoring system for a game of my own. It is simply brilliant.

"winning is not a proof of who I am" thank you Mark <3

I was reviewing this to see if I made any mistakes in the heat of battle, and note that Fred played a Minor CC and he only took one of his two moves. We both missed it, but I take responsibility for missing that point during the session. Mea Culpa Fred.

Thanks for a very interesting video. I wonder what books on the Russian Civil War the designer found less than useful in terms of helping understand the history and constructing the game.

Another great video, despite the connectivity gremlins. Having loved Land & Freedom, this is one of my most anticipated games on P500. It was an instant back for me, and I'm really surprised it hasn't reached the magic 500 yet, but hopefully it will get there soon.

Great

Looking forward to this game! Thanks for this preview and for the book recommendations.

Wow, this is right up my alley. I have only played Triumph of Chaos and Reds!, both of which I find rather problematic for different reasons.

Great summary of the C&C game!

Where can I get the vassal module for Burning Banners?

“No body-shaming Osterloch!” You guys are awesome. I want to game with you. Oh, and terrain is ignored when performing a strike, you do a maximum of one hit and you can’t strike fortified settlements. Carry on! -Chris

I love seeing Mark teach this game! Such an amazing designer.

Question is there hidden Task Force positions used in this Vassal Game?

This was a really great discussion and analysis of the game. Props to Stuart for the succinct introduction. Also I could get used to Pierre as host, the less of Fred across all platforms the better probably 🙃😉

The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman is an excellent way to learn who the lords and vassals are and why they are fighting. I can’t speak to her grasp of the history and I’m sure it is filtered through her viewpoint, but it is a well told story that fits the game perfectly. Even the free sample on the kindle gives you 30 pages that sets up turn one of the first scenario.

I just "review" comment in boardgagegeek for The Other Side of the Hill that said: "Just offensive and wrongheaded. What's next, a game where concentration camp leaders race to kill the most Jews?" It is very difficult to believe what people think offensive is. How many games out there one of the players has to play as the Axis against the Allies? Managing the Nazi armies across Europe? Hundreds of them if not thousands. Just because in this game all the players manage the Axis faction, does it make it any different than other games? Why so? Another question is: Why a game has to actively try to "help" remove this "clean wehrmacht" myth? The game does not contribute nor go against it. It is just a game where you try to get victory points and at the end of some rounds one player wins. Done and easy. I do not understand the problem with that.

ça va encore me coûter cher cette vidéo... 😅

Don't be fooled by the prequel to Maria, Friedrich! It looks like it has a manly man on the cover, but in reality it is 3x the woke! It has 3 women in it instead of 1!

What a wasted opportunity! What would I do with a medal? Pin it on a tail of a donkey? They should have included an '88 or an MG42.

weirdly I pulled out this game and played it solitaire around the time you recorded this, but I have only just seen the video. I thought the topic and gameplay were really interesting, but I found it was a little repetitive and perhaps not the most interesting situation to game with this approach. I was stumbling through a learning however so would like to give it another try opposed. Agree Vae Victis is a great magazine (it actually reviews wargames!) I just wish I could read French. Fred will we not be seeing you at Vanguard anymore?

I thought when using a tactical move you couldnt occupy and empty enemy space.

Tiresome. How many did the Communists murder? They are still around. Nazis are irrelevant

Un débat très intéressant. Merci d'avoir proposé cette vidéo. J'ai vraiment apprécié le moment passé à vous écouter.

I think the larger picture is missed here. War itself even if conducted according to the rules is a horrible thing. It involves killing pure and simple. So it's always going to be what you as a player are willing to play. The evil British colonialists? The human sacrificing Aztecs? Pirates who murder and rape for profit and fun? Chinese emperors who let hundreds of thousands of peasants to die to build a wall? Huns? And on and on. I think like ugly free speech has a value, simulating war and the increased historical knowledge that results does have a value. Cultural norms change through times, and today's heroes are tomorrow's villains. History is an argument. But a fascinating topic to be sure

Volko is spot on. I appreciate his balanced perspective and i appreciate the conversation. Of course the myth has been propagated over time but I think Volko's caution on intent and scope of game design should be considered first and foremost before going down the rabbit hole of ethics. You will always have highly varied opinions simply due to peoples personal experiences, cultural experiences, beliefs etc. Although all agree on the terrible things the german army did, not everyone will have the same opinion how much or how little does it play a part in a wargame they are playing. It can be a very nuanced opinion.

Storm in a tea cup. They removed the offending design, why all the hand wringing. Should WWI iron Cross be treated the same? Afterall, Kaiser's army were the bad guys too.

Interesting discussion! As someone who never played real wargames, but rather tabletop games (which are on a tactical to semi operational level), there is a similar discussion with historical tabletops and Nazi representation. Volko said that developers are bound to fail with regards to how to properly represent Nazis in wargames without causing irritation. Well, there are two aspects, aesthetics and gameplay. I believe, aesthetics is far less important. I don't need Swastikas and SS runes to recognize Nazis. However, I do need them to act according to their ideology if I want to represent them accurately in a wargame. With all intents and purposes. This is what matters in the end. How it can be done and how to motivate players to play a faction that intends to eradicate specific groups of people systematically is a different story, but whether Swastikas are shown on unifroms or not really is not even a secondary issue (and in case of Germany, it is questionable because legally speaking you tread on dangerous ground as Jan pointed out because the Swastika isn't needed to mark units as Nazis and it doesn't serve educational purposes so one has to ask about the motivations on why they are shown, so that might be discussed in court).

En un juego sobre la Campaña de España (Peninsular War), ¿sería ético regalar una imitación de una medalla francesa? ¿Es ético ser admirador del ejercito francés de Napoleon, autor de miles de asesinatos en España, la destruccion de edificios históricos, el saqueo de iglesias y conventos, y el robo de miles de obras de arte? Me resulta paradójico que un francés debata sobre si es etico sentir interés militar e histórico por el ejército alemán, cuando ellos hicieron lo mismo un siglo antes, y muestran una admiración abierta por ese periodo histórico de su país. Con los valores éticos actuales, el Arco del triunfo y Los Inválidos deberían ser destruidos. Es curioso que no exista en Wikipedia un artículo en francés sobre el "Saqueo francés de España". Solo disponible en español e inglés: es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expolio_napole%C3%B3nico_en_Espa%C3%B1a

The main issue with this game is the scope: An hex & counter wargame is about 90% (give or take) "frontline activity", reduced to a mere 10km width of decision space about what you can do, with the rest being around political or the economic considerations using tracks. You represent a dude on the battlefield who cares about what happens 5km around you and your mates. So you learn about the frontline operations, terrain, etc. If you make a game about the political side, then you have to introduce everything that was relevant, everything. Gestapo, the final solution, concentration camps, in-fighting, political agendas. Everything that was deeply relevant for historical purposes. Can I play this with my 14 year old kid? Well I can, but he won't get the correct idea of who these people where, what happened and what they were part of. Maybe we can play and watch Schindler's List in the background, so my kid gets the full picture. Or maybe we can just watch the movie together first and the I can ask him if he wants to play later.

Congratulations Fred, a very interesting conversation about a topic we prefer to ignore, not only because of what Volko says about focusing on one aspect of strictly military simulation, but because those other aspects can make our hobby uncomfortable. Putting this uncomfortable reality on the table is necessary if we want to be honest with ourselves. Thanks to you, and to all the panelists. A hug.

Volko Ruhnke 100%!

What a well planned out panel. Amazing work getting this together Fred. ❤️

Very interesting panel! Encourages me to take my distance to the game

A very interesting discussion for sure.

Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past," mean in George Orwell's 1984?

I appreciated catching up with this discussion - interesting and provocative as always.

This was fantastic! Might be one of your best panel discussions yet Fred. Bravo!

Do you like the iron cross they give you? Great! Didn’t like the iron cross? Throw it away. It's easy for me. The mindjobs that arise in these matters will never cease to amaze me. A game is a game, if I'm playing for the South in a game about the American Civil War, I'm doing my best to win and I enjoy the game. Does that mean I love killing and enslaving black people? Obviously not. If I win playing with that side, will it change anything in history that has already happened, or will someone somewhere on the globe enslave a black person because of my victory with the South? Of course not. All we do in wargames is move cardboard counters on a cardboard or paper map, what we enjoy is the intellectual challenge of solving the problems thrown at us by our opponents and trying to create problems for him in as imaginative ways as possible. I am not criticising people who take offence, feeling offended is a very personal and subjective feeling and everyone should know why certain images, objects or words are offensive to them. My criticism is more oriented to this kind of pointless controversies. Do you like the game and its theme? You buy it. Didn’t like it? You don't buy it. It's another matter if you think that either the publisher or the game is making some kind of apology or proselytising about Nazism, if that were the case, then I would understand the fuss, but frankly, if someone thinks that way, the problem is in that person´s mind not in the game.

Excellent. The debate should be the same as the debate about books and film. Bad parts of history must be able to be experienced from all sides including the sides we do not like. At least it we want these media to help us examine the human condition. How about a game about being an effective torturer? Or a serial killer? I think they should not be off the table and certainly not under the table.

Nice discussion. I'm not sure if I will play this game, but that medal was in poor taste, and definitely soured me.

This was really cool. I have never before had the opportunity to see Brian before and hear him talk about games before. Looking forward to now playing Guerilla Checkers.

Hello Fred, what do you think of the box of the Squad Leader Gamette Cross of Iron? Is it Ethical?

Nice list! For the players of Ticket to Ride, I would also include another Days of Wonder game which they might enjoy - Memoir '44.

I am so looking forward to this game! thanks.