Yeah, I really, really hope they aren’t actually accepting money for this. If so, that’s just plain fraud.
Heh, you are doing better than I am :) My feeling with these games is that they take a lot of trial and error - if the system could be played to a decent result on the third game, it would provide little challenge. That’s what I found with his “D-Day at …” series, anyway.
Glad you’re enjoying it. John Butterfield is a genius.
The website takes you to Gamers Front upon checkout and accepts orders just fine :/
I picked this up too, because of all the sampling I’ve done over the past 7 months in my wargaming craze the D-Day at series has been the best time I’ve had. I guess that makes Butterfield my favorite designer. I didn’t want this to become prohibitively expensive when I got around to it so I picked it up now to play sometime later this year. First I hear the blood reef of Tarawa calling me…
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To get us back on track with the thread topic after I shamefully derailed us, Enemy Action: Ardennes is amazing.
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So, for my last full day in North Carolina, my friend @dstone112 took a vacation day (yowza!) so we could have one more face-to-face play session. We chose South Pacific, the new game from Mark Herman in C3i Magazine. Thing is, it’s actually a subset of Empire of the Sun that just covers the South Pacific in 1942-43. Playing time is supposedly about 2 hours. Part of the deal is supposed to be that it introduces you to the EoS system, but recreates all the components you need so that you can play the game if you don’t own EoS and then you will know the whole EoS ruleset. That’s pretty boss. I love the idea that you can play the South Pacific game with the full set, but you get a separate map anyway because I always hated games where part of the map was unplayable. Of course, if someone ever tried to sell a videogame that was wholly a subset of a previously released game … hmm, has that ever happened?
Heh, I just ordered C31 No. 30 because I want to try that Mark Herman game. Good marketing by GMT!
Seems likely that it’s the games that drive C3i sales, not the articles :)
(I already have Empire of the Sun and Plan Orange from C3i 29, both never played. Still feeling an urge to buy one more implementation of the system; maybe this will be the one that actually gets on the table).
I am live tweeting the game today if you’re interested. Twitter handle is @spacerumsfeld.
South Pacific is kinda interesting because a lot of people have tried Japanese strategies in the full game where you almost ignore that theatre in an attempt to deny the Americans the chance to retake the hexes and get progress of the war, opting for a heavy defensive network in the DEI and C-Pac, but that’s a sucker’s game because basically, the DEI ends up exposed and in general, regions of the map with bases close together are the places where attacking is more friendly since a foothold can be more easily expanded, especially with the US air’s shorter range.
That’s the thesis of the hedgehog approach anyway- the Solomons and New Guinea offer a lot of opportunities for the Allies to use their airpower so you avoid it by just not taking anything but the resource hex in New Guinea and force the allies to attack in tougher areas.
Having grown up with SPI and the eagerly-awaited game in the magazine each month (even though that anticipation ended up in disappointment when the game turned out to be a turkey, as all too many were), I am pleased if surprised to see that there are still such things in the world. Not that I have much inclination these days to jump into that stuff again, but I remember quite vividly how I’d dive into my Strategy & Tactics each month, carefully examining the countersheet for off-center printing (a common problem), and eagerly poring over the rules before diving into the game. Well, for about thirty minutes, after which I usually went off and did something else. ADHD wasn’t really diagnosed back then…
How is the quality of these modern games-in-mags? I mean, physical quality; it seems the games are pretty solid.
Better than your standard boxed games of yore. Excellent.
Wow, production tech has really benefited stuff like wargames, methinks. I guess it’s now possible to do things economically (relatively speaking) that would have been prohibitive thirty years ago. Even in the meat space. Cool.
Also, Plan Orange is less an intro to EotS and more a seperate game entirely, just due to the reduced air ZOI. You can really sneak ships around in that game and it’s just very different in general. The rules are almost identical, but the game is very different.
Great! I’ll have to closely peruse your tweets at some point over the next couple of days since I’m playing South Pacific on Sunday.
Good to know, thanks Panzeh.
I lost, so South Pacific is obviously a terrible game!
Ha ha! But didn’t you lose in Kim Kanger’s Dien Bien Phu as well? ;)
You’d played standard EotS before IIRC? What do you think of the system now that you have a few games under your belt?
I really think the overall game effect captures the war very well, as long as you don’t squint too hard at the details.
Actually, the first time I played it, I BEAT KIM KANGER. I was the French. Then I lost to @dstone112 as the Viet Minh. France is OP!
I’ve been playing “South Pacific” solitaire for the past couple days, and I’m really enjoying it. It’s my favorite period and theater of the War in the Pacific for wargaming. The two sides are relatively evenly matched, they have different strengths and weaknesses, and the South Pacific geography is interesting.
I’ve never played a magazine game before, and yes, the components are surprisingly nice. The small map is beautiful, but you’ll want to use plexiglass to play on it. The counters are decent quality, and the print is centered well on my copy.
The gameplay is magnificent! But it’s hard. OMG. It’s such a brain-burner. The game makes you think in terms of “offensives” and supporting HQs, and it has innovative mechanics that really work, including the strong possibility that your opponent will conduct a counter-offensive (a “reaction”) during your offensive… In a typical turn, I’ve got several different options for offensives, and I have to think through what units I’ll bring, whether my opponent can or will react, what he might bring, etc. And you have to think ahead to where you’ll leave your units after the offensive, rather like thinking where to leave the cue ball after a pool shot: if you just mindlessly return your aircraft to their home bases, you may leave troops out of supply, etc.
The game system did take some work to grasp! I’ve read and re-read parts of the rules a dozen times. But I didn’t really grok it until I watched the excellent tutorial and AAR videos by John Steidl. His AARs are entertaining in their own right. He’s a terrific teacher; he organizes his thoughts before he starts recording, and he explains what he’s doing at just the right pace for me – not too slow, not too fast. I’m watching this AAR video now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN7t2M2uETw But newbs will want to watch his tutorial series.
Really glad I tried this one. If only I could find the full game somewhere! It’s sold out.