It took forever to reach its number.
I couldn’t tell from a quick once-over on the MMP page, but will this have an AI solo player or will it be “play both sides”?
Thanks,
Tony
I checked out BGG, but no answers there, so I pinged Pete Bartlett the Marketing and “answer man” at MMP.
Based on it having a Chit Pull mechanic, it should be solo friendly at the very least. It is due to be released after the World Boardaming Championships (next week). So now is the time to get it at 48 bucks.
I’m intrigued because the scale (Fireteam) IMO is the way to go for Vietnam tactical.
You only have to play one side: you can get another person to play the other! :)
Oh how I wish that were true…In a metro area (Eau Claire, WI) with almost 70,000 people, I’ve met exactly 0 other wargamers. Closest would be to hook up with the 1st Minnesota Gaming Group out of Minneapolis and that’s almost 70 miles away.
Tony
I like LocknLoad tactical. I dont think you need to go all in to get your fun. I would just get one of the games that are self contained if you have an interest.
Thanks for the sale link! I might pick up a game or two.
Only posting this because I love Wisconsin (true statement).
But watch them just be Euro/Ameritrashers…
Sigh.
Anyway, I hope.
Yeah, got this in response to a Twitter query just now:
Where are the RitV guys? Oshkosh?
B’gosh.
Answer back from MMP Marketing guy: no AI.
Yea. I’ve had some email back and forth with them, but Oshkosh is about 175 miles away.
Tony
Mainly they are are RPG and Euro. I’ve found a few people using BGG’s location info that seem to be into wargames, but they haven’t been real active there.
Tony
Tony
Jenkins’ Ear? ™ @Navaronegun gets another 2cents
https://www.compassgames.com/preorders/brief-border-wars.html
Sadly, it’s Compass.
Parte the Firste: I believe the royalties go to @cannedwombat. You need to be careful. I am certain that neither of us is eager to hear from his attorneys.
Parte the Seconde: The subjects look simply marvelous…I would play any of those conflicts in a Kansas City minute…but…
Parte the Thirde: …I am unfortunately certain at this point that I’d get a broken, unplaytested Battle of the Bulge Quad by mistake in the box, with the rules written in Esperanto.
Has anyone tried GMT’s new tactical game, the Last Hundred Yards? I’ve got it sitting on my shelf, new and unplayed.
This Compass Games discussion is ironic for me as within the last 2 months I bought my first Compass game and a buddy of mine just agreed to publish his first game with them. He pitched it around and even got interest from GMT but they wanted him to make it more of a wargame (it’s a CDG about North Korea) which wasn’t really what he was going for (based on his conversation with Billingsely, you get the sense they don’t really understand why Twilight Struggle was such a success), but more importantly as I’m sure most of you know, agreeing to be published by GMT means sitting on the P500 list for 3+ years (unless your name is Herman, Jensen, COIN, etc.).
As a first time designer he wanted to get his game out as soon as possible and as widely as possible, and Compass can do that. On the flip side, as you guys have surmised, there really is no support from Compass. It’s up to you and the producer/developer that gets assigned, who at least in my friend’s case hasn’t done much. Overall it’s a pretty bare bones effort and obviously it’s shown in a bunch of their games.
That said, if the designer and developer know what they are doing, there’s no reason the game can’t turn out well. Case in point is South China Sea, the game I recently got. It’s not going to blow anyone’s socks off, but it’s a pretty tight medium-complexity treatment of modern naval combat in the South Pacific. It’s a sequel so has that benefit but the predecessor didn’t have any major issues. Evidently the developer works at the Army War College and so has used these designs in his classes. Aethetically, the maps are really nice (unmounted) and the counters are great.
I guess the lesson here is to never pre-order from Compass, but maybe let the dust settle on a new release and then reasses. Hell, I wish I had done that with Hitler’s Reich…
I am the same as you :) I bought it but its likely to just sit there for a while. The rules are pretty long and I cant muster up the energy. Tbh I bought it assuming it had eastern front in it (thats on me not GMT), sadly its USA/Ger France in the base game, which is fine, just doesnt excite me enough to learn it. It may sit unplayed till/if another theatre gets added. I would love to be sold on playing sooner though.
Tbh I bought it assuming it had eastern front in it
Funny you say that as I didn’t think about it one way or another, but when I opened the box, I saw the US and German counters and kept digging expecting Russian counters. I ended up checking the rulebook to make sure my copy wasn’t missing something.
I too was a bit suprised that the rules were as long as they are since one of the big selling points was around rules brevity and relative simplicity. That said, the early reviews I’ve read on BGG suggest that gameplay is fast and smooth once you start playing.
I playtested The Last Hundred Yards at GMT weekend a year or so ago. It wasn’t a great experience. I didn’t really have any idea what was going on. I’m not a huge tactical wargamer (I’m more on the Combat Commander side of the spectrum than ASL), so I found it pretty confusing. The basic idea, as far as I understood it, is that every time a soldier does an action, everybody who can see him can react. Then, everybody who can see the guy who reacted can react, and so on, back and forth, potentially until every single soldier on the board has had a chance to do something.
So, first of all, if you don’t have a very strong grasp of the line-of-sight rules, you’re going to be spending way too much time just figuring out who can react to what. Now, I’m sure the line of sight rules are probably second nature to someone who plays ASL, but I was basically just asking “who can see this guy” and the designer would just tell me. So I never really understood what the rules were.
Secondly, of course, you have to remember who has already reacted, and what started the chain in the first place. I’m sure most of the time it’s fairly obvious, but it seems like it can get hairy, especially if you have a scenario with multiple squads in various parts of the map. There’s probably some way to mark it if it gets complicated.
Anyway, I’m sure the game has changed since I played it. I couldn’t tell you if it’s something an ASL player would like. I’m gonna stick with Combat Commander though. (Not that I ever actually play it anymore, sigh).