Review -Supply Lines of the American Revolution

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Product Description

This is a 2 player, strategic level game of the American Revolution. The Complexity is moderate / low.  Point to point movement with counters. 

In a way, the name is misleading. You aren’t just in charge of logistics.  You are in charge of the entire war.  There IS a strong military component to the game.  You have leaders and Army SPs that you get to build and move around the board.  And yes, you DO get to fight battles.  So relax.  It IS a wargame.  🙂

A better description of the game would be that it is a simple strategic wargame but it also includes logistical considerations. I very much applaud this effort in design.  Logistics in real wars are huge.  In many ways the logistics are the most important thing .  It does no good to raise a bunch of troops and deploy them into the field.  Those troops need to eat.  In order to fight they need powder and shot.  They need all this stuff at the right time and place.

When I look at buying a wargame, I want to look at the rules first. Why?  Because I want to see how the supplies work.  That is the first thing I check.  If I don’t like how the game models supplies, I don’t buy it.  To me, this is key to a game at this level.  This is what induced me to try this game out.

Here is some feedback for the publisher:  I showed this game to a friend.  He immediately assumed the name of the game was “Join or Die” by the box cover.  I think this would make a better name.  More simple and catchy, if it’s not already in use. 

SLOTARTNT: 1775-1777 is a bit long and misleading in a way. On the other hand, this might be part of what makes it stand out and look different.  That might actually be good in a crazy, backwards way. 

Graphics

Ok, to be fair, I am extremely picky when it comes to graphics. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this game as a 6.  By that I mean it is slightly above average for the industry.  It is ok.  There is an attempt to make the map look somewhat period.  It works.  I have seen much worse from the wargame industry. 

The pieces look like they are upgraded, cut hardboard. Nice.  The graphics are average.  I bought the Print N Play.  It downloaded and printed easily.  I made my own custom pieces, so my pix are very different from what you will get with the regular game. 

Rules

Rules, rules, rules. Does anybody like rules?  Have you ever seen a rule book that you liked?  I’m not sure I ever have.  They never seem to be easy.  I have very high expectations for rules.  I don’t think any rule book lives up to what I want it to be, even my own.  With this in mind, I would rate the rulebook a 4 out of 10.  Slightly below average for the industry.  –Which in my view has a lot of room for improvement.

The rules are simple and short. Only 11 pages.  I found them difficult to remember and difficult to scan for answers.  I kept having to look things up.  That may be my age and failing memory though.  🙂

Even so, I was able to learn and play the game fairly easily. These rules are no worse than most wargames out there. 

Mechanics   –Under the Hood

To move, you must spend a green food cube. The cube has to be in the area with the troops.  No food?  No movement. 

The fighting was a bit different than what we normally expect. Each side gets dice to roll for hits.  The difference is: the number of dice you roll is based on the number of war supplies you spend, NOT on the number of troops you have.  The war supplies you spend, need to be what you have with you at that moment.  So, no war supplies?  No dice. 

Each city produces 2 food and 1 war cube at the beginning of each turn but only if you have an army there. That is fine if you plan on fighting there.  If not, you’re going to have to get these supplies moved up to the front. 

So as you would expect, you are going to be spending much of your time planning how you are going to get these supplies and troops where you need them. You need to build supply lines by spreading your troops out in a line.  At the end of the line, you need to assemble a concentration of troops to fight with.  They will need a leader and a steady flow of supplies to move and attack with. 

There isn’t any Fog of War in this game. Both players can see and know what each side has.  This works well for this design.  You usually have 10 things that need to be done in your turn but you can only do 1 right now.  This creates enough unknowns and Fog of War by itself. 

Playability

If dealing with all of these issues sounds complex, don’t worry. This game is very easy, fun and playable.  It all plays out in a quick and streamlined fashion.  It will take a few turns to get a feeling for what is going on and how to plan.  Experience seems to be the best teacher: 

You will move quick and shatter the enemy’s army. All of these undefended Victory Cities will be sitting right there in front of you but you won’t be able to do a darned thing about it.  Why?  Because you just ran out of food.  You can’t march anymore. 

Do that once or twice and then you will start to get your act together.  

Pros

A nice melding of Logistics with movement and combat.

Fast.

Easy.

Quick.

Short rules.

I really like how this system models the timing of war. In most games, every turn, every piece you have flys around on the map and fights.  If you read about real wars, you will see that there are long periods in between the battles.  For months, everybody just sits there.  Nothing is happening.  Why?  In this game, you can see why.  There actually are a lot of things happening during those periods of ‘nothing’.  These periods of ‘nothing’ can be very interesting and fun. 

Cons

Only the “Northern Theater”? I really wanted to see the entire war played out. 

Summary / Conclusion

In spite of its short comings,  I definitely recommend this as a buy. Overall, I’d rate this game an 8 out of 10. 

Great little game. The rules are a little rough around the edges.  It is refreshing to see wargames incorporating logistics in more detail.  This game proves that it can be done in a simple way, with short rules and that it greatly adds to the strategy and enjoyment of the game.  I hope we see many more designs in this direction!

Supply Lines of the American Civil War? Supply Lines of Napoleon?  Supply Lines of Caesar?  Tom Russell, you better get to work!  

You can find Supply Lines of the American Revolution at Hollandspiele Games. 

Marengo Victory?

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Ok, we had a strange Victory result.  The Austrians only lost 1 piece but the French lost 6.  This is a Draw?

Yes, this may seem a little strange but the French had additional forces in the area.  These would have been brought in.  –probably already on the way once they heard the battle.  So the French would have been battered but not broken. 

The Austrians would be forced to retire back to Alexandrie.  They are still bottled up, isolated and out of supply.  They would be soon forced to surrender.

The Austrians must be very aggressive in this game.  There is no Minor Victory option for the Austrians.  You either breakout and win, or essentially you lose.  We haven’t defined a ‘draw’ specifically.  A better description of this would be:  both players lose. 

This isn’t the kind of battle where you can tangle a bit, and then declare a technical victory by scoring a few more hits than the enemy did.  You must crush the enemy and break them.  If you can’t do that, you’ve lost. 

Pub Battles Contest

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Command Post Games is giving away 1 FREE Pub Battle game (your choice either Brandywine, Little Bighorn or Marengo) to 3 wise and lucky contestants.  You can find a copy of the Quickstart Rules and Tutorials on how to play on the Brandywine pages but you do NOT need to know the game to participate or answer the question.

Pub Battles is a fast, simple, musket era game that emphasizes command decisions. It can be played in teams with only delayed, written communication during the game between players.  This question is based on a real situation that came up in one of our games!

Situation

The beginning of the battle of Antietam, Sept 17, 1862, 5:30am. Assume historical starting positions. 

You are in command of Hooker’s I Corps with 1 battery of artillery:  The Blue Union Army, the 4 right most blocks.  No one else has moved yet.  Your Corps is first up to move. 

You are playing in a team game. The only communication allowed with other players is through written messages that suffer a 1 turn time delay before you can read them. 

Your starting orders read:

“March SE down the road to attack the enemy at Mercerville.”

The Question

Mercerville is to your right and directly West. Marching SE is in the opposite direction.  What is your best course of action?

Answers

  1. March SW and attack the 2 Confederates to the West near the river. (far left)
  2. Write a letter to President Lincoln, asking him to remove McClellan from command for incompetence and give the Army of the Potomac to you.
  3. March West into Mercerville and then await further orders.
  4. Release the Hounds.
  5. March SE and attack the Confederate position just south of the East Woods. (far right)
  6. Invite your staff to join you in a relaxing game of croquet.
  7. Make no moves. Send a written request for clarification of your orders & hold your position until you hear back.
  8. Give the messenger your personal compass and tell him to take it to McClellan.
  9. March SE and attack the Confederate position in the West Woods. (center)
  10. Advance and attack all enemy positions at once.
  11. Sigh and open a new bottle of whiskey.
  12. Other?  -describe

How to Enter

Simply email your answer to:   god[AT]commandpostgames.com

Rules

You may only answer once.

Employees and relatives of employees may not participate. 

Answers will be reviewed by an independent panel.  All best / correct answers will be put in a pool and randomly pulled to determine winners. 

International contestants are welcome.

We will send the winners a FREE Pub Battles game.  The games do not include measuring sticks.  We do ask you to pay shipping.  We will send you a PayPal invoice for this. 

Entries must be received August 11th through 31st, 2017. 

 

 

Top 3 Amazing things about Iron Bottom Sound III

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Short Rules

I’ve spent years playing monsters like ASL and World in Flames. I’m not afraid of a long rule book and complex rules.  That said, I have been trending more towards shorter, simpler rules these days.  I must admit, I was a little reluctant to take on a game as detailed as Iron Bottom Sound.  I was expecting 60-100 pages of triple column, fine print. 

Amazingly no!  The rule book is only around 30 pages and half of those are scenarios.  Double column.  Big font size.  Easy to read with lots of space.  The actual rules only come in around 15 pages.  The rules make sense so they are easy to remember.  Very clean. 

Written Orders

What?!! How could that be?  Sounds like a mess.  It’s not.  It is amazing.  I love Columbia Games and Kriegsspiel because they bring in hidden and unknown features of war.  This game does the same thing only without umpires and blocks. 

Now at first I thought this sounds like a big hassle. You have to write out where each ship goes?  Who wants to sit around, hand writing orders.  Their system makes it painless, quick and fun.  How does it work?  You ships face hexsides.  Want to just steam dead ahead?  Fine.  How many Movement Factors does you ship have?  Five.  Ok, just write down “5” on your log.  That simple. 

Ok, then how do you turn? Easy.  Let’s say I want to move ahead for 2 hexes, then turn 60 degrees (that is the next hexside) to port and continue.  That would be:  2P3. 

Making a hard 120 deg turn costs an extra MF. So in that case you would write 2PP2.  All stop?  Just write: 0.  How hard it that?

These little order notes are easy to track on each ships log.

Fog-of-War

That’s pretty sleek and painless but still, why bother with all this writing? Because it is incredibly fun and realistic!!  All the ships move simultaneously.  So you have to try to guess what the enemy is going to do.  Where is he going to be?  Where do you want to end up?  Both players try to anticipate this and plan accordingly while writing down there moves. 

What happens when the enemy doesn’t move like you expect? I can easily imagine all sorts of tricks, maneuvers and mishaps.  Be careful because if your ship ends up in a hex with another ship, they can collide!  All the fun of Kriegsspiel without an umpire or teams in a straightforward 2 player game. 

 

This game is a gem!

Marengo in Minis

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Pub Battles is a mixture between wargame and miniatures.  I’ve been meaning to get set of minis to use for Pub Battles, just to see how they look.  Somebody beat me to it!!

Check it out.  They are all set to Pub Battles scale and everything. 

 

Austrian Strategy for Marengo

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1) You have a 4-1 advantage in artillery. The problem is going to be keeping it up near the front where they can do damage. In many ways, this is one of the biggest weapons of the French: Run! Run fast enough that the Austrian artillery can’t hit you. Starting out, you can deploy your artillery along the river. This does allow you to pound the French right from the get go. The down side is that it will take a turn or two to march them out to the roads and then cross. 


2) Don’t get cocky. Just because you outnumber the French, doesn’t meant this is going to be a cakewalk. Be wary. Especially after the French Cavalry and Guard show up. –Until then, advance as rapidly as possible and push as hard as you can. 


3) Just because the French Cavalry and Guard to show up, doesn’t mean you just sit back and go turtle. You must still attack and be aggressive. You just have to be more… selective. Keep a close eye on the French Cavalry and Guard. You should know where they are at all times. Notice where they are not. In places out of there range, you need to push with your usual zeal. In areas they can reach, be more careful. Always spend the extra time to dress your lines (Rally) before you attack. All of this assumes of course that the French Cav & Guard haven’t moved yet. If they have, then you can be a little more bold. Just keep in mind that they can move first next turn also. 


4) You are going to get ‘out timed’. That is not luck. That is a given. You have to assume the French will get the timing they want. Act accordingly. 


5) If most of your army ends up spent in the opening turns, that’s not a big deal. Late in the game you will want to tidy things up. Try to keep your units organized then. Spent units make easy targets for French charges.

Marengo Errata

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We are usually really good about Errata.  We try very hard to keep it to a minimum.  A few last minute changes with Marengo resulted in a few glitches.

The most important is the French reinforcements:

Reinforcements should come in 1 turn later than listed. 

You can find the Errata at the bottom of the Marengo page:  here. 

Tube Box

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Why the new tube boxes?

Price wise, they are about the same.  We could use the smaller cardboard tubes on Brandywine because it fit.  We can get longer cardboard tubes made but they are going to  be a problem.  When pieces get wedged and stuck in the bottom, there is no way to get them out!  It is too long and narrow to reach with your hand and you can’t remove the bottom.  Huge problem.  This is going to be a bigger problem with bigger battles and more pieces.  I’m thinking we are going to need bigger bags to fit all the Gettysburg pieces in!

 

It’s not just Marengo either.  Gettysburg will have huge maps.  Chancellorsville.  Waterloo if we include all the matching campaign maps.  Our Pirate game.  Dracula.  Our strategic game in Europe. 

 

It will greatly streamline production and inventory if we have 1 system that is versatile and works for everything.  There are other advantages as well:

 

  • Air tight, helps prevent yellowing with age
  • Water tight, helps prevent damage
  • Lighter, decreased shipping & packaging costs.  This is a big deal for our international orders.  We’ve been trying to absorb most of the extra charges but it really adds up.
  • Bigger diameter which reduces the rules ‘curl’ effect.  That helps.
  • Virtually no shelf wear on the box because everything is protected on the inside. 

 

This type of storage is nearly bomb proof.  The game should look virtually brand new in 50 years with this.

 

The downside is that it looks more modern.  Not period like the cardboard and metal.   …but then we got to thinking.  Industrial cardboard tubes with pressed metal caps aren’t really ‘period’ either.  They couldn’t make those back then. 

 

That got us thinking about what would be period?  Probably something leather or wood like these.

So maybe it would be better to go with light and efficient and then offer the fancy tubes as extras for the people that want them.  We might be able to get them in bulk from India / China.  What do you guys think?

 

Bigger is Better -Marengo

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Design Notes:

Compared to Brandywine, the Marengo map is huge!  There are pros and cons.  This was our assessment. 

Pros

Wide Open Feel

My favorite games are usually strategic.  Why?  I always wonder what is past the edge of the map?  Why can’t I go there?  I know.  I probably wouldn’t go there anyways but still. 

We started play testing on the full big map.  We figured at some point we would crop it down to a more manageable size.  What stood out to me most about Marengo is how fluid the battle was.  This is a battle of maneuver over a wide field of mostly clear terrain.  Refreshing!  I loved that feel.  Very spacious.  Luxurious.  Very Napoleonic.  Cropping it down would cut costs and save space but it also makes you feel more boxed in.

Beautiful Artwork

One of the most striking and detailed parts of the map was Alexandrie.  The problem is, that wasn’t really part of the battle.  Still, it seemed a shame to just hack that and the river off.  We noticed that by leaving it on, it opens up several strategic options for the Austrians.  They could attack straight up the center.  They also have maneuver options to the north and south.  Even combinations of the three.  There we go.  Now we have some justification for beauty. 

Historical

If that wasn’t enough to convince you, consider the historical value.  This is based on the real French map of the period on the battle.  It felt wrong to cut off and just provide part of the historical map.  Wouldn’t it be more historically accurate to have the full map?  This adds extra value to the game.  A minor quibble perhaps but it is kind of nice to be able to tell people that this is the real map from the real campaign!  Full size in all its Napoleonic glory. 

In fact, we’ve had people ordering extra maps.  One to play the game and one to frame and hang up. 

Cons

Increased Cost

The maps are more.  About twice the size of Brandywine.  We also need bigger tubes.  The small cardboard format won’t work with this size.  Shipping is more. 

True, true, true but it felt wrong to skimp when it comes to Napoleon.  We decided to just absorb the extra expense.  It’s worth it preserve Napoleonic glory!   

Playing Out

This battle still plays fast but can you fit that huge map on the bar?  Well, this is a downside.  It won’t fit on the bar.  It does fit on a normal sized booth table.  We tested it at several different bars.  (just to make sure!) 

It is easier to accommodate this than you might think.  The French can just setup Victor and Lannes.  Let the east edge of the map hang over the table edge for turn 0.  The French can’t move anyways.  The Austrians quickly cross the river and deploy on the field.  For turn 1, you can slide the map over and let the west edge drape over the table edge.  Now you can setup the rest of the French and fight out the rest of the battle normally. 

Conclusion

Lots of good pros.  We took care of 1 con, so all you have to do is be willing to slide the map once on turn 1 IF you are playing on a small table.  That’s not too much to ask.  In the end, this seems like a small price to pay for all the great advantages.