The NEW New Boardgames Thread

[Maladict]

It seems like the UK shops haven't received their latest GMT shipment. I ordered Atlantic Chase from one a few weeks ago, then recently made an order with another one which included Tomahawks & Bayonets. Neither one has shipped. By the looks of it I am gonna' have to play a wargame this weekend that I already played once. 

You've played all your wargames? 

[crazy canuck]

For those interested, Bayonets & Tomahawks is out with GMT.

https://www.gmtgames.com/p-598-bayonets-tomahawks.aspx

This looks great!

[Tamas]

It seems like the UK shops haven't received their latest GMT shipment. I ordered Atlantic Chase from one a few weeks ago, then recently made an order with another one which included Tomahawks & Bayonets. Neither one has shipped. By the looks of it I am gonna' have to play a wargame this weekend that I already played once. 

You've played all your wargames? 

[grumbler]

I am tempted to buy the Deluxe version of the Wallace classic, Struggle of Empires.

https://www.eaglegames.net/Struggle-of-the-Empire-Deluxe-p/102285.htm

Haven't played it for a loooong time, but remember it fondly and the updated version looks really nice.

Done.  That's the first wargame I've found irresistible in maybe five years.

[Habbaku]

It's more of a Euro. 

[11B4V]

It seems like the UK shops haven't received their latest GMT shipment. I ordered Atlantic Chase from one a few weeks ago, then recently made an order with another one which included Tomahawks & Bayonets. Neither one has shipped. By the looks of it I am gonna' have to play a wargame this weekend that I already played once. 

You've played all your wargames? 

That's not the point.

[bogh]

Done.  That's the first wargame I've found irresistible in maybe five years.

I am still wavering (actually, I forgot about it again). Please let me know what you think once you get it and open the box.

[Tamas]

I am very impressed with Bayonets & Tomahawks so far.

There could be an endless stream of rules and tables created to try and properly abstract frontier warfare between light and regular troops, and the "heavy weapons" of artillery, forts, and ships.

Instead, here, these are organised into 3 categories, very clearly marked by the shape of their counters.

Then, in battle you roll a custom D6 with icons on it, in a given order (light units first etc). The only "CRT" is a list of what each icon rolled for a given type of unit results in.

Usually, a given unit type can only flip/eliminate an enemy unit of the same type, but they can still contribute to winning the battle by increasing the Battle Score with their die roll - this score is influenced by a few things (presence of defending for reduces it for the attacker by 1 for example), and whoever has more of it at the end of the battle wins it, causing a rout if they have 3 more than the enemy.

So, in practice, a strong enough light force can frustrate, delay, and block a force of regulars but they won't cause major casualties to them except in extraordinary circumstances, and it works the same way backwards. But when you have a meeting of similar unit types, that's when the bloody battles happen.

It is very elegant, I am far from knowing enough of the conflict to know if the designer's claim of meticulously adjusting odds to the war's battle statistics is true, but it does feel authentic.

The semi-card driven nature of the game is also fun, you have two very limited decks to draw from, one for the year's build-up and the other for the campaign phase.  Each card contain a number of two possible symbols referencing the type and number of stacks you can activate, plus sometimes an event which either auto-triggers or can be used in a battle during that round. You start the year with 1 drawn to reserve, then each new round you draw another one, play one of them and keep the other in reserve. This is helpful for soliatire but also feels like a nice mix of CDG and do-what-you-want classic wargames. I guess the Habbakus of this world can do some serious card-counting because of the low number of cards but the rules emphasis to keep even discards phase down to limit it truly to the Habbakus.

[11B4V]

Good to hear. Mine's on the way
. 
Atlantic Chase arrived yesterday.

[Tamas]

A day of mixed feelings, seems like I have a buyer for my copy of Balance of Powers.

I think it is an excellent WW1 game but it follows the Compass Games idiocy of being totally blown out of all reasonable proportions when it comes to size. Can hardly fit on my table 1 of the 3 maps it comes with.

Also my Atlantic Chase copy shall finally arrive tomorrow.

I have been near-obsessed with Bayonets and Tomahawks. So many different strategies to try and so man different situations to react to due to what the cards allow you and the opponent. I ought to VASSAL it with somebody.

[11B4V]

My god...what have I done...

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6540/fear-god-and-dread-nought

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9858/russo-japanese-war-dawn-rising-sun

[grumbler]

My god...what have I done...

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6540/fear-god-and-dread-nought

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9858/russo-japanese-war-dawn-rising-sun

I see that you held off buying those until you could see some reviews. 

[Tamas]

Those should be pretty cool if one has the space.

[Maladict]

Got my hands on a copy of Atlantic Chase, looking forward to reading 260 pages of text 

[Tamas]

Got my hands on a copy of Atlantic Chase, looking forward to reading 260 pages of text 

Got my copy a few days ago.

I watched (more like listened to) a few Youtube videos of a guy playing it, that helped me grasp the basic concept around trajectories and wha tthe hunter and the hunted want to do with them. As a result, I could skip the tutorial booklet altogether and quite quickly get started. Sure, I messed up about half of my first try of the first solo scenario but from the 2nd try I have been going well.