¶ Intro
Hello and welcome fellow pushers. This is episode 34 of Pushing Cardboard, and , uh, let's just call this episode vuca. We're gonna take a look at 1812 Napoleon's Fateful March, a new game from them. And then I also have an interview with Patrick Gebhart, one of the founders and leaders of VUCA Games.
VUCA has made quite a splash the last few years with their stunning components and games that hit the sweet spot in terms of complexity. And of course, then we'll have some news, some new games, and all the usual chatter you're used to. This episode of Pushing Cardboard is sponsored by Noble Night Games. If there's a game you need, they've got it.
Please use the link found in either the newsletter or on the website to go grab it. That way I'll get a little kickback and I'll be able to find another game to bring to your attention. It's a virtuous circle.
¶ News
News. As always, there are links to all the news pieces in the newsletter, so look there if you want more information. Uh, first off, I just wanna mention that I'm thinking of doing a biweekly live YouTube show. Is there any interest out there in such a thing? Um, I'm not totally clear on the structure yet.
Uh , sometimes it might be live interviews , uh, with , uh, invited audience participation, or sometimes it just be me with a topic and interacting with whoever shows up and comments or asks questions. Lemme know what you think. Uh, I'll put a question about it in this episode's survey, but you can always reach out to me on Discord or@grantedpushingcardboard.com. Honor the rest of the news.
Hol spiel has a couple new things happening. There's a new game, city of Six Moons, which is pretty wild. It comes with no instructions, and part of the game is cracking the code on how to play it. And then as well, they have an expansion for Beware the odds of March called Crossing the Rubicon. So I'm interested in that. Of course, Worthington's July newsletter is out.
Uh, it has a couple Kickstarter announcements that, but they , uh, they never give enough lead time . So they're , they're probably over by the time you hear this. But , um, that said, there's often an opportunity for a late pledge, so check out their website and , um, you know, maybe you can still get on the action.
The , the one that caught my eye is a new expansion for a band of brothers that finally takes the series to the East Front. And , uh, hey, they also mentioned they're celebrating 20 years in business. So , uh, congratulations to Worthington. I think I've mentioned Neeva War games before.
They're a brand new little company, and , uh, one of the ways they're trying to distinguish themselves is by creating , uh, backstory or history pieces with , uh, great , great illustrations for each game. They've just finished one on their new Columbus game , so check it out. Uh, it , uh, I really like the , uh, illustration styles for these, so it's, it's worth going to their website.
Another new company, forms Square has announced their next game. Uh , Mida 1806 is another Napoleonic game, and it's heading to Game Found for funding soon. I have their most recent game, Napoleon's Eastern Empire, which deals with the Egyptian campaign. And , uh, it's got some really unique elements. I'll feature it on a future episode , uh, and you'll be able to see what the fuss is about.
For those have who have been , uh, following the, we intend to move on your work series from Homo Luden , one of the participants, Stuart Ellis Gorman, has written an article for , uh, SD his Con's Online magazine, detailing what they found so far. Uh, for those who haven't , uh, heard of any of this or , or followed it, they're playing a giant pile of American Civil War games.
And then tracking how the Lost cause myth is represented in the games, either explicitly or inadvertently. It's been a pretty cool project. Plus you get to hear about , uh, a bunch of games you might not have played. I'm really enjoying it. Uh , no GMT update this time. It's , uh, it'll un undoubtedly released as soon as I finished recording this, but , uh, I dodge a bullet on having to go through that this time.
¶ Games on the table
What's on the table? I'm playing a few different a SL games at the moment. Two scenarios, then a historical campaign game called Crossing the Morrow . Uh, this campaign game has been great fun. My Canadians are barely holding onto it. Hilltop Village , uh, most of the buildings are on fire, which really takes away from their uses, defensive positions.
But , uh, I , I've really had fun re relearning things like , uh, the air rules, as I've had a bunch of fighter bombers and , uh, we both have a ton of off board artillery. We've battered the hell of each other with that. It's a , it's a great , uh, short campaign game, only four dates and a and a medium sized map.
We're about to start the third date, and a couple questions have arisen about setup areas at the start of each new scenario. Uh , the rule book is generally excellent, but there are a couple areas that are a bit fuzzy if you've ever played a SL , you know, the size and age of that rule book.
Uh, over the years, concepts have been continually refined and restated in order to stop rule lawyers from bending the game in , uh, in their favor. So it means that the rules are tight and specific, there's no room for fuzziness, which , uh, brings us back to our game. My opponent has written to the designer in the past about a different scenario that had vague wording that didn't jive with the a SL rule book.
And the response was along the lines of, you know, just use your common sense, which is always a terrible response as my friend wouldn't have been asking the question if , uh, common sense would've cleared it up. But , uh, we're gonna probably try and work it out to our mutual satisfaction rather than asking the designer as who needs to be told that they're stupid. Right?
I I , I've seen a similar thing on board Game Geek. Every once in a while , a player will post a question and the designer or developer will reply by simply posting the rule, but the player isn't not understanding the , or not finding the rule. They wouldn't be asking the question if the rule was clear to them. They're asking the question because the rule isn't clear. So , uh, you know, suck it up.
Designers you're trying to sell games or show how , how smart you are, right?
¶ New Games
New games to the collection. A few things from Noble Knight , a Math trade, a couple things on sale at my local, and , uh, some Kickstarter stuff means it's a bit of a list. This Time Angels won Five Fighters versus Bombers in World War ii. This is a Phil Saban game that was on sale at my local store.
It's , uh, a light treatment of the Air War in World War ii , but Saban is an interesting designer, so I thought I'd give it a chance. Arabian Struggle, this is a pre-production prototype that Catastrophe game sent me. You'll be hearing more of it as soon as I get it played. Uh, and , uh, it'll be, I think, going out on some kind of a crowdfunding soon.
The Battle for Casino, assaulting the Gustav Line , 1944, I bought a few old issues of s and t through Noble Knight , and this one caught my eye as I've been reading a lot about the Italian campaign the last couple years, so I wanted to try it out. Case Yellow , 1940, the German Blitz Creek in the West.
I've also been on a bit of a French 40 Jag, as you might remember from last episode, and found an unquenched copy , uh, used, but unquenched of this Ted Race , your game at my local store. And , uh, so I look forward to comparing it with the games that I , I've been talking about , uh, in terms of that , uh, campaign Chancellorville Pinnacle of Victory. This is another one. I got dirt cheap at my Local.
It's a Richard Berg design via Clash of Arms, I think. And , uh, I don't think it was very well received , uh, when it was published in 1991. Uh, it looks like it was published in 1991. Uh , the counters are pretty plain. Uh, the , uh, the map is , uh, drab, but functional, but whatever , uh, I guess , uh, I've also seen it praised as well as slag.
So , uh, I felt like for $15, I can find out which side of the fence I'm on Cobra Game of the Normandy Breakout. This is another one of the s and t games, and probably the one I was most excited to get. It's a well loved game that's been redone by decision, but I wanted the original magazine version. And , uh, noble Knight had a copy for me, old school Tactical Volume four , the Italian Theater, 1943 to 45.
This was the big Kickstarter package that arrived. I only have volume one before this, but , uh, like I said, I've been interested in the Italian campaign lately, so I backed it, and here it is. Uh , it also included for the Empire , uh, it was a , an add-on to the campaign. It's a map, a few counters and a bunch of scenarios featuring either the New Zealanders or the Canadians in Italy.
So , uh, that should be fun from a completely biased , uh, point of view operations spark the relief of Len Grad 1943. This was another game on sale that I bought, just because I'm interested in the designer, Jack Rady . I some , I , I saw some morons flagging him on , uh, online recently. So , uh, that made me even more interested. And I went and picked out one of his games, quarter Master General 1914 .
This was a math trade. Uh , I wasn't a huge fan of the original Quartermaster General, but I've heard that this is the best of the series. So I thought I'd try it out. It's , uh, uh, uh, it's a, well , uh, it's a well loved series by everybody but me. So I , I might as well give it a second chance. And , uh, then Sicily, the Race from Messina , another s and t mag to quench my Italian thirst.
And , uh, finally Nay versus Wellington, the Battle of Quatro Bra . Uh , that's the final s and t Magazine. Uh , I think this game has a good reputation. And for under $10, I'm, I'm happy to give it a go. Uh , I should , I should also mention how fun it is reading these old magazines, the history articles. Sure, they're great, but the , the letters to the editor and the editorials could be a blast.
I I also got an , uh, an epi , uh, issue of Campaign Magazine from 1979, and the editor there just can't quit Slagging. SPI , he, he seems to absolutely hate them. Uh, I was certainly a war gamer back in 79, but , uh, campaign Magazine wasn't on my radar. Too bad. It's pretty spicy stuff. Okay. You can , uh, you can probably hear that banging.
Uh, uh, we're having , uh, we're having new siding put on the house, and , uh, they were working over on the other side of the house , uh, when I got set up to record this today, and now they're right outside my window. So , uh, I hope it's not too distracting. It's certainly distracting for me. But , uh, I don't wanna go through the whole setup , uh, yet again. So , uh, we'll just press on. Uh, well,
¶ Interview: Patrick Gebhardt
it's , uh, it's time for my interview with Patrick Gehart. Patrick is one of the founders of VUCA Simulations, and I reached him across a wide stretch of time zones in his office in Germany. Here's the interview.
I'm here with , uh, Patrick Gehart from VUCA Simulations. How are you, Patrick?
Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. Thanks for the opportunity to be here.
It's a funny , uh, it's, it's , uh, it's , uh, afternoon or evening where you , um, where you are in , uh, lunchtime where I am . So , uh, I'm talking to you. You're in Berlin,
Eh ? Cologne .
Cologne . Okay.
Okay . And it's north of Cologne.
Is , uh, is Vuca uh , home cologne, or, well , tell us a little bit . I mean, tell us a little bit about , uh, who's it , what , um, what makes up Vuca? Who is , who is Vuca besides yourself? Okay ,
Sure. So it's, it's me and my best body , uh, Julius whom I know since we were kids. And he's also my best man. And , um, in 2016, we founded a company. So we started off with , um, creating a brand for poker supplies, poker cards , um, made of plastic and poker table mats and poker chips and all that stuff. And , um, Julius was still in his studies, he studied law, and I was a full-time employee.
So , uh, back then I didn't have , have a , um, kids . So we had the time and on the weekends and in the evenings, and then we set up the company and , uh, I was playing war games since, I don't know , 2006 ish. And , um, so we had all the infrastructure for a company in place, right. The distribution infrastructure for the poker stuff.
And , um, then we met , uh, Doug Lenon and we at a convention in Germany, and we talked about game philosophy, and
He's a , he's a designer. Yeah,
Correct. Yeah. He, he , um, designed quite a lot of games with moments in history back then, and also a game with GMT. And , um, so that was quite nice. So we thought, okay, let's try to publish a game together. 'cause I was a diehard war gamer. And does Julius
A war gamer as well?
Uh , Julius, yeah. He , I made him , I forced him to , to be a war gamer. , no , he , he , he likes playing war games , but he's not that , uh, fanatic as I am. Right . He wouldn't , so
It's , so Buca is basically you and Julius.
Yeah, that's, we are the founders. So Vuca the company is , it's , um, well , the , the poker and the VUCA company all together. We have , um, one, two full-time employees , um, three part-time employees, and the two of us, that's just the , the basic staff. But we also have a lot of help from volunteers and , uh, freelancers and Yeah. Right. So, right . It's of course.
So , uh, what's the , in terms of , uh, before we start , talk more about vuca. What's , uh, what's the war gaming scene like in Cologne? Is there, is there clubs, or is there much more gaming ?
Yeah, it's, it's hard. So , um, I found out about this , uh, niche when in Germany it's, it's , uh, really a niche, right ? Yeah . I found out , um, via board Game Geek the internet. Yeah . And so I made Julius play the games with me, . Uh , and then at , at some point I met some guys from nearby through the internet who I meet , uh, occasionally , um, still , um, but it's not like a big community here.
And there's one big convention in Brownfield once a year, so we went there. Yeah . Um , yeah , there was fun. But , um, it's not a big community over here.
Right. Germany's an interesting place to do war games because you've got rules about iconography and things like that, that , uh, that other countries don't have to, I mean , it is just a whole different delicate situation in some ways,
Right ? That's true.
Well, you still get to play.
Yeah. I mean, there's, there's the computer war games and whatsoever movies, right? Whatever. Right. So we're just producing cardboard without any iconography. And we are also putting , putting a strong emphasis on , um, placing the games into historical context. Right. So that's something you will find in almost all of our games , um, that we write a text about the historical context of the game.
I think that's because I like it myself. So yeah ,
Anybody who does historical game or anybody who plays historical games or war games, the history is a big part of why they're interested in the topics . Otherwise, they'd play Euro games or , uh, or other hobby games, I'm sure. So that sort of historical context is really important.
Um, how, how, how big is the market for your games in Europe versus, I , you know, now you're branching out into, into the US and North America, but is there a good, is there a good market in Europe?
Yes, it's , so , um, actually we are about 50 50 for us and the rest of the world. And , um, Germany is not that big, but Spain is very big . Spain is very active , and
France have lots of, lots of publishers coming up, it seems. Yeah.
Italy also, there's, there's quite something going on. So that's, that's great. Yeah .
But you, you're branching into the us you've, you , you're now like , um, warehousing product in the US and shipping from the US to
Us . Yes , exactly . So we have a warehouse in , in Texas, a third party logistics center, and they also fulfill our poker , um, orders and poker stuff over there. Right . So they will also take care of all the US and Canadian orders. Um, yeah. Well
That's , that's cool that you have the whole poker side to your business. 'cause uh , that must give you a bit of like a back, a backstop. 'cause you know, poker's , uh, an evergreen kind of a , a , a game that everybody always loves.
Yeah, exactly. And, and I mean, when we started off, we had the company in place, right? Right. Yeah . So we were already selling throughout all of Europe. We had , um, like the tax registrations in all the, in all the European countries, we had the warehouses. We knew the , um, production site and the logistics, and , um, so all of that was already in place.
Right. You , you didn't have to start from scratch . You , you , you just, it's more like you were just adding new product lines , or
Exactly , yeah. Yeah. Otherwise it would've been , um, difficult, I think, and , and a big risk to, to start , um, without all this background, like starting from , from scratch risk .
Yeah. That's, I think that's why we see so many small game companies start as , uh, one man shows that they're, you know, they're doing, they've still got a day job and they're , they're , uh, doing it out of their garage or whatever, whatever. And hoping that they get , they can get big enough. Well , now that we know a little bit about vuca, let's , uh, let's talk about your games.
What's , um, uh, I , I've played quite a few of them, of course, but , um, what's the , what's the, what's the biggest seller? What's the, in terms of , uh, you
Know, in terms of wanted of sold units, it's , uh, crossing the Line. So that's the first we produce . So it's on the market , uh, for the longest term. And we , um, had a reprint and it , it's sold out again. So it was quite good.
Right. And then the same system gets used in Operation Thesis .
Yes, exactly. And across the Bug River, which is also sold out . And , um, those three games all shared the same , um, system, but they were quite different. And , and going forward, we decided to go with serious rules. So the next game in , in , in this line of, of games, we'll have , um, serious rule books and a game specific rule book. And we're going forward with that approach from now.
That's a , it's a , it's an interesting decision when you have to decide whether you're gonna go with the series and exclusive rules, because there's, there's things you gain where people think, okay, I've learned the series rules, I don't have to learn as much, but it also kind of ties you into those rules a little bit.
It makes it , uh, a little bit harder on the Chrome or the things that are gonna be very specific to each game.
Yeah. You lose some flexibility. Right. So that's why we had had put a lot of work into this , um, with Dirk and , um, just to make sure that we have all the most important things in the serious world, but also maintain a certain level of flexibility to portray different operations, different battles . Right . Because crossing the line is totally different from thesis .
The , like, the combat system is pretty much the same, right ? It's , but the , uh,
And the activation system also where you have constantly to, to decide if you wanna push it some more, but risk not being able to do much in the next turns . So Yeah.
Yeah . Yeah. I I , I have both of those games. Those were the first two games I bought of yours , and , uh, they're the same. And yet because of, just because of the setting, they're so completely different. Yes . One is all Forest and one is all desert. Right. It's like ,
Uh , yeah. Right . And also with, with some of them, and particularly , um, the, the Buck River game, it's a pretty long game. Right ? So we want to focus on providing smaller scenarios. So the first game will be , uh, it will be called Mees . It's a desert game , um, with four different , um, battles. So it's Battle X , scorpion, brevity, and Compass. And they are smaller.
The map is not as big, and it's, it's the perfect entry for the system.
Right. When I read about that, I , it made me immediately think of the old Quad apps that used to come from SPI, you , you , you , I'm sure you've seen them, you're not from the old enough to, from when they came out, but it was four games . I
Know a lot of four , four games. Yes. .
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think, I think , uh, I think people really respond well to the Quad packs as , uh, entry points to get into a system as well.
Yeah. I think also the , um, battles in , in , in this game, they wouldn't justify a full , like a full product in itself. So because they're smaller. Right. Right now we have four different , uh, scenarios that's, that's , uh, easier to justify. Right . Making ,
I think people would rather buy four games in a four pack , four smaller games in a four pack than four, like Folio games that Yeah . Will somehow , uh, when they're published on their own, like that, they feel a bit insubstantial.
Yeah.
Well, you, some of the games , uh, you know, you get designed by , uh, Dirk or yourself, or you designed by Scratch, but you got , you guys always also , um, license previous designs or designers from elsewhere. Yeah . Like, like the , the remake of Task Force and things like that.
Exactly, yes. So , so just
Accept the submissions, or how, how do you run across these designers and , and redo their things?
Yeah, actually, I reach out to them. So , um, we have quite some, some Japanese designs from Tetsu Nakamura , the , um, traces of series , uh, of games, traces of War, traces of Hubris , which is , uh, now released. And , um, there's more games coming in the series. So I just reached out to him because I knew his , uh, other designs and I, I don't know , a victory loss , for example, from MMP .
And it is the other one about the , uh, Pacific War , um, I can't remember what it is. He , he's got, he had some great with him .
Yeah, yeah . The area movement came , I guess.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, so you reached out to him and, and what about now you, you also, do you have a co-design with Jack Green? That's another guy that's like Yeah . A long history in the game . Yeah . , how did you, how did you team up with Jack?
Yeah, so , um, he reached out to us when we just started business, and he, he wanted to sell some games, and he did. So , um, because he has this small , um, shop right quarter deck , uh, international Quarter Deck . Uh , yeah. And so that's how we met each other. And I , I stumbled across the , um, Bismarck second edition, I guess, from , uh, a Evelyn her , if I'm not wrong here.
And I played it with Julius and I, I found some things I would change or optimize, and I reached out to Jack and asked if he would be open to , um, doing a new game on that operation. And he was into it. And then we started, and since then, we have met in the us So we made a road trip , uh, like two years ago, three years ago. Um, and then last year we met again, made another road trip for one week straight.
That was great. So it's a great ,
So, so in addition to, I mean, well, Dirk's got some previous games as well, right? Uh , like you said , um, modern history. So you've got a lot of established designers working with vuca. Really, it's not like you're, it's not like you're starting your design , um, house from ground zero. There's a lot of experience starting out already.
Yeah. Yeah. So we have a good mix, I guess. We have some , uh, new designers. We have some established designers making new games. We have some , uh, games that we just do new versions or updated editions. Um , so it's a good mix. Yeah . I'm, I'm glad that , that people tend to work together with us. Uh ,
Um, yeah, I think you got a good mix as well. Uh , speaking of new games , um, I'm , uh, you guys sent me a copy of Red Strike . I've played , uh, I played the intro ground scenarios, the learning , uh, uh, air scenarios and the naval scenarios. And now I'm right at the point where you need to start putting it all together, the next scenarios. Yeah . It's ground and air or naval and air . Yeah .
Uh , that's a , I mean, it's, I I'm sure it's probably your most expensive game. It's, yeah . Just like, it feels like it's 10 or 15 pounds. Yeah . And that's with paper maps, that's not even mount, like, that's not a box full of mounted maps. It's just a ton in that box.
And I imagine it's daunting for people, but I find individual systems like the , the ground system, the air system and the naval system are all really straightforward. But the part that make , that makes you stop and really have to think is once you start putting those together, it's like, what's the best way to use my air with my ground, et cetera . Exactly.
Yeah.
It's , it's not a matter of complexity of rules, but a complexity of, it's not , uh, how I do it, but it's what do I do?
Yeah, right. Which order. So you wanna first and then send in the, the bombers or whatever, and Yeah. I , I think the rule book from e is , is great because it, it's, it reads like a book, right? You can follow all the, all the mechanics and, and , and , um, it just clicks. So I think it's, it's not that complex, but it's a lot. And as you said, you have to learn one , uh, part of it at a time.
And then the , the hard part is how to combine it, how to bring it all together. But that's the fun of it.
So . Well, and there's a ton of scenarios in that box as well. Yeah. It's , uh, like for people who are like really into the Cold War gone hot, that whole period. Uh, I , I think it, I mean, other than it's, it looks a bit daunting because it's so big, but I, you know, I think it should be a big success in that, in that space.
'cause it's, and you know, I think there's, I was looking, there's like maybe, maybe four pages of Arata , which seems not very much. Yes .
Such a , yeah , . Yeah. So as, as of now , uh, I'm gonna , um, upload a new Living Rules and living charts file probably tomorrow. So it'll be available soon. And yeah, it is just with a project of that complexity, right? Even if, even though we had a lot of play testers and lots of of volunteers helping out also on that project, if it's, it's unavoidable to have some kind of era and such a big complex project.
So, well,
Yeah ,
I think we we're doing the best we can. We will provide all the living , uh, rules and all the corrected files as PDFs and Yeah.
Well, I mean, taskforce is a big game as well, and the Ada for that is, is like, not , not even half a page. So
Yeah. But taskforce, it's , it's a different , um, thing, right? Because it, it , it was a game that has existed for a long time and it was tested and, and played. And I mean, red Strike is , is a new game from, from built from scratch, and Yeah, it is . So , but ,
Uh , uh, Tel , is that the designer? Yes ,
Yes.
He's very active in the forums on Yeah . He answers things right away.
He is amazing. Also, if you have the game, you should join the Facebook group because he is very proactive there. He is, I don't know . He is very, very active and still on, on Red Strike , right. He's working on the next games in the series with the same rules. So he's working together with Mark Roman on a , uh, new golf strike game.
Oh, fantastic.
Yeah, he's, he's working on Arctic Strike game, which will probably be the next one, a smaller one where we will provide some Erata counters also for Red Strike , and then also a game about the four plans . So he's dribbling multiple projects at the time, right? Yeah , well, he
Is got a really , the combat system, he's got a really interesting combat system going on with that game. I , I think if anybody hasn't tried it, they should, you know, watch a video or something and, and get a feel for it because , uh, I think that it's compelling.
Yeah. Yeah. He , he also made a video series of about, I don't know, 40 videos or something. Yes,
Yes. He breaks him with , uh, with Mo's game table . He did a series of 40 videos or something like that, where he breaks down every little piece into, you know, like a three or four minute video. Yeah . I didn't watch all of them, but when I was learning the game, whenever I had something I was unclear on, I'd go and see if there was a video on it . And , and nine times outta 10 there was
Alright . Yeah, he, he , he is a great guy. So he , he is fully supportive of the game still. If there's any questions or even if someone finds a mistake or whatever, he will edit to the Erata and Yeah . He , he is still supporting Red Star ,
So. Yeah. Well that's, that's what you want for sure. That's what , and that's what the , the players want. Uh , yeah . You know , because people are gonna be coming to the game new for years, right?
Yeah. Yeah. It's not fire and Forget with our game . So
What , uh, unless there's something that you wanna talk about the , uh, the rest of your catalog, I'd like to talk about some of the new games that you've got coming. Sure. Because I'm excited about a few of them, especially the , the first one is , uh, 1812 Napoleon's fateful March. Um, that, that , I mean, well, let's talk about , uh, that makes me think of one thing.
You guys are, so, have Al got such a name for yourself in terms of the quality of your components and your graphics? Yeah , thanks . The , the , the counters are thick, they're precut, pre rounded, the , and the , the artwork is always great. Like all your box covers are great. And this new one for Napoleon's fateful March, that box cover is just a knockout. It's fantastic.
Thank you.
Uh , this is , uh, Brian Ascl and, and he's got like a couple of games from GMT from about a decade ago, and , and he's got another one that's on P 500 right now. Yeah . How did he end up bringing this game to you guys instead of , uh, GMT where he , where he normally had been publishing?
Actually, I , I don't really remember how it , how we came together if it was him reaching out, because from time to time I see prototypes and I dunno , Facebook or board game , wherever and things I think look interesting, I will reach out to the designers, right. Could be that it was such an , uh, occurrence. I don't remember, to be honest. Yeah . It doesn't
Really matter .
Brian is very nice to work with because , um, with all the, all the different game projects we have and the poker side also , um, my time is pretty limited these days, unfortunately. Right. But I can't devote too much time into a single game. Um , that's why I'm super happy to have such a great design as it will , um, be very proactive and yeah. So the , the 1812 project went very smoothly. Uh ,
Well that's an interesting thing. It's, it basically it's the Moscow campaign, but not, it's like the Moscow campaign all the way to Moscow, but all the way back as well, right?
Yeah. Um , I mean there's , um, different scenarios , um, right . And it , it depends, right ? You can play , um, shorter scenarios, but it goes until , um, the end of November, so it's not quite the way back.
Oh , not all the way then , so, but he, this is his first Napoleonic game , so this is a bit of a , this is something new for him as well.
Yeah. And I think he, he, he is done a , a great job because , um, there's so much history in the game. Um, it's card driven , right? So , um, well at , at least card supported somehow. And you have flavor in these cards, right? So both sides have , um, cards that portray events from that time.
You have the leaders portrays portrayed with different advantages or di disadvantages and yeah, he, he packed a lot into it, but it's not that complex.
Well, and the , and it's, it's supposed to have some , uh, like a sort of a secret order system too. That sounds
A little Yeah , exactly .
Other , uh, card games.
Yeah. You have , um, order blocks. So you have a set of orders and you will place , um, a certain number of order blocks on your , uh, on the areas where you have units. And those can be dummy orders or they can be move orders, or take orders or , um, all sorts of different orders you can do. And they will be revealed one order type at a time.
So you'll start with force much orders and both sides will , uh, reveal force much orders orders, but they will not reveal the other orders. So you are never sure what, what orders are still left on, on the errors of your opponent,
Right? Yes . This game has, I I , I've , I've stickered my copy, I haven't played it yet orders, but there's, there's counters, there's blocks, there's cards, and, and the whole package just looks beautiful as always.
Yeah. Thanks. So that was done by er , um, who is a designer. We met at , um, in essence at the spiel ,
Julia . Yeah .
The big , uh, game , uh, trade Fair. And yeah, so we just made a project together and we were happy, more than happy, and he was also happy. So we're, we're just working on next games.
If you've got a guy with an eye like that, you should keep him. He's , uh, . Yeah ,
. That's true.
That's beautiful. Yeah. Well, the other one that, that was just on pre-order, but you say it's just come out is , uh, traces of hubris by , uh, TEIA uh , Nakamura . Yes . Um , and , and that's , uh, he's the same person who did the , um, uh, the traces of war game, right, exactly.
Yeah. Yeah.
So this one, this new one is Case Blue in the South. Um, and the other one was kind of the curse campaign. I think I , I , I haven't played the races of war yet after
That. Yeah. It was the more like the winter, winter and 43 , I guess. 43 . 44 .
And , and so he's the one, like he's the , we were talking about him. He had, he did a victory loss , and the Fire in the Sky is the other one that I was thinking of .
Yeah. I that's , yeah .
But he, like , he had some games with, I think he actually even had Storm over Stalling grad . I have that one as well. Yes.
Yes .
So he had a few games with MMP , but he , but now he seems to be , uh, he's bringing all his stuff to you guys, which is , uh, not so bad. 'cause I've, his games hit at a really nice , um, not too difficult, not , but not , uh, introductory exactly either. Yeah . His games hit at a really nice point.
Yeah. Um , I think Victory Loss was one of my favorite games. It's, it's one of my most played games , um, personally. So I like that. It's very easy in terms of rules. 'cause you, you , you will never have to reference the rule book again, and it's super easy, but the complexities and , and the decisions. Yeah . Right . And that's what I like.
So that's why I'm super happy to have the, the other games in the kind of series , uh, with the traces of war, traces of Hubris and the other ones. Um, yeah. And that's cool. My favorites of mine, right? .
Yeah. So you got his old games, but Traces of War on Traces of Hubris were brand new designs. They weren't re uh , remakes like the other games.
Yeah , he has done them . Yeah. For , for his , uh, Japanese , um, magazine.
Right.
Like the Japanese game journal. Um, yeah. But he didn't, didn't license the game in English , uh, language. So yeah ,
Japan has a pretty good war gaming scene as well. There's, there's , yeah . We see a lot of , uh, stuff come out of there, and we're only seeing a trickle of whatever gets translated.
Yeah, that's true. And they have such a clean designs. I don't know , there's something special to it , and , uh, yeah, but it's, it's, it , it also involves some work, right? Because with the translation stuff, it's not always easy.
Yeah. Well, yeah , , it's , uh, well, I know two people who translate , um, Japanese to English and , uh, uh, like it's just nothing I could ever imagine doing.
Yeah. And you can just simply use Google Translate so it doesn't work
. Exactly. And but so that the , so the , the 1812 game and the, and the traces of the hubris, so the two things on, on , uh, pre-order right now or , or available order .
Yeah, we, we just released them , um, like today, so, oh , right , there you go . We'll have the, all the pre out , uh, in the coming days. And , um, yeah, so that's our newest releases, 1812 on Trace of Hubers .
I have, I , I know a few others that I've track down, but maybe we could talk about those Yeah . Things like , um, well, we talked about the formation series, that , that was the , that be the quad pack on North Africa. And so that, my question was that, is the , that is gonna be the same system as the Gazala game and the uh , uh, crossing the line game.
Yes, exactly. So it's same system . So yeah, maybe in, in some , um, small areas, we did some, some adjustments, but basically it's the same system , um, just going forward with serious rules . So, and so we have the marriages in , in , um, which is going to the printer pretty soon. And then we have a game about Kahan in , uh, 1944 in France, the West front, and , uh, British.
Yeah .
Yeah. So we're , that game will have two , two full-size maps, but they will not be combined together in a big scenario. But you will have different scenarios each on , uh, single map. Then , um, then we have a game about Ash , which is in, in design stage , um, the drive from Ash and the game about the early days of the war, and , uh, the Battle of Toho in Poland.
Um , yeah, that's, that's the , the four projects in , in the formation series, which
We talk about . Dirk doing all of those, or , uh, are they getting thrown
Out ? No , no, those , the , um, Dirk is , um, designing the S game and the other three games are done by other designers. Right . So Dirk's working on other projects, but , um, yeah.
But the , those other designers will be using his series rules as the basics. Exactly.
Yeah.
Right . Yeah. So he is good . So you , you've got , you've got your first sort of big series
With
What we're calling the formation series. Yeah, that's great. That's fantastic.
Yeah. I mean, it doesn't make sense to have a series and then just publish a game or like every three years. Right,
Right . Yeah, no, absolutely. Uh , and it's been a popular series, like the , you know, the people like those , uh, people like those games. For sure. You , uh, the number one I saw that you're doing is , uh, called , um, modern Tactics Number One, Afghanistan. That looks, that's probably your first modern topic, I would imagine.
Yeah. Um , with Red Strike . Right. But it's modern ,
Sort of modern, yeah,
Sort of modern , right. . Okay. Yeah. Modern Tactics. Yeah. That's a tactical game. That's our first, yeah ,
It's the same designer , old school tactical , is that right?
Yes, exactly. It's , uh, Shane Logan , um, the designer of Old school Tactical, and it's basically old school tactical brought over to modern Times, and we are also make it a series. So we are working on the series rule book , and we're about 95% there, I guess, which is doing a finer , uh, proofread , um, and see if we can optimize something because we want to have the unit data cards optimized and so on.
Um , yeah. But it's not far away.
Right. Okay. Uh , before I have a few more games to ask you about, but you made me think in terms of how you bring games from design and through to publication. Do you , do you use developers or do you do a lot of the development work? Like are you the main developer, I guess is what I'm asking?
Yeah, it , it depends on the game and the designer, obviously we have some designers which , uh, do not require as much of , uh, development work. And , um, we have some designers , uh, which we need to, I don't know , kind of lead through the process. Right, right . Um, but so far I played each single game of ours myself.
And , um, Julius and me we're very much , um, looking into the rule books in the development , uh, process and , um, checking if we can optimize some play rates or some, I don't know if , if we can optimize it , uh, didactically, if that's the correct word. I don't know . Um, yeah, so we are doing a lot of development , uh, work ourselves, but we also have , um, guys taking care of it. So , um, right.
Sometimes it's, it's , uh, yeah, it's a lot of volunteers, which are about , and yeah. It's, it's just , um, a matter of time. Yeah .
Yeah . Even if the game doesn't need development at the, at the , at the end stage, it , it always needs proofreading. It needs Yes . Fresh eyes , uh, to just to see things that , uh, have been read so many times that they're not really being read anymore.
Yeah. And even, even if we have like five , uh, people reading over the rules , the six one will still find any issues in in the rules . It's, it's, yeah. . Yeah .
It's the nature of human beings.
That's it . Okay . Well
That's , that's interesting to know . Uh , going back to the , some of the new things you have come out, there's a game you have called , um, seminal Catastrophe that it says , uh, the game covers 1850 to 1920. That's a , that's an interesting
Yeah.
Chunk of time . What , uh, what conflicts? Like what, what , what are you, what's being modeled there? What's the subject of the game? Yeah,
So that's a very , um, exciting project. Um, it's about , uh, great Power alliances. Um, it's about the German unification, it's about Italian unification. Um, yeah, it's, it's about influence. And um, it's based on, loosely based on the, here I stand game from GMT. Right , right . So it shares some of the mechanics. It's card driven , um, multi
Multiplayer then as well.
Yeah , it's six players.
Six players, okay.
Yeah, six players. But , um, there's bot rules, so if you have five or less players, you can do that. And , um, the thing is it each player has , um, a set of cards and each player has this , um, individual objectives to score , uh, victory points. And it is possible that the grade war , um, breaks out, but it, it's not necessary.
So it could be , um, theoretically that all six powers win by being peaceful and achieve all their objectives and , and score the same amount of victory points. It's possible, but I guess it will not happen too often.
Right. They have , they have to score exactly the same amount of points each.
Yeah . And then if the Great War breaks out , the victory conditions totally change. So , um, it's a game about alliances. You can have powers and the six major powers can be in alliances either on the , uh, um, allied , uh, the Triple Ions , ions Triple or the Anton . Yeah. That's the two sides.
And in the Great War, you can also have neutral players, and yeah, you just play out the Great War , and then at the end it's, it's over. And you'll see who , who wins.
It's a , that's an , that's a , an idea that I don't think I've seen any anywhere before to , to take like games that there are 1750 to 1790, we see maybe games in that range, but to take it all the way through the period of the Great War. Yeah . Uh , from, you know, the gr like you say, from the, the reuni reunifications of the, in Europe Right. Through, that's a big chunk of history to do all at once.
That's , uh, I can't wait to see this. Yeah . I'm, I'm not a much of a player player, but , uh, I still like, I like to see how these things work.
Yeah. For me, personally, I , I , I read the rules , I proofread it , proofread them. Um, I spent so many hours on the game , um, but I haven't played it yet, so I'm excited to play at Expo, hopefully. So we'll bring a, a prototype copy with the , um, pretty much final graph, and then I hope we can get some, some games in , um, because I'm very excited for it, but I want to see how it plays out.
Yeah, yeah. Well, it , I mean, it sounds like it's gonna be something new , uh, in terms of something old. You've got , uh, 1916 Prelude to Blitz Creek , that's the same system as 1914 Knot Paris . Is that right? Yeah,
It's correct. It's, it's somewhat simplified,
So it's is as big as not Paris. 'cause that's a pretty big game.
Yes. But, but , uh, also Nap Paris , the 1914 game also , um, provides scenarios like one Oh yeah . Scenarios and so on. Um , but yeah, Romania is smaller. Um, and it's bit less , uh, a bit less, I don't know , fiddly, if that's the correct
Term . That's , uh, that's , that's a big word in my vocabulary, talking about games
mind and Yes . But , but also back in 16, I haven't played , uh, myself yet. So I guess in November we're gonna , um, do a play test session in , uh, Switzerland, in Swiss , Swiss , Switzerland. Yeah . And , um, we'll see how it plays out, but I guess it's, it's getting , uh, coming along nicely.
Right . So that one's a little , that's farther down the road than , uh, say seminal catastrophe. Yeah,
Yeah, exactly.
Uh, what about , um, in Enforced to Heaven , uh, about the invasion of Poland in 1939? What can you tell me about that one?
Yeah, it's about, I think 95% ready also. So it's not that far away. It's a big, big game, lots of counters , big maps, but we will also provide , uh, lots of smaller scenarios. And , um, it's done by a Polish designer who's very passionate about that period and Polish history in general, and , um, is passionate about that game project and in particular. And , um, yeah, he, he brought in lots of fresh ideas,
So
The whole activation mechanics and all the, he implemented some mechanics, like daily food rate ranges where you can move infantry units multiple times in a day, because a day can consist of multiple turns , but they can only march a certain amount of , um, hes , and that's, and I don't know , then there's a lot of, of , uh, different mechanics, which I haven't seen so far.
I heard it described as strategic, but , um, is it a strategic game? Is it more operational?
Yeah, it , it's, it's both a bit , so you can see it on the operational level, you will move your units and so on, but it also has , uh, strategic , um, levels to it. So you have to, to choose how to use your AI units and yeah, it's, it's hard to explain .
It's interesting and not surprising with a Polish designer that it's got , uh, that much enthusiasm. But , uh, I , I , I talked to , uh, vis Pon , um, about his game about Finland, and, you know, he's a finished designer, passionate about Finnish history as well, right. .
Yeah. But oftentimes you see the Polish campaign as being very one sided. Right . And that's not, not ultimately the , the case. Uh , like they , the po polish , uh, army really stood up and put in a good fight there. And you have a lot of that portrayed in the game. And , uh, yeah.
Well, fantastic. Uh, what about , what about the Far Seas? This is a World War I Naval game?
Yeah , it's naval game. It's, it's about the German cruisers and the early days of the , uh, great war. And it's, it's a game that was published in, I think the eighties or the nineties by Martin Anderson. And , um, we met each other last year at Concert World Expo, and he showed us the game and we played it, and I liked it because it's very interactive.
It's , uh, fast going , it's not taking , uh, forever to play out. And so we said, okay, let's do this project together. And also here we found lots of things to optimize, so it's not a straight reprint, but , um, it's kind of like what we did with Bismarck. Uh , we took a , an , an existing game, but then changed some things , optimize things, and yeah .
With the Farsi , um, with Naval Games, one of the big questions is , uh, the hidden move , the , when the two, the two sides, dunno where the other side is, how that's always the, that's always the question. How does , uh, the Farsi deal with that problem ?
Yeah, that's a good question. And bit Mark , we have the double blind system, right? Yeah . Um , which works well when you have one side chasing the other side, and that's the case also with the far Cs .
But here we have one shared map where we have like open information , um, but the German player will, in a turn , he will state with ship or ships, he's gonna move and he will note down where he's gonna move and what he , what he's doing, if he's going for the merchant ships or doing a station rate or whatever. And then the British player can choose to move as many of his or her units as they like.
And , um, then the Ger player , um, shows and , and then moves , um, his committed units and then it plays out
Fantastic
Ger player moves first, but just notes down the, the target of the move, and then it's the British player moving his units, and then it's the German player moving the units . Yeah ,
It's a true , the , the whole thing of the hidden, it's like, it's a popular subject in war gaming these days, so I think you've got a good timing to be working on a naval game.
Yeah. It leads , uh, to some more tension in the game. Yeah , yeah. And it's, it's not always applicable in , in games, right ? You can only have so much units to move, otherwise it doesn't work. But in the far East you have a handful of German cruises and that's it,
Right? Yeah. Yeah. That's all the games that I'm aware of. But do you have other things you want to talk about that are , uh, that you're working on that , uh, that you haven't told the world about yet ? Sure .
Yeah. So for 1812, the , uh, game we just released , um, Brian is already working on other projects. Um, so we're making it a series as well. So the next ones will will be 1813, and then it's 1814 in the making afterwards. So the, the drive back to France, the retreat to France , um, that's something we're working on. And , uh, we have new Cold War. That's, that's a very exciting game also.
Um, it's a four player game and it , uh, takes place in three decades. So it's 89 until 19 nine , uh, 2019. And it's a bit twilight struggle ish, I would say. It's, it's what people think if, if they see the map. So you have a word map, and the big four , uh, powers, it's, it's , uh, the US Europe, China, and Russia, they compete for control of countries and regions, and it's a card driven game.
And , um, the special thing is that you're gonna , that all four players gonna place their plate card in the center of the board at the start of a game around , they will reveal the card at the same time, and you can play them for the ops or for the events. And , um, it depends if it's an an own event or enemy event, whatever. And then you're gonna resolve them one after the other.
And it's about scoring victory points and scoring or , uh, achieving objectives. So each player has , um, an individual deck of objective cards and , um, they are hidden and you , you wanna score those objectives , uh, to earn . That's
Interesting . The idea of having all four players play the cards at once and then reveal it once.
Yeah. And you also have to , yeah, right. And, and , and you have to , um, cooperate with the partner or your ally from the same block, which is for the US obviously it's Europe. Um, so there's a media track , for example, and the media track and the media marker in , in it swings like pendulum between the, the blue block , um, US and Europe and the red block, which is Russia and China.
So you have to cooperate there, but only one , um, power will win at the end. So you have also managed to keep down your ally somewhat
Like a true coin game in a way?
Somewhat . Somewhat, yeah. Yeah. It's , it's very ,
Of having a , uh, someone you have to cooperate with, but still a beat in the end.
Yeah. It , it's really a very nice game. Um, I played it oftentimes already and we're, we are , we have finalized all the components except for the rule book , uh, which I'm working on at the moment. So it's not that far away. And it also comes with bot rules . And so I just saw pictures today from the designers who are , uh, two Spanish guys by the way. And they send , who , it's two Spanish guys,
Right.
Um , and they have , we know they , uh, they didn't , uh, do any , uh, previous designs. Right. This is
Their first games. Okay.
Yeah. And they've sent me a picture of a , um, non-player game, which was just bot , because it has bot rules, which are , um, somewhat different. You have a , um, priority charts where you can see what , uh, which countries and which regions, which Bo power has to like, control or to influence.
And , um, they have certain special rules , so they get automatic , uh, media points and in certain terms and so on to make up for, for the , uh, not being a human player. And they just did a non-player game with four bots, and it, it was like at the end of the first decade, it , the scoring was like 55 victory points for the leading power and then 54, 53, 52. Wow .
So it's super close so that , that shows that it really works.
And , and does that , are we looking at 2025 for that 2025 for that?
I hope for 24 , uh, 24 this year . Oh,
Great . Yeah . Fantastic.
Yeah, so I think it's, it's , um, I don't know , you , you can play it often, right ? Again and again, and it will always play out differently because of the event .
And you also have , um, especially mechanic, I haven't seen anywhere else, which is the , um, un you have sort of veto counters and so you can, whenever there's an event that you don't like because it's very beneficial to an opponent or very , uh, bad for yourself. You can veto it . So it comes with the cost of , uh, victory points, but then the event is canceled and it doesn't take place.
And also Europe and China, they are restricted from some , um, regions from the start of the game. And so they need cards which open up regions and make them accessible for them. And then that's , that's always something you might consider to veto Right , to contain the opponents. And yeah, it's fun.
What's the average playing time for it?
I think in , we played it in average about four hours. I'd say four hours, five hours. The first game is probably bit longer, but I think for, for an evening or maybe a long evening that's, it's , uh, doable. You will finish it. Yeah .
Yeah. Perfect.
And you can also, yeah, you can have it , you can have shorter games , uh, depending on the situation. And if one player is very good, you can achieve a sudden death, like a sudden end. Um, but usually you will play the three decades, one decade is three turns, and each turn you will play three cards. So it's 27 , lemme see. Yeah.
27 cards three times. Three times three. Yeah. That makes sense. Well, fantastic. I look forward to that one. Uh, anything else you wanna tell us about the , to , I I should ask also, while I'm thinking about this , um, some of these new games I couldn't find on your website. Do you have a , I I look on your website. I see what's , uh, what's for sale, but
Yeah, that's that's true. So , um, first off , we, we duplicated our online shop , um, because , um, up until, I don't know , two months ago, we had one online shop for all the orders, which led to some difficulties for the fulfillment , uh, partners. Um, so we duplicated the store , the online store. Um, so we had one for the US and Canada and the other store for the rest of the world.
And so that means we have to , um, create content for both, right . Which increases effort. Um, and then also I, I place some information about , um, projects we're working on, on the European web shop , but , uh, I just noticed we didn't place it on the other shop, so, oh , that's
Probably why I
Keep track of that. And also, I , I , I'm aware that we could communicate a lot more. So for tomorrow I'm intending to send out a newsletter. Um, and yeah, that's, that's, it's just a matter of, of the time, right. So I'm, I'm hoping to be able to communicate a bit more in , in the future. Um, yeah.
Well , when this , I'll put a link to your newsletter , uh, along with it so that anybody who hasn't signed up for it Yeah . Excellent . Make sure they hear from you.
Cool. That's, that's great. Yeah. So , um, I don't know . Well , I would say maybe if, if you join some conventions, you will always have the, the opportunity to, to meet us and, and , um, talk to us and discuss things or play with us. Um, so we'll be at , um, concert World Expo this year in , in Tempe. Um, we'll be at the WBC World Board Gaming Championships.
Um, then we intend to go to the bat doors in Spain. Uh, we've been to Punch Con in , in the uk, which will be going next year again for sure. And yeah, so that's, we , we are going to, we're going to lots of conventions just play and meet, meet people and discuss things. So whenever you , you have the chance, you see us there, please approach us, talk to us. Yeah.
Well , uh, uh, the closest one you come to me is , is if I can get down to Tempe . 'cause I'm, I'm way out west in terms of North America. Ah ,
So
Maybe sometime you'll get down to San Diego. I've , I've been to that one before as well .
Yeah , it's Tycon
Tycon . Yeah. Buchanan baby .
Yeah, right. I have it on my , uh, bucket list.
Right . Yeah. Good. Yeah ,
It's also a matter of time, right? Because my wife will kill me if I'm , I'm going go to the US like three times a year, and then , uh, yeah .
Well, you have to take her and bring the kids.
Yeah, that's true. But maybe next year,
San Diego's a beautiful place to go for a holiday.
Yeah, I bet. That'd be a Okay . Well ,
I , to talk about, I , I think we've , uh, we've got a good sense of , uh, who VUCA is now and what you're up to. And we , and we've talked about quite a few of the games out of your , uh, out of your catalog, both what's available now and what's coming up. I I think we've given a pretty good view of what's going on with vuca .
Yeah, thanks so much. So, awesome . I want to say if, if any of the listeners maybe has problems or questions or concerns with any of our games , um, just reach out with email or Facebook or, I also have my , uh, WhatsApp , um, on our website, so you can also write me there. I , I see it instantly. Um , yeah. And just reach out.
So we , we try to do our best in, in communicating and, and replying responding, but sometimes it can happen that, that , uh, something is, is that we just, just missed something. Just, just approach us , right . .
Well , good. We'll , uh, uh, I'll, I'll see what I can do about putting those sorts of links , uh, when I post this as well. Uh, I , yeah , I've, I've always found you guys totally responsive when I've had a question about a game. So cool. I don't think you guys have anything to worry about there. Yeah, I know you always have the feeling like you could be doing more, but like, there's only 24 hours in a day.
That's true. Yeah . That , that's especially too with the , um, game development, right ? Because at some point you have to cut the project and just wrap it up, because yeah, you'll always find anything to improve.
Well, it is a games, movies, paintings, they're never really finished. They just ended.
That's , that's true. Yeah.
Okay. Well , uh, thanks Patrick. We'll say goodbye then. And , uh, and , uh, best luck with vuca. I , I am , thanks so much . Always looking forward to whatever , uh, whatever you guys are , um, putting out there.
Thank you very much. It was a pleasure.
Two things struck me about my conversation with Patrick. First , uh, thank heaven for poker supplies. I think they're underwriting an exciting new publisher. And then second, doesn't he seem like relaxed and cool? No worries. Just expanding a fledgling company into North America. good for him. Maybe you gotta be that cool to take those sorts of , uh, gambles in business.
¶ 1812 Napoleon's Fateful March
Anyway, time to take a look at a new game from VUCA 1812 Napoleon's fateful March, designed by Brian lov . This is an interesting game with some fog of war mechanics that I find really compelling. It's a operational scale game, which , uh, you don't always see a ton of in the, in Napoleonic space, or, I don't know , maybe it's just me.
I , I , I've got a ton of Napoleonic battle games, but not so many operational games. The game includes the entire campaign to Moscow and back, but also a few scenarios cutting up into smaller chunks like you might , uh, expect. I intend today to just kind of give it a bit of an overview of how it works. If you want a deeper look, you can check out a couple videos I've done on it.
One is an unboxing where you can get a good look at the components. And then another is an overview similar to what I'm doing here, but with video and images as well. So it's a , it's a fair bit fuller. The components are the same kind of quality we've come to expect from vuca pre rounded counters, beautiful map board , and the player aid cards are printed on cardboard that's as thick as the counters.
So , uh, pretty deluxe all around. My only quibble with the components is there's a handful of infantry counters from other nationalities that come with the French. They look exactly like the French counters, but they have a tiny little flag in the lower left. Uh , a bigger flag or some other colors or something would've made these much easier to find.
And , and , uh, to just see that and remember that they , uh, aren't strictly French. Um, it's not a card driven game, though. It might appear to be. We've got the classic card with what looks like ops in the upper right corner and events along the main text of the card. Uh , you also see in the upper right a symbol. So , uh, some of the events are for combat.
Sometimes the card is for maneuver, different things like that. So not all cards are just strictly universal. Uh , some are for, some are meant for one phase of the game or another. The other thing about this game is you , uh, have a lot of hidden information. Each leader in the game has its own a little screen on the back of the screen. Uh , you can see any special abilities that that particular leader might have.
And then the way the screens work is you place the leader counter or standee on the board , uh, you know, wherever it goes on the board. But then you put all the units that are , um, to be stacked with him behind the little screen off board . So your opponent doesn't know what units any particular leader has.
Uh, the other interesting thing about this game that relates to hidden information is , uh, the game is orders driven . Each side will get a certain number of orders from a variety of types that they can , uh, choose from, and then play each turn. The orders are things like , uh, March Force , March Forage Defense, things like that. There's a 10 or 12 different types.
There's a limit on how many of each type each side has to choose from. And the mix of orders is , uh, asymmetrical. That is , uh, the French pool of orders is slightly different from the Russian pool. And then , uh, both sides also have four , uh, blocks indicating , uh, dummy orders. I say blocks because , uh, these orders are on blocks.
You sticker the blocks, you put , uh, put the, or the type of order , uh, just on one side, which means the , the game uses , uh, counters, blocks, and cards. Uh , they cut all the bases coverage , I guess, anyway , uh, with these blocks, with the orders on one side.
What's gonna happen during the course of a turn is each player will have a certain number of orders that they can put out, and they'll put them out, but they'll put them out facing , uh, away from their opponents so their opponent can't see which orders are where there's a , a certain order that , uh, all of the orders get revealed.
And then , uh, you look at, say, all the force marches first, then any force marches will have to be flipped up and you re resolve them, and then you go on to the next order. And , uh, then the next, and , um, so there's a , there's quite a game of cat and mouse bluffing with these order blocks, because as I said, some can be just dummy orders as well.
Um, uh, the other component, big component of course, is the board. It's a fairly decent sized board. It runs from basically Moscow in the upper right over to Riga in the top left, and then down to Kyiv in the center of the south. It's a point-to-point map and , uh, attractive while still being very functional looking . So , uh, yeah, as you expect with vuca, all the components look , uh, pretty great.
Anyway, let's go. Here's , uh, here's how the game works. Once you've got everything set up, started up, you picked your scenario, set up all the pieces, you're ready to go. Each turn. Then starts with a resources phase where if it's not the first turn, you're going to get some replacements, maybe things like that.
And then you draw your hand and , uh, and then each scenario is gonna start with one side or the other, having initiative. Uh , it , it's on the , there's a track for that on the board, a little initiative marker. And depending on winning or losing battles, that initiative marker is gonna move back and forth, or maybe even flip over to the other player. And , uh, they'll take over the initiative anyway.
Uh , you get your hand, the next thing that happens is you can play one of the cards outta your hands to get additional orders. This turn, each player puts a card face down, so neither knows if the other is going for extra orders or not. Uh, each player also has an addition to their hand of , uh, cards, some dummy cards.
So you can play a , a dummy card to pretend you want additional orders or play a real card, and , and that's gonna be , give you a lot more of those , uh, little order blocks that we talked about earlier. Each player then reveals whether they get the additional orders or not.
And once they figured out how many orders each one , um, each one gets, each player , uh, each one secretly takes their full compliment of orders and picks out the , uh, the ones they want. Uh , they assign their orders to units or leaders on board , uh, strictly by rules. It goes back and forth with each player playing one order and then another, then the other player back and forth.
But there's , uh, there's also a optional rule that says to speed up play, both players can just place out all their orders at the same time. If you're not really worried about who's gonna play what where , uh, if, if you are worried about that , uh, on one, you know, supercharged turn or something, you can go back to the one by one method whenever you think it might make a difference.
You're gonna , as I said, stand the orders upright. So all your opponents are gonna be able to see is the flag side of the order or the blank side. They , they'll know there's orders there, but they're not gonna know what order. And , uh, it may just be a dummy order. Once all the orders are placed, it's time for action. Order resolution has a very specific order. The types of orders are executed in the same order.
Each turn , we start with the , uh, force mark , which order, then we do the cavalry patrols, then we do the march order, then evade, then battles and , and so on until we get through the whole list. So the , uh, the first thing is each player reveals any of its extended March orders, and then they're resolved.
Uh , it's also worth noting that , um, if , uh, you know, say we're , uh, in the forced March order resolution phase, if there's multiple force marches revealed, then the player with initiative says, who has to reveal , uh, who has to resolve one of theirs first, and then you go back and forth. So , uh, that's another advantage of , uh, being the initiative player.
So, you know, if , uh, I'm the French and I have the initiative , uh, I say you resolve yours first, then the Russian player has to resolve one of their far force marches, and then I resolve one of mine and back and forth until all the force marches are done. And then we move on to the , uh, next order type, which is a cavalry patrols. Um, this order can only be done, of course, by either cavalry or cossack .
Uh, and it has , it basically helps you scout out , uh, the enemy's orders. Uh, next step is March orders. Uh, the march orders come after the forced March orders. So you're gonna have to do all your forced marches, two steps ahead of your marches. So you'll , you'll , you'll have a little bit more idea about what your opponent is doing by the time you start doing marches, which is interesting.
Uh , the , because , uh, the forced marches were done with almost no information. Again, this is all back and forth with , uh, you than me, than you, than me , uh, until , uh, there's , uh, there's no more marches to be done. Uh , if you have multiple units in a spot where you place an order, at least one of them has to execute that order if possible.
So , uh, if you had four units in a spot, say , uh, that had a march order, and then you find you really didn't wanna move all of them out because something of your opponent is, you're gonna have to move one out, but you don't have to move all four as long as at least one executes the order. Next up , uh, comes evade.
Uh, you may have placed , uh, an evade order in a place where you were worried your opponent was gonna move in and give you battle there, and you felt your side was not gonna be able to stand up to whatever the opponent did. If you have one of those evade orders there, you're gonna be able to , uh, uh, move out , uh, before you get slaughtered in the battle.
After all the evasions have been made , uh, then it's time to resolve any battles. Uh, and , uh, when you're resolving battles, that's the only time defend orders come into play. They're gonna give you a little bit of a defense bonus, obviously , uh, uh, you're gonna do a little better than if you didn't have one of those orders. Uh , on units , uh, when you're , uh, in a battle space, you resolve all the battles.
And then , uh, next we have rally. If you have , uh, any units under rally markers, it's gonna be your chance to take them from their exhaustive side and get them back on their fresh side. And then we finally have a , a couple smaller orders. Uh, we have an order for the Russians, only cosac raids lets 'em do a little rating . And then finally, both sides have the possibility of a depot order.
Each side starts with some depots on board . But , uh, this, this order gives you a chance to place a new depot. You wanna get these depots strung out closer to where the action is, that it'll , as the closer you are to your units, that'll, it's gonna reduce your attrition. Uh , it's basically gonna put you in a closer supply.
So , uh, we'll have moved some units, we'll have resolve some battles, evaded, defended, what have you. And , uh, after all that's done, we have an attrition phase, and that's where the forage orders come in, because depending on the season, there's gonna be some attrition in each area, and foraging will help you stave off some of that attrition.
We all know about Napoleon's march to Moscow, where the season malnutrition are probably just as harmful as the battle losses on the way there and back. Not a lot of living off the land. Okay, so , uh, here's a quick look at how combat looks. Um, let's say one side marched into a location where the other side has units. Battle will need to be resolved there.
The very first thing is , uh, if either player wants to play a battle card, they do it right off the top. The card will tell you what the specific effect is. It sometimes it gives you extra strength, sometimes , uh, maybe a special ability or something. Next, you count up the value of your units and see how strong you are. Uh , both sides does that. And then we roll the battle dice.
Each side has a custom battle d and they're not the same. The French one is , uh, a bit stronger, but is also more affected by weather. Uh, the , uh, the Russian one is , uh, has got a sort of a flatter , uh, set of results. Anyway, we result, we , uh, roll the dice, add the Russian amount to the Russian combat value, and add the blue amount to the French value.
And , uh, you get to vol , uh, modify your count a little bit by a few other things, like , uh, infantry always counts as one, but if you have special guard infantry, they count as one and a half . If you're using cavalry, they normally count as one. But if you're in a fortress area, say they only count as a half there , there's a few things like that.
Anyway, both sides roll, and then they're gonna get a number. And you look at this little , um, battle table. It's , uh, not really a combat results table, but a battle table. And it's gonna tell you how many losses you've inflicted. Whoever caused the most losses is the winner. The loser has to take that loss and retreat, and , uh, the winner can pursue and maybe cause a few more losses.
And then depending on the losses, there's gonna be a shift in the victory points. And also, depending on the losses , uh, it might also affect the initiative track as well. So , uh, that's the end of the battle. Uh, you're gonna go on, make all those little adjustments and then move on to the next battle. Uh , I , I should also say , uh, a little word about attrition.
So , um, a a , after we've done all the movement , uh, we've done the battles, then we do this , uh, rallying , uh, the infantry units and the cavalry units have a fresh side where they count as one, but they can become exhausted, and then they're not as effective. So there's this attrition phase at the end of the , uh, uh, at the , uh, end of the turn.
And the, the attrition depends on how many units you have in , uh, in a certain area, and then how far they are away from the nearest depot marker. So if you're close to a depot marker, you're going to lose less to attrition , uh, then if you're far away from a depot. Uh , and at attrition is also a bit variable as there's a rule involved. And , uh, this is where those forage orders help.
Each forage marker , uh, reduces attrition by two. So anyway, that's it for the turn the VPs move as the battles happen. And , uh, when the final turn is played, the winner basically is determined by victory points. Uh, it's a really interesting game from what I can see so far. I , uh, I think the added fog of war here is, is what's really interesting.
The only other game I can think of that has a similar fog of war , uh, mechanic is the Napoleon in the Napoleonic space is a Sheko , uh, Napoleon, 18 0 6, 18 0 7, 18 15 series. Uh , there you have the , the leaders on board and your units hidden behind a screen as well. So it's got the fog of war in terms of how strong each leader is.
But , uh, VUCA is 1812 Napoleon's fateful March goes one step further and adds in the hidden order system. Uh , and that's gonna go mean, it feels, I don't know , to me it feels like there's gonna be just a little more game in the game, for lack of a better way to put it. I , I really look forward to playing that.
Uh, I say that because , uh, I haven't managed to play it opposed yet, but , uh, I'm just dying to , uh, I don't think because of all that fog of war, it's gonna be a terrific game solo. Uh , well, I don't know. I, I , I shouldn't even say that. Dedicated solo players find a way to put , uh, play pretty much anything solo. So , uh, if you're a solo player, don't, don't let me put you off this game that way.
But it does have a fair bit of hidden stuff, which is , uh, not the solo player's best friend. All that said, I , uh, I really look forward to it. I didn't talk about it too much, but I'm , uh, I'm really interested in how each of the leaders has their own unique special abilities and how some can do one thing and some can do another, and then some can't do much of anything extra at all.
I think it's gonna really add a lot of flavor. And I think I'll also, you know, learn the two decks, the , uh, through the two decks. There's well sure learn. I shouldn't say I'm gonna learn the two decks. I never play any game enough to really learn the deck. But what I mean is , uh, as I play the game and start to experience the decks , uh, I think that's gonna be a really , uh, exciting as well.
Uh, there's gonna be a ton of flavor there too , um, uh, you know, just to , to see what the, the surprises the deck have in store. Uh , I , I love the first few plays of a game when you really don't know the , uh, what's in the decks. So , uh, there you go. That's , uh, 1812 Napoleon's fateful March from VUCA Simulations and designer Brian Asev .
I can't see what , uh, can't wait to see what everybody thinks about it and , uh, and to actually get to play it opposed and see how it goes
¶ Bouquets- SD Histcon
Bouquets. Well , here, let me give a shout out to San Diego. His con , I gave 'em a bit of a hard time online recently, because the dates for their fall convention weren't on their website. It's November 8th to 11th. I was looking for those dates because , uh, I'm , uh, I'm planning on heading down there again. Um , they've taken advantage of the holiday Monday , uh, and added an extra day.
So instead of , uh, instead of three days, like last year, it's gonna be four days this year , uh, I'm , as I said, I'm doing everything I can to get back there. It was a terrific time last year, and , uh, if you make it, maybe I'll , uh, see you there.
¶ Parting Shots - more web content
Parting shots, well , , here's something I didn't think I'd see in these days of quick takes and short attention spans. I saw someone thank a blogger for doing a text article with graphics rather than a video. Totally surprised me. Uh, it was cool because , uh, I'd been thinking I wanted to increase the written content of pushing cardboard and , uh, put more stuff on the website.
And this was confirmation that there just might be an audience for that sort of thing. I guess some folks prefer the written word as they can read it faster than we can speak it. So , uh, hopefully, you know, there's only so many hours in a day, but , uh, I'm gonna work on this and give it a whirl.
See if I can find a way to present most things that I do in at least two forms and not , uh, all, if not in all three, you know , audio, video, and text. See what we can do. Anyway, thanks again to those who have become ongoing supporters of pushing cardboard, either through YouTube or through , uh, the Cofi link on my , uh, website.
And thanks as well to those who take the time to use my affiliate link when shopping at Noble Night Games. I really appreciate it. That's it for another episode of Pushing Cardboard. Ah , who knows when you'll hear from me. Next could be on the podcast, could be a video , could be a post on the website.
It could just be a note on Twitter saying I stretched myself too thin, and Mrs. Pusher has hid my computer for a while . Anyway, whenever it is, until then, happy gaming .