Battles of Napoleon out of stock?!

Wow! Only days after it became available, FFG's Battles of Napoleon appears to be out of stock! It's reportedly OOS at FFG's own Web site AND at Miniature Market. Wow. I had asked my FLGS to order a copy and now I'm not sure they'll be able to catch it's availability. Damn.

BattleLore -- FFG improves on DOW packaging

The ol' mailman dropped a package on the doorstep yesterday -- the new Heroes expansion for Battlelore. Naturally it's too early to say much about the game play, but I thought the upgrading in packaging was worth noting off the bat.

When Battlelore was published by Days of Wonder it used a distinctive packaging system for most of its expansions (and for Memoir '44 as well) that used a clear plastic "box" with a light cardboard sleeve around it.

I always had mixed feelings about this packaging as it compares to more traditional cardboard boxes. I don't know how it compares from a cost standpoint for the company, but from a player and consumer point of view the main feature of the plastic box was its ability to provide storage that conformed to the shape of the components, especially figures. This provided protection for the figures as well as a way to keep them organized.

On the other hand, I thought the packaging had some drawbacks. For one thing, it's very bulky. An expansion with a dozen or so figures takes up a fairly substantial amount of space for the size of the miniatures it contains. My biggest concern, though, is about durability. The light plastic used by Days of Wonder was already splitting in some cases, despite the fact that my game hasn't had anything like hard usage. Likewise the cardboard sleeves in some cases are already fraying along edges or threatening to split. In a few cases the tolerances between different parts seem a little too snug, making it hard to separate.

This new expansion, Heroes, is the first completely produced by Fantasy Flight Games since they bought Battlelore (they had previously issued expansions prepared by DoW). I was curious if they'd keep the DoW style packaging or switch to something more like what they had done before with other games.

The answer seems to be to remain consistent with the Battlelore look, but make some small, but important, improvements. The Heroes expansion uses a slightly thicker and more robust plastic with tolerances that allow the parts to slide over each other easily while still providing no danger of pieces falling out. The sleeve likewise uses a slightly thicker, textured, cardboard that appears likely to be more durable, although perhaps still too light for hard use.

The art is, of course, completely compatible with Battlelore's established look, with only the FFG logo to distinguish it from the earlier Days of Wonder product.

I'm still ambivalent about the entire packaging strategy, but FFG's execution is clearly better. Many players probably have hit on their own storage solutions anyway and don't bother with the original packaging, but I prefer to retain original packaging when practicable. There is some virtue in keeping the same look, once it's been established, so I can't criticize FFG's call.

Which Borg not to resist

Star Trek's Borg famous claim "resistance is futile," and I think the same is probably true for wargame designer Richard Borg's creations. I know I haven't been able to resist buying anything related to his Commands & Colors system. I'm not alone in the collective, either, as Borg's designs are among the most popular wargames ever published.

Still, sometimes you have to choose and prospective purchasers may wonder which is the best choice for them. Each game has its vehement fans, but here is what I believe is a fairly objective rundown of their strengths and weaknesses.

Really, they are close enough in quality and game play (with the possible exception of Battle Cry) that I think the main consideration should be which theme a player finds the most interesting. pick that first.

From purely a game play perspective they each have strengths and weaknesses.

Battle Cry (American Civil War) is the weakest of the lot, simply because it was the first, and the subsequent designs have all refined the concept. If Battle Cry had expansions like the others I'm sure it would have kept up, but it's a one-off design.

Command & Colors: Ancients (Ancient battles of the Classical Era) matches its era well and is probably the most tactically intricate because of all the different troop types, which often have fairly subtle differences between them. Terrain plays a smaller role in this game than the others as ancient armies tended to fight on the flattest and clearest terrain available.

BattleLore (fantasy but also historical medieval) is similar to C&C:A, especially when played with the Medieval Rules. Adding Lore adds some interesting new twists to the game system. The fantasy aspects of the game are not overpowering and it is still an army-level game and not a sort of role-playing experience.

Memoir '44 (World War II) is a lot more about terrain and combined arms effects. The interaction between the units is more subtle than it is in C&C:A because of the long ranges involved. Just because units are not near each other doesn't mean they don't affect each other. And the air pack adds a new dimension of course. There's more variety in the scenarios compared to the other games, which are almost all line-them-up-and-fight battles, with a few notable exceptions.

You may also want to consider how they are marketed.

Battle Cry (Hasbro/Avalon Hill) is a single, self-contained game, but it's out of print.

BattleLore (originally Days of Wonder, now Fantasy Flight Games) and Memoir '44 (Days of Wonder) each start with a self-contained base game that you can add to as finances and interests allow, although that may change for BattleLore as it is moving to a new publisher. While some of the expansions require parts from other expansions there are always scenarios that require nothing more than the base game and that particular expansion to play.

C&A:A (GMT Games) has a self-contained starter and then each of the expansions is a major purchase as well. These expansion tend to build on each other, so I would say this series is something you'd want to commit to in a serious way to get the most out of it.

Memoir '44 and Tide of Iron scenario books, a comparative component review

A comparative review of the new scenario books for Memoir '44 and Tide of Iron.

Back in the good old days of wargaming companies such as Avalon Hill and SPI directly competed for the money of wargamers with similar offerings, much to the benefit of gamers.

So it's nice to see a similar dynamic taking shape now as wargame companies go head-to-head with each other in manly competition. Memoir '44 from Days of Wonder and Tide of Iron from Fantasy Flight Games have considerable overlap in their appeal, both being depictions of tactical World War II combat using neat plastic pieces, stunning euro-style graphics and approachable game mechanics. They are wargame-enough to capture a significant number of grognards while gamey-enough to appeal to a wider gaming market as well. Tide of Iron is the more complex of the two, but not by a lot.

Within the past few months both companies have published remarkably similar products as expansions to their respective game systems, lavishly-illustrated hardcover scenario books, styled as "Volume 1" of what is evidently hoped to be a continuing series of such offerings.

First out of the gate was FFG with it's "Designer Edition" for Tide of Iron. This handsome 96-page full-color book is basically a collection of standalone scenarios for the tactical game system, which has included relatively few scenarios for that sort of game so far. In an interesting twist the scenarios have mostly been designed by famous wargame designers such as Richard Berg, Frank Chadwick, Don Greenwood, John Hill, Dana Lombardy, John Prados, Ted Raicer and Vance Van Borries, as well as a dozen others.

The scenarios follow the same format as all previously published scenarios, with two pages of designer's notes, a background brief, objectives and player hints each, a page with the scenario order of battle and a page with the map and scenario details. They have a good mix, running from a couple of short, 4-map mini-scenarios to one massive 24-map, 20-round epic that will take two copies of TOI to play. Most of the scenarios just use the base game and all can be played if you have a base game and the Days of the Fox expansion, except for the aforementioned giant battle. One pair of scenarios can be played as a mini-campaign.

One complaint about the base game was scenario balance and we've been assured that these scenarios were all extensively playtested for competitiveness.

Time will tell about that, but many of them do provide some interesting tactical situations such as night fighting, rescuing beleagured troops, all-vehicle and no-vehicle fights and more.

A handful of the scenarios do have some vital errata and can't be played without visiting FFG's Web site for the information.

The book also includes thumbnail bios of all the designers.

Days of Wonder's Memoir '44 game already has an extensive line of expansions so a lack of scenarios isn't a problem for them. Instead the 112-page full-color Campaign Book offers a new kind of game experience for jaded Memoir '44 players with a dozen sets of campaigns, each of which will require 3-5 games to resolve. The campaigns, in turn, can be played in a linked series as part of a Grand Campaign. The Normandy Campaign group only requires the basic game, while the Blitzkrieg in the West and Operation Barbarossa campaigns will require some components from the Terrain Pack and Eastern Front expansions. One campaign requires the Air Pack and it's recommended for use in all of them. It's nice that the book doesn't require any more than the basic game to start, but I doubt too many players who will buy this product haven't already got most of the other stuff already.

While it's possible to play the scenarios as just some more stand-alones, the book is best used with a regular partner for campaign play.

Besides pages of scenarios in standard Memoir '44 format, a number of the pages outline the campaign flow with places to record the scores ad well as Grand Campaign score pages, but there's no need to actually write in the book because all the score sheets are available as downloads from the Days of Wonder Web site.

I haven't had a chance to try the campaigns yet, but they look very interesting.

Both books look like great additions to their respective game systems and are definitely worthwhile for anyone who has already bought most of the expansions.