Draco Ideas: Viva Espana

By Mitch Reed

Recently the folks from Draco Ideas contacted us about looking at some of their games. I have been a huge fan of Draco for some time. One of the first games I picked up from them was Normandy: The Beginning of the End and its solo expansion Alone in the Storm.

I also wrote about their amazing ancients game, Onus Traianus. The two games they sent us, Scope: UBoot and Frontier Wars quickly made it to my table to see what they were all about.

Let us go through some of the great games from Draco Ideas.

Scope UBoot
Scope: UBoot is the latest in the Scope series published by Draco. The game is all about the Battle of the Atlantic during World War Two, and as you can guess the game has German Slugs trying to sink merchantmen on the high seas. The Allied player tries to prevent this and maybe sink a sub or two.

The game is played with cards arranged in front of the two players and they hunt for their enemy in a quick and often tense gameplay. Quick here means quick, the games take about 10 minutes to finish, and the small box means you can throw it in a small bag and play it anytime.

I like this game. It is very light and the mechanics are different from many other U-Boat games to make it enjoyable. Rivet Counter grogs may not like such a light game, but the intent of this game is clear, to get more people into playing war or historical games.

Frontier Wars

I will state right up front that the game is not my cup of tea, but in the spirit of Scope: UBoot, I am not the target audience for this game. The game is primarily a miniatures game that is played on a modular tableau that the players create before the game. The game comes with 100 hexes to make your playing area and around 100 plastic miniatures.

The game looks at the strategic to high operational levels of war, and the game engine is fueled by a card deck that dictates the actions the players take each turn. The game comes with four factions, Germany, USSR, USA, and UK. From just a few plays I saw how the cards and the modular board make each game you play a unique experience.

As I stated above, the game is not my thing, it is very light, and I like a bit more detail in my games. However, if you like Risk or Axis and Allies, and love lighter games then Frontier Wars is for you. For players of those games, it introduces many core mechanics that new gamers will see as they journey into wargames.

Normandy: Beginning of the End
This is a game I picked up from a Kickstarter campaign a few years ago and have played a few times. While the previous two games are light, Normandy is not. It is a deep and well-built wargame. Part of the War Storm series, the game is a tactical level game that uses a very innovative We-Go system.

Units in the game are leaders, platoons, gun sections, or a 2-3 troop of tanks. The map and counters look magnificent as any project that Nicolas Eskubi works on.

The game features the Germans (Heer and SS), the US and the Free French (which are not covered in such detail in many games out on the market). The game is unique enough that die-hard Advanced Squad Leader and players of other tactical games will appreciate the differences between the War Storm Series.

The Alone in the Storm solo module which I think works for all of the games in the series is another added benefit and answers the most common question asked in online forums “How does it play solo?”.

The second game in the series is called Help Arrives and features the Spanish Civil War.

Onus Traianus
I already covered this game in the past and as many of you know, I just love it. The game will appeal to both miniature and board wargamers and is one you must have in your collections.

Spanish Connection
We are seeing the rise of so many great game publishers from Europe right now who are producing some great games. One thing I notice from these games, and Draco Ideas well represents, is a new way to look at game design and development. Few game companies make “gateway” games that grow our hobby in such a deliberate manner and then also develop deeper games once these new players get hooked. They are also not worried about mixing card-driven, miniatures, and traditional board games together to make titles that break paradigms.

I was a fan of Draco Ideas well before they contacted us, and now after looking deeper into what they are all about I eagerly await their future titles.