Gaming

By Patrick S. Baker

Part one here

In 1993, MicroProse published two huge hits: Civilization and Master of Orion. The company soon pushed forward on sequels for both. Simtex, after developing the first Master of Orion, produced a port of the Avalon Hill railroad and robber baron game board game, 1830, which was published by Avalon Hill.

Then they developed Master of Magic, a 4X fantasy game that was published by MicroProse. Shortly after the release of Master of Magic, MicroProse procured Simtex, renamed it MicroProse Texas, and made it an internal develop division. This made the sequel technically an in-house MicroProse production, although the Simtex logo still appeared briefly at the start of the game.

Originally titled Master of Antares the game was quickly retitled Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares (sometimes MoO2:BaT, or MoO2 or BaT). Steve Barcia and Ken Burd, still at Simtex, returned as part of the development team for the sequel. Meanwhile, MicroProse was still the publisher and partnered with MacSoft for the Macintosh version.

The Tailsmen, Glenn, Tyler and Tom are back later than planned this month to talk about an upcoming tournament, and to help guide you in planning your own.

By Phil Bolger

Most folks know NDNG as a source for all things wargame– especially our coverage of miniatures wargaming like Team Yankee, Flames of War, Bolt Action, and Blood & Plunder— but today, I’m going to review something a little different. Academy: The West Point Board Game is, in no reasonable sense, a wargame– but the topic it covers, life as a cadet at the United States Military Academy, is certainly an important part of many American military leaders.

Full disclaimer: I am a USMA graduate (H-3, Ride the Storm!), so understand that my view is heavily colored by the type of esprit de corps one can only get from a lifetime of trying to justify four years of grey-colored misery, and I will not apologize for that. The other thing is that the game isn’t out yet– it’s on Kickstarter as of writing, so I’m playing the game on Tabletop Simulator (where it is available for free, minus the cost of Tabletop Simulator). As a result, I have no comments at the time of publication on component quality.

By Mitch Reed

In our last article, we did an overview of all the games in the Commands & Colors series by Richard Borg. In this article we will compare how the core game mechanics are tweaked for two of the games that take place in the black powder era, C&C: Tricorne (CC:T) which covers the American Revolutionary War, and C&C: Napoleonics which covers the wars in Europe that started about twenty years later and shows how the subtle changes in the rules give you a unique period flavor for each game.
Each game uses the same basic mechanics that is shared throughout the entire C&C franchise, however, changes in how combat dice are calculated, the dice themselves, and some unique rules give each game a different experience and is not just a “re-skin”.

By Mitch Reed

I am unashamedly a “triple gamer”, I enjoy miniature, board, and PC wargames. Which type I play at any given time depends on what kind of time I have on my hands. Some of the games I have been “wasting” my time with may appeal to you as well.

By Mark Greenwald

What’s the best thing to do in Spain? Visit Barcelona, Sagrada Familia, Madid, Prado Museum, Granada, Alhambra Palace, Segovia, Roman Aqueduct, Seville, Alcázar, Cordoba, Toledo, Valencia?

No, my friends, the best thing to do in Spain is go to a board game convention in Badajoz! For me, it’s been since 2019 for a game convention (GenCon and WisconsCon). I really enjoyed spending a long weekend making new friends in Spain while playing some historical board games.

First up…why is a convention named for an acorn?  Well, Badajoz is famous for producing Iberico Jamón (ham from pigs fed on acorns). Badajoz has been settled since Neolithic times, with several Dolmen and Roman ruins nearby (it was part of Roman Lusitania).

It was also a Muslim Taifa kingdom, so has medieval ruins to explore as well. The convention takes place in January, which is great because Badajoz can get really hot during the summer.

By Howard West

Background

My previous article Team Yankee COLD WAR Warrior Revisited the T-55 Tank focused on a Team Yankee player adding a 24-27 point 2nd or allied T-55 tank formation to an existing army list. With the “official” Team Yankee points reduced for this year’s US National events and with the changing META caused by the new NATO books as described in Tom Gall’s recent No Dice No Glory article on chasing the Team Yankee Meta. 

Also, several of our upcoming local Team Yankee tournaments that I will be playing in have the following point levels: 110, 94, and 70. I thought this provided a good basis for a series of list-building discussions for Team Yankee on No Dice No Glory.

By Mitch Reed

One great aspect of my “day job” is that I get to see some really innovative wargame designs and meet some very gifted designers. One such designer is Sebastian Bae, who I have written about before with his work in teaching wargaming at Georgetown University.

Sebastian invited me to see the games his students were working on this past December and I featured them right here on NDNG. One game which Sebastian designed is now available for presale and I wanted to make sure our community had the chance to pick this game up.

by Troy A. Hill

“For the love of God! Troy! Here we are painting up stuff in 28mm and you go batshit crazy in 12mm…” was what one of my local gaming friends posted under the photo of my newly arrived Epic Battles French and British Waterloo sets on Facebook.

He might be correct.

Warlord Games took a gamble on their Epic Battles Scale, and its first incarnation with the American Civil War (ACW). And that gamble paid off big. The napoleonic era seemed to be the next logical entry into the Epic Battles line. So I wasn’t surprised when I learned that Waterloo was the next focus for Warlord.

But why such tiny figures? Warlord is known as the go-to company for 28mm historical (along with their friends the Perry Brothers, who fill the gaps around Warlord’s ranges.) Why produce such a small figure size that doesn’t line up with the other majorly produced conventional scale?

By Patrick S. Baker

The early 1990s saw the release of many of the seminal games of what would soon be called the 4X (for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) PC game genre. Games like Armada 2525, Civilization, and the subject of this article, Master of Orion (MoO) were published some 30 years ago and still influence the genre today.

In fact, reviewer Alan Emrich named the game type “XXXX” in a 1993 preview of Master of Orion for Computer Gaming World (CGW). A year later Martin E. Cirulis in the same magazine shortened the term to “the four Xs” this later became “4X”. While MoO was not the first 4X game, that honor goes to Reach of the Stars released in 1983.

Still, it was Master of Orion  that “would define 4X gaming for years.”