Intellectual property (IP), licensing and copyright laws are complex and confusing, especially when it comes to properties that were created under contract, or created by one party for a second party, or developed by multiple entities. Further, the video game industry was like the Wild West in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with companies starting up, closing, buying and selling other companies, and also trading, assigning and purchasing IPs at a furious rate. All of which begs the question of how did the IP that was X-COM get from MicroProse in 2001 to Firaxis Games?
The gaming community is full of games that re-fight the American Civil War and new games are hitting the market all the time, American Civil War is just the latest game to enter the fray and I think it is worth a look for many reasons. Based out of Holland, Peter Van Dop, the man behind BelloLudi’s games has a fresh outlook on what gaming can do and how to grow the hobby which is meshed into the DNA of his games.
The green army spread their numerous units out a bit more.
By Glenn Van Meter
I was recently asked to try out Strategy Wave Studios’ Combat Storm system. I was excited to hear that a gaming company had decided to put rules to the plastic toy soldiers I grew up playing with. My friend Brad came over to help me give them a go. We quickly reviewed the rules together. In this system, each individual pose represents a different type of soldier such as a rifleman, grenadier, or sergeant, and they’re grouped in units of 3-12. Special weapons troopers like AT specialists and grenadiers still carry the standard infantry armament of their faction besides their limited ammo special weapon. We were pretty impressed with the depth of the rules. It wasn’t the beer and pretzels type system either of us had been expecting.
The army lists currently published have the green force playing the US Army and the tan force playing the WARPAC weapon-armed “People’s Coalition Front”. My plastic toy soldiers are actually a mix of green, tan, and grey minis. Brad picked US Green and I decided to organize my PCF force in color-coded squads.
The rules also come with a wealth of printable paper scenery with a modern desert city theme and it all looks really good. Unfortunately I lacked access to cardstock and a printer. Brad and I decided that a more Vietnam jungle village table would work well as long as we had enough terrain on it. So we had a dirt road going diagonal from corner to corner, through a village with a bunch of plastic toy soldier sandbag emplacements, and a lot of jungle patches around that. The mission would be an encounter, with both forces starting on opposite short sides of a 6’x4’ table with the objective of slaughtering the opposing force.
French Lancers attacking the Dutch Jagers that were driven from Geminocourt Farm
By: Ron Winkler
Although game rooms in other areas of the country may be open, California game rooms are still under lockdown. Consequently, I felt it was time for another solo game just to keep my wrists loose for rolling dice. The choice this time was the Battle of Quatre Bras using Snappy Nappy rules.
Although the rules recommend an infantry stand represents 2000 men, cavalry 750, and a single gun 24 guns a player is allowed to vary from these recommendations. Since my 15mm figures are mounted on a 40mmx30mm stand with eight infantry in double rank and 3 Cavalry in single rank, I decided to have a stand represent 1000 infantry, 375 cavalry, and 12 guns but kept the unit size as recommended at 2-3 stands for infantry, 2 for cavalry and 1 for artillery. Overall, it made the forces a bit larger in appearance.
