European Cousins: ONUS! TRAIANUS and Fighters of the Pacific
By Mitch Reed
In 2023 two Kickstarter projects came to the mountain bunker from two European companies and after getting them to the table I found that these games shared some DNA that all gamers would appreciate. These two titles appear to be board wargames when you first glance at them, however, they play a lot like miniatures games. Both are excellent titles to add to your collection.
While we here at NDNG have covered games that are board games that play like miniatures games before, I feel these two games set a benchmark that will set a standard and change how the industry approaches new titles in the future.
ONUS! TRAIANUS (OT) Is developed by Draco Ideas from Spain and has a lot of great titles under their belt. Even this new title expands their previous game ONUS!, by taking their ancients game from the Greeks, Macedonians, and the high water mark of the Roman Empire, to the Fall of Rome.
Fighters of the Pacific (FotP) created by Capsicum Games hails from France and the game covers the air war in the Pacific. The initial kick starter did so well that the game expanded from early 1942 to cover the battles of Coral Sea and Midway. With some of the stretch goals, late-war aircraft, and even some famous aces were added.
Both Kickstarter campaigns crushed it, and the number of stretch goals unlocked made it a great deal for those who got in on it.
ONUS! TRAIANUS
This game does not hide the fact that it is a miniatures game that uses cards instead of units. In OT you can play a scenario from the campaign book, or use a points system to build your army and pick a general and fight it out on a playmat.
Miniatures players will be right at home with this game, you move your units using a ruler and either fight with ranged weapons or engaged in melee to take the fight to the enemy.
The cards are very well done with great artwork and all the stats and attributes you need printed right on the unit card.
Combat is done with D6, modified by a unit’s fighting ability. You have to first score a hit based on your target’s defense rating. If you score a hit, then you roll for damage and if successful the unit gets a marker (a drop of blood–ingenious!) placed on it.
Morale is also a factor in the game, and sometimes the location of your army general is key to keeping a unit in the fight.
The card activation and event system work well in this game. Like most card mechanics it dictates what actions you can take. When in combat you also draw a card and apply the event indicated by the card. which really challenges you as a player. I know most players hate card-based games. In my opinion, we need to get over this aversion. The card mechanics are more challenging and realistic than many other game design formats.
I was excited to get this game to the table and I took it to the most recent Georgetown University Wargame Society (GUWS) event. I played it with three others who were mostly board wargamers.
It did take us a few turns to get the rules down (we have rules creep), but once we did, the group really got into the game and had a great time.
The game has solid mechanics and the variety in the quality and abilities of the units in the game is excellent.
Feedback from those who played OT was positive. They liked it very much and wanted to play it again. When I pressed them on the fact that this is really a miniatures game they all felt that OT lowers the requirements for players who want that miniature game experience but do not want to paint up army after army.
If anyone has heard my podcast with Mike Demana where we talked about SAGA will know I am not an ancient miniatures player. However, with OT and games like Commands and Colors Ancients in my collection, I feel I can get the experience without the painting. I highly recommend this title for any gamer who wants to play this period, whether they prefer board or miniatures games.
Fighters of the Pacific
While OT never made any secret about being a miniatures game, FitP either did it by accident or never revealed its true identity. No matter what the design ideology is with this game, it is a great solid game that has some interesting mechanics. Despite the hex map, the game has the subtle feel of a miniatures game to me and the others who played with me at GUWS.
The first thing you will notice is the lack of dice. The game has you and your opponent alternate activating your aircraft. If they are in range and arc of their target they can score a hit if the target has already activated. One hit for most Japanese aircraft shoots them down and most US aircraft can take two hits. If the target has not been activated they can dodge the hit and move. However, this may force you to take an action that you did not want to take just yet.
This forces you to really think ahead of time about what you plan to do with each aircraft. In my first game, I was able to set up shots with my Zeros and get two hits to take down a lot of Wildcats. However with the Wildcats being able to “one shot” me, I could not sustain the momentum and soon was eliminated from the sky.
The game is not all about air superiority, the game includes a lot of US and Japanese ships that your bomber and torpedo aircraft need to sink. The game does not feature ship-on-ship combat, the game is not about that, and you do not have a place big enough to host such a game at that scale (unless you can get a domed sports stadium). The ships and islands which have flak which can also ruin your well-positioned attack.
This game abstracts a lot (all games do) and between that and the short but well-written rules allow you to finish a game in under an hour.
I like FitP and the fact that the stretch goals cover a lot of the war means that the game will have a lot a replayability.
European New Wave
Some of us who cover the industry have seen a lot of great games coming from these new developers in Europe. When I speak with these new designers they tell me how we need to look at the hobby differently and try new things.
I think this is spot on, many of the gamers are “greying” out of the hobby and we are not replenishing the ranks with a new generation of wargamers. In Europe the rise of euro style games created a new crop of gamers and now designers are targeting these communities with surgical precision to grow wargaming.
It is not just the marketing that is bringing these companies succeed, they are also designing games with a fresh approach that the community seems to be receiving very well.
No matter the inspirational genesis of ONUS! TRAIANUS and Fighters of the Pacific, both are great games that you will love.