Just had this pre-order delivered to me.
It's a solitaire game presented as a training module for a potential invasion of England from the same designer of Where there is Discord.
Anyway, it's a thing of beauty, and I'm getting in a Dad's army mood....will be back with an update once I've had a chance to play the thing.
http://www.fifthcolumngames.com/CCindex.html
Quote from: weateallthepies on June 10, 2014, 10:50:42 AM
Just had this pre-order delivered to me.
It's a solitaire game presented as a training module for a potential invasion of England from the same designer of Where there is Discord.
Anyway, it's a thing of beauty, and I'm getting in a Dad's army mood....will be back with an update once I've had a chance to play the thing.
http://www.fifthcolumngames.com/CCindex.html
You've got my attention!
PE
Mine, too. If anything that the company is still around. They had said they were sending me a review copy of Where There Is Discord several years ago, but it never came, and they never replied to any of my follow-on inquiries, which kind of sucked.
Good to know they're still making quality products. Hope their responsiveness is better than my experience with it.
Quote from: weateallthepies on June 10, 2014, 10:50:42 AM
Just had this pre-order delivered to me.
It's a solitaire game presented as a training module for a potential invasion of England from the same designer of Where there is Discord.
Anyway, it's a thing of beauty, and I'm getting in a Dad's army mood....will be back with an update once I've had a chance to play the thing.
http://www.fifthcolumngames.com/CCindex.html
...They don't like it up 'em, y'know......
Never seen this before, but it does look interesting.
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on June 10, 2014, 12:54:33 PM
Mine, too. If anything that the company is still around. They had said they were sending me a review copy of Where There Is Discord several years ago, but it never came, and they never replied to any of my follow-on inquiries, which kind of sucked.
Good to know they're still making quality products. Hope their responsiveness is better than my experience with it.
That does suck, the designer does seem to respond at least from my experience, so you should have had an answer at least.
Quote from: bob48 on June 10, 2014, 01:57:55 PM
...They don't like it up 'em, y'know......
Never seen this before, but it does look interesting.
They do not like it!
I love the art on this one, it all looks wonderfully British. I'll try and snap a few photos when I have it set up.
It reminds me of the mini game, A Very British Civil War' I've resisted buying the rules for ages.
Oh yeah I saw a big display of that at last year's UK Games Expo I think. Looked excellent. If I had enough money to buy loads of miniatures, had the room to keep loads of miniatures, had space to set up a miniatures game, or could paint miniatures I'd totally buy that. :)
Same here. Unfortunately, I my eye's aint up to painting anymore, and after doing hundreds of WH 40K and Space Hulk figs in the past, I no longer have the inclination.
Saw some of the stuff at 'Border Reivers' here in Newcastle a couple of years ago, and came close to buying the rules.
Well I can actually paint a reasonable(ish) mini, nothing fancy but not too bad. However I just seem to paint incredibly slowly, I'm not sure I'd ever get enough done for a game. I've got Space Hulk 3rd edition sitting on the shelf just begging to be painted but I can't face starting it.
Those rules are intriguing though.
I might just get the rules....just out of curiosity. I think they're only about 8 quid.
OK not had much chance to really get into it but a quick (not great) shot of the thing set up for play:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs1.postimg.org%2F3jr4ftyjz%2FP1080352.jpg&hash=b62b08a225f89754e4cfb36ae821bae0ba0a5666)
It really is gigantic, like freakishly so. Possibly not that ergonomic, but I really like it, lots of standing up to gaze over the thing.
Without going into too much detail:
You get a pre-invasion phase where you possibly gain some more equipment, and can adjust the positioning of units. This ends randomly and you move onto the meat of the game which is the invasion phase.
During the invasion phase, German units will spawn at random points around the edge of the map, and slowly advance either horizontally or vertically depending on which edge they spawn. The number and types of units are determined by the invasion track which is kind of an abstraction of how far along the German invasion of England is. This track advances throughout the game due to the card play. When the Germans are adjacent to you you can attack firstly with ranged weapons, then anti tank weapons if needed, and finally close combat. They control areas they successfully advance into and if they either use all their control markers, or manage to make it to the church stronghold at the centre of the board then the game is over. After you attack the Germans, any remaining attack you.
There are four cards decks, British and German strategy event decks, a tactical event deck and a character event deck. The strategic decks affect the invasion track I mentioned before, but you can only draw from one or the other. British events are helpful, German work against you so you have to choose. If you draw from the British event deck though, you have to skip the tactical event deck phase which also often gives very useful events and items/wepaons. The character event deck you have to draw from, and this affects the characters in the game in a number of different ways. All of the cards, have a description in a separate booklet which has a lot of flavour text plus the detail of any actual event. Also if you reach the end of the invasion track the game ends so there is a real balance to which of the strategic decks you draw from so as not to advance the invasion too quickly.
Anyway, at first glance it seems rather a simple system but there is quite a bit going on, with the various characters, items and events and the way the interact.
I'll try and write something a little more comprehensive and clearer when I've played it through and have had more coffee.
This looks like a great game for a storytelling-type AAR.
Made by the same people who did that Falklands War Solitaire game which is supposed to be fantastic.
Quote from: Staggerwing on June 12, 2014, 06:16:06 PM
This looks like a great game for a storytelling-type AAR.
Yes, my thoughts exactly, and if I find enough time and coffee I plan to so so. :)
It's definitely rich with the theme, and the various characters and items definitely lend themselves to some storytelling fun. I really like alternative history so this is very much my thing.
Oh I forgot there is an infiltrator things too, where you have to try and reveal the German operative that has infiltrated the village of Birkham stokes where the game takes place.
It looks like you can't order Codename Cromwell right now. The preorder option at the dev's web site is closed and Noble Knight games (rumored to be the USA distributor) doesn't even list it.
Yes the pre-orders sold out pretty quickly. I think some people have been contacting Noble Knight directly to enquire so you might have some luck there.
It's not going to be cheap for US folk though, kind of the same deal we get for most wargames once shipping and local taxes are taken into account. We don't get many that are published in the UK so it makes a change, but it wasn't cheap even here. Still you should see how much we have to pay for some games, Victory Point Games stuff is stupidly expensive in comparison to what you can get it for.
Quote from: TacticalWargames on June 12, 2014, 06:22:25 PM
Made by the same people who did that Falklands War Solitaire game which is supposed to be fantastic.
I just wish they would publish their games in larger batches. I would love to add
Where There Is Discord to my collection...without taking a second mortgage. The only copy of it on eBay at the moment is listed at $250, which is typical AFAIK.
This new title looks promising. Expect it also will be difficult to source. Never heard of a publisher running out of pre-orders before!?!
Sorry my fault, they did this one a little different, I was wrong saying they sold out preorders. They kept taking them until a point when they closed the preorder and started going to print. It wasn't up for preorder for a huge amount of time though.
It's a very small business I think so they don't tend to do print runs of anything that would leave them with unsold stock. I'd love a copy of Discord but they've done three printings of it now so there is a chance there will be another. Still it would be nice if they were more readily available, I know quite a few people who would like a copy of Lost Battles too.
Quote from: Rekim on June 12, 2014, 07:20:04 PM
Quote from: TacticalWargames on June 12, 2014, 06:22:25 PM
Made by the same people who did that Falklands War Solitaire game which is supposed to be fantastic.
I just wish they would publish their games in larger batches. I would love to add Where There Is Discord to my collection...without taking a second mortgage. The only copy of it on eBay at the moment is listed at $250, which is typical AFAIK.
I've only ever seen it for re-sale at that price, if you see it at all.
This is the kind of stuff that can be so frustrating with tabletop gaming, for me. It has become so popular that even new releases are being sold out in little time. It is tough for me to grapple with, after spending my youth going to the same stores and having all the games available for sale, on the shelves for years.
While their games can be pricey, I like Victory Point Games 'print on demand' model. I know that I can order something from them and not have to worry about the majority of their catalog being Out Of Print. I feel really rushed to buy anything new from other publishers that I'm interested in, just because I know that if it's any good then the game in question will be sold out in short order and people will be jacking the price up on 3rd party copies. Not a fan of feeling forced to purchase them ASAP. :-\
Well, there's a reason the game companies that used to keep those stores stocked ended up out of business :-\
It would be nice to keep those games around, or at least have a second run of them. But I know how awful those printing costs can be, and how thin the margins can be. So there's some sympathy for the publisher that they haven't just run right out to republish everything.
Kickstarter has helped take away some of those uncertainties, but it hasn't eliminated them
Quote from: weateallthepies on June 12, 2014, 05:45:41 PM
OK not had much chance to really get into it but a quick (not great) shot of the thing set up for play:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs1.postimg.org%2F3jr4ftyjz%2FP1080352.jpg&hash=b62b08a225f89754e4cfb36ae821bae0ba0a5666)
I can't be the only one looking at that and wondering if someone's going to release a home-made "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" mod, can I? >:D