Hal and I have had some wonderful games of Paths of Glory, and now we have decided to try a new game I just bought called Guns of August by Worthington Games. I also bought Guns of Galicia and Breakthrough: Cambrai from MMP.
What I like about Guns of August is the beautiful counter artwork, simplified combat, and flexible setup (units setup anywhere withing 3 hexes of their HQ).
I like how artillery is intergrated into the corps size counters and combat is two rounds, first to see how the artillery impacts the defender, then rifle fire. The game covers the entire West Front in 1914.
I will update this post after we play the game on Wednesday.
UPDATE:
Brian and I liked the game, but felt that casualties were “light”. Not sure if we are just being cautious or that is how the game works.
Hal, he just doesn’t care for 1:1, 2:1 type tactical or grand
tactical games. So, he won’t be playing it again. He was very timid as the
French commander so my Germans were able to advance all along the front without issues. (could be why the casualties were low)
We all thought it would be better as a two player game, due to
the limited amount of units you can move on the first 3 turns. I would think, that 4 players would be ok, provided all the players liked that type of wargame.
I think we got through about 12 turns. Mechanics are smooth and
simple. I really liked that. We didn’t use the Fog of War option which I
really thing would make it crazy scary to play.
The biggest disappointment was the hexsides being almost too light to even see. Worthington has posted a map update that has clearer hexsides, but I'll likely just touch up the hexsides over time.
Well, we are off to play Friedrich now, which is a SYW game with very different mechanics and uses cards to resolve combat. In fact, there is no dice used at all in Friedrich.
Cheers,
Eric
