(Kickstarter) Waterloo Quelle Affaire

[Sir_Theo]

A kickstarter has just been launched by Alessio Cavatore and River Horse for a new Waterloo board game in the style of hex and counter board game.  Looks a nice little streamlined way of refighting the battle.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1428582690/waterloo-quelle-affaire/description

As part  of the Add ons you can get 1/9 see busts of Wellington, Napoleon and Blucher. 

[Arrigo]

what makes me wonder (I am wary of map games kickstarters after the debacle of Up Front...) is that the artwork on the counters... is tied to stretch goals!

[Sir_Theo]

I'm not worried this will go the Up Front! Route but you are right about the art.  You'd have thought that would be sorted already.  If it funds but gets no further it would be a much poorer product.  Individual art on each Division counters would be a big draw.  It looks a fairly light game and pretty components would mitigate this lightness for me. I saw a video where Alessio Cavatore mentioned they wanted individual art on all the cards as well.  On the videos so far they are blank text. 

Hopefully there will be an influx of new backers and the art side will get sorted.

[Arrigo]

Well,

Up Front was a tad extreme I know... with Lawyers, Judges, and Rangers... but well for the bicentenary I think I will be OK with Hexasim "Waterloo 1815 Fallen Eagles" http://www.hexasim.com/en/1365-Waterloo-1815-Fallen-eagles.html at Regiment Battalion level and Fred Bey has his own Jours de Gloire "Waterloo et Quatre Bras 1815" http://www.ludifolie.com/produit.php?ref=waterloo-les-quatre-bras-1815-fr. Jours De Gloire is a well honed and very good system and Hexasim products are usually very good. Having a very low opinion of mr. Cavatore historical talents I will stay away from his offering, especially considering the way is presented (still the idea of Kickstarter for boardgames is wrong, you offer a complete game not a series of add ons just to encourage people to buy more...).  I am also thinking a division size game for a single battle is kinda weird. It has been done, sometime even successfully (like The Eagles of Empire series, with division size infantry) but Brien Miller was more experienced. On the other hand there is The Napoleon 20 series from VPG/GMT "Fading glory".


Let's see what happens...

[Sir_Theo]

Ha! I think you are right about Cavatore.  This does seem pretty 'historical-lite'  but that's quite appealing for me. Then again I've toyed with picking up C&C Napoleonics for a while so I may just go that route instead, depending on how this campaign goes.

For something a little meatier I will check out some of those links.  Thanks for the suggestions !

[Arrigo]

Well I do not like C&C (but I own the older Vive L'Empereur by GioGames that is quite similar... I did the English translation back in time, anyway the art is nice and the game works) but at least Borg has a following and C&C is quite light. In the box you have also different armies and you can do quite a lot of different battles in Both Case (VlE was out before C&C and it is quite close for a lot of things, but I think it has a better graphic approach).  Probably Lance McMillan "Fading Glory" (still from GMT, but the battles are available separately from VPG games) it is meatier. I have the Jena teaser game they included in C3I (their own magazine) and sooner or later maybe I can be willing to try. Professor Sabin was quite critical of it... but well I am not 100% in agreement with Phil for a lot of gaming things. I am usually for more complex games.

Jours de Gloire is quite interesting. I have all the VV games, the origianl Triumph and Glory by Richard Berg, and some of the stand alone games published later (need to get Berezina and Montmirail as soon I have money...) They do not use cards, but chit activation (and you need to decide which Corps/Division you place in the cup based on your command points...). The combat is based more on quality than numbers (but still numbers have a role) and has a single D10 resolution. I think it is quite easy to get in and very rewarding. A couple of years ago I used one of the smaller battles with a student in KCL (consim class). She was able to play without too much problem after reading the rules.

All the best,
Arrigo