Battles of Westeros and the first look into the game..

Hello!

On the website of the FFG there is a first preview of the "Battles of Westeros"!

The designer of the game Robert A. Kouba presents a a look at some basic elements of the combat system.

And we get the first pictures of the dice and some figures!

At first, there is a eight-sided dice instead of a typical six-sided.

(Note:All the pictures are copied from the Fantasy Flight Games website!)

The eight-sided dice gives to the designer more potential for bringing the differences between individual units, like infantry and cavalry with unique abilities, out.

The combat capabilities of each unit and their total combination on the battlefield makes the difference.

The rules in the game should define the ranks of units depending on their equipment and experience.

The colours of the units are representing the level of the military training. The greens could be poorly trained irregulars, blues regulars and reds elite/heavy troops. (my guess!)

Some of them are more vulnerable during a fight like the green units.

This could be reflected in the game/during a fight by chancing the chance of hits against certain ranks (units) on the die itself.

So came the decision to upgrade to the eight-side dice; with 3 green rank hits, 2 blue rank hits, 1 red rank hits and 1 valor side which is typically a hit against any rank of unit. That's make seven!

And the last side is for the morale; which plays an important role in the game! (Bloggers note: The battles in the ancient and medieval times are lost, because the enemy loses his morale and flees; not because the winner kills them all! More about these theme in the next issue!)

In this case, for example the green units could be hit 50% of the time and the red units %25!

And what about mounted units, at first, the cavalry! (Bloggers note: I think and hope, there will another units mounted on different animals/races!)

Compared to the foot units have the Cavalry two advantages:

Speed and additional combat force!

Their speed gives them the capacity of maneuver and being mounted additional strength!

Mr. Kouba decided, that the slowest cavalry on the battlefield is faster than quickest infantry.

While infantry only moves 1 or 2 hexes, cavalry may move 3 or 4 hexes both depending on their rank.

According their additional combat force, the cavalry could never be hit by valour hits rolled by infantry.

This rule is the only one, which I'll disagree and ask a guestion!

Will be there no foot units with halberd? (and how will be the one infantry figure on the above picture described?)

I can't imagine, because it's a game based on a fantasy/medieval background!

Wait and see!

Thank you FFG and Mr. Kouba for this first look!

World of Westeros and the game...

The story of A Song of Ice and Fire takes place mainly on the continent of Westeros.

George R.R. Martin created the world “westeros” based on the facts of medieval Europe.

Geographical it is equivalent to South America.


The continent of Westeros with castles and towns marked. (from Wikipedia)

However, there is a large amount of land to the far north that remains unmapped, due to the extremely cold temperatures and hostile inhabitants known as wildlings.

The northern lands of Westeros are less populated than the south.

The five major cities of Westeros are, in order of size: King’s Landing,Oldtown, Lannisport, Gulltown, and White Harbour.

There are two other continents in the world in which Westeros exists.

The vast continent of Essos lies to the east, across the narrow sea.

The closest foreign nations to Westeros are the Free Cities, a collection of independent city-states along the western edge of this eastern continent.

The lands along the southern coastline of the eastern continent, collectively called the Lands of the Summer Sea, include Ghis and the ruins of Valyria, the former home of Westeros's Targaryen kings.

To the south of Westeros lies the continent of Sothoryos. Little is known about the continent save that it is inhabited by dark-skinned people and is "plague-ridden and largely unexplored".

Back to the game:
When FFG announced this new game, the eye-cather on the board was “a Battlelore game”!

As expected, this notice got a conversation started.

Is it a Battlelore game or not?

Or how far are the game mechanics of Battlelore installed in this new game?

There is also a displeased group of BL players, who wanted new expansions of Battlelore not “a new Battlelore game”

Today I want to give more details about this new game!

I got all this information from a betatest player (username:Jormi_Boced) at the opening of the FFG Event Center:

The board will not have anything on the edges so many of them can be placed adjacent to each other for larger games.(Bloggers Note: That means; “epic battles” will be one of the expansions.)

The board will run all the way to the edges in order to put maps side by side lenghtwise or widthwise. Also, some of the scenarios will be played lengthwise on one board.

There is no left, right or center zones.

Every player has his own basic card desk. Depending on the leaders they choose for their army they get more cards.

These leaders have reference cards and are an actual figure on the board within one of your units with some special abilities.

One is a multi-use ability and the other one can be used once per game.

There will also be different versions of the leaders to represent them at different times with different cards.

The story goes on!

Battles of Westeros!

Hello everybody!

Fantasy Flight Games has annouced a new “A Song of Ice and Fire" boardgame at the grand opening of their new event center in Roseville, Minneapolis.

The game, has the title Battles of Westeros, based on the George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series.


The story of A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in a fictional continent called Westeros. Most of the characters are human but as the series progresses other races are introduced, such as the cold Others from the far North and fire-breathing dragons from the East.

There are three principal storylines in the series:
the chronicle of a dynastic civil war for control of Westeros between seven families;

the rising threat of the Others who live beyond an immense wall of ice that forms Westeros' northern border;

and the journey of Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled daughter of a king who was murdered in an another civil war fifteen years before. She is trying to return to Westeros and claim her rightful throne.

As the series progresses, all three storylines become connected with each other.

Upcoming more about the content of the books….

In the boardgame "Battles of Westeros", as the name suggests, two players recreate the military conflicts, by taking part in battles directly from the books.



(Photo from the FFG website!)

Players control either House Stark, with their seat in Winterfell, who have called their allies to defend their honor and lands, or House Lannister, an aggressive force living in Westerlands.

The battles in the game are at the outset defined, that means starting positions of each House’s units and victory conditions are prescribed.

A battle is played over several rounds.

The path to the victory varies from earning a certain number of victory points, to taking and holding strategic positions on the battlefield.

The game is designed by Robert Kouba for 2 players with an age limit of 12 and a battle takes approximately 1-2 hours.

Battles of Westeros includes:
1 Westeros Battle Guide
1 rulebook
138 plastic figures with bases
1 six-panel, double-sided map board
8 dice
110 cards
32 map overlay pieces
hundreds of tokens

and at last but not at least a photo of the author:

Hang on!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A happy NEW YEAR to ALL of you!

Thanks for joining my blog and making it better!

I wish you and your families ALL the best in 2010!

WW 2 Japanese Infantry from Waterloo 1815

After reviewing Italian army troops in North African theatre during WW2, today I am focusing on the Japanese soldiers in the Pacific theatre.

4 years later, after the last "Folgore Division Infantry"- set, a new WW2 soldiers box set was produced by Waterloo 1815.

Box picture:
This time they have choosen another theatre of WW2 and I think they cooperated with an another figure manufacturer, from that region.

There is no official announcement , but I guess "Caesar miniatures", when I compare the last "Waterloo 1815" – set, with some figures of "Caesar Miniatures", which I bought and painted.

The idea came to me, when I felt the material of the figures. It is announced as "medium plastic", but the material is more soft than medium plastic.

Of course, this is only my rough guess!

In the box there are 48 figures with 12 different poses.

The figures are nicely proportioned with natural poses and in true scale. (What else do we need!?)

The soft/medium material causes the weapons to bend even in the box and naturally unboxed.

All but two of the poses wear a tunic with open collar, and all wear short boots and puttees, in the normal Japanese style.

One third of the poses wear the cap, the rest helmets.

In the box, a lot of soldiers carriers rifles, one a light machine gun, to which he has added a bayonet but in my opinion it isn't a close-combat weapon.

The machine gun mounted on a tripod is too large.

There is a grenade launcher.

There are very good figures like one with a flamethrower, one with a radio, and then the officer, carrying a pistol and a sword.
The detail is clear, there are some extra plastic in hidden areas and no flash.

Folgore Division Light Artillery!

The following set from "Waterloo 1815" is the "Folgore Division Light Artillery"!

As usual the box picture:



The careful followers noticed that the box picture is the same like the one on the "Folgore Division infantry" box.

Why?

Nobody knows...

It's a mix of figures on the picture from both boxes, so that we can argue that the picture was designed for both boxes!

The Material is as usual medium plastic, my favorite. The box is produced in 2003 and includes 21 figures with 7 different poses and plus 3 guns.

The Folgore Division had been raised for an invasion of Malta, therefore, the division had a unit of light artillery, as fire support for the paratroops once they had landed.

It was light and easy to assemble and use.

The artillery piece in this set is the 47mm anti-tank gun, which was used in large numbers in Italy and was the principle heavy gun(!) of the division.

The model is good and detailed and comes in just four pieces - the barrel, carriage and two wheels.

The wheels fitted very well, but you have to enlarge the hole so that the barrel would fit without a problem.

But the angle is not correct, so that the gun is pointing very high.

The crew for this gun are various figures kneeling or sitting with arms up as if they are handling the gun.



Placed by the gun base they all stand successfully.

They are dressed in the unique paratroop uniform including paratroop helmet and the sahariana jacket.

Both officers are wearing a cap and are handling binoculars.

The other piece of equipment is the 8mm Breda machine gun. This has been quite well sculpted, with an offset tripod.



The style of these figures is very similar to the old Esci ones.

Perhaps they share the same sculptor.

Detail is well defined and there is little extra plastic.

Folgore Division / Waterloo 1815

The next set from the Italian producer "Waterloo 1815" is "Folgore Division Infantry"!

The picture of the box:



PS.The AT-gun on this picture is not in the box included.)

This set was produced in 2003 and have 44 figures in 11 different poses!

The only critic about their first Italian infantry set in WW2 was the few poses of the figures.

It seems so, that the firm listened to the complaints and increased the number of the poses from 6 to 11.

The Folgore ('Lightning') Division were an elite unit of Italian paratroops, who were specially raised and trained for the planned invasion of Malta.

When this invasion was cancelled they were shipped to North Africa, and made a name for themselves as excellent fighters.



Paratroops wore a different uniform to the rest of the army, and this has been represented here also very good.

Their finest hour came at El Alamein, where they fought bravely, but suffered very high casualties, so that they never reached their former effectiveness.

A lot of figures are kneeling or lying, which reflects the realities of desert war during WW2 in an open terrain with little or no cover.



All this is correctly sculpted.

(Those figures are missing, because they are not yet painted! The picture is from "plasticsoldierreview-website!)

One of the lying figures has on his hand a mine, essential defensive weapon in the desert against tanks!

Most of the men are armed with the 9mm Beretta machine gun.

Several men have grenades, and one has a Molotov cocktail, which was used in the North African campaign.

The style of these figures is very familiar with Esci.

Detail is good with no flash.