Category: Pike And Shot

The battle of Sekigahara fought in 1600 at a crossroads in Japan unified that nation under the Tokugawa family for more than 250 years.Sekigahara allows you to re-contest that war as Ishida Mitsunari defender of a child heir or Tokugawa Ieyasu Japan's most powerful daimyo (feudal lord).The campaign lasted only 7 weeks during which each side improvised an army and a strategy with what forces their allies could provide. Each leader harbored deep doubts as to the loyalty of his units - for good reason. Several daimyo refused to fight; some even turned sides in the midst of battle.To conquer Japan you must do more than field an army - you must be sure it will follow you into combat. Cultivate the loyalty of your allies and deploy them only when you are confident of their allegiance. Win a battle by gaining a defection from the ranks of your opponent.Sekigahara is a 3-hour block game based on the Japanese campaign waged in 1600. The 7-week war fought along Japan's two major highways and in scattered sieges and backcountry skirmishes elevated Tokugawa Ieyasu to Shogun and unified Japan for 265 years.Sekigahara is designed to offer an historically authentic experience within an intuitive game mechanic that can be played in one sitting. Great effort has been taken to preserve a clean game mechanism. (Despite a healthy amount of historical detail the ruleset is a brief 6 pages.) Chance takes the form of uncertainty and not luck.No dice are used; combat is decided with cards. Blocks = armies and cards = motivation. The combination of army and motivation produces impact on the battlefield. Armies without matching cards don't fight. Battles resolve quickly but with suspense tactical participation and a wide range of possible outcomes.Legitimacy is represented by hand size which fluctuates each week according to the number of castles a player holds. Certain events deplete legitimacy like force marches and lost battles. Recruitment meanwhile is a function of a daimyo's control over key production areas. Objectives (enemy units castles resources) exist all over the map.The initial setup is variable so the situation is always fresh. Concealed information (blocks and cards) lends additional uncertainty. In this way the game feels like the actual campaign.Blocks are large and stackable. Every unit on the board is visible at once and the strategic situation is comprehensible at a glance. Components use authentic clan designations and colors and have a Japanese feel.True to history the objectives (castles and economic centers) and forces (armies of allied daimyo) are dispersed. Support for one front means neglect for another. The player is pulled between competing priorities. Each side wonders where his opponent wants to fight and where he is unready. There is a great deal of bluff in the game.Each player must rally the several daimyo of his coalition managing the morale and motivation of each clan. The forces are dispersed and while there are reasons to unify them the objectives are also dispersed and the timeframe compact so skirmishing will occur all over the island.TIME SCALE 1 week per 2-player turns MAP SCALE Point to point UNIT SCALE One block = 5000 soldiers NUMBER OF PLAYERS 2COMPONENTS Mounted Map 119 wooden pieces 1 and 1/2 sticker sheets 110 cards Rulebook Two player aid cardsDESIGNER: Matthew Calkins MAP CARD & BLOCK ART: Mark Mahaffey(source: GMT website)

Pax Renaissance 2nd Edition is a game for 1 to 4 players where you play as a banker in Europe at the height of the Renaissance during the late 15th and early 16th-century.A time when European nobility and warlords declined and the arts and technology advanced in the wake of a new economic force: merchants and bankers. These bankers became the wealthiest private individuals ever as they guided Europe into the modern age.As a Renaissance banker you will finance kings or republics sponsor voyages of discovery join secret cabals or unleash jihads and inquisitions. Your choices determine if Europe is elevated into the bright modern era or remains festering in dark feudalism. Four victories determine the future course of Western Society: will it be towards imperialism trade globalization religious totalitarianism or enlightened art and science?New components include punchouts for pirate ships pawns for concessions and serfs placards for player boards and empire squares allowing storage of repressed tokens and queens even if the King is not in a player Tableau.Extra game Map Cards are included allowing the mounted gameboard to be left behind for small game portability. Useful if you have limited space in your game bag.Expanded rules include Dalmatians Cryptography Condottiere apostasy and the solitaire game. Strategy and Frequently-Asked Questions are included.Contains Pax Renaissance Expansion and Pax Renaissance: BGG Promo Pack.

As a Renaissance banker you will finance kings or republics sponsor voyages of discovery join secret cabals or unleash jihads and inquisitions. Your choices determine whether Europe is elevated into the bright modern era or remains festering in dark feudalism.In Pax Renaissance you have two actions each turn. As in other Pax games you can acquire cards in a market sell them out of the game or play them into your tableau. You can also stimulate the economy by running trade fairs and trading voyages for Oriental goods. A map of Europe with trade routes from Portugal to Crimea is included and discovering new trade routes can radically alter the importance and wealth of empires ten of which are in the game.Four victories determine the future course of Western Society: Will it be towards imperialism trade globalization religious totalitarianism or enlightened art and science?

from GMT website:Virgin Queen: Wars of Religion 1559-1598 is a game of grand strategy for two to six players based on the military political and religious conflicts within Europe during the reigns of Elizabeth I of England and Philip II of Spain. Each player controls one or more of the major powers that presided over European politics in that day. Spain is the juggernaut able to draw upon the vast riches of their global empire. But such a dominant power is sure to have many enemies. The Ottoman expansion towards Spain's Mediterranean outposts remains unchecked. Elizabeth's English sea dogs are poised to raid Spain's overseas empire. And the forces of Protestant reform will soon drag Spain into eighty years of rebellion in the Netherlands. Will Spain find aid from its Catholic allies? Perhaps not from France where the Catholic Valois dynasty is soon to engage another group of Protestant believers in the bloody French Wars of Religion. And even Philip's relatives in Vienna who rule the Holy Roman Empire may dabble in the Protestant faith instead of remaining loyal to their Catholic heritage and Spanish brethren.Virgin Queen: Wars of Religion 1559-1598 is the sequel to Here I Stand another card-driven game of grand strategy that covered the previous forty years (from Martin Luther's posting of his 95 Theses in 1517 through the abdication of Charles V in 1556). Players familiar with Here I Stand will find much that is familiar in Virgin Queen as over half of the rule book remains unchanged. New game systems have been put in place to emphasize the changing nature of the conflicts here in the late 16th Century:

Here I Stand: Wars of the Reformation 1517-1555 is the first game in over 25 years to cover the political and religious conflicts of early 16th Century Europe. Few realize that the greatest feats of Martin Luther Jean Calvin Ignatius Loyola Henry VIII Charles V Francis I Suleiman the Magnificent Ferdinand Magellan Hernando Cortes and Nicolaus Copernicus all fall within this narrow 40-year period of history. This game covers all the action of the period using a unique card-driven game system that models both the political and religious conflicts of the period on a single point-to-point map.There are six main powers in the game each with a unique path to victory.Here I Stand was due for a reprint in 2017 but with October 31 2017 being the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of his 95 Theses Ed Beach and his team of Here I Stand enthusiasts have put together a series of enhancements to the original game that transform this reprint into a deluxe 500th anniversary treatment.DESIGNER: Ed Beach MAP & CARD ART: Mark Simonitch COUNTER ART: Mark Simonitch and Rodger B. MacGowan—description from the publisher

The 2012 rerelease of Wallenstein tweaks the 2002 title from designer Dirk Henn and publisher Queen Games while including two new expansions.The setting and game play of the two games are mostly the same. In 1625 the Thirty Years' War is underway and military leaders like Albrecht von Wallenstein and Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim are roaming the country fighting for land and trying to establish the best of everything for themselves. The game lasts two years with players taking actions in the spring summer and fall then possibly suffering from grain shortage and revolts in the winter before scoring points for the year. After two years the player with the most points – with points being scored for land and buildings under one's control – wins.In each of the action seasons ten action cards are shuffled then laid out with five face-up and the rest face-down. The five bonus tiles (which provide extra money grain or armies) are also laid out. Each player then secretly assigns one of his county cards (or a blank card) to each of the ten actions on his individual player board in addition to bidding for player order and choice of bonus tile.After revealing that round's event card and determining player order players carry out actions in the order determined earlier revealing which county is taking the current action then revealing the next face-down action thus giving players some information about when actions will occur but not all. Taxing a county or taking grain from it can increase the chance of a revolt during winter but without money you can't deploy troops or build palaces or churches and without grain you increase the chance of revolt.Combat and revolts are handled via a dice tower in which players drop army units and peasants (colored wooden cubes) into the top of the tower and see which ones emerge in the bottom tray (representing the fighting forces for that combat) and which get stuck in the tower's baffles to possibly emerge in the future.Wallenstein includes two expansions: Emperor's Court in which a player's army tokens that fall from the dice tower at the start of the game become courtiers who compete for favors (special actions) from the emperor; a player can convert armies to courtiers during the game and whoever has the most courtiers in the court's entrance hall each turn gets first shot at the favors available. Landsknechte which can be used with Emperor's Court or on its own consists of a set of four cards for each player stacked in a particular order. If after determining turn order a player controls counties in four different regions he removes the top card from the stack then takes one of the bonuses (such as money or armies in the tray) shown on the newly revealed card. This stack resets after winter ends.Note that the box of this game states is for 2-5 players but the game actually plays only with 3-5 players.

A States of Siege (TM) game.This solitaire game suitable for group and classroom cooperative game play tells the story of the English Civil Wars (1640-53) through its key events and decision points. You attempt to stop the advance of four armies bent on destroying Parliament and Puritanism whom you represent; simply holding on to London is not enough.Each of the three English Civil Wars are replayed through the use of separate card decks that recreate the historical military and political events that could spell doom to the Parliamentarian forces. There are civil wars going on not just in England but in Scotland and Ireland too; and each will have varying impact on the play of the game at different times.The title comes from the purported response to the beheading of King Charles by his implacable foe Oliver Cromwell who remarked that this act of regicide was a “cruel necessity.”Note: Cruel Necessity is our first Gold Banner wargame to exclude a mounted map inside. Because of all the gameplay real estate in Cruel Necessity mounting the boards using our print-on-demand publishing model would have raised the Retail Price to $55.00 (i.e. a $15 increase) and that just seemed like too much. We hope our vaunted wargame customers can soldier on with our sturdy paper maps as the great wargames of yore have long provided.What's in the box:• One full color 22-page Rulebook (Designer's Notes included) • One 22” x 17” paper game map (in two sections) • One 11” x 17” Battle Display Mat • 75 cards • 98 thick two-sided multi-shaped game pieces • One 2-sided player aid • One blue (Parliamentary) 6-sided die • One red (Royalist) 6-sided die • One bright red 9 x 11 7/8 Deluxe cardboard VPG game box • One beautiful box cover sleeve • One Wipes-A-Lot napkin • One charcoal desiccant packet

The Commands & Colors: Samurai Battles wargame rules allow players to portray important engagements of Japanese history. The battles included in the scenario booklet focus on the historical deployment of forces and important terrain features in scale with the game system. The scale of the game is flexible and varies from battle to battle. For some scenarios an infantry unit may represent an entire clan of soldiers while in other scenarios a unit may represent just a few brave warriors.—description from the publisher

Titans is a territory control miniatures game for 1-4 players (up to 5 with an expansion).The game is set in a historical fantasy setting of 17th century Europe. Endless wars are taking their toll as the people fall into despair. There is no hope for an end no prospects for a peaceful order. The faith of the people slowly burns out. Dorment Spirits of the Nations wake up from centuries-long rest rekindling the hearts of the people and raising ancient warriors called the Titans. People filled with extraordinary powers standing hand-by-hand with mighty Titans fight to reclaim Europe. That war will end it all and a King of Kings will be chosen.In Titans players take roles of a king that leads an Army with a mythical Titan into Battle. There are 4 Nations to choose from one of the European empires of that time - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Russia Sweden and the Ottoman Empire.The game revolves around a unique yet simple Order Card Mechanics. Players will use a shared deck of Order Cards that will allow them to recruit Units awake the Nation’s Power and move their Armies across the Game Board. Players draw a specific number of Order Cards and place them face-up for all players to see. Players also see the upcoming Order Cards so they can plan their long=term strategy. In his turn the active player chooses 1 of the available Order Cards and uses it's available Actions. Players will try to gain strategic positions move their front line and attack their opponents where they are the weakest. The next player uses the same Pool of Order Cards so the active player may try to anticipate opponents movement and use that to their advantage. When there is only 1 Order Card available it's discarded the upcoming Order Cards become the available pool and new Order Cards are drawn. That allows for dynamic gameplay with a lot of planning both tactical and strategical.The game is divided into Rounds and the Round ends after the Order Deck is empty. After each Round players collect Victory Points for the Regions they control so players constantly want to expand their domain. Winning Battles also bring players Victory Points so deciding when where and how to attack is crucial as well. The player with the most Victory Points at the end of the game is the winner.—description from the designer

With Japan torn by war for decades Oda Nobunaga the first unifier succumbs to the blows of his own vassal Akechi Mitsuhide in 1582. This event is an opportunity for Hashiba Hideyoshi who defeats Akechi at the Battle of Yamazaki.Hashiba Hideyoshi must then confront Tokugawa Ieyasu another vassal of Oda at the Battle of Nagakute. Hideyoshi then becomes the second unifier of Japan under the name of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.Bound to the status quo Tokugawa Ieyasu awaits Hideyoshi's death before returning to the pursuit of his ambition. His accession to power is decided in the gigantic battle of Sekigahara. He will force the heir to Hideyoshi to commit suicide at the end of the siege of Osaka. This time the unification of the country is final and Tokugawa's heirs will lead Japan for 250 years.Tenkatoitsu is the sequel of Kawanakajima 1561. Tenkatoitsu means Unity under the Sky. That was the name given to the era during which one Clan was victorious over the others which in turn led to the end of the war (Sengoku Jidai).Tenkatoitsu simulates 3 battles of the end of Sengoku Jidai: Yamazaki (1582) Nagakute (1584) and Sekigahara (1600).The game emphasizes orders assigned to each army's Clans as much as the inertia of the battle. A game turn is divided in activation phases drawn from a recipient containing Clan chits and obligatory chits (for combat movement etc.). The game system is also remarkable for the battle plans that each players may choose before starting the engagement.Sieges played a key role in the battle of Yamazaki and as such have their own specific set of rules.Players scores victory Points by destroying enemy units or controlling key locations.

The Bohemian Revolt of 1618 triggered the Thirty Years War and in the early period of the war the Catholic/Imperial cause enjoyed an almost unbroken string of victories. This game part of the Musket and Pike Battle Series simulates six battles of the early Thirty Years War. In the period covered the armies deployed in more compact formations so each battle fits on half of a standard map.The battles covered in this game are:White Mountain November 1620 The combined army of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic League under Johann Tserclaes the Count of Tilly strike a blow directly at the Bohemian capital of Prague. The Bohemians make a stand on the slopes of White Mountain outside the town. Their Transylvanian allies desert them at the most critical point of the battle causing the total collapse of the Bohemian army and its cause.This is a short scenario where the qualitatively superior Catholic forces must crush the strongly positioned Bohemians who are bolstered by a large Transylvanian contingent of questionable reliability.Wimpfen May 1622 Tilly joins forces with the Spanish under Cordoba. Together they pursue the smaller army of the Markgraf of Baden-Durlach. They catch his army near the town of Wimpfen where it is drawn up in a defensive position in a river bend. The Badian camp is fortified in a special traditional way with Spießwagen (pikewagons) mobile barricades equipped with sharp poles and small mortars. Only when a powder wagon detonates in the midst of the Protestant position scattering the defenders the Catholics are able to storm the wagonburg and heavy fighting breaks out.A balanced pitched battle. A larger Catholic army tries to defeat a Protestant army that is not only protected by a wagonburg but also possesses a strong cavalry force for counterattacks.Höchst June 1622 The Bavarians under Tilly catch the forces of the zealous Protestant Duke Christian as they try to cross the river Main. To protect the crossing Christian makes a stand at a stream. At first Tilly hesitates but eventually the Bavarians attack and the Protestant army dissolves in a chaotic retreat.A rearguard situation where the Protestants must delay the Catholics while simultaneously trying to retreat the majority of their army to safety.Fleurus August 1622 Defeated and demoralized the combined forces of the condottiere Mansfeld and Duke Christian try to escape the German theater and enter the service of the United Provinces instead. Cordoba's Spanish army blocks them at Fleurus in what is today Belgium. The unpaid and mutinous Protestants attack at dawn in an attempt to break through. In a vicious five-hour fight the Spanish hold but enough Protestants break through to force the Spanish to lift an important siege in the Netherlands.This is a smaller pitched battle where a large but very unreliable Protestant army attempts to overwhelm the smaller but more experienced Spanish army. This battle is suitable as an introduction to the game system.Stadtlohn August 1623 Following the battle of Fleurus Duke Christian again rebuilds an army with raw recruits to join with Mansfeld in the Netherlands and renew the fight for the Protestant cause. However he soon finds himself outlawed by the Imperor unsupported and forced to retreat when Tilly's veteran army bears down on him. The Protestan army slowed by a massive baggage train attempts a last stand and finds itself caught by Tilly's vanguard when within sight of the Dutch border. True to form Christian decides to risk his army to save his baggage train but ends up losing both.A race-against-the-clock rearguard situation where the focus is on the fate of the Protestant baggage train that is slowly moving towards the map edge.Lutter am Barenberge August 1626 The Danish King Christian IV intervenes in the Thirty Years War and pushes Tilly back during the early summer. However he finds himself outnumbered and on the defensive when Tilly is reinforced by Imperial troops. Christian decides to turn on his pursuers and gives battle in a strong defensive position at Lutter am Barenberge. The initial Catholic attacks are repulsed but the subsequent uncontrolled Danish counterattack results in the eventual collapse of the Danish army.This is also a rearguard battle but with more evenly matched armies though the Danes are severely hampered by an unusual command situation.In addition to scenario specific special rules that highlight the unique events of each battle the battles in the game all share a simple set of special rules. These rules show the peculiarities of the early years of the Thirty Years War such as Croat/Transylvanian style light cavalry.Even though not all of the battles included were equal contests in military terms the player victory conditions are balanced. Along with the special rules that means the battles are interesting for both sides.

From the publisher:Northern Italy - and especially Milan - at the end of the 15th century was the brutal focal point for power and control between France and the Imperialist empires of Venice and Spain. And the battles fought for this prize are a record of the changing face of how war was fought.At the start of the 'war' the main forces were mounted men-at-arms and a tightly packed and closed formation of pike especially as represented by the Swiss. But as battle churned into battle that slowly changed. Firepower in the form of the arquebus (an early musket) became increasingly prevalent and dominant forcing the closed pike formations to open up as the Spanish did (with sword and buckler) and the reliance on heavily mounted cavalry to decrease.Arquebus shows all of this in true die-rolling glory featuring 8 major battles: Fornovo Cerignola Agnadello Ravenna Marignano Bicocca Pavia and Ceresole. These are all really great game-players with all but two of them half-mappers playable in 3 hours or less. The other two are the 'tiny' page-sized (8 x 11) Cerignola and the big one-mapper the major final battle of Pavia. Pavia was a crushing defeat wherein France lost over 50% of its army and almost all of its nobility of command including her king Francis I who was captured. But for gamers Pavia is wonderful gameplay with units all over the greatly detailed map much maneuver and many tough decisions to make.Arquebus uses the popular Men of Iron mechanics with much concentration on detail of weaponry from the differences between closed formation and open to the decline of the Swiss (pas d'argent? pas de Suisse) and the rise of the German Landsknecht the major force in warfare of the era and ironically the best-dressed men in Europe. Yes Landsknecht uniforms literally set the fashion trend at the time for the entire western world.

A 100,000-strong Ottoman army arrives outside the Habsburg capital of Vienna. Inside the city 12,000 infantry a city militia and citizen-soldiers mount a desperate defense. As the Ottoman siege lines draw closer to the city walls the outnumbered Viennese cling to the faint hope a relief force will arrive in time to save them. For both sides the real battle is a race against time.Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683 places you in one of the most dramatic sieges in history. With a completely different set of cards for each player you will conduct deadly assaults against impenetrable fortifications dig tunnels packed with explosives and launch desperate attacks to delay your enemy's advance. Or you can play powerful events with the power to change the course of battle!Includes historical notes about the siege and 17th century siege warfare (knowledge not required to play the game).—description from the publisher

Description from the publisher:This War Without an Enemy is a 2-player strategic block wargame funding for launched on Kickstarter on 21st January 2020. The game centres on the First English Civil War when the Royalist forces fighting for King Charles I were opposed by the English Parliamentarian troops and their Scottish allies the Covenanters in a struggle for political economic and religious control of England.The game engine will be familiar to anyone who has played a card-driven block wargame but it adds a number of innovations in order to faithfully simulate both the warfare of the mid-17th century and the unique nature of this conflict that engulfed not only England but also Scotland and Ireland. The game features individual cards deck for each side two thirds of which contain events. The card decks are adjusted from year to year to reflect the historical progression of the war. The regional nature of much of the conflict is recreated using a system of Leader and Regional blocks as well as rules for regionally-based recruitment. The usual block game mechanics for field battles have been modified with special rules for artillery cavalry and infantry while a completely new system has been designed for storming and sieges.

Tanto Monta: The Rise of Ferdinand & Isabella 1470-1516 is a prequel to Here I Stand Ed Beach's famed game published by GMT Games. It's a Strategic level Card-Driven board-wargame for 4 players (Muslim French Portuguese and Spanish) covering the reign of the Catholic Monarchs and the voyages of the Age of Discovery.This is a CDG where each player has to reach 45VP to win in the course of 7 maximum turns. Players play cards for their event or to perform actions from a list of available options for each power and at a specific cost for each action. VPs are earned either by military objectives discoveries of new zones trade royal weddings or certain events. In each turn the 4 players alternate playing cards and so on until the end of the turn. The combats are resolved by means of dice rolls with possible support of combat cards and taking into account the type of participating unit.—description from the designerPrecuela de Here I Stand el afamado juego de Ed Beach publicado por GMT GAMES. Es un juego para 4 jugadores (musulmán francés portugués y español) que abarca el periodo del reinado de los Reyes Católicos y la era de los viajes de descubrimientos.Se trata de un CDG en el que cada jugador tiene que conseguir 45 PV para ganar en un máximo de siete turnos. Los jugadores juegan cartas como evento o como puntos para realizar acciones del listado de las disponibles para cada potencia con un coste específico para cada acción. Los PV se obtienen mediante objetivos militares descubrimientos de nuevas zonas comercio bodas reales o determinados eventos. En cada turno los cuatro jugadores se van alternando jugando cartas hasta terminar el mismo. Los combates se resuelven mediante tiradas de dados con posibles apoyos de cartas de combate y según el tipo de unidad participante.—description from the designer (Spanish)

(from GMT website)