by Brant Guillory, 19 January 2023 ~ #UnboxingDay
The latest issue of Compass Games’ house organ – Paper Wars Magazine – arrived. It showed up while we were all watching Moe’s latest Whiskey Charlie show with Kev & Gimpy. And what’s inside?
The magazine, with the map & counters for the included game. Yes, the counters made a break for it.
click images to enlarge
Love the cover art and design.
The contents show you a pretty wide swath of coverage of a variety of Compass titles.
Articles include a ‘how to play’ guide to Schnell Boats1, alternate scenarios for Roma Victrix, include a few that look pretty intriguing, and a strategy & card analysis of Imperial Tide. There’s also a scenario for Kontact Now! that takes place in the current Ukraine conflict. The back cover tells you what’s coming in the next few issues.
There are several pages of alternate aircraft for the America Bomber: Evil Queen of the Skies game – more than just the ones shown here.
The included game is in the middle of the magazine, like pretty much every magazine game since the mid-70s. There’s a nice, if short, historical article as a lead-in. The rules are well-illustrated, with the charts available as a reference tool in the magazine if needed.
It’s a big map, but heavily creased, so you’ll need to flatten it out a bit. The artwork is attractive and doesn’t appear too distracting for gameplay. The charts & tables from the magazine are reprinted on the side of the mapsheet (or is it vice-versa?).
Overall it’s a very attractive package. I have 2 quibbles – the cover stock seems pretty thin and basically the same as the interior, and the map is super-creased. Some might bitch about the all-Compass all-the-time content, but really, it’s a house magazine; that’s what you get! If you’re a heavy Compass Games collector, there’s going to be great value for you with the expansions, analysis, and bonus content for those other games.
Thanks for joining this month’s #UnboxingDay with the Armchair Dragoons and we hope you enjoyed a look under our hoods! You can always leave us your feedback in our #UnboxingDay thread, or in the comment area on this article, below.
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