by Brant Guillory, 19 October 2023 ~ #UnboxingDay
The latest issue of Paper Wars magazine has arrived, and includes the Wolfe Tone Rebellion game, and no, you haven’t heard of the conflict either…
click images to enlarge
Love that bold-line vintage comic-strip look over the cover. Fantastic artwork from… well, huh… it doesn’t say who the artist is. Bummer, too, because it’s good.
Paper Wars is definitely the Compass house magazine, with articles covering all sorts of their games, plus company update information. That’s not a knock on Compass or on the magazine, but rather just an admission of what it is.
The game rules and examples are well-illustrated and comparable to any other small commercial game you’d find. There is a “battle board” that’s used for off-map combat that you’ll want to copy before using. The designer’s notes and bibliography are nice touches, too.
The counters are definitely colorful, though the green ones can be a little tougher to follow. The rules not only tell you who all the factions are, but give some of the history behind each.
Not a lot of terrain on the map, but there are fortresses, naval landing/deployment zones, and some distinction between Northern Ireland and the rest of Eire.
You can learn a solid overview of the conflict from the historical article in magazine.
The rest of the magazine includes a variety of Compass Games support or updating, like this comprehensive look at the upcoming WWII Campaigns multipack.
You also get a pair of alternate scenarios for a previous Paper Wars game, including a callback to one of the wackier (infamous?) titles from wargaming history.
By the time you’re reading this spread in the magazine, you’re probably heard most of it on the company livestreams. But for the folks that don’t follow Compass Games online, this is a nice update to include.
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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The Armchair Dragoons with glee,
Unbox games for all to see.
With dice and cardboard so neat,
They strategize, can’t be beat,
In their world of tabletop glee!
Everyone raves about C3i magazine, which is very good, but its just a single handmade super-issue per year. Its unfair to compare that one issue to what Compass, DG, ATO, etc. do putting out multiple issues a year, and DG actually doing two magazines. Paper Wars is really upping its game (pun intended).