Articles – Armchair Dragoons

The Wargaming Network: How To Play Wargames on VASSAL, with Ardwulf

Ardwulf spent an evening with the folks from GUWS, showing them end-to-end how to install, configure, and use VASSAL for wargames.

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Each week, our #DesignXDragoons panel will offer their thoughts on a talk about game design, game development, or gameplay.
You’ll see what they have to say, and get a chance to chime in yourself, either in the comments below, or in our forums

This week’s question:
What’s a great idea that you’ve seen in someone else’s game design that you couldn’t help but think “damn, I wish I’d thought of that first!” and did it inspire any of your subsequent design efforts?

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Brant Guillory, 24 September 2020

Brant takes a look at Eight Minute Empire, a game that plays waaaaaay faster than it takes for him to write the review

How does a game with 2 types of blocks, a map that could hide in a magazine, and no combat pack a legitimate realm-building adventure into a 10-minute game?

Elegantly.

The small box includes 5 colors of tokens, punchout coins, a deck of cards, a very short instruction page, and a mounted, two-sided map. The box is pretty solid, too. You could really hurt someone if you hurl it at them.

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Design x Dragoons: Military Doctrine on the Tabletop

This week’s question:
Should games enforce historically accurate battle tactics and doctrine, or should they allow players to use ahistorical methods in the name of game-play and “what if” theories? Do you allow the French and Spanish fleet to turn into and meet the British at the Battle of Trafalgar (thereby preventing the Brits from “cutting the line”)? Must Napoleon’s Infantry close on the enemy in an assault column formation, or can they deploy into firing lines?

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