Zulus on the Ramparts Review

Zulus on the Ramparts has been on my wishlist for a long time.  I love the States of Siege series, and Zulus' has gotten great reviews.  But it looked like it strayed quite far from the formula, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that.  I got Zulus for Christmas however, and I've played it nonstop since then.  It's not as easy to get 6 games played in a row, like Soviet Dawn.  But if I play one game, I'm incredibly likely to at least play a second.

Zulus on the Ramparts was released in 2009 by Victory Point Games, and was designed by Joseph Miranda.  It's a single player wargame, based on a battle at a mission station in Africa.  It's 1879, and an enormous hoard of Zulus is descending on the British troops there, who are hopelessly outnumbered, 4000 to 140!  Your goal is to hold out through the night until help gets there.

Ottoman Sunset Review

Since getting Soviet Dawn, I've continued to explore the States of Siege series.  It's been extremely interesting to look over the broad range of titles available.  But I eventually settled on the one most like Soviet Dawn, Ottoman Sunset.  It shares probably the most design elements with Soviet Dawn, as it should since it has the same designer.  Although Ottoman Sunset displays more cohesion between the parts, as well as better overall balance.  But I'm getting ahead of myself!

So today I'm reviewing Ottoman Sunset, another game in the States of Siege series by Victory Point Games.  It was designed by Darin A. Leviloff, and was published in 2010.  It takes place in the Ottoman Empire during World War 1.  Your job is to see the nation survive a war it historically collapsed during.

Rambling about single player games

As it gets harder and harder to play games as often as I'd like with people, I find myself more and more attracted to solitaire games.  Especially games that are specifically designed as solitaire games, as opposed to multiplayer games with a solitaire scenario.  At first I was incredibly resistant to the idea of playing a board game alone.  It seemed like it crossed a very shameful line.  Plus, why play a solitaire boardgame when you have video games?

Well, it's been a few months now that I've explored various single player games, mostly the Field Commander series, and the States of Siege series.  And this is what I've learned about the solitaire boardgame experience.

Soviet Dawn Review

In my continued exploration of solo games, I've finally discovered the States of Siege series.  It has a long list of games, covering conflicts of numerous scales and time periods.  I decided to start with the first game in the series, Soviet Dawn.  It may not look like much, but let me assure you, it has it where it counts.

In Soviet Dawn, you are attempting to safeguard the formation of the fledgling Soviet state.  It was published in 2009 by Victory Point Games, and was designed by Darin A. Leviloff.  It's core mechanic revolves around a deck of events with associated action points, similar to what you would find in Twilight Struggle.  It definitely bares closest resemblance to a Card Driven Wargame, just tailored to solitaire design sensibilities.  It's a winning approach to a solitaire game, and at the moment stands as my favorite.

Soviet Dawn Session

So this is my best attempt at a session of Soviet Dawn, a game I've been utterly enthralled by, and plan on having reviewed by Monday.  This is going to be a bit higher level than other sessions I've done.  Partially because the gameplay of Soviet Dawn really isn't conducive to recording every action taken, and every die roll made.  But hopefully I can capture the key decisions that make this game fun.

So my strategy in the beginning is going to be to keep the Eastern Front back.  The worst event you can possibly get, is the Eastern Front rescuing the Czar!  I'm also going to try to improve my Political Level track, and hopefully get the Allied Front to go indecisive before they even become active.  I've been attempting to Reorganize the Red Army aggressively in the beginning, but all in all it feels like a losing strategy.  The only way to succeed is to roll a 6 on a 1d6.  I've wasted dozens of valuable actions attempting it to meager results.  So this game, I'm only going to attempt to Reorganize when I have a bonus to the die roll.

So the game is set up, now lets see how it plays out!