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With a recently released game on my shelves and a bank holiday in which to play it, I thought I would follow up on Kara's example and have a bash at writing a review for it. Ss here is Field Commander: Alexander, a solitaire historical wargame by Dan Verssen Games.
To begin with, a caveat: this was my first venture into counter wargames, and I’m in no way a history buff. However, this second game in the Field Commander line made a very convincing argument to be good addition to my (admittedly rather small) collection of solitaire games, and to me it didn’t disappoint.
First Impressions: The price increase over the first game, Field Commander: Rommel, is significant but matched by a big increase in production values, which are always a selling point for me. The counters are nice and sturdy, the boards are mounted instead of being paper and the artwork overall is above what I understand as par for a game of this type. The boards do have a tendency to warp a little if left out, but are nicely finished and easily re-flattened when stored, which is definitely preferable to the slowly wearing fold lines and ridges you get on paper boards. The game itself is a lot simpler and easier to learn than I had first expected, dispelling my impression that counter wargames are impenetrable and alien things, and it plays very fluidly. I got a very nice feeling of narrative as I led Alexander's army across Greece and Persia. The decisions you make seem limited at first, but both they and the small amount of randomisation in the game seemed very important every time they came up. There was a pleasant sense of overall importance and weight to the actions I chose and the choices I made, be it regarding the fulfillment of ancient prophesies (which essentially ‘level up’ your Alexander token) or my selection of battle plans (simply bonuses and die/damage modifiers in a given battle, but which shape the battles immensely). Also, having played the second scenario several times now the randomisation in each campaign also allows for more replayability than I first assumed, and again it is those small changes that seem to make a pleasant impact on the game.
Turn Summary: Each turn of the game begins with a preparations round. Firstly the turn counter advances to the next month, season or year, slowly reducing the victory points you will receive for emerging victorious and eventually dooming you to (unlikely) failure. Secondly you get to spend gold to refit your troops and bring them back to full strength. Then lastly the enemy gets to work on their own operations against you (reserve troops and penalties that build up until a Go! token is drawn), and their strongholds get a chance to react and fortify themselves, based on a die roll and the position of Alexander’s army in relation to them. A city under imminent threat is more likely to fortify itself, while one at a safe distance will boost its commerce and prestige which you can later benefit from. The second round is the conquest round, when Alexander’s army can act. First they must scout out the region they are moving into and either pay gold if their army is too large to support with foraging, or suffer damage if it is too small to fend off enemy ambushes (determined by a simple die roll compared to your troop strength). Then you must face any opponents there, battling them or possibly intimidating them into opposition if they are held up in a stronghold. Intimidation is again a simple die roll modified by Alexander’s army size, accumulated glory, and past decisions after conquering an area, while battle is played out on a separate sheet, pitting each troop of a given speed against each other simultaneously with a die roll, and moving down the speed lines in order. Each side gains battle plans, (those bonuses mentioned earlier) based on Alexander’s level and the enemy’s overall troop strength, and battle repeats until one side is victorious or Alexander flees. After that you can choose what to do with the region you’ve won, either razing it to the ground for instant gold or governing it for future income. Then once all of that is done you then get the chance to scout gain and repeat the round, assuming you an pay the cost in gold or troop damage to press on again. If you don’t move round three begins, which is the re-supply. You gain gold for the troops you’ve defeated that turn and the conquered regions you govern, and can buy new troops and spend ‘glory’ (awarded for winning battles, having Alexander defeat enemy leaders and taking strongholds) to gain new advisors for Alexander (permanent bonuses to the campaign) or insights (powerful benefits for specific situations). Then the turn ends and you start the process again with your newly acquired income and troops. The other major aspect to the game is the prophesies. These are acquired when you first enter specific regions, and can be taken or ignored as you choose. However, once you accept the prophesy it gives you a task to complete within a given number of turns. Most of these are simple enough, but often require spending resources you may not have or altering your plans for the later game to accommodate it. The benefit for succeeding is big though. Alexander will receive a ‘glorification’ replacing his counter with the next most powerful one, increasing his combat ability, speed and possibly the number of battle plans you can choose for each battle. They also add a lot more of the overt narrative to the game, tying the battles together with an extra level of story/history that I really liked.
My Verdict: Ultimately this system plays simply and quickly, and I found very little referencing the rulebook was required after the first game. The only exception to this is the random prophesies which are detailed in the book, and a few battle plans that have more complicated effects. Surprisingly for me though I would have liked a bit *more* meat to the game. The campaign level of the planning lacked some of the personal drama of other solo capable games I own, but then I have come from the likes of Arkham Horror, Ghost Stories and Last Frontier: The Vesuvius Incident, which all pile on the grief at a personal level for each character or trooper, rather than at a management level as we get here. There was plenty to keep me entertained though, and it both plays in a reasonable time (between one and two hours), has little setup time and does not take up much table space, making it an easier game to just sit down and play than many other solitaire games I know. Overall it was a risk buying into a genre that I've never explored before, but this has lived up to my hopes very capably, and the replayability seems high so far. It is also blessed with what are well above average components for a counter wargame, so bonus points there for DVG. If only more wargame companies did this. Overall a very entertaining and easily accessible solo game, whether you consider yourself a wargamer or not
David
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