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- Hai Lu Kong Zhan Qi
A Chinese game whose title means "Chinese Sea-Land-Air Battle Chess".
Different versions are produced both in the Republic of China and the
People's Republic of China. Its inventor and lineage are unknown, but
clearly
Chess,
Xiang Qi,
Animal Chess
and
Stratego
are all somehow genetic with it.
Each of the two players controls forces vaguely derived from World War II.
They are in a hierarchy so that a higher priority piece always defeats a lower.
Some pieces, mostly obviously aircraft, have special abilities.
Players take turns moving a single piece and attempt to make captures,
the eventual winner being the one to capture the opponent's headquarters.
[rules]
- Halali
Multiplayer game for up to five by
Jean du Poël and Historien Spielegalerie resembles the
Monty Python sketch "The Hunting Club".
Eighteen hunters venture out, their owners unknown, but
controlled by dice and unfortunately ambiguous rules, to hunt
a rabbit which they will never hit. In fact they are so bad that
one accident after another is inevitable. This cute idea is
a bit too straightforward and tactical, yet unfortunately tricky
to explain. As a result, it can probably only work well
with the right kind of enthusiastic crowd and a few beers.
- Halali! (Tally Ho!, De Beer is Los)
Two-player board game from the Kosmos series set in a forest pits
humans hunters and lumberjacks against bears and foxes. Lumberjacks
chop down trees and hunters shoot animals while foxes eat small animals
and bears eat humans. All pieces begin hidden on a grid an on each turn
the player either reveals or moves a piece. Pieces move like rooks, but
hunters are limited to firing in only one fixed direction. Once space
opens up, somewhat resembles rooks in
Chess
attemping to achieve checkmate.
Nicely-presented and pleasant activity akin to solving a series of small
puzzles, but often dominated by luck.
Originally published as
Jag und Schlag
(Hunt and Strike).
Differences in that version include the opportunity for
trees to move in the same way as birds, and by either
player. This version of the game only ended when one player
no longer had any tiles on the board. There was in addition
one more duck so that all squares begin the game occupied.
The two sides were divided into two equally-large groups
in different colors, allowing the game to be played by four
as well.
May be originally inspired by the ancient north German game Tafl,
also played on a square grid with pieces moving like rooks.
The same title minus the exclamation point has also been used for
two unrelated games, one by Manfred Schüling/Perner Produktions/1994
and also by Jean du Poël/Historien Spielegalerie (see above).
[analysis]
Strategy: Low; Theme: High; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 8
Rudi Hoffman; Spear/Kosmos; 1973/2000; 2
- Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage
Wargame for two is fairly light compared to a traditional wargame.
It uses the system begun with
We, the People
including point-to-point
movement and plenty of event cards. In addition it has battle cards used
to resolve combat. Probably the most successful game in the series.
Because of the luck of the draw issues, it may not always be very good
history, but it does work well as a game of maneuver and counter-maneuver.
People are already beginning to develop standard openings, strategies and
tactics which is much akin to the playing of
Chess.
And they're using Chess clocks as well.
[errata]
[summary]
[expansion leaders chart]
[background]
- Hannibal: The Second Punic War
Uncomplicated wargame for two using the
A House Divided
system for movement and unit promotion. Not bad, but sometimes feels too
abstracted. There are rules problems as well. Play this one with
some of the web-suggested fixes or try the game above.
- Herr der Ringe, Der - Die Entscheidung (Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation)
Two-player game by Reiner Knizia confirms the notion that the
early 21st century will someday
be known as his English Period. Since moving to England and
playtesting there, he seems to depart more and more from
the traditional silken bonds of German gaming conventions.
Besides his work with the American wargame publisher
GMT, he went quite a ways toward a railroad game with
Stephensons Rocket
and this year also invented
Clash of the Gladiators
a game of battle in a Roman arena. In this one, he once
again mines the world of Professor Tolkien, exploring a battle theme
just as the most battle-oriented part of the Tolkien novel, The
Two Towers, is about to hit the screens. While one side plays
the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring, the other gets
to play the roles of nine "bad guys", not just the Nine Riders,
but some of them, plus the Balrog, Shelob, Saruman and others.
The plastic, stand-up pieces keep their identities secret so this
is Stratego crystallized
to a smaller, more perfect form. But to keep things from getting
too boring, each character not only has a numerical rating,
but is also supplemented by simultaneously-revealed cards.
(If Knizia ever wants to redo
Talisman,
this could be a good replacement for its combat dice.) The
cardsets differ and some are not numeric, but special effects
that break the usual rules. A particularly genius idea here is
that while most spaces have a stacking limit of four, or more
commonly, two, the line of mountains in the middle is limited to
one piece at a time, forcing pieces to risk advancing alone.
It seems that someone had doubts about play balance since
instructions specify that it be played twice, allowing players
a try at each side. This works out well, however, because each
side's tasks are rather different. While Sauron must get three
pieces to the opponent's base or successfully search and destroy
Frodo, the Fellowship must get Frodo alive into Mordor. So the
attention to theme is passable with all of the powers making
sense for their characters and the map making some sense in an
abstract sort of way. The artwork thankfully comprises original
illustrations rather than movie stills, but is somewhat hampered
by being trapped where it cannot be easily seen. Partly as a
result of that, the overall sense of playing a game tends to
overwhelm any feeling of participating in a story. Players who
find their fun in devising and trying strategies will not be
disappointed, however. How should the pieces be deployed? Should
you try to attack up the middle or around the perimeter? Since
you can never move backwards, how fast should you attack? Can
you guess where the other side's vital pieces are? How can you
arrange to have a stronger remaining deck than the opposition
and then best exploit it? And when that gets tired, additional
variant cards such as Shadowfax, Palantir and Gandalf
the White give new wrinkles.
Those who liked
Hera and Zeus
will very likely enjoy this one – there is probably less chaos here.
In the two-player realm, it is probably not as complex as
Babel,
nor as long, but it does seem to last exactly the right length of time.
The Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation: Deluxe Edition
version from Fantasy Flight comes in a much larger box with
a larger board. Now the pieces stand oblong and so are more
easily viewed and read. Most interesting is that the characters
can slide out of their holders and be flipped to reveal alternate
versions. This even brings into play some new characters such as
the Watcher in the Water (great to drop in the big center space
on the good guys' side) and Master Elrond. Also available are more
battle cards. Space-squeezed collectors will probably regret the
extra shelf space requirement, but on the other hand it makes a
nicer gift if one is looking to impress. Gameplay itself, nicely
combining theme, deduction, bluff and analysis, remains
remarkable thoughtful and challenging despite the relatively simple
rules. It's my theory that every designer should create a logical
deduction game at least once and if Reiner Knizia wants to count
this one as his, I think that's perfectly fine. Now if I could only
get over the title (the German meaning is more like "the
decision").
Strategy: Medium; Theme: High; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Low;
Personal Rating: 7
- High Seas
Wargame about raiding and trading on the Caribbean Sea for up to four players.
Some nice concepts don't entirely gel.
[more]
[summary]
[chart]
[errata]
[Traveling Merchant Games]
[Pirate Games]
- Hispania
Wargame in the
Britannia
system, this time set in the
Spanish Peninsula from the Carthaginians to the Christian Reconquista.
One of the better outings for this system. More thorough and also
longer than Britannia.
[summary]
[errata]
[variant]
[barbaric VP chart]
- History of the World
Most of the largest empires in the Seven Ages of Man sweep across
the earth to score points. Although it has its unrealities
and omissions, who can ignore such a grand sweep of all
our yesterdays?
Later Hasbro edition adds plastic pieces
to the excitement of many which is fine, but if one has a good
imagination and understanding of history, do they really do anything
but detract? Rules modifications in that edition include awarding new empires in
strict reverse VP order, probably having the overall effect of leveling
playing skill differences and lessening long-term strategy. A time-saving
rule making both sides lose in case of ties gives an advantage to the
active player. Introduced to counter this are other new rules such as
increased dice for the defender
when using forts and over seas and straits.
Curiously forests and mountains are not correspondingly strengthened —
players of the original game should adjust accordingly. The attempt to balance
the event cards by classifying them as greater or lesser fails miserably
as it has not been correctly realized that no card works in isolation,
but always change in value depending on the context of the major empires
and board situation with which they are used.
[Ragnar Brothers]
Another website
has created an interesting-looking variant which includes more nations.
[Millennial scenario]
[background]
[playback]
- Hobbit (Die Abenteuer der Kleinen Hobbits)
Board game based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien has nice graphics, components and
atmosphere, but unfortunately not much play value as it is mostly a
matter of luck in drawing cards. Curiously, the players are not trying
to accomplish the same goal as in the book, but to destroy the dragon
of Carn Dûm.
- Holy Roman Empire
Fascinatingly frustrating depiction of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648)
by Mark D. MacLaughlin, inventor of
Viceroys.
The game is for six which is rare in itself, the players being Spain, Austria,
Sweden, France, Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate. Included are many new ideas
including auctioning allies, a nuanced economic and troop recruitment systems
as well as a land movement and interception system. In a game with this many
players, diplomacy and negotiation play a large role as you might expect.
However, all was pretty much betrayed by a too-small and much errored map,
artistically appealing though it may be, and many
problems with the countermix
and instructions, which didn't even provide a
table of contents.
This could be a great candidate for re-publication — as it
never really had a fair chance. In game terms, it seems that Bavaria and
Rhineland-Palatinate may not have much of a chance either. Actually, some of
the history is not quite right, placing too great an emphasis on
gaining electors whereas reading the
history
reveals that the electors were more the confirmation of power
than the actual power itself and these electors were usually amenable to bribes.
But this "project" was truly a noble attempt. A group at
talk.consimworld.com has attempted
to play this one by e-mail in the past.
[setup chart]
[cards sorted by name]
[cards sorted by religion]
[list of areas]
[table of units]
- Holy War
Science fiction wargame (microgame) for two with a three-dimensional
movement system similar to that of
Godsfire,
not surprisingly,
also by Lynn Willis. Ostensible theme is that a solar system is the inside
part of a creature. Some of the inhabitants of the system are defending it,
but others trying to destroy it. More interestingly, space ships come in
an amazing fourteen different varieties, each with different capabilities
and special effects. Moreover, each combat is conducted in one of three
forms (units are each rated for all three): energy, launched or psychic weapons.
Space ship combat is resolved via a differential table while boarding
is via odds table. All of this comes at some price as the combination of
many unit types and weird board can rending play rather confusing.
Having really only one scenario means that replay value is not very large.
- Honor of the Samurai (Ehre der Samurai)
Card game reminiscent of
Groo,
in which players attempt to build up
their position with cards in front of them in an attempt to become Shogun.
Nicely illustrated. There are at least two good strategies, one to try to
grab the prize right away and hope to survive or, usually more profitably,
to bide one's time and creep up on it bit by bit. This game can last longer
than one wants at times.
[Take That! Card Games]
- Hot Spot
Science fiction wargame (microgame) for two with forces fighting for a vital
energy source on an unstable planet.
The unique feature here is that the islands beneath one's forces are very actively
floating around the map
— unfortunately this feature does not seem to be exploited
very well, nor does it seem to matter much for the outcome.
Seems unbalanced in favor of the attacking Technocrats player.
- House Divided, A (Norden & Süden)
Seminal two player strategic-level wargame on the American
Civil War with title drawn from Lincoln's famous line: "A
house divided against itself cannot stand." The point-to-point
movement system and unit promotion ideas here were later
used in many games and what is called the
We, the People
system certainly owes something to this
game as well. It remains a good game in its own right as well, if a bit
abstracted. Second edition was an improvement in terms of play balance.
Third edition published in German in 2001 as
Norden & Süden.
- Hundred Years War
Two-player magazine wargame on an almost ungameable topic, a war which stopped and
started for over a century. Actually, some historians now tend to look at
this conflict as two or more separate wars (Edward's War, Henry's War, etc.),
but this game tries to cover the entire thing, and as one might expect, not
always successfully as much detail is absent. The game which remains is
quite a wrestling match in the sense that what one is doing is not always
very clear. Rather, one simply roughly grapples with the opponent and makes
sure to be present so that when some disastrous event occurs like a bad
dice roll, it's possible to take proper advantage. It's quite a curious way
to play a game, although it can easily become tedious. One feels however
that a full-fledged effort with all the color and flavor it deserves could
do more justice to this period of history.
On to I
- Main
Please forward any comments and additions for this site to
Rick Heli.