Nights of Fire: review by Table for One

A very nice review by Fredrik Schulz at the Table for One site (dedicated to solo gaming), on Nights of Fire and its solo “Konev” system.

https://tableforone.me/blog/review-nights-of-fire-battle-for-budapest-mighty-boards

Creative math

On the weekend someone asked on Facebook (a place where I am spending too much time, I’ll admit) about designers’ favourite methods of managing workflow or design projects generally.

I answered that I suppose if it were more of a business for me, like Ty Bomba and Joe Miranda who are Living The Dream, I’d be more businesslike about it. As it is, progress on my projects flows according to the equation

Pr = sqrt (TA – DG) x (IN – MWD)

Where Pr is Progress, TA is Time Available, DG is Daily Grind, IN is Inspiration, and MWD is Middle of the night Wakefulness Doubts.

Note that it is possible for Pr to have a negative value, where IN < MWD. This is where I go back and rip things apart because of something I thought at oh-dark-thirty.
Also note that where TA < DG, the square root will involve imaginary numbers, and any progress on the project will also be imaginary.

District Commander Maracas: unboxing video, en espanol

 

Spanish-language unboxing video. I think he liked it!

China’s War: interview with The Players Aid

Sorry, I seem to have missed posting this in the relative tumult of end-of-year 2019 (though relative to the tumult of now, it was not that tumultuous).

Lengthy interview with Grant Kleinheinz at the Players Aid, all about China’s War 1937-41! Originally posted on his website 30 December 2019.

https://theplayersaid.com/2019/12/30/interview-with-brian-train-designer-of-coin-series-volume-xii-chinas-war-1937-1941-from-gmt-games/

Nights of Fire: video review by The Players Aid

https://theplayersaid.com/2020/04/12/video-review-nights-of-fire-battle-for-budapest-from-mighty-boards

Grant Kleinheinz reviews Nights of Fire, particularly how you work the “Konev” deck of cards which makes a very interesting Artificial Intelligence for a solo game.

Grant did a long interview with me a couple of years ago with much more about the game itself:

https://theplayersaid.com/2018/02/19/interview-with-brian-train-co-designer-of-nights-of-fire-battle-for-budapest-from-mighty-boards-coming-to-kickstarter-soon/

Thanks Grant!

Interview with Howard Buchanan

A surprise interview with Howard Harold Buchanan, from confinement.

A very enjoyable three quarters of an hour!

Kind of a weird echo sometimes on my end, and just as many umm, uhhh, ahhs as ever.

Fair bit of detail about China’s War 1937-41, if you haven’t heard it already, and a bit about Strongman (remake of Caudillo).

But I hope you like it.

 

Compass Games sitrep

Katalog

So, Compass Games has extended the spring sale of 40% many items to April 17, including Finnish Civil War, and added a number of other games at 33% off.

https://www.compassgames.com

On the front page of their website, it says that Brief Border Wars has been pushed back to May 2020, though the pre-order page still says 14 February 2020… obviously “that statement is inoperative”.

Connecticut is under a stay-at-home order but apparently Compass is still able to ship games, and the US Postal Service hasn’t been completely destroyed yet, so I imagine you would get prompt service!