|
TESTIMONIALS
Ever since Napoleon and Quebec 1759, and that often overlooked 1812, I have thought of the Columbia Block Games as being the best board war games available. They were always fun, encouraged great game strategy, and a high degree of historicity. They are, on the whole, in game quality and play quality, the very best.
However, there is a whole new standard of excellence in Richard III! What an exciting and well thought out game! The rules are quite simple and consistent with your previous designs, but have a number of added aspects in this game that make for a very enjoyable game experience.
It is a gem! We have played it several times and the challenge for both the Yorkists and Lancastrians is very tough, and the games generally come down to the very end for decision. The game pieces and map are absolutely beautiful.You have surpassed yourself with this game, and I strongly recommend it to all wargamers. It is, in my mind, already a classic! Thank you for all the gaming enjoyment you have given me over the years, and keep up the good work. I look forward to your next design with great interest.
B. Jones
Hammer of the Scots is the best new game I have seen since Breakout Normandy. The game is well balanced and there are tricky decisions to make every action. The victory conditions, based on control of the nobles, are a new twist to the gaming hobby. It seems well researched and every game plays differently, giving it a replayability that few games have. This game is an instant classic, and every serious gamer should own it.
P. Barcafer
I have been meaning to reply to your email. I would like to thank you for the very fast service - I received my games on Oct. 31. Like all of Columbia's games that I have purchased, they are beautiful and worth every penny. I look forward to playing them. Thanks again!
M. Hauber
I like Columbia Games for three good reasons: the War of 1812, Quebec 1759, and Napoleon. Actually, there are many other reasons. I like Columbia because you've been around forever, and the same games you published fifteen years ago are still in print today; because of the incomparable block system and the exciting and realistic way it mimics the uncertainties of command; because of the unique simplicity and manageability of what I consider your best games, the mercifully low number of pieces in play (which helps so much in planning and management, as well as eliminating the incredibly long down times of other games with their 200 cardboard counters per side; or is it 2,000? or 20,000?); I like Columbia Games because of the exciting and unpredictable dice system (as opposed to the boring and predictable CRT of other games, not to mention how effectively your multi-dice system mitigates luck), and because of the tense and fast-playing nature of your games; I like Columbia Games because it's never hard finding a good opponent (my wife, who will only play your games, and who is a knowledgeable and eminently worthy opponent); and, not least of all, I like your games because of the mercifully short rule books (four and-a-half easy pages for Quebec, five and-a-half for War of 1812, seven for Napoleon), and the equally short playing times of these games. Additionally, the historical notes appended to the rules are a great dividend and underscore your commitment to historically fidelity, though, thankfully, not at the expense of playability.
These games may play quickly, be easy to understand, and have low unit densities, but they are in no way "light" games, any more than the apparent simplicity of Chess makes it a "light" game; to the contrary, they require a depth of thought, strategic decision-making, and careful planning (again, like Chess) that few "bigger," more time-consuming, and ponderously complicated games could ever hope to achieve. But that's precisely because the elegance and simplicity of Columbia's originals are their greatest compensation and, as such, have succeeded in forever freeing us from the tedious minutiae, ambiguity, and convoluted rule books of most of your competitors games, allowing the players to concentrate on strategy and planning rather than on the incessantly irksome referencing of voluminous rule books. And as a literature teacher, I always emphasize to my students that the foremost prerequisite for great literature and for good writing is conciseness - eliminating redundancy, superfluity, anything which does not move the plot forward. As professor Strunk says: "Omit needless words, needless sentences, needless paragraphs and even pages." The same philosophy should be ruthlessly applied to wargame design, yet I'm appalled at how little it is with the overwhelming majority of wargame designers. With Columbia's wargames, less is truly more, much more.
Last, but hardly least, your games are the most aesthetically pleasing games I've ever seen. Much of this owes to the woodblocks. What better way to pay tribute to military history's rich and ancient traditions than with the timelessness of wood, vibrantly painted wood, a natural medium which confers instant beauty and classic elegance. The artfully designed stickers further enhance this look, and then your cartographer's art makes for beautifully evocative maps that are well worthy of the wood pieces. It is not at all too much to say that such games are true works of art.
This is only part encomium; it is also partly a plea, never to forget the unique simplicity of these early games. These games reward good judgment, calculated risk-taking, and prudent planning. If you lose, you've nothing else to blame but yourself. Card-driven games have become trendy, but the cards and other random events take much of the control and planning out of the player's hands. And it's not as if Columbia's original designs were made without plenty of command problems already. The uncertainty of the woodblocks does that far more successfully and more convincingly than the contrived use of cards or other quirky random events. Please continue to design at least some games that create natural, not artificial command problems, games that are the essence of simplicity and elegance, shorn of useless "chrome," cards, and other such distracting embellishments. And please continue to strive for finely crafted one-hour wargames, those kinds of games that best foster the fundamental strategic elements of the originals: bluff and counter bluff, feints and diversions, surprise and subterfuge. And, of course, the natural design innovations that have long been, and remain, a hallmark at Columbia. When I first found Quebec, I'd never heard not only of the concept of woodblocks, of pieces with hidden values, but neither had I the faintest idea that a wargame map could look like anything other than a bee's honeycomb of hexagons. But here was this zone map that not only looked great, but played out perfectly. And then along came Napoleon, and 1812, with their point-to-point movements. Those kinds of innovations, along with the classic simplicity of design, are what made me a wargamer for life. Today I also play Bonaparte at Marengo and I'm glad to see other companies finally realizing the beauty of block games, but as long as you continue to make the kinds of games I've described, I'll always come back to Columbia.
M. Whitney
I have been playing harn since the 1980's when Robin and Tom we're first starting publishing harn. I must say that your product of late is first class. You have been keeping new material coming and I applaud you.
C. Brooke
|
