Back in February, my old friend and fellow member of Wargame Developments, Tony Hawkins, gave me BISMARCK SOLITAIRE by Mike Wylie, Sean Cooke, and Grant Wylie III as a birthday present.
This proved to be very useful when I went into hospital in March, as Sue was able to get my copy bring it in to me and was able to play some of the scenarios.
Since then I have acquired two more book in this series. They are WATERLOO SOLITAIRE ...
... and GETTYSBURG SOLITAIRE.
I took my copy of WATERLOO SOLITAIRE into hospital with me when I underwent my prostate operation, but I was unable to use it very much as the person I shared a ward bay with objected to the sound of the dice being thrown!
These books were written by Mike Wylie, Sean Cooke, and Grant Wylie III, and published by Worthington Publishing.
- BISMARCK SOLITAIRE (published in 2021; ISBN 979 87565 4806 8)
- WATERLOO SOLITAIRE (published in 2021; ISBN 979 87749 4492 7)
- GETTYSBURG SOLITAIE (published in 2022; ISBN 979 84360 0269 9)
Please note that the images featured above are © Worthington Publishing and are included solely for the purposes of this review.
“…. I was unable to use it very much as the person I shared a ward bay with objected to the sound of the dice being thrown!”. Was this the very same guy who kept you awake all night with his snoring, Bob??!! If so, more dice rather than less might be the required response 😊
ReplyDeleteMartin S.,
DeleteYes, it was the same person!
Luckily he was a smoker, and every time he set off for a smoke (he had to go outside the hospital several times each day, in his wheelchair - with his drips and urine bag - and was away for 30 to 45 minutes) I’d play another scenario.
All the best,
Bob
Hello Bob. A group of us from Sheffield Wargames Society played the Waterloo game by Zoom as a team versus the "AI". It worked very well and Martin Rapier did a write up on his excellent blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://tgamesweplay.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2022-06-08T01:12:00-07:00&max-results=7
Simon,
DeleteI’d forgotten that! Thanks for reminding me; I’ll certainly read that blog entry again ASAP.
All the best,
Bob
Hello there Bob,
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to hear your thoughts about the Bismarck game. Oh and the Waterloo one. Actually the Gettysburg one would be useful as well…. Joking aside what a great idea though!
All the best,
DC
David Crook,
DeleteIt took me a bit on time - and a couple of runs through - to start to get the gameplay right, but once I did I began to think that the concept might have uses for campaigns, scenarios, and in the case of the WATERLOO and GETTYSBURG books in particular, the inkling of ideas for interlinking battle vignettes.
All the best,
Bob
Worthington's currently Kickstarting a Braveheart solo bookgame (Falkirk/Bannockburn). The print version includes a clear acetate sheet for using dry-erase markers (something I did when I tried Waterloo). I enjoyed Waterloo's solitaire game engine, though I found myself wishing for wooden pieces and a board; the bookgame format offers a less expensive alternative to a proper boxed game with pieces, board, dice, and the very nice counter trays Worthington always includes in games.
ReplyDeletePeter Schweighofer,
DeleteThe clear acetate sheet sounds like a good idea, although I don’t think that I’ll be backing the kickstart project. BRAVEHEART really isn’t my ‘thing’, although I might well end up buying the book anyway.
I agree that I felt that my enjoyment of the system would have been enhanced by a bigger playing surface and either some wooden blocks or very small figures bases (I’m an inveterate figure gamer at heart) … and there is nothing to stop me from making my own, other than time and skill!
All the best,
Bob
Hi Bob. When we played the game, the game co-ordinator used Warlord games 10mm Epic plastic figures and it looked good and the presence of miniatures helped make it feel more real!
DeleteSimon
Simon,
DeleteI have just acquired a spruce of the Warlord figures, and I can see why they would have worked well with this game.
All the best,
Bob
These look very interesting Bob and I'd like to hear more when you have had a chance to play them.
ReplyDeleteMaudlin Jack Tar,
DeleteI try to do a more detailed write up in due course. In the meantime, I’d suggest that you follow the link in Simon’s comment.
All the best,
Bob
Your roomate/dice problem is a situation perfect for dice rolling apps. I've mentioned it before but I like one called CritDice. It lets you roll a wide variety and quantity of dice. There are a lot of other apps that just use d6s. I also use one that allows me to roll dice I can customize with simple .BMP files.
ReplyDeleteMr. Pavone,
DeleteI must admit, that would have solved the problem, but I had deleted such an app from my phone some time ago, and had not downloaded it afresh before I went into hospital.
I will next time ... if there is a next time.
All the best,
Bob
You might also enjoy this - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/358987/battles-medieval-britain-solitaire-wargame, the author has done several titles available on Amazon, and there is also https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/362615/ironclads-american-civil-war (also on Amazon). For some of these there are pdfs for counters and the maps in the BGG files sections.
ReplyDeleteNigel Drury,
DeleteThanks for the links. The ACW book is one I may well invest in, as it fits rather nicely into a project that I am associated with.
All the best,
Bob