Pages

Tuesday 26 October 2021

Manoeuvre and Manoeuvre: Distant Lands

I belong to several WhatsApp groups, one of which discusses wargaming. As a result, I was introduced to GMT Games’ MANOEUVRE and MANOEUVRE: DISTANT LANDS, both of which use an 8 x 8 square gridded playing board.

I was intrigued by what I read about the games, and after some searching (and with the assistance of another member of the WhatsApp group), I managed to buy a second-hand edition of MANOEUVRE via eBay and a new copy of MANOEUVRE: DISTANT LANDS from Amazon.

MANOEUVRE contains:

  • 8 x 8 sets of national army units (Austria, Britain, France, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Turkey, and the USA)
  • 12 geomorphic 4 x 4 square gridded map sections
  • 8 x 60 nationality cards
  • Two player aid cards
  • A rule book
  • 4 D6s, 4 D8s, and 4 D10s

MANOEUVRE: DISTANT LANDS contains:

  • 4 x 8 sets of national army units (China, India, Japan, and Sweden)
  • 8 geomorphic 4 x 4 square gridded map sections
  • 4 x 60 nationality cards
  • Two player aid cards
  • A supplementary rule book
  • 4 D6s, 4 D8s, and 4 D10s

They have yet to be delivered, but I am looking forward to giving the games a try out so that I can try to understand how another wargame designer has approached the idea of producing a simple, portable wargame.


The games were designed by Jeff Horger and originally published by GTM Games in 2008 and 2017 respectively.

8 comments:

  1. These are new to me Bob - I'm looking forward to reading your review.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maudlin Jack Tar,

      I await their arrival with great anticipation!

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  2. Hello there Bob,

    I remember seeing this some time ago and was intrigued by the concept. There is plenty of stuff on it here https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17396/manoeuvre

    It is card driven I believe and the cards reflect the 'national characteristics' of the chosen army.

    I will be keen to find out what you think about it!

    All the best,

    DC

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David Crook,

      I must admit to never having seen this game until another member of WD wrote about it. It seems to have certain similarities with PW (and the components look as if they are PW compatible) but with some very different mechanisms. In particular, the card-driven system looks very interesting, and the expansion set (DISTANT LANDS) covers some armies that I had not covered in PNW.

      I’ll certainly be writing more about this game once it arrives and I have time to check it out.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  3. I dabbled with it a few years ago. My impressions are at https://warwellwg.blogspot.com/2017/10/my-thoughts-on-manoeuvre.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kevin,

      Thank you very much for the helpful review. I have downloaded the rule book (which is available from the company’s website) and having read it and your review, I have a much better idea how the game works.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  4. I'm intrigued. At the very least it appears the boards and counters can be used to play portable wargames as is, and depending on the square size they could also be used with minis. Each of the nations, along with the expansion, could be used to set up an interesting imagi-nations campaign. All you would need is a map. Looking forward to your review.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark Cordone,

      We seem to be thinking along similar lines! Even if the game isn’t very good (and I’m told that it is!) the boards, counters etc., will be useable for PW battles. I also like the idea of using it as the basis of an imagi-nation campaign.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

Thank you for leaving a comment. Please note that any comments that are spam or contain phishing messages or that come from Google Accounts that are 'Unknown' will be deleted.