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  • Battles of Napoleon Volume II: Quatre Bras 1815 (Sound of Drums) — First Look

    Battles of Napoleon Volume II: Quatre Bras 1815 (Sound of Drums) — First Look

    The Napoleonic tactical shelf is a crowded one, so a new box has to earn its table time before it earns your money. Battles of Napoleon: Volume II from Sound of Drums — designed by Uwe Walentin, with artwork by Marc von Martial — makes its case by putting two distinct battles in a single box: Quatre Bras 1815 and Wartenberg 1813. This first look cracks it open to see what you actually get.

    What’s in the box

    This is a genuine 2-in-1 tactical wargame — two separate maps, two orders of battle, and a rules set meant to carry both. I go through the box back and specs, then both maps (Quatre Bras 1815 and Wartenberg 1813), the blocks and dice, the battle displays, the mounted order-of-battle boards, the player aid cards and combat tables, and the counter sheets for each battle. The counters are pre-rounded, which spares you the usual clipping session, and the presentation is sharp throughout. There’s a bonus in here too: a set of update components for Volume I (Eylau 1807), so owners of the first box get some attention as well. The rules present as clean and tactical — the kind of system you can teach yourself solo without drowning in exceptions — but a first look only tells you so much. How it actually plays is a question for the table, and there’s even a community vote running on which battle to bring there first. For a solo Napoleonic gamer weighing two battles’ worth of content in one box, the first impression is a strong one.

    A playthrough follows once the vote is in. Subscribe so you don’t miss which battle hits the table first.

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  • Thirty Years of Misery: 1618–1648 (VUCA Simulations) — First Look & Overview

    Thirty Years of Misery: 1618–1648 (VUCA Simulations) — First Look & Overview

    The Thirty Years’ War doesn’t get gamed nearly as often as it should. It’s sprawling, politically tangled, and grimly attritional in a way that scares off a lot of designers, so when a treatment as handsome as Thirty Years of Misery: 1618–1648 lands on the table, it earns a close look. This is designer Brian Asklev’s take, published by VUCA Simulations, and in this video I open the box and walk through what you actually get.

    What’s in the box

    In this first look I go through the components and the box back before committing to a full playthrough. VUCA’s production values are the first thing you notice — the map and counters are up to the standard you’d expect from them. I keep the overview focused on what the game is trying to model and how it presents the sprawl of the war, rather than getting lost in every chart. If you’re weighing whether this belongs on your shelf, the components alone make a strong first impression, but production is never the whole story.

    Is it for you?

    A first look is exactly that — my initial read before the counters start moving. What I want to know with any game on this period is whether it captures the grinding, attritional character of the war without collapsing into pure bookkeeping, and that’s the question I carry into the gameplay videos. I keep the tone honest here: I flag what looks promising and what I’ll be watching for once it hits the table. If the Thirty Years’ War is a period you’ve wanted a good game for, this overview should help you decide whether to dig deeper.

    The playthrough rounds are already up — start there to see it in motion. Subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next.

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  • Thirty Years of Misery (VUCA Simulations) — Round 1 Gameplay & Walkthrough

    Thirty Years of Misery (VUCA Simulations) — Round 1 Gameplay & Walkthrough

    A first look tells you what’s in the box; a walkthrough tells you whether the system breathes. This is Round 1 of Thirty Years of Misery: 1618–1648, Brian Asklev’s design for VUCA Simulations, and it’s where the Thirty Years’ War stops being a handsome map and starts being a set of hard decisions.

    Getting the first round moving

    I take the opening round slowly and talk through the sequence of play as I go, so it’s clear why each step happens rather than just what the result is. Learning a new system solo means you’re refereeing yourself, and the value of a walkthrough is watching someone make — and occasionally fumble — those first calls in real time. Round 1 is where the shape of the war starts to reveal itself and you get a feel for the tempo the design is asking of you.

    First impressions in motion

    Seeing a game played is worth more than any rules summary, and this is where Thirty Years of Misery either earns its place or shows its seams. I keep an eye on how cleanly the turn flows once you’re past setup and whether the decisions bite early or take a while to matter. This is a full walkthrough running over an hour, so it’s the deep end rather than a highlight reel — the honest pace of actually learning the game. Round 2 continues from here.

    Round 2 picks up where this leaves off. Subscribe so you don’t miss it.

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  • Thirty Years of Misery: 1618–1648 (VUCA) — Round 2 Gameplay & Walkthrough

    Thirty Years of Misery: 1618–1648 (VUCA) — Round 2 Gameplay & Walkthrough

    Round 1 got the pieces moving; Round 2 is where a wargame usually tells you what it really is. This is the second gameplay round of Thirty Years of Misery: 1618–1648, Brian Asklev’s design from VUCA Simulations, picking up the Thirty Years’ War with the opening moves already behind us.

    Building on Round 1

    With setup and the first round out of the way, this session moves faster and digs further into how the system develops over time. I keep talking through my reasoning as I play solo, because the interesting part of a game like this is rarely a single die roll — it’s the accumulating pressure of decisions across rounds. If you watched Round 1, this is the payoff; if you’re jumping in here, I recap enough to keep it followable.

    How it’s holding up

    A shorter session than Round 1, this one is about momentum — seeing whether the design keeps its grip once the novelty of setup wears off. I stay honest about what’s working and what feels fiddly, because that’s the only useful thing a walkthrough can offer over a glossy overview. By the end of Round 2 you should have a real sense of whether Thirty Years of Misery is a game you want to spend an evening with.

    Thanks for following the playthrough. Subscribe for more solo wargaming on the channel.

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  • Old School Tactical Vol. 5: First to Fight — Scenario 1 Gameplay, Part 1

    Old School Tactical Vol. 5: First to Fight — Scenario 1 Gameplay, Part 1

    Time to get Old School Tactical Vol. 5: First to Fight onto the table. This kicks off a solo playthrough of Scenario 1 from Flying Pig Games’ Poland 1939 expansion — the opening days of the war, where a Polish garrison has to hold against the German push.

    Setup and the opening moves

    Part 1 covers the rules in play, the pre-turn setup, and the early action: hidden sniper mechanics, smoke deployment by the German pioneers, the combat calculations, and even off-board naval bombardment from the battleship Schleswig-Holstein — the very guns that opened the war at Westerplatte. It’s a good showcase of why OST stays approachable without being shallow: the fiddly bits are there, but the decisions read clearly. Part 2 follows.

    Part 2 continues the scenario. Subscribe to follow the fight for Poland.

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  • Old School Tactical Vol. 5: First to Fight — Scenario 1 Gameplay, Part 2

    Old School Tactical Vol. 5: First to Fight — Scenario 1 Gameplay, Part 2

    The bunker assault heats up. This is Part 2 of the Scenario 1 solo playthrough in Old School Tactical Vol. 5: First to Fight (Flying Pig Games), and the Polish defenders are not going quietly.

    Into the bunkers

    Turns 6 and 7 push the German forces forward against determined resistance. Hidden snipers spring their ambushes, pioneer squads lay down smoke to cover the advance, and the fighting collapses into brutal close-combat melees around the fortified structures and bunkers. This is squad-level tactics at its most tense — the kind of grind where a single bad activation can stall an entire assault.

    Start with Part 1 if you missed it, and subscribe for more OST.

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  • Cuius Regio: The Thirty Years War (GMT Games) — First Look & Overview

    Cuius Regio: The Thirty Years War (GMT Games) — First Look & Overview

    The Thirty Years’ War is one of the hardest subjects in the hobby to game well — three decades of shifting alliances, religious fracture, and armies that melted away as fast as they were raised. Cuius Regio: The Thirty Years War (1618–1648), designed by Francisco Gradaille for GMT Games, takes it on at the operational level, spread across the whole Holy Roman Empire on a two-map layout. This first look opens the box and walks through what you’re actually signing up for.

    What’s in the box

    There’s a lot here. I work through the rulebook, the scenario book, the player screens and army holding mats, the player aid cards and tables, and the counter sheets before laying out both the northern and southern maps of the Empire. The scenario range is the real story: you can start small with the Bohemian Revolt or commit to the full Grand Campaign, which GMT pegs in the 30-to-40-hour range. That spread means the box has to serve both the player who wants a single evening and the one chasing the whole war, and a first look is where you start to judge whether the components and structure can carry that weight. The presentation is up to GMT’s usual standard, but production is never the whole story — the real test is how the sequence of play, movement, and combat hold up once the counters start moving, and that’s the question I carry into the gameplay videos.

    First looks here always lead into full playthroughs. Subscribe so you don’t miss this one on the table.

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  • Cuius Regio: The Thirty Years War (GMT Games) — Scenario 1: 1618 Turn Gameplay

    Cuius Regio: The Thirty Years War (GMT Games) — Scenario 1: 1618 Turn Gameplay

    A first look tells you what’s in the box; the gameplay tells you whether the system holds together once the counters are on the map. This is Scenario 1 of Cuius Regio: The Thirty Years War, Francisco Gradaille’s operational-level design for GMT Games, played at the table — and it drops you straight into 1618, where the whole conflict began.

    The war’s first crisis, 1618

    Scenario 1 is the natural entry point into a game that can otherwise stretch to a 30-to-40-hour grand campaign. Starting in 1618 means starting with the Empire already fracturing along religious and political lines, and this playthrough works through the opening turn to show how Cuius Regio handles movement, army management, and the sequence of play at a scale that spans the whole Holy Roman Empire. Rather than front-loading every rule, I let the turn structure explain itself as it comes up, so you can see where the friction actually is — how far forces really reach, what a combat costs you, and how quickly a promising position can come apart. I covered the components and rules in the first look; this is the design in motion, and it’s the honest test of whether it earns the table time it asks for.

    The campaign continues from here. Subscribe so you don’t miss the next scenario on the table.

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  • Battle Brothers — The Hexed: Grave Robbers and Farmstead Ambush

    Battle Brothers — The Hexed: Grave Robbers and Farmstead Ambush

    Battle Brothers doesn’t hand you anything. Overhype Studios’ turn-based tactical RPG is a mercenary-company sim where one bad positioning call can cost you a veteran you’ve spent hours leveling, and this episode of the Hexed campaign is a good reminder of why I keep coming back to it.

    Grave robbers, Nachzehrers, and early perks

    Fresh off sending Hoggart to an early demise the company rides out of Sandheim to deal with grave robbers, which in practice means a scrap with a pack of Nachzehrers: the undead that claw their way up out of the graves and hit harder than their ragged look suggests. Between contracts I spend time on the part of Battle Brothers that quietly matters most: leveling up the brothers and choosing early perks. Those first picks set the tone for a whole campaign, and I talk through why I lean the way I do. A stop in Scharensteyn to recruit fresh blood rounds out the roster before things get messy again.

    An ambush and the case for playing cautious

    The farmstead is where the episode earns its title. A crumbled-farmstead ambush against brigand thugs is exactly the kind of fight that looks routine and then punishes any brother left standing in the open. Poor Ragan… may his death teach us all not to hang a Brother out to die surrounded by brigands.

    Battle Brothers rewards patience, terrain, and a willingness to retreat, and it’s honest enough to let a careless turn end a run. That tension, building renown one survivable contract at a time, is the whole appeal for solo players who like their tactics with consequences.

    New episodes of the Hexed campaign land on the channel regularly. Subscribe to follow the company.

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  • Space Infantry: Resurgence Invasion Pack (Lock ‘n Load Publishing) — First Look

    Space Infantry: Resurgence Invasion Pack (Lock ‘n Load Publishing) — First Look

    Sci-fi solo gaming (and all solo gaming in general) lives and dies on whether the system can generate a story without a human opponent, and Space Infantry: Resurgence has built a reputation for doing exactly that. This first look cracks open the Invasion Pack from Lock ‘n Load Publishing to see what you actually get in the box.

    What’s in the box

    The Invasion Pack is a reprint combo that bundles the core game together with its expansion, so there’s a lot of cardboard to dig through. In the core box I go through the rulebook and campaign structure, the mission maps and node systems, the squad rosters, the enemy races, and the deep stack of cards and counters that drive the game. Then it’s on to the expansion, which adds ultra maps, new mission scenarios, and additional hostile types. It’s a generous amount of content for a solitaire title, and the layout gives you a clear sense of how a campaign hangs together.

    Who it’s for

    Space Infantry: Resurgence is squarely a solitaire game (and as a bonus, it can do co-op and competitive as well). You’re running a squad of troopers through mission after mission against an AI-driven galaxy of hostiles, managing risk on the node map and hoping your dice hold. If you like the idea of a self-contained sci-fi campaign you can pull off the shelf and play in an evening, this combo is an easy one to recommend a look at. I’ll reserve judgment on how it plays until it hits the table, but the first impression from the components is a strong one.

    First looks and solo playthroughs post to the channel every week. Subscribe to keep up.

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