Hexed And Countered

Tag: Thirty Years’ War

  • 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.

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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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