Geir
Emperor Mongoose
So, the last pages of Skandersvik (okay, to me, a ‘vik’ is an inlet or otherwise body of water partially surrounded by land, but that’s another issue) foreshadow the Fifth Frontier War a bit.
I dug out the box a couple of weekends ago. I played half of one game back in about ’82 – I can still see the erased pencil marks on the board and fleet sheets. But reading the rules, they aren’t bad. What I had completely forgotten is that the map only covers about half the Spinward Marches – and a tiny bit of Gvurrdon. A lot of what would be interesting would be the Sword World Fronts not covered, including the Darrian Front.
We seem to be perpetually stuck in 1105, and Vanguard was a failed Kickstarter. So what’s the plan for the Fifth Frontier War? I’d love to see another version of the game, but there’s the history of it already laid out from c 1985, with a pretty much a status-quo-antebellum ending. That would take the fun out of it.
One good thing about the Mongoose Version 1 Zhodani module (there’s more than one good thing about it, to be clear) is that it hints at a Zhodani motivation for the war, or at least the target of Rhylanor. Makes more sense then the ‘80s version of standing at the Fulda Gap waiting on the Soviets (which, if you think about it with forty years of hindsight, doesn’t really make much sense: either they’re better than us and they don’t need to invade, or they’re worse and they’ll fail.)
Okay, so that’s a ramble. Tired of looking at my own and other people’s words. Head hurts. But yeah, Fifth Frontier War. I’m all for it. Let’s go!
Or I might just have to spreadsheet out the map and order of battle and run a solo game just to see… but that takes time. Head. Hurts. Ramble. Sorry.
I dug out the box a couple of weekends ago. I played half of one game back in about ’82 – I can still see the erased pencil marks on the board and fleet sheets. But reading the rules, they aren’t bad. What I had completely forgotten is that the map only covers about half the Spinward Marches – and a tiny bit of Gvurrdon. A lot of what would be interesting would be the Sword World Fronts not covered, including the Darrian Front.
We seem to be perpetually stuck in 1105, and Vanguard was a failed Kickstarter. So what’s the plan for the Fifth Frontier War? I’d love to see another version of the game, but there’s the history of it already laid out from c 1985, with a pretty much a status-quo-antebellum ending. That would take the fun out of it.
One good thing about the Mongoose Version 1 Zhodani module (there’s more than one good thing about it, to be clear) is that it hints at a Zhodani motivation for the war, or at least the target of Rhylanor. Makes more sense then the ‘80s version of standing at the Fulda Gap waiting on the Soviets (which, if you think about it with forty years of hindsight, doesn’t really make much sense: either they’re better than us and they don’t need to invade, or they’re worse and they’ll fail.)
Okay, so that’s a ramble. Tired of looking at my own and other people’s words. Head hurts. But yeah, Fifth Frontier War. I’m all for it. Let’s go!
Or I might just have to spreadsheet out the map and order of battle and run a solo game just to see… but that takes time. Head. Hurts. Ramble. Sorry.
