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Icehouse cover
BGG · needs curation

Icehouse

Crystal Caste · 1989

BGG #6151
3–520 min6.6
This is the game that introduced Icehouse Pieces. In December 1989, an initial test run of 100 Icehouse sets were made and sold, packaged in black boxes. Later, a few more of these handmade sets were produced, but in very limited quantities. This game doesn't use turns, or rounds, or anything else to break up the action. Players place their pieces as quickly or slowly as they like, in attacking or defending positions. Only when time runs out or when everyone has used up all their pieces is the game scored, with people getting points for their safe defenders and successful attackers. Stashes of Icehouse Pieces without rules, later released as Looney Pyramids, have an accessory entry here: Looney Pyramids.
Fire in the East cover
BGG · needs curation

Fire in the East

Game Designers' Workshop (GDW Games) · 1984

BGG #6152
2–43000 min7.5
Fire in the East covers the war in the Soviet Union from the start of the Barbarossa invasion in June 1941 through the end of the Soviet winter counteroffensive in March 1942. It requires two players, with one player controlling the German and German-allied (Rumanian, Finnish, etc.) forces and the other controlling the various Soviet forces: regular troops, militia divisions,and Guards formations. The size of the game makes it well suited to team play: each side can easily be played by a team of two or three players. Fire in the East's 6 multi-color maps stretch from Warsaw to Stalingrad, from Murmansk to Sevastopol. Terrain is analyzed in detail, with over 20 different types, including two types of rivers, forests, and mountains and four types of cities. There are over 2500 counters each marked with its historical designation - the most accurate and detailed order of battle ever published for the Eastern Front. The counters represent divisions, and independent brigades, regiments, and battalions. Units are highly differentiated by type, from armor, infantry, and artillery to Soviet Guards, NKVD, and katyushas, German flammpanzers and railroad artillery, and Finnish ski troops. Air units vary from outmoded I-15 biplane fighters to the Me-109F, from Ju 87 Stukas and Il-2 Sturmoviks to Pe-8 long-range bombers. The capital ships of the Soviet Baltic and Black Sea fleets are also represented. The rules include extensive armor and antitank effects, plus special capabilities for many other unit types, from assault engineers to paratroopers. Every combat arm has its own abilities and limitations, and the players must use them all to achieve victory. The air system is very detailed - almost a game in itself. Logistics rules cover the different gauges of German and Soviet rails and allow supply lines to be extended temporarily by trucks. Isolated units gradually lose their combat abiliites and then collapse, but those besieged in cities and fortresses survive longer. Other important rules cover weather effects, the unique nature of the Arctic front, the need for artillery support, the German surprise attack, doctrinal limits of Soviet mechanized units, and more. Fire in the East is extremely challenging to both sides. German panzer spearheads can break through the front almost at will, but soon will find themselves outrunning their supply lines, infantry, and air support. Careful play and the optimum use of all arms are needed to travel the long road to Moscow. The Soviets are faced with the need to preserve their army for the final defense of major cities while delaying the German advance to make that defense possible by determined resistance and carefully chosen local counterattacks. Game Components: six 21" x 27" maps (1B, 2A, 3B, 4A, 5B, 6A) over 2880 die-cut counters (Europa 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42) a complete set of rules a complete set of charts two dice (source: back of the box and user's description)
Yom Kippur: The Battle for the Sinai, October, 1973 cover
BGG · needs curation

Yom Kippur: The Battle for the Sinai, October, 1973

The Gamers · 1995

BGG #6160
2240 min7.0
Oct. 6, 1973: Six years after the decisive Israeli victory in the Six-Day War, Egypt has armed itself again to reclaim undisputed control of the Suez Canal. This time, with better-trained and well-equipped troops (armed with new SAGGER anti-tank missiles), the Egyptians clobber the Israeli Bar-Lev defense line. Israel must once again scramble the valiant IDF and fight for its very survival. Yom Kippur - The Battle for the Sinai, October 1973 covers the bitter fighting around the Suez Canal during the 1973 October War. Both players must fight against time to win before a ceasefire is mandated by the world superpowers. The tools of the modern battlefield, incredibly destructive weapons like rocket artillery, SAM missiles and airmobile troops, are at their disposal. But despite the bewildering complexity of such computerized weapons, Yom Kippur itself is a simple-to-play, fast and fluid contest. Contents: One map 280 counters Series Rules Game Rules Two Dice Game Details: Unit Scale: Company to Brigade Hex Scale: 2 miles / hex Number of Players: 2 (also solitaire friendly) Playing Time: Varies with scenario played Complexity: Low Solitaire Suitability: High Part of the Standard Combat Series. Also published in Command Magazine Japan #65 in 2005.
Arquebus: Men of Iron Volume IV – The Battles for Northern Italy 1495-1544 cover
BGG · needs curation

Arquebus: Men of Iron Volume IV – The Battles for Northern Italy 1495-1544

GMT Games · 2017

BGG #6164
260–300 min7.7
From the publisher: Northern Italy - and especially Milan - at the end of the 15th century was the brutal focal point for power and control between France and the Imperialist empires of Venice and Spain. And the battles fought for this prize are a record of the changing face of how war was fought. At the start of the 'war', the main forces were mounted men-at-arms and a tightly packed and closed formation of pike, especially as represented by the Swiss. But as battle churned into battle, that slowly changed. Firepower, in the form of the arquebus (an early musket) became increasingly prevalent and dominant, forcing the closed pike formations to open up, as the Spanish did (with sword and buckler), and the reliance on heavily mounted cavalry to decrease. "Arquebus" shows all of this in true die-rolling glory, featuring 8 major battles: Fornovo, Cerignola, Agnadello, Ravenna, Marignano, Bicocca, Pavia, and Ceresole. These are all really great game-players, with all but two of them half-mappers playable in 3 hours or less. The other two are the 'tiny' page-sized (8" x 11") Cerignola and the big one-mapper, the major, final battle of Pavia. Pavia was a crushing defeat wherein France lost over 50% of its army and almost all of its nobility of command, including her king, Francis I, who was captured. But for gamers, Pavia is wonderful gameplay, with units all over the greatly detailed map, much maneuver and many tough decisions to make. Arquebus uses the popular "Men of Iron" mechanics with much concentration on detail of weaponry, from the differences between closed formation and open, to the decline of the Swiss (pas d'argent? pas de Suisse), and the rise of the German Landsknecht, the major force in warfare of the era and, ironically, the best-dressed men in Europe. Yes, Landsknecht uniforms literally set the fashion trend at the time for the entire western world.