Thirty Years War (wargame)
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Thirty Years War, subtitled "Four Battles", is a "quadrigame" — four separate board wargames packaged in one box that use a common set of rules — published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1976. The four games simulate different battles during the Thirty Years' War, and were sold individually as well as in the quadrigame format. Some of the games were well received by critics, but overall, the quadrigame did not sell well.
From 1618 to 1648, a series of religious conflicts broke out in Europe between Protestant states and Catholic states led by Habsburg Austria. Sweden intervened on the Protestant side in the 1630s. Catholic France supported the Protestant side for reasons of realpolitik, eventually joining directly in the war against its rival Habsburg Spain in the final stages of the war. The devastation caused widespread destruction, killing an estimated 4 to 8 million soldiers and civilians, leading to significant depopulation in German states and the end of the Hanseatic League as an economic power.[1]
Description
Thirty Years War is a collection of four two-player wargames that simulate significant battles during this period:
- Lützen (1632): Designed by Brad Hessel. A Swedish-German army confronts an Imperial army
- Nordlingen (1634): Designed by Tom Walczyk. A Swedish-German army attempts to assault a strongly entrenched Imperial-Spanish force
- Rocroi (1643): Designed by Linda Mosca. A French army using line infantry tactics faces Spanish Tercios
- Freiburg (1644): Designed by Stephen B. Patrick. A French army battles a Bavarian-Imperial army. The only game to offer three scenarios, representing the three days of battle.
Components
The game box includes:[2]
- four 22" x 17" paper hex grid maps scaled at 175 m (191 yd) per hex, one for each game
- four sheets of 100 die-cut counters, one for each game
- rulebook: Rules common to all four games
- four rule sheets: rules unique to each game
Gameplay
All four games use the same "I Go, You Go" alternating system of turns originally used in SPI's 1971 game, Napoleon at Waterloo:
- The first player moves all units desired, and engages in combat.
- The second player then has the same opportunity.
This completes one game turn, which represents 45 minutes of game time.[2]
However, in a change from the Napoleon at Waterloo rules:
- zones of control are "rigid" but not "sticky": a unit moving adjacent to an enemy unit can continue to move onwards without stopping, but if the unit chooses to stop adjacent to an enemy, combat must ensue.[2]
- artillery can fire and be captured, but cannot be moved.[2]
- Leader counters add their rating to a unit's combat strength and can help rally disrupted units.[2]
- Each game specifies a number of losses that an army must suffer before "demoralization" is reached. If an army is demoralized, it cannot fight, and its movement is increased (simulating headlong retreat).[2]
- A unit that is disrupted as a result of combat cannot fight; the player must roll a die at the start of the next turn to see if the unit can "shake off" the disruption and return to normal. A leader in the same hex will give a bonus to this die roll.[3]
Publication history
After the success of SPI's first quadrigame, Blue & Gray, released in May 1975, the company quickly produced more quadrigames, including Blue & Gray II, Napoleon at War, and Modern Battles.
The March 1976 issue of Strategy & Tactics featured an article by Albert Nofi about the upcoming Thirty Years War quadrigame. Accompanying the article was what Jay Nelson characterized as "the flagship game" of Thirty Years War,[4] a free pull-out gamedesigned by J.A. Nelson about the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631. Breitenfeld was popular,[5] and two months later, Thirty Years War was released with graphic design by Redmond A. Simonsen. It debuted strongly, moving to #6 in SPI's Top Ten Games list the month it was published. But that initial flush of success was temporary and Thirty Years Wars fell off the Top Ten list only two months later.[6]
Each of the games in Thirty Years War as well as Breitenfeld were offered for individual sale as "folio games" (packaged in a cardstock folio), but none sold well enough to crack SPI's Top Ten list.[6]
Hobby Japan published a Japanese edition of the quadrigame.[7] In 1995, Decision Games acquired the rights to the game and published a second edition, with rules revisions by Joseph Miranda. In that edition, Freiburg, identified by critics as the weakest of the four games,[2][5][8] was dropped in favor of White Mountain, a new Thirty Years War game designed by Miranda.[9]