I have fancied a copy of Columbia Games "Victory: The Blocks of War" for years and when I saw a not too badly water damaged second hand copy for sale for a few quid I jumped in.
It had six extra maps which looked barely marked, the blocks were bagged but the rulebook and box looked pretty rough. That didn't matter as the rules are available for free online.
Well, the box and rules went into the recycle bin as I suspected but the maps were worse than I had thought. The blocks were damp in the bag with one missing and one too damaged to read.
Never mind, I cleaned the card maps as best I could and coloured in some of the worst damage, I photocopied the damaged/missing block labels and replaced them. Luckily the spare blocks were there and I dried them all out in the sun. The rules were downloaded and printed off and I even washed the dice.
Some of the worst damage after colouring in.
A bit disappointing but at least they ain't too smelly.
An eight map board, the generic World War Two theme is what attracted me to the game.
It reminded my of Phil Dunn's World War game in his Sea Battle Games which I have owned since I was about fifteen.
I loved the idea of WW2 Imagi-Nations but never got into all the complexities of Mr Dunn's game.
However I reckoned Victory: The Blocks of War would give me some of that flavour in a manageable way. Here are some of the blocks, some are a bit marked but they are still legible.
There are battleships and bombers, fighters and dive bombers, aircraft carriers and submarines as well as tanks and infantry in the game.
I tried out the 2 map "sleeping giant" scenario in which the red army has fewer starting units but greater production capacity.
The blue Hellenic League swamped the sleeping giant red Teutonic Fatherland in this game which featured sea battles, carpet bombing and combined arms battles.
I need to work on my defensive strategy I reckon.
I omitted the aircraft carriers and the airborne and marine infantry in this game until I get used to the rules for such exotica.
Good stuff, though.
I'm glad to see another Victory enthusiast. Two of my gaming buddies and I are getting ready to begin our 3rd Victory campaign. We average a campaign about once a year and with our semi-bi-weekly-whenever-we-get-a-chance-to-play schedule it typically lasts us several months. I've added a number of "house rules" over the years including new units and home made versions of 2nd ed. units (Rockets specifically). We always have a blast. Typically the campaigns are set up to be as balanced as we can manage so that everyone BEGINS on an even footing. One thing I've learned with this game is to be aggressive. Fortune favors the bold so to speak.
ReplyDeleteIf you have any questions I'd be happy to try to help you out. I'm no expert but I do have some experience and I thoroughly enjoy the game. Particularly the "sand-box" aspect of it. Enjoy!
Thanks Major, sometime I will get "Victory" out again. I did play a four mapper shortly after this post with all unit types. It was a damn good game and took several days to play, I like to take my time with a game like Victory, planning various strategies and what-not.
DeleteThanks for your interest.
Regards,
Paul.