Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683 is an accessible, 2-player, totally uneven, card-driven wargame that performs in 60-90 minutes, from Robert DeLeskie and Capstone Games. This is a recreation stuffed with deep hand administration choices and tense moments just like card-driven historic board recreation hits corresponding to Watergate and Twilight Struggle. Siege of Vienna is a SPIEL ‘22 launch at present out there for pre-order, which I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying on a evaluate copy supplied by the writer.

In Siege of Vienna, one participant takes on the position of the offensive, 100,000-strong Ottoman military, whereas the opposite participant represents the Habsburg defenders in one of the vital dramatic sieges in historical past. Each participant has a singular set of technique, tactic, and troop playing cards, together with totally different challenges and victory situations. The Ottoman participant wins instantly in the event that they management the Curtain Wall, or in the event that they management each the Ravelin and the Burg Bastion. If the Ottoman participant doesn’t obtain victory earlier than the top of the fifth spherical, the Habsburg participant wins the sport. Additionally, both facet can even win instantly in the event that they eradicate all of their opponent’s troops, or if their opponent’s morale reaches the underside of the morale observe.

The map for Siege of Vienna is comprised of huge, chunky hexes comparable to particular historic areas. Some hexes are seeded with wood cannons and fortifications throughout setup. The Habsburg facet (yellow) has 10 cannons, 7 beefy structural fortifications, and management of a number of hexes, whereas the Ottoman facet (pink) occupies and controls a single hex with 6 measly cannons. The Ottomans may not have as many cannons because the Habsburgs, however they’ve 20 troop playing cards that are stronger than the 12 weaker Habsburg troops. This is simply the tip of the iceberg in the case of the asymmetry in Siege of Vienna.

Both gamers begin the sport with 5 randomly drawn tactic playing cards, technique and troop decks, and quite a lot of cube comparable to their cannons. There are additionally participant aids for each gamers, which seem very wordy on the floor, however are superior and thorough. After you learn the rulebook and play a couple of rounds, nearly every thing it’s worthwhile to know is on the participant aids for reference: the sequence of play, victory situations and actions for either side, and the battle sequence.

It’s price noting that I performed Siege of Vienna completely with the premium playmat that Capstone presents as an add-on, not the usual recreation board. Both are very comparable recreation performance sensible, however the playmat is barely wider to accommodate areas for discard piles and management tokens. It’s not obligatory, however it’s a good improve for many who would possibly choose it.

Let the sieging start!

Siege of Vienna is performed over 5 or fewer rounds. Each spherical, gamers alternate enjoying technique playing cards from their hand to both take certainly one of their out there actions or to set off the occasion on a card. As with most card-driven video games, the hand administration choices are difficult and tense. Both sides have their very own decks of technique playing cards with several types of occasions and response playing cards which might be all highly effective and useful, particularly when timed effectively. It is a continuing wrestle to determine when it is the precise time to play a card for the occasion versus saving it for later within the spherical, or discarding it to carry out an motion.

My Ottoman hand of technique playing cards

An entrenched Glacis hex

As far as actions go, the Ottoman participant can Entrench, Assault, Mine, Fortify, or Bombard. When you Entrench, you advance and take management of an uncontrolled Glacis hex adjoining to a hex you management by putting your management token and a couple of improvised fortifications (wood sticks). You may additionally transfer any variety of your canons into the newly managed hex. Then you improve Ottoman morale and decrease Habsburg morale by 1. However, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the Ottoman military. The Habsburg participant does not recognize you inching in direction of them, so that they hearth all of their cannons by rolling cube for every of their canons, eliminating your troops on any outcomes of 6, to a most of two eradicated troops. When troops are eradicated, your opponent randomly picks playing cards out of your troop deck and locations them in your eradicated pile. Fortunately for the Ottomans, they’ve extra troops of their deck, so dropping a couple of is gloomy, however not fully detrimental.

Bombarding means that you can select a Habsburg-controlled hex that’s adjoining to a hex you management, then roll 1 die for every cannon you
have adjoining to it. If you roll 2 or extra 6s, you get to take away 1 structural fortification (wood arrowheads) from the hex. For one other aggressive motion, you’ll be able to assault to assault a Habsburg-controlled hex that’s adjoining to a hex you management. I’ll cowl how battles work after I describe the opposite actions.

4 Habsburg shovels = hassle for the Ottomans

Both the Ottoman and Habsburg participant can carry out Mine and Fortify actions. The Fortify motion means that you can add an improvised fortification to a hex you management, noting you can’t have greater than 2 fortifications on a given hex. Fortifications are useful to defenders as a result of they restrict the quantity of troops the attacker can leverage for power in battles.

The Mine motion might be my favourite motion in Siege of Vienna. When you are taking a Mine motion, you draw a tunnel token out of your draw bag and secretly peek at it to see what number of shovels are on it. Then you place it face down in your tunnel area, so your opponent has no concept of its worth. Now, if there are 4 or extra shovels in complete amongst your entire face-down Tunnel tiles, it’s possible you’ll reveal them to set off an explosion to take away a few of your opponent’s fortifications. Although there’s not essentially an enormous dramatic influence from a mine explosion, you’ll be able to’t assist however really feel nervous when your opponent is drawing a tunnel token from their bag. You’ll nervously marvel if that is going to be the one which triggers, or in the event you’re nonetheless protected. It’s all the time suspenseful which is why I dig it.

In addition to the Fortify and Mine actions, the Habsburg participant can Barrage to assault Ottoman troops with their cannons by rolling cube just like the Ottoman Bombard motion. If they’re feeling courageous, the Habsburg participant can even Sortie to achieve 1 Morale after which assault an Ottoman-controlled hex that’s adjoining to a hex they management.

Battles are additionally very suspenseful and tense in Siege of Vienna. First, each gamers select troop playing cards from their respective troop decks and place them face all the way down to the facet of the sport board. The troop playing cards every have a power worth starting from 1 to three. The Habsburg participant can solely ever play a most of three troop playing cards, whereas the Ottoman participant can probably play as much as 6 troop playing cards for adjoining managed hexes if they’ve a traceable provide line again to their camp. That being mentioned, I’ve by no means been capable of play greater than 4 or 5 troop playing cards because the Ottomans, nor have my opponents, however hopefully I can pull off 6 playing cards for a battle subsequent time I play.

After each gamers have positioned their troop playing cards face all the way down to characterize their entrance line, beginning with the attacker, gamers might play a tactic card face down. Then both sides reveals their tactic and troop playing cards and resolves the results of the tactic playing cards concurrently. At the start of the sport, every participant randomly attracts 5 tactic playing cards from their facet’s deck of 10 playing cards to make use of for your entire recreation. You by no means know what number of battles are going to happen in a given recreation, so that you want use your tactic playing cards sparingly and correctly. The strategy of deciding your troop playing cards and your tactic card, do you have to select to play one, is so difficult. There could be some battles the place you go in tremendous robust because the attacker and waste your effort on a battle the place your opponent performs weak troop playing cards, and/or no tactic in any respect. Every battle is such a gripping thoughts recreation in Siege of Vienna, particularly those in later rounds when there’s plenty of stress on either side. It’s nice!

Examples of tactic playing cards

After you reveal troop and tactic playing cards, you apply the results of the defender’s fortifications. This is one thing you are conscious of going into the battle, however you by no means know the impacts of your opponent’s tactic card and the way it’ll have an effect on the remainder of the battle decision. When it involves fortifications, the attacker should transfer troops from their entrance line to their rear line for every fortification on the attacked hex: 1 per improvised, and a couple of per structural fortification. Any troops within the rear line don’t contribute power to the battle, so you actually need to attempt to do away with as many fortifications as you’ll be able to earlier than you assault a hex, however you are additionally up towards the clock because the Ottomans, so that you usually simply need to cope with it.

Then there is a casualties part, the place the Ottoman participant rolls a die for every of their cannons on or adjoining to the attacked hex, adopted by the Habsburg participant rolling a die for every of their cannons anyplace. For every 6 rolled, your opponent eliminates 1 random troop from their entrance line with a most of two eradicated troops. This may be brutal for the Ottoman participant, however that is extra purpose for them to assault Habsburg hexes with cannons to attempt to take them out. Either that or play tactic playing cards to affect the casualties part in your favor when doable.

Battle decision in progress…

Finally, you evaluate the battle worth of troop playing cards in every participant’s entrance line solely. The increased battle worth wins and the defender wins ties. If the attacker wins, they get to take management of the area and take away any cannons and fortifications that belonged to the defender. Plus the attacker’s morale is elevated by 1 and the defender’s morale is decreased by 1. On the opposite hand, if the Habsburgs win as defender, the Ottomans lose 1 Morale.

After gamers have alternated enjoying their technique playing cards for a given spherical to both carry out actions or set off occasions, you draw again as much as 5 playing cards to begin the following spherical, until it is the top of the fifth spherical, during which case, the Habsburg participant would win.

Prepping for battle on the Curtain Wall

Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683 is a strong 2-player, card-driven wargame. Every resolution you are confronted with within the recreation is juicy and significant. It appears like a superb subsequent step in Capstone’s historic board recreation lineup after Matthias Cramer’s Watergate. It’s a hair extra complicated and takes a bit longer to play than Watergate, nevertheless it has an identical kind of rigidity if you play it, which I actually get pleasure from. You’re confronted with robust choices from the very begin of the sport, and the deeper you get, the extra the strain grows, whether or not you are enjoying because the Ottomans or the Habsburgs. Although it’s a wargame, it’s extremely accessible and thus prone to attraction to quite a lot of several types of avid gamers. In truth, certainly one of my good associates who shouldn’t be into wargames performed it with me, and she or he loved it lots and desires to play once more.

There is certainly some luck in Siege of Vienna in the case of rolling cube in your cannons, however majority of the sport is in your management relying on how and if you play sure playing cards. The fight system is intelligent and attention-grabbing and does not revolve strictly round cube rolls, which is a plus. I really like the best way you select your troop and tactic playing cards secretly in battle, after which reveal them concurrently. It appears like a mini recreation inside the total recreation, and it is all the time suspenseful.

Down to the wire…we had been each sweating!

The rulebook and parts are glorious, and Donal Hegarty did an incredible job with the artwork and graphic design. There’s even a gorgeous illustration contained in the field lid which jogged my memory of contained in the field lid of Pax Pamir. I additionally love that the sport features a separate booklet with historic particulars and designer notes so you’ll be able to be taught extra about this attention-grabbing a part of historical past.

I’ve performed and loved Robert DeLeskie’s The Wars of Marcus Aurelius from Hollandspiele, and I’ve Stilicho: Last of the Romans on my “shelf of alternative”. While there’s extra for me to find with these 2 solitaire releases from DeLeskie, I’m very excited to play extra Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683, and I can not wait to see what he designs subsequent.