Poniske's Indulgent Wife Enterprises Hot

I look forward to hearing more about Black Eagles (The Slave Revolt in Haiti).

Rock on, John. Definitely love the title "Indulgent Wife Enterprises." :D It's a good feeling.

Dr. Mabuse,

I appreciate your interest. I have a very good feeling about BLACK EAGLES. To my knowledge, it would be the first gaming approach to the slave rebellions in Haiti, then St. Domingue. My approach would be a hybrid euro/wargame. It would be card assisted, using Euro blocks as generic units with the addition of named historic leaders. Instead of playing a national faction, players would represent major black leaders, of whom Louverture would be only one. Control of (that is to say, support of) National factions would then be bid on by the players in the form of lending that faction, black troops from your own faction. The danger here is that the troops you lend a national faction (say, England) are then controlled by England for the remainder of the scenario or until they are destroyed, and you may not have that nation's support in following turns.

The game would include four historical scenarios 1)The initial fight for freedom, 2)the English/Spanish invasions, 3) The Civil war between the Slave forces and the Mullatre led forces, and 4) the final confrontation with Napoleon's forces. My aim is to educate the players and society at large about a very influencial part of the American experience, one that has been hidden too long beneath the deserved fame of Louverture.

So far I've found no publisher, but I believe this is tailor-made for a European gaming company. Anyone out there have any suggestions?

Thanks, Ken. Lately things HAVE certainly been rocking.

Niko Escubi has come through with the latest examples of sample art for my new American Civil War Title, LINCOLN'S WAR. The cards are to drool over (I'm prejudiced of course, but still...). A few new general counters have made an appearence as have examples of the US blockade fleets and Confederate raiders. All are on display on the BGG LINCOLN'S WAR site. Nico has complete the preorder cover art, and it too has just been entered on the same site.

Over the past week Adam and I agreed that there was room for two more cards and two more general counters on each side. After weighing my options, I decided on John Reynolds and John Wilder for the US contributions, Kirby Smith and Patrick Cleburne for the Confederates (somebody's going to be happy). Represented on the cards will be Fredrick Douglas, famous black abolitionist and Thurlow Weed, New York editor and political big wheel. The CSA deck gains Thomas Bragg, General Bragg's big brother and early Confederate Attorney General, together with Virginia Governor John Lechter. New Card events will include Friendly Fire, End Of Officer Exchange, and Virginia Rail Extension.

Michel Boucher, my Canadian Vassal angel is busy completing. his Vassal Version #2 including all the latest changes. But wait, more good news, BATTLES MAGAZINE has accepted an article on Lincoln's War that should be out in issue #6 (I was just told this morning that it will be included in the current issue being completed today). It includes much of what you may have already in the BGG blog, but you'll still find a few new surprises. Oh and The New Zealand Fantasard gaming group published their podcast interview with me Easter morning. They're a great group who are helping to promote another of my designs, MAORI WARS. It's been an incredible week, one that's going to be mighty hard to top.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/35452/lincolns-war
http://www.battlesmagazine.com/eshop/index.php
http://fantasard.blogspot.com/

How many players for Black Eagles? How long, how many turns, etc?

S.

Two to five players. Ninety minutes and up, depending on the secenario. To be honest, I've only worked out the first scenario, but based on it, I'd say the longest scenario would be no more than 3 hours.

See more at
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/88142/black-eagles

Big fan of Leaping Lemmings. Thanks for the great evenings!

You're very welcome, Jeff. I have about a dozen family/juvenile designs that have been orphaned because few publishers seem to be accepting family based designs ... go figure.

WBC in Lancaster was a blast, as usual. I’ve been attending for some 20 years since its origin as Avaloncon in Camp Hill, PA (missed one con as it competed with the 30th anniversary of my marriage to my Indulgent Wife). This year was particularly exciting for me. It was the year following the release of three of my designs: King Philip’s War, Hearts and Minds, and Leaping Lemmings, the latter co-designed with Rick Young. ALL THREE MADE IT INTO WBC’S CENTURY. I can’t begin to tell you how exciting it is to see so many copies of your games laid out and so many enthusiastic people rolling dice to them. The word “giddy” comes to mind.

On top of that, I, King Philip’s War and Hearts and Minds were all nominated for Charlie Awards. We didn’t win in any of the categories but hey, just to be placed on the ballot is an honor. GMT and Labyrinth walked away with most of the awards. Andy and his wife got tired of running up to accept them and delegated their son to do their award fetching.

This was a year for making new friends and renewing many old acquaintances. Spent a good deal of my time talking up Lincoln’s War. I had a pretty extensive Lincoln’s War playbook created for the Con with extensive illustrations of play (Trying to get Perry to post it on the MMP preorder site). Sat down to several play tests where both the Union and the Confederacy took their lumps. But the height of the con for me was when Mark Herman wandered over while several of us were discussing the Lincoln’s War and announced that he was eagerly looking forward to the game being published. It don’t get much better than that.

I showed off several new designs: Azincourt, and 1066, Year of Battle. Columbia Games, Compass Games and Valley Games all showed keen interest in my work, and several deals will probably be made concerning them in the coming year. Grant Dagliesh and I had a wonderful 3 hour conversation that spanned so many game related topics that my head is still spinning. At the same time Bill Thomas from Compass Games has pretty much commissioned me to gin up a Civil War battle package that involves Civil War battles in the Southwest and eventually the Vicksburg Campaign as well. And I’ve already promised Torben Sherwood I’ll be meeting him in Essen next year!

With what spare time I had, Lembit Tohver, developer for ATO, labored to teach me the ins and outs of Warriors of God. After being blitzed in his first tournament turn, he kindly instructed me and kept coming back for more of my inept handling of French and British forces. He’s a great guy and I’d like to publicly thank him for putting time aside to teach me. More importantly, I’d like to thank him for introducing me to a local truck stop that served up overflowing plates of wonderful, economical, hot and simple fare. Went back on Sunday for breakfast and I kid you not, the pancakes I was served were 12” in diameter.

Well, WBC is over. Back to the grind and back to projects in progress. Watch for the announcement of the Lincoln’s War Contest later this week and the four part YouTube video sessions on Lincoln’s War to be released later this fall.

Thanks to all of you that have supported me and my designs over the past year. Game design eats up almost all of my waking moments. I love doing it. Glad it’s appreciated. Your support makes me work all the harder.