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The Mission: Early Christianity from the Crucifixion to the Crusades

2020-12-01T00:19:15-05:00

Vendor: White Dog Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 79.95

Designers	Ben Madison Stefan Nellen
Publisher	White Dog Games
Players	1
Playing Time	60-240 mins
Suggested Age	12 and up
Additional Info	269489/mission-early-christianity-crucifixion-crusades http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269489/mission-early-christianity-crucifixion-crusades/forums/63

Jesus asked his disciples: “When the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?” (Luke 18:8, NLT) That question is the premise behind The Mission.

The Mission: Early Christianity from the Crucifixion to the Crusades is a “grand strategy” solitaire game covering 1,200 years of Christian history on a map of the ancient Mediterranean, Near East, Europe and Africa. While the secular world of empires and politics plays out around you, your missionaries spread the Christian faith and convert areas of the map to your new religion. Each turn covers decades, and the flow of play will teach players about the expansion and doctrinal battles of early Christianity while you build institutions to educate, heal, and inspire the societies you touch.

Apostles and brilliant theologians will help you evangelize, but you will come to rely on the Roman/Byzantine state and Christian kingdoms to establish and defend the faith. Heresies and schisms in the Church will try to thwart your plans. Pressing against you are barbarian hordes, some of which you may convert; but the armies of Islam will emerge as the game changes from one of missionary outreach to one of self-preservation, as Christian communities hunker down for survival during the long Dark Ages. At the end, you will rise up in a blaze of glory as the Christian world finally fights back using Crusaders and the Spanish Reconquista to recover lost provinces!

Beginners and experienced gamers will find this an intriguing and very different sort of game. It’s a war of ideas, but it’s still a wargame, where managing scarce resources (including holy relics!) and making shrewd strategic decisions are the keys to victory. Can you build a strong, united and prosperous Christendom?

—description from the publisher

Mrs Thatcher's War: The Falklands, 1982

2019-05-17T14:26:27-04:00

Vendor: White Dog Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 89.95

Designer	Ben Madison Stefan Nellen
Publisher	White Dog Games
Players	1
Playtime	100-250 mins
Suggested Age	12 and up
Additional Info	192858/mrs-thatchers-war-falklands-1982 http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/192858/mrs-thatchers-war-falklands-1982/forums/63

Not designed as a detailed simulation, this fun and challenging game illustrates the general strategic course of the 1982 Falklands War between Britain and Argentina, and highlights important historical themes.

It is two games in one: a naval/air game (whose mechanics are based on the author's "Don't Tread On Me" system, but using ships and aircraft instead of armies!) in which the British Player fights against the game system's Argentine "A.I." to establish control of the skies; and a ground game (modeled after the game system featured in the author's "Mound Builders" and "The First Jihad") in which the British Player takes advantage of his air superiority to fight and 'yomp' his ground troops across East Falkland to final victory -- or defeat -- in the hills around Stanley.

The game features all the historical chrome for which this design team is so well known, including Exocet missiles, Falkland Islander civilian resistance, diplomatic shuttles, covert Soviet aid, SAS guerilla missions, Chilean intervention, US assistance, the Gurkhas, helicopters, "ace" pilots, and even the Pope!

Gorbachev: The Fall of Communism

2019-05-17T14:25:27-04:00

Vendor: White Dog Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 50.97

Designer	Wes Erni Ben Madison Stefan Nellen
Publisher	White Dog Games
Players	1
Playtime	30-60 mins
Suggested Age	12 and up
Additional Info	252579/gorbachev-fall-communism http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/252579/gorbachev-fall-communism/forums/63

In Gorbachev: The Fall of Communism you are thrust into the Soviet leadership, trying to push your immense country into democracy amid the collapse of socialism and the wild mood-swings of Gorbachev himself in the period from 1985 to 1991.

This fast-play, fun, and educational solitaire game uses a system created by Darin Leviloff. "People" markers on five converging paths represent the political awakenings of the Russian people, the Baltic Republics, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Communist Party itself. The paths all meet in Moscow, where the danger of a coup exists if any of those People markers makes it that far. In addition, three tracks representing the Soviet economy, media and culture greatly impact the overall situation. A card draw determines which paths and tracks move against you this turn, and the number of "Efforts" which you earn that you can use to move them back in your favor (if the Effort die roll succeeds). The presence of Gorbachev himself gives you additional Efforts -- but he is often on vacation!

Managing Efforts is key to the game, and you never have as many as you want. You can obtain more by calling in the KGB or gambling away your army in Afghanistan and Eastern Europe, and your nuclear missiles, in disarmament deals: a short term strategy that can cost you victory points in the end. You can even abandon your Warsaw Pact allies to win Western goodwill (and more Efforts) as the Cold War comes to an end. Your success at disarmament will depend on how the US President views your policies, making the 1988 election -- George H.W. Bush vs. Michael Dukakis -- important.

Each risky gambit is aimed at averting a military coup against you, which can end the game suddenly. Your success (or failure) in controlling the five paths of public opinion helps determine how many individual Politburo members are still on your side when a coup plot is hatched, so the better you play the game, the less chance the coup gets off the ground.

Can you hold the Soviet Union together long enough to achieve a treaty with your restive Republics and win the game?

—description from the publisher

The White Tribe: Rhodesia's War 1966-1980

2019-03-20T14:24:42-04:00

Vendor: White Dog Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 79.95

Designer	Ben Madison Stefan Nellen
Publisher	White Dog Games
Players	1
Playtime	120-180 mins
Suggested Age	12 and up
Additional Info	248928/white-tribe-rhodesias-war-1966-1980 http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/248928/white-tribe-rhodesias-war-1966-1980/forums/63

The White Tribe is a unique SOLITAIRE game with military and political aspects. You play the White government of Rhodesia, besieged by a Black guerilla army, using your potent armed forces to hold it back while you try to persuade your colonialist voters to compromise and move to a system of Black majority rule. The balance of military and political factors makes for an intriguing and very different sort of game; you'll fight guerillas, fight elections, and even pass bills with the same level of tension! Advancing generous policy positions, to win over African public opinion, can endanger you with the European voters you depend on for power. At the same time, you have to persuade foreign states that your reforms are moving forward -- they have different visions for Rhodesia than you do, and they can bring you down with economic sanctions or military strikes. And looming over you are the unstable Portuguese, whose empire in Mozambique is vital to your strategic safety! Your aim is to build a government based on justice and equality, while holding off extremists on every side using all your military and political tools.

—description from the publisher

N: The Napoleonic Wars

2019-03-11T05:21:18-04:00

Vendor: White Dog Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 89.95

Designer	Ben Madison Stefan Nellen
Publisher	White Dog Games
Players	1
Playtime	60-240 mins
Suggested Age	12 and up
Additional Info	214758/n-napoleonic-wars http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/214758/n-napoleonic-wars/forums/63

A solitaire game of the Napoleonic Wars, based on the designer's Don't Tread on Me (White Dog Games). You play the monarchist Coalitions, led by Britain, and the game's A.I. plays Napoleonic France.

The game is grand-strategic; each turn covers an average of two years' real time. Your goal is to force Napoleon to abdicate, through a combination of military defeats in Europe (using your armies), and military/diplomatic defeats overseas (spending cash and diplomatic assets in a series of semi-random overseas campaigns including Ireland, Egypt, the Balkans, Senegal and the War of 1812). At the end of Turn 16 (1818-1821), if you have not defeated Napoleon, then Napoleon dies of natural causes and an exhausted Europe makes peace with his son, and you lose the game.

As a solitaire game, it is full of random events and unexpected challenges for the player, as you -- the British -- attempt to hold your unwieldy coalition together and prioritize your various budgets to win naval battles, overseas campaigns, and subsidize the various minor states of Europe whose armies are key to victory.