I’m very proud of the fact you’ve taken this classic game off the shelf of shame! Big congrats! Great achievement! I’ve played this multiple times w/ Stuka Joe’s CDG solo mechanics. Concur, experientially it felt like the expanding WW1 slog. You have to be mindful of the decisions you make and if you can support the long term campaigns initiatives. It’s only complex in the terms of exceptions to rules when aligning to original WW1 timeline. Totally it’s a testament to Ted Racier’s design and it’s longevity. A great game to play.
You guys should give Pursuit of Glory a shot as well. It adds some chrome, but is equally fantastic, and very interesting with the focus on the Mid East.
You might want to take a break from CDG wargames but _For the People_ is a kick ass american civil war game that doesn't have enough content on youtube about it. Might want to take a look at it. I know I'd love to see your take on it.
Thanks for getting it to the table. I've been curious about your thoughts on this one for a while. I love this game! This and Empire of the Sun I plan to get to the table once a year.
Got this game on pre-order! Ted Racier = No brainer! You guys just ramped up my excitement! Looking forward to the Solo card play release from GMT by Stuka Joe, that has rules for this game to allow solo play. Great vid guys as always!
It's definitely complex for a new wargamer. I remember playing this with a friend about 10 years ago and Tide of Iron was our most complex game at the time. We played it for 2 hours and got 1 full turn done. After that turn we just started laughing at how confused we were. Put it away for ages but have gone back to it since and loved it. Still scared of jumping into Empire of the Sun though.
EOTS is daunting, but if you can get through PoG, it's doable. Mark Herman writes very clear rules, so there shouldn't be any issues in the game unsolvable from the rule book.
Great to see this game played! For the Entente, Italy is fantastic when it comes into play! You will feel like you are to pierce the A-H and breach the central powers!! And then…. Italy becomes the catch 22, paper soldiers with fake guns unable to to anything… any if you dont hold against A-H, the hope that Italy was becomes a nightmare! Fantastic game, looking forward to seeing the full review. PS: yes, the Germans 16 attacks are punchy…
I should have picked this up years ago. Ted S. Racier is an amazing designer. I want to say underrated but probably not. I think it is more that I am growing more as a war gamer, which is opening my eyes more and more to these incredible designers. Watching TPA, some other great you tubers as well, hasn’t hurt that growth either.
Hey Guys: 1. Surprised you did not talk about supply in this game which is key. You really need to be careful with your supply lines since if you're cut off, your units die permanently (can't be replaced) 2. I see you have a copy of the Player's Guide which I guess is back in print? It wasn't for a long, long time. 3. Are you guys using the WBC Historical Option (i.e. mandatory Guns of August opening) If you play the WBC Historical Option, a lot of the weirdness in the Eastern Front (Dance of Death) goes away. 4. I played this several times but the longest game I played went to 1916 at the WBC where we met. It's really a slog and mentally exhausting. I went at it for about 4 or 5 hours and was absolutely mentally and physically spent. Played the CP and lost. 5. There are of course the follow ons to PATHS which is PURSUIT OF GLORY (currently out of print but on p500 reprint) which deals exclusively with the Middle Eastern front and ILLUSIONS OF GLORY (get the latest rules and card errata) which is just the Eastern Front. 6. Consider playing in the PBEM tournament for PoG sponsored by WBC. You just have to pay 10 bux for an associate membership to be able to play. 7. Finally, speaking of CDGs, you guys ever play or plan to play Mark Herman's FOR THE PEOPLE? Another really good game.
I own the 2001 print of the game plus the players guide and I recently acquired a 2018 print deluxe edition. It seems to me some changes in the initial setup of the starting forces made the players guide more or less irrelevant. Most of the gamey options in there were based on „flaws“ in the older edition. Even the additional cards are already part of the newer version.
@@MrThoVogt Yes, the changes in the initial setup made some parts of the discussion of the opening (the Eastern part) irrelevant but a lot of the rest talks about how to play the Limited War and Total War cards as well as a discussion on Supply...things that didn't change with the new edition
I also had this now in my shelf for a couple of years and just last week opened Pandoras box. And this is a gem. I don't need anything else covering ww1. Yeah, maybe Attrition of souls , just because it seems to be very light and fast, just for fun, but still very good. But out of print ? Looking forward to hearing that playthrough/impression from you two as well (you are the best). Anyway, love Paths Of Glory, I find it fascinating and amazing 👌
This was my first wargame (Gmt’s Saratoga was my 2nd one), I preordered the very first edition after I stumbled on an article about it, and i did not the rules that complex, though playing is a brainburner. Except that i always forget the fiddly middle east rules. There is one element that you could have given some attention in the video, you will probably do that after playing a longer game: the unforgiving supply rules. Esp. In the more mobile east front this can cause easily disaster.
I don't play a huge ton of games, and certainly hadn't played much that was heavy when I picked up Paths of Glory, but, yeah, agree that it really wasn't that difficult to learn. Long, certainly, but not that difficult at all to learn the rules.
So I’m a big Lamps fan and the two are compared a lot curious to hear a stack up between the two. Obviously different style games but as WW1 games curious on following: if you could only own one of the two which would you grab, 2. Is there space on the shelf for both (do they scratch different itches)
Tough to say at this stage with our one short play of PoG. Paths of Glory is more my style, but Lamps is less complex so I would get to play it with more (little less hardcore) people. But if it's just Grant and myself, then probably PoG.There is room for both if you have a big shelf, and Lamps is easier/simpler to solo if you're into that.
How do you think it would be if played solo? I'm looking for a WW1 Grand Strategy game. I've played DG's 'World War 1 Deluxe' and really enjoyed it, but I'm now looking for something that is more sophisticated. Any suggestions would very much appreciated.
@@chrissteadman4614 @Chris Ridley You can also just try to play both sides best you can too... read the cards and play the best card - even though you know everything on either side.. When you're learning, you can only concentrate on one side at a time anyway :-D Stuka Joe's system is good too though !
I see you've got the PoG Players Guide there too, that's pretty rare and hard to find nowadays (not sure how much if any of that is integrated into the later editions? IIRC it had some extra cards and counters?)
I got it with my older copy in a trade. I think the cards and counters are included in the newest deluxe version. I'm not 100% positive about the scenarios and other bits and pieces. But there's still a ton of history and strategy stuff that's not included.
Great initial impressions. I hope to see more Paths of Glory videos. Just wanted to clarify something you said about flank attacks at about the 16 minute mark. You said that you can sacrifice Combat Factors to get +1 on flank attack attempt. This is not correct. No CFs of any units are sacrificed in a flank attack. All units in the attack still get to use their current CP in the attack. Though your "current" CF may be different depending on if the flank attempt fails or not. See Ben Harsh's flank attack explanation in ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DFtvUIzo9EM.html at about the 15:30 mark.
The full campaign game of all the years is probably 3-4 times as long as TS, especially when new. Complexity is a step up, in the sense that there's more things to consider (supply, reinforcement points, army composition, defenses). There's a lot of teaching videos out there too, to help.
@@ThePlayersAid Ah ok. What about taht other game you mentioned - Fields of despair? If you could one or both of these on camera that would be helpful!
@@misomiso8228 we actually did a video review of Fields of Despair, it's an older video but it still checks out. It's a block wargame with a very different set of mechanics, but is also very fun.
@@ThePlayersAid no I don't mean naval specific games, I mean does Paths of Glory have a naval component part, or balance of power or any of the WW1 grand strategy games
@@williamcunningham4946 lamps are going out has a small naval blockade/Jutland element, and has some holding boxes for sub warfare. But mostly haven't come across much, and if they do include it's typically pretty abstract.
Hey Grant I have been playing airborne commander after seeing Ur video,,,,,, I loose every time. ,,,,So Shuffle all airborne cards shuffle and deal Jerry s 4 battlefeild , then deal one allied card to your hand then drop zone till you hand got 5, and 4 in drop zone total nine cards !!!! Now if u can't engage enemy card and there's no disorder cards. Unengaged Card infulltrates Ur drop zone , u get rid of it by accepting a disorder card that gets dealt to d zone or that's unused ,all disorder drop zone cards set aside after round unless dropzone infultrated, still u have to accept the flak card cannot b rejected like this , I think u find this method tells a bigger story in the spirit of game , Grant any other ideas,,,,ta ,,, when are u and Alex going to put up a Up Front game together, would love to see the game played by scenario lovers , cheers ✍️🪶🕊️
