Very very bloody game but I think its tipped vs. the Paraguayans but still the Paraguayans have a chance to win the game.

The most challenging side are obviously the Paraguayans.

The Paraguayans have two ways to win:

1. Go for the sudden death victory, the Paraguayans have the advantage of having all of their units in place at the start of the game vs. a light defending force of Brazilians and Argentines, unfortunately on turn 1, movement points are halved so there is no way you can achieve sudden death on turn 1. While the starting Brazilians and argentines will most likely be wiped out by a coordinated and well thought out Paraguayan invasion force, they will have to contend with the massive amount of reinforcements the Alliance(Brazil and Argentina) gets which the Alliance player gets to use for defending the sudden death victory hexes. On turn 2, the attrition roll will be the most important, as it will determine between victory and defeat of the sudden death tactic of the Paraguayans, if the Paraguayans get less attrited and the ALliance units get critically attrited then I think the Paraguayans will probably win, otherwise, say goodbye to the Paraguayan cause within the next few turns as the Alliance will probably build up their forces with massive reinforcements coming and a very fertile replacement mode will roll up a very depleted and overextended Paraguayan force.

2. Defensive Tactic: The Paraguayans can maybe think that denying territory will win the war. I think that while the game will probably be longer. I think this is quite tricky for both sides as Both sides will probably have to settle for a slow grinding campaign and again attrition will be critical though I suspect, the Alliance offensive will not start until turn 2 at the earliest(he gets more massive numbers of reinforcements). Expect both sides to lose massive amounts of units and the side which gets the less attrition will probably win.

The game is quite simple and easy and straighforward to play(3 complexity on the GMT scale). Playayble in an evening in my opinion. The game can be tense especially if the Paraguayan player chooses the defensive tactic.

In the end I quite enjoyed it. A very good game on a very obscure topic. the only niggle I had was that it does not really portray the political and social effects of the war but only the military side but I think this is what Javier Romero just had in mind. Now if a card driven game of the conflict can be made....(I hope I'm giving people ideas.).

The major thing that dismayed me about this game is the role attrition plays. I 100% understand it was a huge factor historically, but I felt I spent more time removing units do to the barbaric attrition rolls than I did to combat. Not sure there would be another way to model this war without doing such, but all things being relative, it's what kept me from liking this one.

"Against the Odds" Magazine is developing a game on virtually ALL the south-of-the-states wars through the struggle-for-independencia period. It should be interesting to see the political/social situations reflected in this broad-scope game.

Is the planned war a CCG?

edit: erm, no. Question I meant to ask: Is the planned game a CDG?

I'll leave the original there for amusement value.

Hi Phil

Fancy seeing you in this forum! Played TAW f2f on Saturday with Gideon & thought I'd share some comments.

A caveat, however. We only played once but did spend a lot of time discussing other Paraguayan options after the game(over copious amounts of single malt whisky). We may have missed fings...

On the positive side, the rules are clear and well organized; there's also a neat combat mechanic involving three combat phases. The counters are attractive and include unit's historical designations as well as seige arty, war rafts and even a congreve rocket unit! AI spent some time in Paraguay & was impressed by the game's attetnion to detail.

Unfortunately, during actual play it soon became apparent by Turn 2 that the key to winning/losing the war centres solely on the Allies reducing the fortresses & working their way up the main river - as indeed it was historically. There are some events, the Sudden Death Option & the Allies can strike Asuncion from the south east but we found that realistically it all comes down to the Allies competently managing the advance up river & grinding the Paraguayans down in repeated assaults whilst bringing up reinforcements. The rules make it clear the Paraguayans won't have many opportunities to go on the offensive & they're right!

The end result was a game with loads of attrition, limited play options, limited repeat value but very strong on historical flavour. Gideon aptly described TAW as a "good set of rules in search of a good war!"

Credit must go to Javier, the designer, though. He clearly put a lot of work into TAW & came out with an accurate simulation. However, I wonder if it might have worked better as a game on a smaller operational level? It would be interesting to hear from others who've played TAW more than us.

I'm very much looking forward to Javier's game on the Wars of Independence, which will be much richer in terms of player options and variety. And what a fantatic subject!

I think the game could be more even if it would consider the split in politics of Argentina and Uruguay, thinking the federals of Argentina and the "whites" of Uruguay could be allies of Paraguay. This war could be seen as the final chapter of the "Great War" of South America (1830-1852), when Paraguay finally decided to enter the war supporting the federal-white side when it was already defeated. The federal leader of federal province of Entre Rios Urquiza supposely was a natural allie of Paraguay but he prefered to keep peace in Argentina and betrayed Paraguay joining the war. It's probable Paraguay had more chance to win if they were entered in "Great War" earlier. I invite you to read on wikipedia about the "Guerra Grande", a very long conflict with several sides in fight and a lot of stages where victory changed of hands several times.

The final stages of "Great War"

The federal-white side seems close to victory, the uruguayan "reds" are sieged in the capital of Montevideo. In that moment Brazil enters in the war supporting the unitarian-red side, and Entre Rios federal leader Urquiza betrays federal leader Rosas, so the war gets even again. Urquiza and the Brazilian forces defeats Rosas in Battle of Caseros. Urquiza becames in president of the Argentine Confederation.

After the defeat of Rosas the unitarians of Buenos Aires, that seek for primacy of this city over the provinces gain power under the leadership of Mitre, take control of province of Buenos Aires and split from Argentine Confederation.

Derqui (the new Argentine Conf. president) sends military leader Urquiza to regain Buenos Aires province, and armies clash in the battle of Pavón. In this battle Urquiza seems to not to have too much willing to win and retires with his army, making Mitre the owner of the battlefield. After that Buenos Aires rejoins Argentine Conf. becoming its capital again. Urquiza keeps his power as Governor of the province of Entre Rios.

Unitarians have now the control and support the rebellion of "reds" of Uruguay against the "White" government. Brazil invades Uruguay supporting the "red" rebellion. Paraguay protests and gives an ultimatum to Brazil, and after that declares war, seizing the ship "Marqués de Olinda" in waters of Paraguay River.

In its war with Brazil, Paraguay needs to cross Argentinian territory to go to defend Uruguay. Solano Lopez thinks he has the support of Urquiza to cross Argentinian territory, but as he does it is the pretext for Mitre to declare war on Paraguay. Urquiza, a natural allie of Paraguay supports Mitre and seals the fate of Paraguay. The "reds" of Uruguay, now in power, also join the Triple Alliance.