Yaah! Magazine and Complete Wargame #15
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Here's what's jammed into the magazine's 90+ pages... First we have the clever¸ card-driven¸ hex and counter executed game. Titled¸ Caucasus Burning: The Nagorno-Karabahk War¸ 2020 ¸ the simulation is an operational design by Greg Porter covering the Nagorno-Karabahk War of 2020. You'll command formations of T-90 tanks¸ BMP-equipped mechanized infantry¸ drones¸ cruise missiles¸ and squadrons of attack aircraft as you simulate the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan¸ which took place in the fall of 2020. Units represent battalions grouped into brigades. Maneuver and attacks in the game are done via actions played from a deck of cards¸ and each pass through the deck represents 2 days and nights of fighting. A game of Caucasus Burning: The Nagorno-Karabahk War¸ 2020 will probably take a little less than 10 passes through the deck¸ so it will run a little faster than the actual war.
Of course Yaah! isn't only about its game¸ there are some darn good articles to boot. In the Fulda article¸ Norm Lunde takes an in-depth look at Compass's modern entry into the CSS series. Next is a comparative gem by John Burt¸ one of the best writers in the boardgame industry. John compares and contrasts Tiny Battle Publishing's Steamroller Tannenberg 1914 with some other company's game about the same war. I think it's titled At Any Cost or For a Few Pennies More¸ or something like that. What he doesn't mention is that I wanted to put a picture on the box that had German infantry in those sharp-looking helmets (Stahlhelm... or StylinHelm as we say in Franklin County) that they wore in late WWI¸ but Herm told me that they didn't issue them until 1916. Damn.
We also present two pieces by composer Nick O'Neil; one on Great War Commander (a game I personally love) and another covering By Stealth and Sea¸ designed by David Thompson. Regular Roger Leroux (don't pronounce the "x”)¸ spills some ink on the classic High Frontier for All¸ and Arrigo Velicogna follows that up with a pair of semi-modern war reviews: NATO Designer Signature Division and Dogs of War. Our final game-looky-loo is a nice piece by Eddie Carlson¸ on Tokyo Express. Finally¸ we have a beautiful picture piece on how Clay Meyer made his own copy of Herm Luttmann's Invaders from Dimension X. It has to be seen to be believed.
But¸ as John Madden would say¸ "wait a minute!” Gaming articles aren't everything that we have in Yaah! Magazine. We also have crammed 5 scenarios into this issue including¸ a '65 Squad Battles skirmish¸ two Old School Tactical fistfights¸ a Scream¸ Aim¸ Fire battle¸ and a solitaire scenario for Platoon Commander Deluxe. Good fun for you Flying Pig Game and Tiny Battle Publishing add-on scenario lovers.
So that's it; at 90+ pages the chunkiest magazine yet from Flying Pig Games¸ and the first to include a 54-card deck.