Hollandazed: Thoughts, Ideas, and Miscellany — German invasion of France

I used the France 1914 map and baseline infantry strengths for my following game, Blitzkrieg! The Attack on the West, 1940 - in Teutons!, given the new, simpler title Blitzkrieg: France 1940.  The difference in this 1940 game is the advent of massed armor groups and airpower, and the dramatically different pace of events demonstrates the difference in outcome of the German offensives in the respective world wars. The teaching/learning value of playing the two games in tandem - the simpler, introductory France 1914 first, of course - is considerable. German invasion of Poland In May of 1940, another European...

In part 1 of this series, designer Lou Coatney explained his thinking behind the name "Teutons!", and the historical background for the first of the three games in the box, "France 1870". This time, he takes us through the design of "France 1914". Next week we'll finish off the series with a look at "Blitzkrieg: France 1940". All three games are collected in a single box, "Teutons!: Assaults on the West, 1870-1940". The First World War was a frightening example of how easily such world holocausts can start: entangling alliances and each side thinking the other wouldn't be so stupid...

In the first of three blog posts about our new three-in-one release Teutons!: Assaults on the West, 1870-1940, designer Lou Coatney talks about the title, and the history behind the "France 1870" game, as well as offering some play advice for the same. Next time, we'll be diving into the 1914 game. Germanic Thing (governing assembly), drawn after the depiction in a relief of the Column of Marcus Aurelius, 193 CE. The title, Teutons!, has piqued interest. I chose it to evoke the ancestral - from Roman times on - image of hordes of blonde barbarians pouring en masse from their...

Teutons!: Assaults on the West, 1870-1940 collects three Lou Coatney designs (one each about the Franco-Prussian War and the two World Wars) in a single package. The major aim of the counter design was to clearly differentiate the counters for each game from each other, while maintaining a consistent style. Usually when you have multiple games in a set, or multiple battles each with its own set of counters, they're differentiated by some kind of small letter code or symbol printed on the counter. I'm not a big fan of that, actually, and wanted to find a more overt way...