Hollandazed: Thoughts, Ideas, and Miscellany

Excerpted from the rulebook. The first game I designed that ever made it to publication was Blood on the Alma (2012). It was a small, simple hex-and-counter game, with less than fifty units fighting over only a few hundred hexes. It was in some ways a flashy design, with a number of chrome rules and novelties that called attention to themselves. I had high hopes for it, as did the game's original publisher, Lock N Load, who asked me to design a sequel almost immediately upon accepting Alma. By the time Alma came out, I was ready with Blood in...

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...

"Schlacht am Weißen Berg", 1620, Pieters Snayers. Imperial-Spanish forces under Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly won a decisive victory at White Mountain in November 1620. When Mary and I first started serious discussions about Hollandspiele a little over a year ago, one of the many little ideas we kicked around was doing a little freebie game that we'd give away as part of our December Holiday Sale. People like getting free stuff, after all, and we thought it might serve as some slight additional incentive for people to purchase multiple games as part of the sale. Once we launched the...