In this week’s Time Lapse Replay, we will look at Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear (Academy Games) by Uwe Eickert, specifically the second scenario. This is still one of the learning scenario which introduces most of the systems of the game and as such is simple to pickup and fairly fast to play. I was playing the Russians and Chris Donavan was playing the German and the game lasted about 1 hour, which each side controlling 4-5 units. This footage was taken at Stack Academy le Quatrieme, on May 3rd 2014.

I like wargames, but what I like more is a interesting system that is used to simulate/recreate something that’s I’ve seen a 1000 times. Most wargames, be they tactical or grand strategic, tend to fall back to the same tried and true systems, instead focusing more on the order of battles and strength ratios than on the systems that attempt to place you in the shoes of an officer having to deal with his forces.

This is what I like about Conflict of Heroes, in that while it does retain the classic formula of hexes and movement points, it still pushes the envelope with a rather unique activation system and even throws some cards in for some added chaos.  The activation system has a cinematic feel, with each player doing one action on their turn (shoot, move one hex, play a card). Each action cost a variable amount of points, depending on which unit is performing it and each unit only receives the points at the start of its activation. Switch to a different unit, and the former units loses all remaining points and is Spent for the rest of the turn, generally unable to do any actions. You can always use Command Action Points instead in order to break away from this limitation, but those are limited and won’t be replenished until the end of the turn.

The game unfolds like a chess match, each side careful in the way they move and how they spend their points and commit their units. Unlike a lot of wargames where all units are moved and then fired, this game has a very staccato feel to it, with units performing single actions at a time.

Lots of fun and easy to get into, I’ll do a more in depth review later on when I have more games under my belt.

Happy gaming!