Review – The Alamo Remembered from Victory Point Games

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alamo[1]By Mark Rivera from Boardgames in Blighty

Designed by George Barna

Art by Tim Allen and Mike Smith

For 1-2 players age – 10+

Hey dude, got a 1/2 hour to re-fight the battle of the Alamo? What? Yeah man, I got this new game about the Alamo and it plays really quick. Oh really?

Yep folks, another Alamo game is here, The Alamo Remembered  and the 2nd from Victory Point Games. The other is Blood Red Banner: The Alamo – ooohhh, I will have to play that one too and compare…

The Alamo Remembered is a redesign of The Alamo from Dana Lombardy’s Conflict magazine and comes in the usual nifty VPG plastic pouch with a 4-page, colour Game Rules booklet, an 8½” x 16½” game map and 54 double-sided 3/4” cardboard game chits. Yeah, yeah, VPG does things a bit old school in terms of components and yet again, I will remind you dear readers that the quality of the card components is very good for what it is. That’s the VPG model so get over it. If you limit yourself to playing games with flashy components with the cost to go with it, you may be missing out. VPG produces a bunch of very good, fun and pleasing to the eye games and this is no exception.

Gameplay

A very simple game, The Alamo Remembered gives you a quick playing, nicely themed experience that is definitely a challenge.

sl370005[1]The Texan player sets up his units in the Alamo and they start unknown to the Mexican player. The Mexican forces assault different parts of the of the walls while the Texans fire cannon ballshot, grapeshot and rifles in the hope that they can stop them in their tracks and prevent the walls being breached. The surviving Mexicans can try and take out the Texan defenders. The problem, is that the Texans have very limited numbers including dummy units which are used to fool the Mexicans into firing at the wrong targets. Eventually, these are whittled down. The Last Stand takes place if the walls are breached during turns 1-3 or after turn 3 if no breach has occurred. All the while, the Mexicans are recycled and keep coming, except for their larger units which once destroyed, are out of the assault. So it may seem like a no hoper for the Texan player. In fact, you know that the Texans have no chance.

In the Last Stand phase, Jim Bowie may crawl out of his sick bed and get into the fray, the Texans fall back for one last stand, Mexicans come through the walls and overwhelm what’s left of the the beleaguered garrison. Remember the Alamo!

Boring? No replay value?

Uh… Here’s the thing…

The Mexican player has only 3 turns to breach the walls. And its not easy. Using a diceless combat system that is all about having higher combat strength than the enemy at the right place, things can be pretty tough going for Santa Anna’s Army. The sooner the walls are breached the better for the Mexicans as they have stronger forces to overwhelm the defenders. The longer it takes, the greater chance the Mexicans will have a less emphatic victory. For the Texan player, you will be overwhelmed so its all about how humiliating a victory is achieved by Santa Anna. Victory Point Games are determined to produce games that will stress you out, in a good way…

Did it work for me?

sl370008[1]The Alamo Remembered is a nice little game. I get the VPG production model of less glamorous but nonetheless, good quality card components at a nice price. Yes, its not very detailed and is very light. Certainly less complex than their other games, but this game delivers as an easy to understand, fast playing game. The theme works well. It feels like an Alamo, no-hope experience against tremendous odds. The mechanics work very well and the situation is challenging for both sides. The artwork on the chits and map is nice and I guess the key for me is that as soon as I finished playing, I wanted another go, and again, and again and again… It really kept me coming back for more. It was great fun in a short space of time. A terrific introduction to war gaming. Easy to teach, tense, thematic and fun.

Boardgames in Blighty rating – 8 out of 10

Family friendly?

Its not a family game but a great entry into wargaming for an adult to teach to their child

For more information go to – http://victorypointgames.com/

 

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