New English Rule Book for Star Trek: The Invasion of Klingon Empire

 Get the Rule Book on BoardGameGeek.com

Star Trek: The Invasion of Klingon Empire (Tsukuda Hobby, 1982)

Scott Muldoon and I have completed our English translation of the rules for Star Trek: The Invasion of Klingon Empire (スタートレック：クリンゴン帝国の侵略) and posted the new rule book on BoardGameGeek.com. The document also includes a translation of a later article about the game with variant rules for the Romulan Star Empire*.

Get it here (may require site registration): https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/291961/star-trek-the-invasion-of-klingon-empire-english-r

What is The Invasion of Klingon Empire?

"The Invasion of [the] Klingon Empire" appears to be taken from the Japanese title of the TOS episode "Errand of Mercy" (S1 E27). In that episode, the Enterprise defends the planet Organia from an invasion by Klingons, but the Organians don't need or want the Federation's help. By the end of the episode, the Federation and Klingon Empire are held to a peace treaty, brokered and enforced by the super-powerful Organians.

The Organian Peace Treaty is paramount to the game's backstory. The Klingon Empire breaks the treaty by invading Federation space, somehow evading the Organians' enforced peace (this is never explained in the game, but the Klingons disable the Organians by surrounding Organia with an energy shield**). The Romulan Star Empire takes the opportunity to also invade the Federation, breaking their treaty as well. The game is a galaxy-spanning war with a grand strategic scale. 

This is the first strategic-scale simulation game that incorporates production designed and published in Japan*.

Photo by Sigplayer (source)

The Federation and Klingon players strike out from their home regions, racing across the galaxy to capture and hold various star systems. Each faction constructs starbases, base stations, and factories at these systems to build and maintain its fleet of starships in an all-out war with the other faction. The Federation has lost survey data for many of the deep-space locations far from Earth and must map out known space with three explorer vessels: USS Lexington, USS Constitution, and USS Enterprise.

Additionally, Enterprise is also tasked with carrying out assorted missions throughout the game. The ship may have to pick up diplomats for a important meeting at Babel, deliver medicine to a plague-ravaged colony, or even visit Vulcan to deal with a Vulcan crew member's reproductive cycle. There are several scenarios included with the game and the Federation player must complete Enterprise missions as part of their victory conditions.

Battle board, Photo by Hayaru (source)

When friendly and enemy units move into the same hex at the same time, a battle occurs. The battling units all move to a separate battle board where they are lined up in different battle lanes, either in forward or rearward position. There is also a secondary line where defense satellites and starbases are played into battle. The battle board allows for tactical maneuvers, jockeying into a preferred weapon range, breaking through enemy defenses to attack the secondary line, or withdrawing from combat altogether.

Photo by Hayaru (source)

There are a lot of units in the game, which can become unwieldy as there is no stacking limit for a single hex (each hex is 10 parsecs, 32.6 light years, across - plenty of room!). The designers admit that this proliferation of counters actually impairs the game's playability*****. Ships in the game can move for nigh unlimited distances along green "warp routes" printed on the map, as long as the warp route has been secured by friendly forces. This keeps the vast distances in the game manageable in this war of attrition. Replacement forces can move to the front lines within one movement phase.

The game certainly has a grand strategic scale and I find the battle rules to be simple and clever. They are a far cry from the intensely detailed tactical combat of Star Fleet Battles, but they don't need to be. Calculating maintenance and production values of all the factories and space stations in your fleet can be daunting, but the game's log sheet does alleviate some of that pain. It is a typical simulation game of the era where a several-hour play time is expected. The counters are cleanly detailed, but many ship models appear to be repeated, so they are hard to differentiate at a glance. If there were any changes I'd make, it would start by simplifying the maintenance/production rules and redesign all of the counters to read better at a distance.

Who still plays this game?

I have found a few recent blog posts from gamers who played this game in recent years. I do not own an original copy of the game (this was a joint effort to translate) and have cited photos from these blogs for illustrative purposes only.

Sigplayer (a.k.a. Michael): https://slgplayer.exblog.jp/27265273/

Hayaru: https://hayaru01.hatenablog.com/entry/2021/04/03/214636

Who made this game?

Game design credit goes to Toru Nakajima (中島徹) and Tadatoshi Ishii (石井忠俊) of the Keio HQ Simulation Game Club of Keio University in Tokyo. They completed the game's design in October 1982*** and Tsukuda published it soon thereafter. The designers wanted to make sure that the game didn't look or play like a similar game in the USA***** (probably Star Fleet Battles). I don't know if these two designed any other published games.

When the simulation game boom started in Japan in the early 1980s, the most experienced wargame designers were amateur fans printing small runs of games in loose small press groups called dōjin circles. Several dōjin circles were formed in university game clubs, like Keio's HQ Club. 

Tsukuda (as Tsukuda Hobby) launched their line of bookcase style "hobby games" in 1982 and turned to these amateurs for creative work. THQ was the first group to work with Tsukuda, followed by Keio HQ in fall 1982****, mere months before this game was published. The dōjin circles acted as design studios for Tsukuda in what seems like a similar relationship between game studio and publisher in the modern video games industry.

A recent sign inviting new Keio University students to join the HQ Simulation Club (source)

The Keio HQ Simulation Game Club still exists today as the Head Quarter Simulation Club at Keio University in Tokyo. The club still designs games, often crediting the entire club rather than individual designers for the work. You can follow the club's activities on Twitter.

Yoshifumi "Lone Star" Sakatani of Star Fleet: Base Tokyo also served as advisor on the game. Instead of a game club, Base Tokyo was probably a chapter of the STARFLEET association of Star Trek fan clubs that was founded in 1974.

Tsukuda's other Star Trek Board Game

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Tsukuda Hobby, 1983)

Tsukuda Hobby developed another Star Trek simulation game at the same time: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Tsukuda Hobby, 1983) based on the 1982 movie of the same name (actually, the gameplay seems to be completely unrelated to the film). The designers of Invasion of Klingon Empire wanted to make it clear that they were not involved in the creation of the Star Trek II game***** (Star Trek II was designed by Kazutoyo Ishii (石井一豊)******, who could be a relative of Tadatoshi Ishii).

Unlike Invasion of Klingon Empire, this game simulates journeying through deep space to explore the unknown and engaging in tactical scale battles with one or a few ships on either side.

Tsukuda's Star Trek RPG: Enterprise

Enterprise (Tsukuda Hobby, 1983)

Tsukuda Hobby's main interest in the Keio HQ Simulation Club is to enlist the club's talents to create role-playing games****. Keio HQ member Yutaka Tama (多摩 豊) wrote the pioneering Enterprise: Role Play Game in Star Trek, published in a big box with a rule book, scenario book, dice, and full-color character cards. As far as I can tell, this was the first standalone role-playing game designed and published in Japan for a domestic audience*******. "Lone Star" Sakatani served as advisor on this game as well.

Fellow Japanese game translator Robert Saint John translated the Enterprise rules, available here: http://www.robertsaintjohn.com/groknard/JRPGEN_Enterprise.pdf

Enterprise did not have further material support after the first boxed set, but the core game system was re-used for Crusher Joe: Role Play Game in Crusher Joe (Tsukuda Hobby, 1984). 

Tama mentioned The Invasion of Klingon Empire as "Mr. Nakajima's Star Trek" in his "Designer's Notes" section of the Enterprise rule book. He laments that the game loses the charm of Star Trek as, being a strategy game, the focus is on the ships and the galaxy instead of the characters.You can read Robert Saint John's translation of the Tama's Designer's Notes here: https://groknard.blogspot.com/2009/02/enterprise-rpg-tama-yutakas-designers.html

Tsukuda's oversized miniatures

Star Trek Miniature Series 1: Dreadnought and Heavy Cruiser (Tsukuda Hobby, 1984)

Tsukuda was also a manufacturer of plastic model kits and they sold several sets of plastic gaming miniatures based on TOS ships, like the one seen above. Each model came with a clear plastic stand that would fit easily on a large game board. These may have been the same models that Lou Zocchi sourced and sold through GameScience, but I haven't confirmed that.

The miniatures are ostensibly made for The Invasion of Klingon Empire, but they are far too big to fit on the game's tiny hexes or to be used at a strategic scale. The miniatures wouldn't work with Star Trek II as they are from the wrong time period and Enterprise doesn't have any rules for starships. This is puzzling as Tsukuda produced smaller miniatures to work on their other board games, such as tiny plastic tank figures for use with Tiger I (Tsukuda Hobby, 1982). So, they produced these miniatures that do not work with any of Tsukuda Hobby's Star Trek games.

End notes:

* Published in Yoshifumi "Lone Star" Sakatani's article "Star Trek Designer's Comments," Tactics, No. 7, January 1983.

** As seen in the 1970 novel by James Blish, Spock Must Die!, Bantam Books.

*** As seen in the "Designers' Notes" chapter by Nakajima and Ishii in the Star Trek: The Invasion of Klingon Empire instruction manual.
**** As seen in "Interview: Tsukuda Hobby's Masaaki Suzuki," Simulator, No. 3, March 1983, 15-16.

***** As seen in "Cross Review," Simulator, No. 3, March 1983, 8.

****** I can't find designer credits in the Star Trek II game itself, but credits are in the article "Game Guide New Releases News," Tactics, No. 11, September-October 1983, 65.

******* One earlier Japanese RPG was published as a magazine article "Donkey Commando," Tactics, No. 3, May-June 1982, 28-38.

New English Rule Book for Urusei Yatsura: Tomobiki-cho Kaigui Wars

Get the Rule Book on BoardGameGeek.com

The cover art has nothing to do with the game and would be better-suited as a city pop album cover

I've completed my English translation of the rules for Urusei Yatsura: Tomobiki-cho Kaigui Wars (Tsukuda Hobby, 1985) (うる星やつら 友引町買い食いウォーズ) and posted the rule book on BoardGameGeek.com.

Get it here (may require site registration): https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/265130/urusei-yatsura-tomobiki-cho-kaigui-wars-english-ru

What is Urusei Yatsura?

This game is based on the Japanese Urusei Yatsura (often translated as "Those Obnoxious Aliens") sci-fi high school slapstick romantic comedy manga series created by Rumiko Takahashi in 1978. It was also made into a successful anime TV series in 1981, with motion pictures, OVAs, and video games that followed. The TV series was recently rebooted in 2022.

Urusei Yatsura anime character line-up

The protagonist of the story (he's no "hero") is Ataru Moroboshi, a lazy, lecherous, unlucky teenage boy who finds himself at the center of many unusual events that happen in his hometown of Tomobiki (mythical creatures, evil spirits, a terrifying potato curse, etc.).

At the start of the series, Oni aliens threaten to invade the planet unless their champion, the beautiful superpowered alien Lum Invader, is defeated in a game of tag by one randomly-chosen Earth champion: Ataru. Ataru wins (by cheating), Earth is saved (for now), and Lum ends up falling in love with Ataru and enrolling in his same high school. Ataru and his friends, family, and teachers make up the main cast of characters.

What are the Kaigui Wars?

Kaigui Wars translated as "The Great Off-Campus Snack Battle" by Viz Comics

The Kaigui Wars refers to a week in which the Tomibiki High School faculty and staff work to "crack down" on the school rule that states students are not allowed to eat lunch off-campus. "Kaigui" translates to "buying and eating" and usually refers to when small children are allowed to buy snacks or treats with their own money. The students refuse to eat their packed lunches and revolt by sneaking through town to eat at various restaurants and food stalls. The school staff are in hiding throughout the town, waiting to catch a student in the act of eating forbidden food while in school uniform.

The school principal directs his units in the field by radio, tracking student and faculty movement in the town on a strategic map that looks a lot like this game's map board

The cat-and-mouse spy game of sneaking past disguised teachers eventually devolves into an all-out war as the lunch break come to an end. The students unite and strike back against their oppressors. The school staff mobilize by car and motorcycle to pursue delinquents. Fighting breaks out in the streets and everyone misses their afternoon classes.

This story happens to be one of my favorite UY stories. It is told in manga form in 買い食い大戦争 ("The Great Kaigui War" or "The Great Off-Campus Snack Battle," Viz Comics, vol. 6, ch. 4) and TV anime form in 買い食いするものよっといで！ ("Let's Go Buy and Eat!" or "Lunch is a Battlefield!," 1982, season 1, ep. 46). It was brought back again in the new TV series as 買い食い大戦争 ("The Great Kaigui War," 2022, ep. 13).

What is this game?

The game is a detailed "simulation game" (like a hex-and-counter wargame) that reproduces the chaotic, ridiculous events of the first afternoon of the Kaigui Wars. Players break up into a Student team and a Teacher team (including school faculty, staff, and the students in the "Student Behavior Task Force" who are helping to enforce the rules). Each Student team player controls 3 characters and each Teacher team character controls 4 characters. The game is ideally played by 4 players, 2 on each team.

Game board map of the town of Tomobiki. The large orange square is the school grounds of Tomobiki High School.

The Student team earns victory points by buying and eating food from food vendor spaces (red squares). The Teacher team pursues and captures students (by intimidating them into compliance or by force), escorting them back to school grounds. The students can't buy food in the presence of a teacher and teachers may start the game disguised, hiding at food vendors anywhere on the map.

Sample character card A: Ataru Moroboshi

Each character has detailed characteristics of Stamina (ST), Reflexes (REF), Fighting Strength, Money, and Friendship Levels. This information is tracked on a detailed log sheets that must be used for each character in the game.

Stamina (ST) is vital to this game and characters must spend Stamina to walk, run, drive, ride a bicycle or motorcycle, fight, capture, or escape. Stamina can also be lost in a fight, due to random events, or if one's alien girlfriend jealously zaps one with electricity after being caught ogling another girl. The Student team replenishes their Stamina by eating. The Teacher team automatically recovers Stamina each round. At zero Stamina, a character faints and can do nothing until they recover after spending three rounds unconscious. A fainted student can automatically be captured.

Reflexes (REF) is used when dodging out of the way of hazards, capturing or avoiding being captured, or when trying to escape after having been captured. The acting character subtracts the REF value of the challenge (hazard, other character, school walls they are climbing over) from their own REF, then rolls one die on a chart and cross-references their die roll with the REF difference to determine success.

A fight may break out while a teacher is trying to capture a student or if a student decides to pick a fight with a teacher. The two characters compare their Fighting Strength values and roll one die on the Fighting Table to determine the outcome. Either the Attacker or Defender may lose Stamina points or the Defender may faint outright. Each character in a fight has the option to draw a random Fighting Card for a chance at a ±1-3 bonus or penalty to their Fighting Strength by focusing their willpower or grabbing a nearby hammer or frying pan.

Money is spent to buy food or pay to ride a bus. Ataru starts with 60 money, just enough for a tempura donburi.

Friendship Levels are rated from 1 to 10 and show a character's feelings toward other characters. Friendship Levels are used when students ask favors of each other to borrow money or food or convince members of the Student Behavior Task Force to release captured students. Friendship Level is also used when a teacher is trying to coerce/intimidate a student into complying and returning to school. Ataru's Friendship Level with D: Lum is 10, he is devoted to her (though he would never admit it). His Friendship Level with his homeroom teacher H: Onsen-Mark and rival B: Mendō is 1, he thoroughly dislikes them. Note that he would also do anything for a pretty girl, as shown by an inflated Friendship Level of 9 with C: Sakura (the school nurse), E: Ran (Lum's childhood friend), F: Shinobu (ex-girlfriend), and N: Ryūnosuke (schoolgirl fighting to express her feminine identity after she was raised as a boy by her father). Those characters do not feel the same way about Ataru.

Sample event card Umeboshi (Dried Plum) IM

Event cards really bring the sense of chaos and random, unpredictable events from UY into the game. Each round, players secretly draw one event card for each character. Normal event cards may be equipment teachers can use when capturing (like a net or a lasso), a large temple bell that may fall on Mendō and incapacitate him, a pretty girl who passes by and distracts any male students, or may do nothing at all. These cards may be held by the character and used later as needed. When an Immediate Effect (IM) card is drawn, it is shown to all players and takes effect immediately. The above example is Umeboshi (Dried Plum), which affects Lum's alien physiology by making her drunk when she eats them. She is incapacitated for 2 rounds and any other character who happens to be in the same area as her during that time runs the risk of being zapped with her electric shock power and losing a devastating 8 points of Stamina.

Order of Operations

Each of the game's 30 game rounds is divided into a daunting and complex 14 different phases:

①  Stamina Recovery Phase

②  Bus Movement Phase

③  Teacher Movement Phase

④  Teacher Event Phase

⑤  Spotting Phase

⑥  Intimidation Phase

⑦  Capture Phase

⑧  Teacher Fighting Phase

⑨  Student Movement Phase

⑩  Student Event Phase

⑪  Escape Phase

⑫  Friendship Phase

⑬  Student Fighting Phase

⑭  Buying and Eating Phase

Note that this is supposed to be a fun and silly game about teachers chasing students around town as they try to eat snacks. This is far more detailed than other simulation games by Tsukuda Hobby that I've translated, including their Star Wars: Death Star, Hoth, and Endor games (6-8 phases each), Mobile Suit Gundam: Jabro (5 phases and based heavily on Squad Leader), and the Macross games City Fight (3 phases) and Dogfight (6 phases).

The game starts to bog down in the tedium of details. First, every Teacher team character must roll to determine how many Stamina points they recover. Then, each  bus vehicle must move along on of three different bus routes. The Teacher team moves their units and draws one event card for each character. Then, teachers must spot students in the same area before they can attempt to intimidate them into following the rules. If that doesn't work, they can physically try to capture the students, which may cause a fight to break out. Then, the Student team moves, draws event cards, tries to escape, asks favors from friends, and may opt to attack any Teacher team characters. Finally, the Student team may go shopping at food vendors, choosing options from a detailed menu for each different food vendor.

Results

The game does a very good job of simulating the Kaigui Wars events, as seen in both the manga and TV series. Unfortunately, the game drags on with bookkeeping, card drawing, vehicles, capturing and escaping, and stacking game effects. The randomness and overabundance of options make it difficult to determine a winning strategy. The map board is large and most characters typically move 2 areas per round, so it takes multiple rounds to move from one important location to another.

I like the events in general but many of the effects are too limited. For example, when the deranged monk Cherry shows up (a fairly important character in the TV series), everyone in the same area loses 8 points of Stamina. That's it. However, in the TV anime, Ataru was able to bribe him with food and he helped the kids escape from Sakura (the school nurse and Cherry's niece). That interaction is much more interesting than, "everybody in the same area gets hosed."

There are too many dull events that simply cause damage, incapacitate characters, or can only be used to counter other event cards. There are no events that cause a character to increase character movement, affect Friendship Levels directly, gain money, or as a bonus/penalty to Fighting Strength. This part of the game is ripe for expansion without adding further complexity.

The Japanese blog Their Finest Hour has a good review of the game that I agree with. One big problem is if there are too few characters in the game, then characters rarely interact with one another. If there are too many characters in the game, the game bogs down in detail and takes too long to play.

Final Thoughts

This is a game I've wanted to translate for a while and I'm glad I've had the opportunity to do so. Unfortunately, it is every bit as overdesigned as I hoped it wouldn't be. Tsukuda Hobby's own system ranks it complexity level III (3) on Tsukuda's 1-6 scale, comparable to some of their simulation games based on military anime. This game would've played a lot better with a lower complexity level (and I'd argue that it is closer to games with complexity level IV (4)).

The game rules include a "beginner" scenario designed to be played by 2 players. This removes many extraneous details (including the bus movement, spotting, intimidation, friendship, and student fighting phases). Instead of choosing food items from an extensive menu, Student team characters automatically restore all Stamina points and earn 3 VP for visiting a food vendor. This is a good step toward making this a playable game without losing too much of the game's flavor.

Ideally, I'd like to see this game redesigned from a modern point of view. Characters should move more than 2 spaces at a time. A fight should involve both players rolling lots of dice against each other, not looking up the outcome on a bland CRT. The nameless teachers should be replaced with recognizable characters. Vehicles should not be required to follow detailed traffic rules (that section of the rule book is like reading a DMV handbook). The game should play like a frantic and humorous episode of UY, not a detailed war simulation.

New English Rule Book for Indiana Jones and the Hidden Treasure of Pyramid

Get the Rule Book on BoardGameGeek.com

Indiana Jones and the Hidden Treasure of Pyramid contents and my rules translation

I've completed my English translation of the rules for Indiana Jones and the Hidden Treasure of Pyramid (Central Hobby, 1989) (インディ ジョーンズ ピラミッドの秘宝) and posted the rule book on BoardGameGeek.com.

Get it here (may require site registration): https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/261565/indiana-jones-and-hidden-treasure-pyramid-english

There was no record of this game on BoardGameGeek, so I also populated a new entry for it: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/393878/indiana-jones-and-hidden-treasure-pyramid

Team Up

The game is played by 2-4 players playing against each other, or 4-8 players playing in 2-person teams. Each team member takes a different role, either Indy or his female companion Heroine. Cards are dealt to the players (Power cards to track Indy's power level (health) to Indy players, Heroine cards to Heroine players) and the Indy and Heroine players of matching colors team up together.

The Heroines all look alike, but they are mechanically different. The top two affect movement and the bottom two affect combat.

Two of the Heroine characters (as noted on the Heroine cards) give a big +2 bonus to either movement or combat. That's great! The problem is that the other two Heroine cards give a big -2 penalty to either movement or combat, with nothing to counteract that penalty. That's not great! When playing an 8-player game, two of the players become pariahs that nobody wants to team up with. That is not fun. The only explanation I can think of is that some are adept, active partners (like Marion Ravenwood) and some are enemy agents trying to undermine Indy (like Elsa Schneider). Still, it is a poor design choice.

It gets weirder on the second floor of the pyramid, where "Heroine Contests" are permitted. When one player pawn lands on another, the moving player may choose to fight in order to force the other team to swap Heroines. If they win, the Heroine cards and players are traded between the two teams. The game story makes it clear that Indy and the Heroine are lovers, so this trading just seems wrong (Indy, you cad!).

How to Play

The team members take turns moving their team player pawn on the map board (first, the Indy players take their turns, then the Heroine players). A player selects and plays an Explore card from their team's hand of 2 cards to move. Their pawn may be moved in the directions shown on that card, a number of spaces (corridors and rooms) up to the Indy player's current power level.

Players use cards to track Indy's current power level

If the player pawn enters a room space, movement for the turn ends and the player follows the instructions for the type of room entered. Stairs lead up to the next level in the pyramid. Medicine rooms (which only the Heroine may enter) can heal Indy's power level or allow the player to harm another team's Indy. When entering an unlocked room, a card is drawn to determine the trap or monster (bat, mummy, snake, or spider) that is encountered. Monsters are fought by rolling one six-sided die and adding the result to Indy's power level (Indy always fights, even on the Heroine's turn) and adding any bonus or penalty. If the total exceeds the monster's power, the enemy is defeated and the player team gets to keep the equipment (medicine or a key) listed on the monster's card. If the total is equal to or less than the monster's power, Indy loses one power level in damage and the monster is discarded. Keys are used to enter locked rooms, where tougher monsters and stronger equipment (whip and gun to give bonuses in combat, mine cart to give bonus movement) await.

The end goal is the locked treasure room on the third level of the pyramid. A player team must be the first to defeat a power level 11 monster and seize the magic jewel in order to escape the pyramid as victors.

A Card Game? An RPG? A Board Game?

Indiana Jones and the Hidden Treasure of Pyramid bills itself as an "R.P.G. card game" (RPG カードゲーム), but this is a misnomer.

When a player enters an unlocked or locked room on the map board, the player to the right draws a card (from either the Unlocked Room or Locked Room deck) and describes the encounter to the active player (instead of saying "It is a bat with power level 6," say, "A creature pounces on you with a high-pitched cry!"). From this description, the active player decides whether they want to use a weapon or not, then rolls one die for combat, and presumably describes the actions taken. This is where the role playing comes in, but as a board game, it is unnecessary. Each player has a role to play (Indy or Heroine), but there is little of the standard traits we might identify from a role-playing game. RPGs were very popular in Japan in the mid to late 1980s, and this was likely a marketing move to capitalize on their popularity (much like how the board game Cloak & Dagger (Ideal, 1984) is touted as a "role-playing game" during the USA RPG boom of the early 1980s).

Three decks of Explore, Unlocked Room, and Locked Room cards. Which deck is which?

It does use cards, but that doesn't necessarily make it a card game, either. There are three different types of cards drawn from different decks during the game: Explore, Unlocked Room, and Locked Room cards. Additionally, there are Heroine cards and different Indy Power cards that the players hold onto throughout the game. The problem is, all of the cards in the game have the same card backs! It is easy enough to organize the cards into different decks by looking at their card fronts, but it is easy to confuse them when they are flipped over.

Upgrading the Game Components

Original IJ: Treasure of Pyramid game pawns on the left, my Game of Life: IJ pawns on the right

Each player team is noted by a standard board game pawn GRYB color: green, red, yellow, or blue. However, the game includes colored metal pawns of gunmetal, bronze, silver, and gold (the pawns look like djed pillars 𓊽 to me, matching the Egyptian theme). This disconnect between the color on a player's cards and the color of the game pawn makes no sense to me. I replaced them with the Indy pawns (in standard GRYB colors) from my The Game of Life: Indiana Jones board game.

The game's map board is printed on a thin sheet of paper that has been kept folded in the game box for decades. The creases in the folds are hard to smooth out, so I placed a sheet of plexiglass over the map to help keep it flat and protect it while playing.

The Play's the Thing

I tested the game out to see how it plays. The Explore cards have a certain number of compass directions printed on them (from 1 to 4 different directions), and the player pawn can only be moved in those directions on your turn. This limits the player's choices, but only rarely did I find I could not move at all. You always have a choice from a hand of 2 different Explore cards, so there is usually at least one interesting destination that your pawn can move to.

Indy's power level is vital to both movement and combat, so it makes sense to keep him at 6 power whenever possible. Medicine can be found in medicine rooms and unlocked rooms, so it isn't hard to find enough healing to keep you topped off. You may lose precious time by healing, but a power 6 Indy can move twice as far and his 50% more effective in combat than a power 3 Indy.

Final battle with the treasure chamber monster, guns blazing and at full power. I still lost.

The treasure chamber fight is not easy, since you need to score an attack power total of 12 or more. If you are stuck with the -2 combat Heroine, this battle is impossible without using a pistol (even then, you only have a 1-in-6 chance of succeeding). In the example above, I used a key to enter the locked treasure chamber at full power (6) and used my pistol (+2), rolling a 3. My attack power of (6 + 2 + 3 = 11) tied with the monster's power, which means I was defeated. I had used up my key and pistol, lost 1 power level (down to 5), and had to return to the staircase at the start of the floor. Chances are, you will lose the treasure chamber combat unless you are the lucky player teamed up with the +2 combat Heroine and are wielding a weapon, too.

Conclusion

I already stated that the Heroine game mechanic is problematic but I'm not the only one. I've read a recent play report from a Japanese game club that played this game and complained about how the penalties are not fun (I lost the link to their post, though). An easy fix would be to make all Heroines give bonuses, either to combat or movement (though, I still think the combat bonus is more powerful since it is so important at the end of the game).

Now, if the game had some sort of hidden role mechanic where one Heroine is secretly working for Belloq and trying to win by betraying all the Indy players, that could be interesting. As this game is designed, there is just a 50% chance that any Heroine is an albatross around Indy's neck and nobody will want to play with them.

The end game can drag on too long, with several teams attempting to clear the treasure chamber but failing at the final combat. I suggest a variant where the final monster's power decreases by one level each time it is in combat. That way, the fight gets a little easier over time, guaranteeing that SOMEBODY will eventually win and bring the game to a conclusion.

I do like the map design and the overall concept of the game. It reminds me of Dungeon! (1975) and Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1988). The choices of monsters on the cards are strange. Bats, snakes, and spiders all make perfect sense in and IJ game. Mummy and ghost enemies make some sense, as both are hinted at in Raiders of the Lost Ark (mummies in the Well of Souls, ghosts emerging from the Ark of the Covenant). But the zombie, treasure keeper (axe-wielding hunchback), and haunted chest (an undead monster inside of a treasure chest) look like they are more appropriate in a Castlevania or Wizardry video game.

New English Rule Book for Takara's Votoms Simulation Game Manual from Dual Magazine

 Get the Rule Book on BoardGameGeek.com

My translated rules and several games in the Votoms Simulation Game Manual series

I've completed my English translation of the rules for Takara's Votoms Simulation Game Manual, covering the complete rules set to allow one to play games no. 1 through 5. These games were originally published in Japanese as articles in Dual Magazine issues no. 6 through 10.

First and foremost, here is the link to the download page hosted on BoardGameGeek.com. You need an account on the site in order to download the file, but if you are reading my blog, you probably already have one:

https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/245358/votoms-simulation-game-manual-english-rule-book

Armored Trooper Votoms wargame in a magazine

Takara's Dual Magazine published issues quarterly in the early 1980s with a "dual" focus on Takara's 2D (board games) and 3D (model kits) anime products. Many of Takara's products were licensed from Sunrise animation studio, such as Crusher Joe, Panzer World Galient, Ideon, Armored Trooper Votoms, and Fang of the Sun Dougram.

Starting with issue no. 2 in 1982, Dual Magazine began publishing hex-and-counter wargames, often called "simulation games" in Japan, in each issue. Each game could be played standalone, but would also add more rules, units, and game mechanics to the overall game system with each issue. The Votoms series of five games were published from 1983 to 1984. Different games covered different terrain, from urban fighting in the city of Uoodo (sometimes spelled Woodo) to the marshy wetlands of Kummen to outer space battles in orbit around the deadworld Sunsa.

Upgrading the Game Components

Select game counters

Since the games were published in magazines nearly thirty years ago, the main components are printed on thin cardstock. I'd rather not watch all the game components blow away if I sneezed too hard, so I decided that the game needed an upgrade.

Metal figures from Plotters City Woodo (not a magazine game!)

I opted to use some old Battletech game boards and miniatures figures from Takara's other Votoms board game: Plotters City Woodo. This game in development while the Dual Magazine game series was published and uses completely different rules, but the miniatures work perfectly.

If you've read my blog for a while, this post may sound familiar to you. That's because I did the exact same thing when I translated the earlier Dougram Simulation Game Manual series and posted about it here!

Testing the game

Setting the battlefield.

I started with a simple test scenario, based on the recommended scenario in the first game. Two Armored Trooper (AT) units face off against each other in combat. I chose two Scopedogs and gave one a shoulder-mounted rocket pod and the other a machine gun. Both units had pistols as secondary weapons (and it is not a bad weapon in this game!).

This game is fairly complex - much more complex than the earlier Dougram games in this series. While it was easy to manage a handful of "Combat Armor" mecha in Dougram, these Votoms rules presumed that each player would usually manage only "Armored Trooper" at a time.

The player starts by choosing an "Action Pattern" for the unit in secret. This is a clever design, first developed by designer Atsutoshi Okada for use in the Tsukuda Hobby game Macross: City Fight (1983). The action pattern defines a certain "behavior" for the unit to take during the turn, such as running, walking, zooming around on roller wheels (think mecha on roller skates), or concentrating on shooting a weapon or engaging in hand-to-hand combat. This chosen action pattern defines how the unit may move, shoot, fight, and dodge incoming weapons for this turn. Like, running doesn't stop a unit from firing a machine gun in the same turn, but your accuracy is going to suffer.

Next the player secretly plots the exact movement the unit will make, what type of camera lens the mecha is using (lenses are a whole thing in Votoms - you must choose between standard, telephoto, or wide angle), and how many shots you plan to fire from a weapon (if any).

During the movement phase, all units are moved simultaneously, based on their secret movement plots. This can be a real surprise as the enemy can and will move wherever you least expect it to. Trying to outguess the opponent's moves adds a level of tension and unpredictability not seen in simpler games, at the cost of added complexity.

Last is combat, including shooting and hand-to-hand "battling." Even if you didn't plan to have a valid target this turn, your unit can always shoot one snap shot off if you have line of sight on an enemy.

In my first test game, both units cautiously maneuvered around the dense patches of forestland between them for two turns. On the third turn, both were ready to approach within weapon range. The machine gunner ran at full tilt, attempting to outflank the opponent and blast them in their blind side. However, the rocket pod AT didn't advance very far and had readied a volley from their short-range pistol.

The units were only one hex distant, and both were in each other's front arcs. The machine gunner unleashed a burst of 5 shots, but only 1 hit its target. The rocket pod AT fired 4 shots with its pistol, which is less powerful than the machine gun but highly accurate at this range. 3 shots ripped through the machine gunners armor, destroying the mech. The pilot did not escape the wreckage.

Results

This is a surprisingly complex game, especially for the anime fans reading this magazine and maybe starting out with their first board wargame ("simulation game," as they are called in Japan). Designer K. Otomo bemoans this problem in some of his designer's notes in the series, all of which I have translated and included in the rule book.

Much of the complexity comes from plotting one's moves in secret and having a rich choice of actions and equipment that closely resemble battles in the Armored Trooper Votoms anime. If the players are patient and experienced gamers, this pays off with an exciting game that is true to its source material.

However, just shooting a target can make my head spin. It is simple enough on paper, but breaks every intuitive notion when I try to figure out what number I need to roll to hit. First, each weapon has a certain hit chance at short, medium, or long range. This is the number you attempt to roll less than or equal to on two dice in order to hit the target (for example, at range 5, a machine gun has a base hit chance of 8).

Then, there are so many possible combat modifiers affecting your chance to hit:

• The shooting pilot's shooting skill
• The shooter's AP for this turn
• Any damage previously suffered by the shooter's AT
• The target pilot's dodge skill
• The target's AP for this turn
• Any damage previously suffered by the target's AT
• The number of shots fired
• The relative velocity between shooter and target (if in outer space)

But what doesn't makes sense is that these are modifiers to the dice roll not the hit chance! That means that negative numbers are bonuses and positive numbers are maluses, which is never intuitive. Also, if you want to figure out your hit chance, then you must subtract your modifier total from the hit chance to figure out what you must roll on two dice.

It just seems like it would all be more logical if all negative modifiers were positive and vice versa, then you added the modifier total to the hit chance and immediately know what number to roll. It may not seem like much, but it would help streamline something you do a lot of in this game.

New English Rule Book for Yanoman's Mobile Suit Z Gundam Tactical Card Game

 Get the Rule Book on BoardGameGeek.com

I've completed my unofficial English translation of the rules for Yanoman's Mobile Suit Z Gundam Tactical Card Game.

First and foremost, here is the link to the download page hosted on BoardGameGeek.com. You need an account on the site in order to download the file, but if you are reading my blog, you probably already have one:

https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/245041/

Here is the link to the main game page on BoardGameGeek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/368787/

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Card Game

Yanoman is a Japanese company mostly known for publishing jigsaw puzzles, but they also publish tabletop games from time to time. This card game is licensed from the second Gundam TV series, Mobile Suit Z Gundam, which aired in Japan from 1985-86. There is no publication date on the game, but I presume it was published while the show was still on the air.

The game was designed by Atsutoshi Okada, one of the most prolific Japanese simulation game designers of the 1980s (I've translated some of his other games and written about him before). This card game is much simpler and plays faster than his innovative hex-and-counter wargames, as expected. There is still some variety, like how Ship combat and MS combat uses the same general die-rolling mechanic, yet work differently. Also, not knowing what cards your opponent may be holding adds unpredictability missing in perfect information games, like most wargames (though Okada adds hidden information into some of his other games, such as Endor).

Starting play with a 2-player game.

Each player is dealt a starting hand of 4 Ship Cards (3 Ship Cards in a 5-6 player game) and 8 Special Cards (a random assortment of MS Cards, Pilot Cards, and Event Cards) to assemble their starting fleet.

• Ship Cards are the backbone of each player's fleet and are kept in a separate deck apart from the Special Cards. A Ship may be used to attack an opponent's Ship, but not and opponent MS. Ships are rated for the Combat Strengths (both vs. MS units and vs. other Ships), Durability (maximum damage before the Ship is destroyed), and Hit Number (accuracy in combat vs. other Ships). A ship's damage taken is tracked by the yellow numbered damage chits included in the game. The game may end when one player loses all of the Ships in their fleet*.
• MS Cards are the Mobile Suit mecha of the Gundam universe. Each MS is rated by its Combat Strength and may be used to attack other MS or Ships in an opponent's fleet. An MS Card may only be brought into play if it is paired with a Pilot Card.
• Pilot Cards are the heroes and villains of the Gundam universe. Each Pilot is rated by Ability, which represents both their skill as a pilot and any Newtype powers (if any).
• Event Cards may be played for various one-shot effects in the game. An Event Card is discarded after use.
• Repair is used to repair Ship damage.
• Dummy Meteorite may be played during an opponent’s turn to cancel a Ship vs. Ship combat.
• Cease Fire Signal may be played during an opponent’s turn to cancel an MS vs. MS combat.
• Betrayal will steal an opponent's piloted MS if you roll 1-3 on one die.
• Blow Up is played along with a Pilot card to attempt to sabotage an opponent Ship.
• Supply lets a player draw a Ship from the Ship Card deck.
• Colony Lazar (yes, it is spelled "LAZAR" in the game) is a devastating attack on each MS and Ship in the defender’s fleet.

On their turn, a player draws a Special Card and then may make an attack with an MS or Ship in their fleet, they may put an MS and Pilot Card pair from their hand into their fleet, play an Event Card, or discard a card from their hand.

* Game end conditions may vary and are decided upon by the player before the game starts. Any of the following are valid game end conditions depending on the number of players, the time frame available, or just the preferences of the players:

1.        When the last card is drawn from the Special Card Deck.
2.        When one player has no Ship Cards in play.
3.        When only one player has any Ship Cards in play.

Players then tally up their victory points based on the enemy MS, Pilot, and Ship Cards they destroyed in combat.

Results

End of game in a 2-player game.

In the test game shown here, the right player destroyed all of the left player's Ships, triggering the end of the game. The left player's forces had been whittled down after several turns of attacks before the right player played a Colony Lazar, wiping out the last of the left player's Ship fleet.

Unfortunately, luck played an extremely strong factor in determining who wins or loses. In the sample game photographed above, the right player wound up with several of the most powerful MS and Pilots in the game, just by the luck of the draw. The left player simply couldn't compete, drawing several low to mid-tier MS and Pilots.

One unusual aspect to the game is that each Ship, MS, and Pilot card has a faction affiliation (Titans, AEUG, Zeon, etc.) but they aren't used in the game at all. Players are free to mix and match units from opposing factions. I can see a scenario-based battle, maybe where each player has their own faction deck to draw from, might be designed to make for a better balanced game or one that better replicates one of the battles seen in the TV series.