Inspired by the real-life military tactic of ‘wargaming’ pioneered by Ardennes High Command, where generals moved pieces representing real military formations around a map showing actual geography, the cabellan company Mastizexs, located in Upper Leon, has released a war simulator based on this concept.

A standard box set for Defense Of Leon comes with a large board and over 1,600 painted cardboard pieces representing brigades. The board features a painted map of the nation Andalusia prior to us breaking it up into three successor states.

There are enough factions for four players. The first plays as a united Andalusia, the second plays as the peldaks, a third as the ‘pretender rebels’ which is meant to be the Heirs of Leon. A fourth may play as the scattered ‘savage uprisings’ of refugees.

I played the game with friends of mine and it’s horribly unbalanced. The one playing as Andalusia must either be a completely new player, or try to lose on purpose. The creators were clearly nationalists with wounded pride.

For example, there’s a mechanic where a peldak army can break and scatter when it takes too much damage. When has that ever happened? Elves don’t break; we carefully consider the battlefield and, only if necessary, withdraw in and orderly fashion.

In real life, the Andalusia front was a quick diversion since they refused to help us against the vampire hordes. In game, the Andalusia player can beat away dozens of armies over and over.

Before long we changed the rules. We split Andalusia in half, divided the pieces, then played with the same rules.

With equalized stats per unit, the game became a test of skill and planning. I lost every game, but it was my fault, not because it was my turn to get stomped by the Andalusia player.