Black Swan follows in the footsteps of several other notable World War Two European Theater of Operations (ETO) block wargames such as GMT’s Europe Engulfed, and Columbia’s Victory in Europe, and East Front/West Front/Euro Front games. Black Swan, though, differentiates itself with several new and interesting mechanics, and sets a new standard for streamlined and playable, yet historically plausible, ETO wargames. The naval game in particular, breaks new ground. The designer, <PERSON>, found a way to make the necessary logistical puzzle of supporting campaigns in far flung places, even in the face of constant U-boat attacks, simple to understand and implement, but nuanced and complex from a strategic perspective. The Strategic Air War also deserves special note, for its simplicity but narrative and historic credibility. The ground combat system too contains unique elements (within the context of standard block game paradigms) particularly how the victor in combat is determined, and therefore, critically, who holds the ground after battle.
In short, Black Swan does an excellent job of borrowing the best elements of predecessor games, streamlines them, and adds in a mixture of new and interesting game mechanics that make it a bit of a “goldilocks” game for me. Whether it’s a game for you depends on your appetite for abstraction for the sake of making a playable game. Allow me to provide some detail on key game elements to help you make that determination.
Note, this review got quite lengthy so I broke it up into topics, in case there are specific areas of interest for the reader. Also, my solo gamer status has been reinforced during COVID so this is a solo-only perspective.
Naval Game
As I noted, the naval game is the star of the show, so let me start there. First a couple of basics to set the stage for what is unique:
Naval units types: there are four types of naval units, carriers (CV), heavy capital ships (HS), light surface ships (LS) and submarines. They use usual “rotate to designate strength” and “roll dice equal to strength” mechanics typical of so many block games. Stacking is limited to four max per side per space – so a well-rounded fleet is one CV, HS, LS, and Sub each.
Firing order is determined by class, with CV’s firing first followed by HS, then LS, and last Subs. 993
Effectively, Black Swan uses Columbia’s classic A fires before B mechanic, but all units of a class have the same value. Each class fires simultaneously (attacker and defender CV’s fire, apply hits, then go to HS and do the same) rather than the defender firing all their ships first.
Everything hits on a 5+ roll. Hits are applied to the same class of enemy unit, if present, otherwise to the highest strength enemy unit (in “pips” of strength.)
Unopposed bonus and targeting
Here’s where things get interesting and really make fleet composition something to consider. Any capital ship (CV or HS) firing with no equivalent in the enemy fleet gets a hit bonus and hits on 4+. An unopposed CV can target any unit, focusing fire until it is dead (rather than spreading hits around on the strongest units.) And subs always can focus fire (except against other subs) making them a danger to the CV’s and HS’s - - if they survive the early rounds of fighting!
The impact of these simple rules tweaks from the standard model leads to much more interesting naval construction, fleet composition, and station keeping than your typical ETO game where navies are often represented as abstract “points.” The discretionary targeting makes battles more interesting too.
Opposition Discs and supply
This is where it all comes together.
Each sea zone is either friendly controlled or contested. To maintain control, your side has to maintain double the number of enemy naval units PLUS opposition discs, in the area. Opposition discs are granted by owning nearby islands or Strategic Areas, and represent land based air and nearby logistical support providing an advantage in naval operations. This is in my mind the single biggest advancement that Emanuele brings to the ETO genre. It feels almost Euro-like in its simplicity, but reflects the profound importance of controlling key strategic locations. Mechanically it is simple to execute because each sea zone lists right on the map which islands/Strategic Areas impact that zone, so determining control is trivially easy.
Example of Contested Sea Zone; 4 Italian ships + 1 Ops Discs = 5, vs 2 UK ships + 3 Ops =5. Neither double the other, so zone is contested. Compare to the following picture...Example of Controlled Sea Zone. 100