Pax Baltica: Great Northern War 1700-1721
A game for 2 players designed by <PERSON> and <PERSON>, and published by GMT Games
“Alas! I have civilized my own subjects; I have conquered other nations; yet I have not been able to civilize or to conquer myself.”
― <PERSON> (attributed)
Introduction
I first learned about this game back in 2009. I attended my first BGG.CON and had the chance to play an early revision of the introductory scenario with <PERSON>, he who brilliantly quipped that "elephants are not panzers" in his review of Chandragupta, guided by developer <PERSON> who currently has the really interesting looking Cataclysm: A Second World Waron the GMT P500 program.
I have a long abiding love of block games. I suspect that it's in no small part due to my having been introduced to them early in my indoctrination into the wargame hobby. That and early exposure to the portfolio of block games from Columbia Games, the original creator of the genre as we know it, which was a Canadian company at the time. They're now just across the border from me in Blaine, WA, and I visit and play test their games far less often than I should. But I digress.
Block games are not universally loved, and certainly not in the same way that the hegemonic hex-and-counter-and-CRT model of wargames are, but I've always stuck by them and have been amply rewarded with many hours of pleasurable game play as a result.
All of which brings me to this game by two Swedish designers about another period of European history that I knew little about (and indeed, there are entire libraries of bits of history I know precious little about), covering the Great Northern War of 1700-1721, a conflict where a Russian led coalition challenged Sweden's established empire in continental Europe and the Baltic.
Components, Rules, and Gameplay
This game was originally printed in a very limited release by , and it should come to the surprise of nobody who's played it that the designers are big fans of the classic Columbia Games design ethos as the rules follow many of their classic elements, including blocks having letter coded combat ratings indicating both when they get to fire and how effective they are.
The rules are very easily absorbed, coming in at only 16 pages, and that includes the table of contents, the random events table, and several pages devoted to the different national factions and special rules for each. If you've ever played a Columbia Game before, especially the ones that began with Hammer of the Scots and beyond, the system will feel comfortable and familiar.
Pax Baltica comes with a really well designed and attractive map.
Photo by <PERSON>
The important information is easy to see, the colours provide nice contrast, and the iconography is clear.
B{Image courtesy of <PERSON>
The 65 units are all nicely laid out and easy to read. 92
The unit strengths are noted by pips on the top edge.
As noted before, I'm a big fan of block games, but one area where I feel Columbia Games outdoes GMT is that their blocks are thicker and sturdier. There is of course the natural tradeoff that thicker blocks mean that stacks of four or more become somewhat unwieldy and need a lot of real estate on the board, but the thinner GMT blocks, especially when you only have one block in a region, are more easily knocked over.
In Pax Baltica you will have a limited number of activations each turn, and the number of those you receive for your turn will depend on a die roll. In a nod to speeding the game along, rather than giving you a hand of cards to choose from, you simply roll your d6. A 1 is one action, a 2-3 two, a 4-5 three, and if you roll a 6, an event happens for you instead and you get no activations at all! However, you can't have two events in a row, so if you roll a 6 again on your next turn, you get to re-roll.
The game is played in four phases. The aforementioned die roll for actions is the first phase, and the player with the higher die roll goes first.
For the second phase, the first player will complete all their activations, and then the second player.
If there are enemy units in a space, the third phase, battle, occurs. Battles use the well known Columbia "A blocks go before B blocks ..." and defender fires first model, and last a maximum of three rounds.
Fourth and lastly, units in a space must forage for supplies. Each space has a value showing how many forage points it can provide, and army blocks need 2FP each while regimental ones only need 1FP. 50