"L'état, c'est moi."
Canada
Vancouver
BC
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Malta Besieged: 1940-1942
A solitaire game designed by Steve Carey
Introduction
George Frederick "Buzz" Beurling DSO, DFC, DFM & Bar, RCAF (6 December 1921 – 20 May 1948), was the most successful Canadian fighter pilot of the Second World War.
Fighter pilots played a critical role in the defense of Malta during its siege. Beurling landed on the island on 6 June, after having flown off the deck of HMS Eagle aboard his Spitfire, during Operation Salient. His nickname on Malta was "Screwball", an expletive he had a habit of using.
- Wikipedia entry on George Beurling
Malta Besieged is the 11th game game in the very popular Victory Point Games States of Siege Series. It places you in command of the operations at Malta during the crucial period from 1940-1942 and is published by Victory Point Games (VPG).
Components
Malta Besieged comes in a ziploc bag, and includes all the counters, rules, cards and a map of the Mediterranean sea and North Africa. You will need to supply several six sided dice to play.
The game ready for play.
The components are very functional and the map makes it easy to not only see the state of the game at a glance, but also has quick summaries of the turn order and how to execute certain actions. This will save you a lot of time referring back to the rules.
Speaking of rules, this is one of the most complex games in the States of Siege series, and careful attention must be paid to the actions one can take and the sequence of events. That said, the States of Siege games are meant to be relatively easy to learn and once you've gone through a few plays you'll be referring to the rules less and less.
Sidebar commentary: VPG produces games on demand, so while it's true that the components aren't of the same caliber as one might expect from your typical wargame company, this allows VPG to carry a large catalogue of games that might sell only 200 copies ever, compared to the typical print runs of 3000-5000 (or even more) and their attendant issues of channel distribution, warehousing, and up front sunk costs.
Rules and Game Play
The rules of the game are quite straightforward, and the flow is governed by a deck of event cards. Your role is to survive the Axis threat, and like many games in this series, there are enemy forces that move seemingly inexorably towards Malta from different tracks. However, this game tosses some spanners in the works.
Sample card.
As usual for the series the game revolves around a draw deck that drives the AI and provides you as the player a limited number of actions to allocate.
I want to draw your attention to the three key resources in the game - military, supplies, and morale. You need military to attack the various fronts. Supplies allow you to operate normally (drop to 0 and you have a penalty to your rolls) but more tempting yet dangerous is the fact you can sacrifice supplies for actions on a one to one basis. Morale represents how the troops are standing up to the pounding from the Axis and getting to 0 gives you penalties. Getting any of these resources to 5 (the maximum) will give you a bonus too.
The game offers multiple paths to defeat. Not only are you contending with the fronts moving towards Malta, you also have to worry about running out of your resources for being at 0 in all three at the end of a turn is a loss. In addition, there's the Afrika Korps moving towards Alexandria (you lose if the end the turn there) and Cairo (if they enter Cairo, it's an automatic loss).
Tempering this is the fact that the U-Boat, Luftwaffe, and Afrika Korps all enter the game via card events so you may have time to build up your resources and defenses. In addition, even if a front reaches Malta, you have the opportunity to fend it off yet by rolling for the success of Operation Herkules. Historically, the invasion of Malta never happened, but Herkules was the plan.
In addition, there are supply convoys that periodically make a foray to restock Malta. These convoy battles are resolved by having each front roll a die and possibly inflict hits. Sufficient hits will sink the convoy outright, while a lesser amount may cause some or more of the supplies in the convoy to not arrive at all.
As is usual in a States of Siege game, the number of actions available to you is never quite enough to deal with all the threats facing you. Actions here include attempting to boost your resources, attack fronts, interdict the shipping lanes to Africa, and to fortify locations.
Winning the game requires surviving through the entire draw deck. It's split into three eras, with the first and last card of each scripted into the mix, but the other events can come at any time within their era. The game includes Ultra, the code breaking efforts of the Allies, and use of it can allow you to see the next card in the draw deck so that can help with the planning.
The fall of Malta.
Conclusions
Over the years I've played many different solitaire games, including some of the classic SPI paragraph driven ones such as Damocles Mission and The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat and more recently games like Field Commander: Rommel, Nemo's War and Toe-to-Toe Nu'klr Combat with the Rooskies. Malta Besieged is my third foray in the States of Siege series. The others I've tried (Empires in America, Levée en Masse) have delighted me and run about 30-40 minutes in length.
Malta Besieged is a longer game. Because there is more going on (more fronts, convoy battles), the upkeep between turns is higher. Usually when the cards in the deck tell me that such and such has a bonus this turn, I just make a mental note of it and proceed with my turn. Here, there are enough different conditions, all of which are cumulative, that I felt it necessary to make sure I've got all the +/-1drm markers placed so that I don't make any serious errors. The back of the game says to expect a play time of about 75 minutes, and while learning games will take a little longer at first, that's about right once you get a few plays under your belt.
The longer play time is both good and bad: good because there's enough going on in the game to justify the time invested; bad because I often only have an hour to get a solo game in between other things.
This is a great game though, and I will be making time for it on my table.
Thank you for reading this latest installment of Roger's Reviews. I've been an avid board gamer all my life and a wargamer for over thirty years. I have a strong preference for well designed games that allow players to focus on trying to make good decisions.
Among my favorites I include Twilight Struggle, the Combat Commander Series, the Musket & Pike Battle Series, Julius Caesar, Maria, EastFront, Here I Stand, Napoleon's Triumph and Unhappy King Charles!
You can subscribe to my reviews at this geeklist: [Roger's Reviews] The Complete Collection and I also encourage you to purchase this very stylish microbadge: 
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David Kennedy
United States
California
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I have to say, I find the map to be off-putting. It strikes me as very busy. The large amount of text in the upper right, while I'm sure the information is helpful, is most unappealing. It appears as if the space was available and thus filled up. I wish visually the Med was more central. By comparison, the map in We Must Tell the Emperor evokes the vast expanses of the Pacific. Here it simply looks like a map with functional things dropped on it. It gets it done, but more akin to a spreadsheet. I'm not a graphic designer. But, as a player, something seems missing here.
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Wendell
United States
Arlington
Virginia
All the little chicks with crimson lips, go...
Hey, get your stinking cursor off my face! I got nukes, you know.
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Malta: the only island to receive the George Cross for valor.
That's it, in Malta's flag.
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"L'état, c'est moi."
Canada
Vancouver
BC
Roger's Reviews: check out my reviews page, right here on BGG!
Who let this guy become wargame subdomain moderator anyways?
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HitchKennedy wrote: I have to say, I find the map to be off-putting. It strikes me as very busy. The large amount of text in the upper right, while I'm sure the information is helpful, is most unappealing. It appears as if the space was available and thus filled up. I wish visually the Med was more central. By comparison, the map in We Must Tell the Emperor evokes the vast expanses of the Pacific. Here it simply looks like a map with functional things dropped on it. It gets it done, but more akin to a spreadsheet. I'm not a graphic designer. But, as a player, something seems missing here. I haven't played We Must Tell the Emperor, though I suspect it'll get added to my list of SoS games I want to get.
The map is very busy, and there are lots of markers that need to be distributed each turn. The text in the upper right is the sequence of play, which is more involved than others I've tried in the series.
The map may not be evocative, but it is highly functional, and the cards provide a very strong sense of narrative as you go.
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I agree it is busy but I find it appealing overall. So far I am enjoying the game and the great depth of choices compared to Emperor. Thanks for the review.
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lhughes41 wrote: I agree it is busy but I find it appealing overall. So far I am enjoying the game and the great depth of choices compared to Emperor. Thanks for the review.
I would be interested to read any more developed comparisons that you would care to make between Malta and Emperor. I own the latter and am interested in the potential of Malta. My fear is that they may well be too similar to warrant owning both. Thoughts?
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"L'état, c'est moi."
Canada
Vancouver
BC
Roger's Reviews: check out my reviews page, right here on BGG!
Who let this guy become wargame subdomain moderator anyways?
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Hirsty9Owls wrote: lhughes41 wrote: I agree it is busy but I find it appealing overall. So far I am enjoying the game and the great depth of choices compared to Emperor. Thanks for the review.
I would be interested to read any more developed comparisons that you would care to make between Malta and Emperor. I own the latter and am interested in the potential of Malta. My fear is that they may well be too similar to warrant owning both. Thoughts?
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David Kennedy
United States
California
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Hirsty9Owls wrote: I would be interested to read any more developed comparisons that you would care to make between Malta and Emperor. I own the latter and am interested in the potential of Malta. My fear is that they may well be too similar to warrant owning both. Thoughts?
Due to the history, I doubt there are any similarities in the narrative arc of Malta Beseiged compared to We Must Tell the Emperor. WMTTE follows a very clear narrative arc. In the Early War, Japan is on the march and her empire is expanding. In the Mid War, Japan's advances are checked and her enemies counter-attack. The Late War sees Japan in headlong retreat and her very existence threatened.
In game turns, this means the Japanese have a window of opportunity early on to defeat her enemies before they can rally their clear material advantages. If and when the tide turns, Japan's enemies begin their relentless march on the Home Islands. So there is a definite narrative of expansion and contraction.
This is very clearly manifested by the structure of the event decks. On average, Japan gets 3 action points for each event card throughout the game. However, each of the event decks sees the number of enemy fronts advancing grow. On average, the Early War deck sees 1 enemy front advancing. The Mid War sees 2 enemy fronts advancing each turn. Finally, the Late War pours it on with an average of 3 enemy fronts advancing each turn. (The End War deck sees Japan's enemies swamp her with an average of almost five enemy fronts advancing each turn!) This elegantly simulates the rising military and economic superiority of Japan's enemies.
If you want all the details, take a look at this spreadsheet => http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/68215/summary-of-the-e...
In Malta Besieged, the Allies are dealing with tides of Axis aggression. Essentially, they are confronted with a succession of crises, each of which presents distinct dangers and could spell defeat. It is not as chaotic as Soviet Dawn, as the decks appear to be divided by chronological years. The real danger is if the Axis get their act together and overwhelm the Allies resources. This narrative suggests the Allies have more strategic options and paths to victory. Compared to the tight narrative of We Must Tell the Emperor, it sounds like the narrative for Malta Beseiged can be and is a little looser. When I compile the details of the event decks, I'll be sure to share them.
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Steve Carey
United States
West Coast
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Hirsty9Owls wrote: I would be interested to read any more developed comparisons that you would care to make between Malta and Emperor. I own the latter and am interested in the potential of Malta. My fear is that they may well be too similar to warrant owning both. Thoughts?
Hi Paul,
Good question - as I noted here http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/737466/a-sequel-to-wmtte... the design intent on MALTA from the start was not to imitate EMPEROR but to innovate upon it. This is harder to imagine than at first glance because EMPEROR has proven to be so successful.
Both games have 8 pages of rules, but MALTA is definitely more conceptually complex, it has more things going on, and it takes a bit longer to play.
In sum, I tried to achieve a balance between the elegance of EMPEROR and the desire for more of a pure wargame feel with MALTA. They really are two different games, and even though they are part of the same series, hopefully they fill two different niches in the hobby.
My thanks to Roger for taking the time from his busy schedule as our BGG Wargame Moderator to showcase MALTA - very pleased to hear that you are enjoying the game, sir.
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"L'état, c'est moi."
Canada
Vancouver
BC
Roger's Reviews: check out my reviews page, right here on BGG!
Who let this guy become wargame subdomain moderator anyways?
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Steve Carey wrote: My thanks to Roger for taking the time from his busy schedule as our BGG Wargame Moderator to showcase MALTA - very pleased to hear that you are enjoying the game, sir. You're most welcome. I am enjoying this one quite a bit.
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David Kennedy
United States
California
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Steve Carey wrote: ...MALTA is definitely more conceptually complex, it has more things going on...
Could you be more specific on this point? I understand there's more going on -- Rommel, Raids, Convoys, Morale, Supplies, Herkules. But, aren't these just challenges which tax your resources? At the end of the day, isn't the core game engine still the event deck and fending off the advances of the enemy?
Steve Carey wrote: In sum, I tried to achieve a balance between the elegance of EMPEROR and the desire for more of a pure wargame feel with MALTA.
This is very intriguing. Could you elaborate?
The reason why I ask is because I've seen a couple of reviews and read some feedback from players. But, when Roger says it is a great game, I'm not clear why? What's the hook? What's the fun? This is still not clear to me yet. I do look forward to Luke's review because he is suggesting there are various strategic options available. Again, I'm intrigued.
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"L'état, c'est moi."
Canada
Vancouver
BC
Roger's Reviews: check out my reviews page, right here on BGG!
Who let this guy become wargame subdomain moderator anyways?
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HitchKennedy wrote: Steve Carey wrote: ...MALTA is definitely more conceptually complex, it has more things going on... Could you be more specific on this point? I understand there's more going on -- Rommel, Raids, Convoys, Morale, Supplies, Herkules. But, aren't these just challenges which tax your resources? At the end of the day, isn't the core game engine still the event deck and fending off the advances of the enemy?
This one (merely?) has more variables to consider. In Levée en Masse, there are only five things I need to worry about - the forces moving on Paris. Six if you want to include Parisian unrest. And any applicable DRM are easy to calculate without even marking them on the board.
Here, there are multiple DRM markers, and the effects are cumulative. So perhaps I have a -1 to all military actions this turn, but I have a +2 on the Rommel Situation track, so it's actually still a +1. Nevertheless, maybe the +1 isn't as good as getting a +2 on something else. Because those DRM markers are scattered across the board, you do get more a wargamey how do I min-max this kind of feel.
In addition, there's choice whether or not to try and use the Ultra resource to see the next event card in advance. The prescience you get from that might force your hand.
So you're fundamentally right that you're just facing more challenges with respect to the resources you have, but because of the broader possibilities you need to contend with, the decision space is larger (and thus magnifies the import of those precious few actions).
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David Kennedy
United States
California
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leroy43 wrote: ...but because of the broader possibilities you need to contend with, the decision space is larger (and thus magnifies the import of those precious few actions).
Perfect. Thanks.
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Steve Carey
United States
West Coast
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HitchKennedy wrote: I do look forward to Luke's review because he is suggesting there are various strategic options available.
Luke is the designer of The World Will Hold its Breath (just wait till that one is released - it's going to rock the house), and he excels at making the complex seem very manageable. I have a gut feeling that EMPEROR was too simple for him, yet here comes MALTA and since I took a cue from him and ramped things up (complexity-manageability wise), it is more to his liking (I think).
Roger pretty much covered the bases with his OP and follow-up posts, but please let me know if there's anything else you'd like to be addressed.
As I noted, it was somewhat difficult to deviate from the golden shrine path of EMPEROR, yet I strongly believe it was the right thing to do. Both games came out exactly the way we intended, so I'll leave it up to the players to decide what level of success we have achieved with MALTA. Personally, I'm very proud of the design.
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Roger's Reviews: check out my reviews page, right here on BGG!
