I play a lot of games solo, but I don’t play very many solitaire games. I’m not exactly sure why that is. I’ve had some of my best gaming experiences multi-handing a hex and counter game, but I’ve yet to find a dedicated solitaire game that has gripped me in the same way. As a result, I don’t play that many dedicated solitaire games, but I am also not beyond hope that I have simply not played the right one(s). With that in mind, I couldn’t help but notice the praise that has been heaped on both Petter Schanke Olsen’s Halls of Hegra (published by Tompet Games) and David Thompson’s Valiant Defense series (published by Dan Verssen Games) - in particular Lanzerath Ridge, a collaboration between Thompson and Nils Johansson. Both focus on lesser known actions in World War II where beleaguered defenders withstood ferocious Nazi onslaughts before eventually succumbing. While World War II is far from my favorite topic, I do enjoy killing the odd Nazi and I have something of a penchant for both niche topics and siege games. Since both games have a shared theme, I figured it might be interesting to review them together.
[Malta Month Bonus] Malta Besieged: 1940-1942 by Steve Carey
The States of Siege games from Victory Point Games are some of the most widely recommended solitaire only wargames. Unfortunately for people like me who have recently taken up wargaming they can be quite hard to find since Victory Point Games shut down. All is not lost, though, as Worthington Publishing has recently taken to publishing deluxe editions of some of these classic games, and I thought now was a good time to finally try one. Malta Besieged is about the other famous siege of Malta, the attempt by the Axis to seize it during World War II. I have to admit I’m not much of a WWII buff and I wasn’t very familiar with the history for this one, but I thought since I’m doing a month of games about Malta why not try something a little more modern to mix things up?