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Back in the golden age of Schwarzenegger movies, Milton Bradley released a game called FORTRESS AMERICA.



You're goddamned right Saddam Hussein is on that box art!

But oddly enough, the Middle East did not rank as an enemy in the game. Rather, there were three racial flavors of Commie: White, Latino, and Asian. The plot is that all of these Commies decided to get together and bust into the good ole US of A because our great nation's conventional military forces had weakened. Why would they work together? What do they have against the Land of the Free? Well, um, Commie's are all in this worldwide conspiracy, right, to stamp out freedom, yeah. That's it.

In FFG's take on the game, the Home of the Brave has become an arch-paranoid international bully that pulls the trigger on other countries at the slightest hint that those countries are hiding "the enemy." FFG's USA has some kind of super weapon so the rest of the world (still represented by the White, Latino, and Asian Commies, strangely enough) is on a dire mission to stop the evil American empire once and for all. A lot has changed in 26 years.



Hold on, hold on. That's fethed up. Come on, FFG, fix that gak right away. Americans are the good guys.

Fantasy Flight Games wrote:Our initial announcement of Fortress America included flavor text that was interpreted by readers (quite justifiably) as politically inflammatory. That text has been since altered to correctly reflect our game's backstory. It was the result of an internal misunderstanding; our marketing department misread certain key thematic elements of the game, and took unauthorized dramatic liberties with the text. We apologize for any offense this may have caused. Again, we would like to stress: the text we posted earlier does not accurately reflect the theme of FFG's Fortress America.

Okay, apology accepted. This time. One more outburst like that, however, and we're sending over the Un-American Activities Investigation Squad.

So, what's the setting going to be like?

In the 21st century, the United States unveiled a military defense system that completely changed global politics. Through a series of satellites and powerful lasers, the U.S. gained a flawless defense against intercontinental missile attacks. Misinterpreting the purpose of this defensive network and fearing that it might be used to launch an attack, the world united to demand that the U.S. dismantle it. A lengthy diplomatic stalemate gripped the globe. With the world at a crossroads, coalitions of nations were formed unlike any that had ever existed before. A plan was devised to destroy this perceived technological threat through military action. It involved attacking from three directions at once, for the nations of the world knew that every army dreads fighting a war on two fronts... and America was about to face three.

Right, so we built Reagan's SDI and the stupid Commies took it the wrong way. Much better.

Anyway, the gameplay pits all the Commies up against the USA on American turf with rules favoring the defender. The 1986 version of this game, which I have never played myself, is by all accounts an absolute bear compared even to all-day sessions of Axis & Allies. Basically, the invading forces had to hold so many territories for such-and-such amount of time or lose. FFG's game looks to be pretty well the same. In fact, they proudly state that the guy who designed this iteration consulted with the original designer. Cool.

Read more here:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=190&enmi=Fortress%20America

Whatever, yo. I'll likely be buying this one.

I played the original once. We didn't finish, but it plays relatively smoothly as long as most people know the rules (I was the only new player out of 3). I do remember it was heavily based on the US player fighting a defensive action as the random cards heavily favored them: Hold off the opponents while waiting for those orbital lasers and new troops to come on-line.

Cute, though I'm not usually that in to board games (the lore of 40k drives me to it more than the game).

I think the question on everyone's mind is: Will Canada remain mercifully neutral like last time?

I played the HECK out of this game as aa kid, though I also loved the Rome one with the Galleys and Shogun as well. They need to all be rereleased!!

Ya, Canada will probably be a blank spot on the map as usual.

Interesting. I had that game for years, and never got around to playing it or even punching out the tokens. It had a rulebook that reminded me of old Avalon Hill bookshelf wargames, and didn't exactly inspire one to play. When I learned that it was going for stupid money on BGG, I sold my copy last year.

Probably won't pick the new one up, but I'll be curious to see what the game contents are. The original was pretty cool in terms of playing pieces.

Matt Varnish wrote:I think the question on everyone's mind is: Will Canada remain mercifully neutral like last time?

I played the HECK out of this game as aa kid, though I also loved the Rome one with the Galleys and Shogun as well. They need to all be rereleased!!

Shogun did get re-released as Ikusa.

I'm waiting for the rerelease of Broadsides and Boarding Parties, the obscure 5th game in the MB Gamemaster Series.

lol that they caved to pressure to change their surreal and largely irrelevant backstory to another surreal and largely irrelevant backstory because people QQed about it. lol

looks fun. digging the classic game revival FFG have going on

Melissia wrote:Cute, though I'm not usually that in to board games (the lore of 40k drives me to it more than the game).

Me, too. I'm chiefly interested in this game because of the bizarre "invasion of America" scenario rather than a love of strategy board games (which I actually find quite tedious when detached from narrative). This is my same view regarding video games, which is why I kind of want to but haven't yet picked up Homefront.


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KamikazeCanuck wrote:Ya, Canada will probably be a blank spot on the map as usual.

Pretty much:




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A Kvlt Ghost wrote:surreal and largely irrelevant backstory

As I mention above, the game is meaningless without the narrative to me. I don't enjoy chess, for example. As for it being surreal -- well, the idea of a system of sattelite lasers was actually Reagan's big bluff at the table with Gorbachev. Surreal, yes indeed, but also real. The "united coalition of everyone else is a Commie" is also not an inaccurate portrayal of American paranoia.

Well at least we didn't get steamrolled like Mexico apparently did (or is Mexico actually invading America there?). There's advantages to being forgotten about I guess.

Mexico? You mean the Blue Commies?

Yes, the infamous Mexico Blues. Like Red Russians, except...Mexican....and blue.

Does anyone else see a problem with the Asian faction being represented by the color yellow?


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Also, these seems like the brainchild of the guy who wrote Red Dawn and HomeFront and the remake of Red Dawn (all the same guy).

Squidmanlolz wrote:Does anyone else see a problem with the Asian faction being represented by the color yellow?

No.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

Squidmanlolz wrote:Does anyone else see a problem with the Asian faction being represented by the color yellow?

No.

Alright, I have a tendency to find every small nuance offensive in some way.

Squidmanlolz wrote:

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

Squidmanlolz wrote:Does anyone else see a problem with the Asian faction being represented by the color yellow?

No.

Alright, I have a tendency to find every small nuance offensive in some way.

What's wrong with calling Chinamen yellow? Next thing you're going to tell me I can't call Mexicans blue! No, seriously the thought crossed my mind too but I'm more wary of excessive political correctness tbh.

If you are looking for gaming offenses in the old D&D cartoon the black girl was a thief (acrobat was a Thief variant) that ran around in jungle clothes. Have fun trying to do that today.

Used to play this a bit years ago. Sold my copy off on ebay for some serious cash a while ago. It was an entertaining game, but unless the coalition players succeeded quickly they were pretty much doomed to lose as the US player just got more and more powerful every turn while the coalition forces were limited to what they started with and they never got anything else once that was used up. So we generally stuck to Axis and Allies and to the 2nd edition of the Shogun game called Samurai Swords instead. Enjoyed those much more. Remember too many games playing the Japanese in Axis and Allies with Germany long since destroyed and having a near infinite stack of Infantry on Japan that no one could seem to destroy and AA guns that would regularly destory at least 50% of whatever bomber waves came over the country. Ahhh those were the days.

Skriker

In the "Dovahkids" spoof on the D&D toon, the kids are turned into Elder Scrolls races. The black girls turns into a redguard, lol. I guess turning the Asian chick into a Redguard would have been more awkward. As it stands, the Asian chick turns into a Khajit and that fething sucks. It's okay to be racist against Khajit right? Because I can't stand those lazy furbacks.

Along the same lines as it being awkward if the Asian girl became the Redguard, can you imagine if the European Commies were given the yellow figures instead of the red. Then we'd be sitting around the table on game night making jokes about how the Asian Commies should've been the yellow ones, yuk yuk. As things stand, we get to complain about the game being racist instead of being racists ourselves. Thanks, FFG.

I think the Asians in Axis & Allies were yellow too. Everyone else was various shades of brown. Probably worst game ever for a colour blind person.

How about a Christmas-themed checkers set?

TBH, I always thought of the A&A colors as related to uniforms. Yes, I know Russians don't wear maroon uniforms but they're Commies for crying out loud! It's gotta be some kind of red. Otherwise, yanks in green, tommies (& commonwealth/empire) in khaki, jerries in gray, and japs in yellowish-brown. Seems about right.

Actually, I'm rather proud of myself for never making a racial slur about that as a youngin.

Blue Mexican Commies on the other hand ... and don't get me started (back up) on the Khajit ...

Manchu wrote:How about a Christmas-themed checkers set?

TBH, I always thought of the A&A colors as related to uniforms. Yes, I know Russians don't wear maroon uniforms but they're Commies for crying out loud! It's gotta be some kind of red. Otherwise, yanks in green, tommies (& commonwealth/empire) in khaki, jerries in gray, and japs in yellowish-brown. Seems about right.

Actually, I'm rather proud of myself for never making a racial slur about that as a youngin.

Blue Mexican Commies on the other hand ... and don't get me started (back up) on the Khajit ...

Yes, that's all very well and realistic and everything but I'm trying to play a board game here. Don't actually need my guys to be camoflaged! Much rather have blue Mexicans.

Besides who's to say that the commies attacking the west coast are Chinese? Maybe that's the Soviets. The east coast could be....Cuba.....or Moldova.

I played a lot of axis and allies as a kid, and my mom actually asked the local hobby/RC/board game shop about the other games. The clerk told her that A&A was the clear cream of the crop, and she never bothered to get me Fortress America or Shogun.

When the games went out of print, i kinda regretted it. Years later I find out that I really didn't miss much.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Besides who's to say that the commies attacking the west coast are Chinese? Maybe that's the Soviets. The east coast could be....Cuba.....or Moldova.

No, I'm afraid that the Yellow Commies are the Asian People’s Alliance, the Blue Commies are the Central American Federation, the Red Commies are Euro-Socialist Pact. I suppose the Red Commies may well not be Ruskies. They could just as easily be Swedes.

Manchu wrote:

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Besides who's to say that the commies attacking the west coast are Chinese? Maybe that's the Soviets. The east coast could be....Cuba.....or Moldova.

No, I'm afraid that the Yellow Commies are the Asian People’s Alliance, the Blue Commies are the Central American Federation, the Red Commies are Euro-Socialist Pact. I suppose the Red Commies may well not be Ruskies. They could just as easily be Swedes.

"Asian People's Alliance" . Euro-Socialist pact is obviously just Scandinavia. Their combat engineers are only equiped with allen keys.

Hover tanks from the Svbuerg collection.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:I think the Asians in Axis & Allies were yellow too. Everyone else was various shades of brown. Probably worst game ever for a colour blind person.

In A&A the germans were grey, japanese were yellow/orange, russians were brown, british were light tan and the US was dark green.

Tough telling the grey, brown and dark green pieces apart and the light tan and yellow/orange pieces apart in lower light conditions. Didn't matter as much with infantry since the infantry figs were different for every army, but all other units the exact same minis. Oops...

Skriker