I have deep sentiment for Falling Sky as it was my first – and let us be honest – favorite COIN series game. Since it was published I had a lot of possibilities to play Base Game – live and via Vassal. When Ariovistus expansion was announced I immediately signed for this. Unfortunately, due to pandemic restrictions there was no possibility to organize face-to-face session. So when Brent contacted me with proposal for a VASSAL game, I immediately accepted.

The Ariovistus expansion

Before jumping into the session report, let me first elaborate a little what that add-on brings to the Base Game. Ariovistus expands Falling Sky to take 1-4 players back to Caesar’s first entry into Gaul, with a Helvetian migration challenging the Aedui and Germanic Tribes pressing close behind. What we get:

  • new playable faction – Germans – and their fierce leader Ariovistus; that also means new pieces for Germanic warbands, settlements and leader
  • Arvernin becoming a non-playable faction but a very dynamic bot, being activated many more times than Germans in Base Game
  • new Scenarios – Ariovistus one (short and longer versions possible) plus super long one, connecting expansion and base game
  • improved player mats – thick, sturdy ones
  • upgraded Non-player rules booklet
  • tons of fun and new experiences with fierce Germans, unpredictable Arverni and Caesar limited to eight legions

The session report

So, without further delay let us jump to the game!

  • The set-up (click to enlarge)

The initial setup of the game – as presented above – clearly depicts Helveti migration (Sequani region), initial Caesar forces (Provincia) slowly developing Aedui and Belage tribes plus Germans who started to cross Rhenus already.

Above I am depicting main actions of our game. As you might see, there were tons of juicy events – some of them with the capabilities – which we played happily. The Arvernin were unusually active, attacking and, what was more important, raiding almost everybody, posing a large threat to all factions.

Unfortunately, the internal Gallic squabbles in the end resulted in calamity! It occurred that Winter surprised everybody and Romans – not even leaving Provinca and Cisalpina – won the game as number of Subdued areas exceeded 15!

  • The end game situation (click to enlarge)

Summary

That was very enjoyable game although a little short – only one season and Gallia were subdued by Romans! A very important topic during our game was Arverni activation. By no means this is straightforward thing but Brent took effort to analyze it in more details. I strongly recommend his article on Boardgamegeek. It not only explains general Areverni behavior but shows exact example what could happen if you do not predict their activation correctly 🙂

PS. After such a quick game, we immediately started second session. But this is story for another time 🙂