HISTORY:
On July 20th 1944, Adolf Hitler is wounded in an assassination attempt fronted by a Tom Cruise lookalike.
For a long time there was just one attempt at duplicating this event for tabletop, SPI’s 1976 release, The Plot to Assassinate Hitler. But toward the end of 2014, Philip duBarry (Revolution!) will release, through Game Salute, Hitler Must Die.
No, it’s not an adaptation of Dr. Who’s “Let’s Kill Hitler,” but a co-op game where “you must collaborate with your fellow-traitors to gather supplies and manipulate events [so] that an opportunity to achieve your plan is found.”
On one hand, the “game ends with the roll of a handful of dice!” [Yeah, the exclamation point is the publisher’s.] On the other hand, it has a Twilight Struggle-style series of historical Event Cards. So, it’ll be possible to kill Hitler early in the war and save millions of lives. Word has it that this will be released at Essen 2014. My curiosity is piqued…
Oh, one other thing: on July 20th, 1969, man first walked on the Moon. But if you go by Universal/Greenwich time, it happened on July 21st. So, I’m going to ignore that one….
BIRTHDAY:
On July 20th, 1919, Edmund Hillary was born.
K2 is my favorite mountain climbing game – and it’s a great one – but Assault on Mt. Everest, from 1976, actually simulates Tenzing Norgay’s 1953 expedition, on which Hillary tagged along….
The game is a historically accurate recreation of two competing expeditions (British & Swiss) with chits representing specific members of each team (yes, there are chits for Hillary, Tenzing, et al) and a scoresheet detailing the amount of provisions and the health status of each member.
If you’re keen to try it out, the online gaming platform Vassal has a module for this game.
[Photo 1 by Ron Pfeiffer (from Board Game Geek)][Photo 2 by Jared (aka Twinge on Board Game Geek)]
OBSERVANCE:
July 20th, 2014, is National Ice Cream Day, aka Sundae Sunday (Third Sunday of July)
Yeah, this is a real thing… Presidential Proclamation and everything. Ronald Reagan, in 1984, proclaimed July to be Ice Cream Month, and the 3rd Sunday in July to be Ice Cream Day. And I though his favorite snack was jellybeans…
The perfect game for today is Ice Cream Combo, another brand-new game, released in June 2014 by Taiwanese game-maker Poki Design. It’s a real-time set collection card game that requires speed and accuracy.
If anybody’s heading to Taiwan this year, pick up a copy for us, okay?
[Photo by Poki Chen (from Board Game Geek)]Did we miss anything special observances or birthdays for today? Let us know in the Comments!
