Javier Garcia de Gabiola ha diseñado más juegos bélicos pero ésta es su primera publicación profesional.
Es un juego para dos personas basado en el conflicto entre España y los Estados Unidos de América en Cuba y el Pacífico, y que duró 10 semanas. El resultado fue la posterior independencia del país caribeño y el traspaso del control de las colonias españolas en el Caribe y el Pacífico a los Estados Unidos. En una carta remitida por John Hay, embajador esatounidense en el Reino Unido, a su amigo Theodore Roosevelt, describía el conflicto como "a splendid little war", una espléndida pequeña guerra; la frase que titula el juego de mesa. Se estima que murieron unas 80.000 personas, más de 63.000 del ejército español.
La editora estadounidense Victory Point Games, especializada en juegos bélicos (wargames), publica Cuba: The Splendid Little War en inglés este mes de diciembre:
Cuba: The Splendid Little War, from designer Javier Garcia de Gabiola, is a two-player simulation of the third War of Cuban Independence, which lasted from 1895 to 1898. (This was the last of the three liberation wars fought between Cuba and Spain; the previous wars were the Ten Years' War (1868-1878) and the Little War (1879-1880). One player controls the forces of the Spanish colonial government, fighting to retain Cuba; the other player controls the Cuban rebels fighting for their independence.
Gameplay represents the main insurgency and counterinsurgency operations that took place, and players must make key strategic decisions to achieve their objectives while balancing their resources and preventing their opponent from doing the same.
There are event cards that help and hinder both players; disease, ambushes, assassinations, and the reactions of the American press and government. Steamships, railroads, telegraphs were all common, but there were no radios, almost no automobiles, and no airplanes. Newspapers and magazines were the cutting edge of media, so print was “king.”
As the Spanish player, can you maintain control of the island, keep the economy going (based on sugarcane plantations) and keep the U.S. out of the fight? Or, as the Cubans, can you stop the Spanish efforts and gain your independence.? Play Cuba: The Splendid Little War and find out
Autores españoles all around the world...
¡Nos jugamos!
 - 01.jpg)
