A 100,000-strong Ottoman army arrives outside the Habsburg capital of Vienna. Inside the city, 12,000 infantry, a city militia, and citizen-soldiers mount a desperate defense. As the Ottoman siege lines draw closer to the city walls, the outnumbered Viennese cling to the faint hope a relief force will arrive in time to save them. For both sides, the real battle is a race against time.
Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683 places you in one of the most dramatic sieges in history. With a completely different set of cards for each player, you will conduct deadly assaults against impenetrable fortifications, dig tunnels packed with explosives, and launch desperate attacks to delay your enemy's advance. Or you can play powerful events with the power to change the course of battle!
Includes historical notes about the siege and 17th century siege warfare (knowledge not required to play the game).
—description from the publisher
Part of the Fire & Stone family — see Fire & Stone for the combined view.
- Gorgeous production quality.
- Engaging asymmetrical gameplay.
- Captures historical themes well.
- Creates tension and strategic depth.
- Good replayability due to card draws and tactical decisions.
- Appreciates the historical accuracy and designer's effort.
- The reviewer lost miserably as the Habsburg player in their first play.
- Requires careful management of limited troops and cards.
- Asymmetrical two-player game simulating the historical siege where one player controls the Ottoman army and the other the Habsburg defenders.
- Siege of Vienna in 1683
- Stronghold
- Stronghold: Undead
- Twilight Struggle
- Fort Sumter
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — Players fight for control of specific hexes on the board.
- Asymmetrical play — Each player has different units, abilities, and objectives.
- Card-driven wargame — Players use cards for actions or special events.
- Combat — Simulates battles between attacking and defending forces, with considerations for fortifications and high ground.
- deck management — Players manage their hand of cards and their troop decks.
- Dice Rolling — Dice are used to resolve combat and cannon fire.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This game is all about putting blocks together to meet certain patterns and have certain colors on the side and saying I'm going to get how many colors on this side.
- I think these games have made it better than the original pandemic.
- For me, if to get a quick game in I'm going to pull out the Clone Wars over War to Warcraft and that's for Simplicity only.
- Euro X meaning the idea of a 4X game with a Euro type feeling where there's a lot of resource management.
- And to me it's very point salad and what I mean by that is there's a lot of ways to get victory points in this game.
- This is a C&C game, Card driven game.
- It did dramatically, especially when I'm up there and I'm rolling and suddenly my eight cannons fire and you see see nothing but four sixes and you're like oh my gosh what just happened here.
- Fantastic job to Robert Deleski and a big thanks to Capstone games for bringing out this two-player historical game highly recommended.
- We used to love playing World of Warcraft we felt that this game really called the theme of World of Warcraft.
- The action is super over the top I think the character of bay Antica is hysteric I think she's a fun character.
- His voice will always be the Batman to me.
- His laugh will always be the Joker Laugh to me too.
References (from this video)
- historical flavor
- accessible for a lighter historical title
- some find dice usage acceptable but not essential
- historical conflict
- Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683
- historical
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — defend fortress vs attackers
- area_control — defend fortress vs attackers
- card_play_and_positioning — smart card play for troop movements
- Dice Placement — smart card play for troop movements
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Arc Nova let's go
- we're the older content creators
- it's alive
- roll Dice and taking names