Category Archives: Reviews
Order of Battle – Red Star
Red Star is the twelfth scenario package for Order of Battle World War 2 and the first commanding Russian forces. This review is based on four completed Lieutenant level difficulty games played during the first three weeks of release. Red Star was purchased for $14.99 and played on a two-year-old Falcon Northwest Talon.
Avery Abernethy,
Grogheads Is Loving Field of Glory: Empires!
If you’ve been reading the Groghead’s front page for the last week or so you have seen the couple of teaser articles we published in anticipation of the Field of Glory: Empires (FogE) launch on July 11. It has been a while since a PC strategy game has generated the kind of excitement that we have seen in our forums. So, we’re going to continue with our coverage here to hold you over until our detailed review is ready – the only difference being that you all can now play the game along with us. We even have a massive MP game set to kick-off on July 18 between 16 different GH forum members!
Lloyd Sabin,
Its launched!
GrogHeads Reviews Mansions of Madness 2
The second part of our Weekend of Madness ~
Avery Abernethy, 5 August 2018
I’ve played Mansions of Madness 2 (MM2) with a group of five random people at a MACE gaming convention and solo at home. MM2 provides a unique board game experience. At $90 retail at Amazon, it is also the most expensive board game I’ve ever purchased.
In MM2 you are playing a character with a set of skills. Each player (up to 8) has an investigator avatar. If you play solo, the manual suggests picking two investigators to run. My solo game used only the core MM2 set playing “Cycle of Eternity.” My convention game with random strangers had five characters and used an expansion.
MM2 provided one of the best solo board game experiences I’ve had.
Players cooperatively attempt to solve the mystery. The investigator’s goal is unknown at the start of the game. You begin with limited information in a single room with closed doors and potential clues. Game setup requires starting the computer app, selecting the scenario, and indicating to the app which investigators are playing. After this information is inputted, the app displays the initial room setup and provides starting information.
The core Mansions of Madness 2 game comes with four scenarios of varying difficulty. MM2 provided one of the best solo board game experiences I’ve had. The app provided background sounds. I had no idea what would happen when I opened a closed door or made a game choice. Because the app ran the mystery, monsters, puzzles and other aspects of the game, it was a very immersive experience.
GrogHeads Reviews One Deck Dungeon
Small stature. Big fun? ~
Avery Abernethy, 1 August 2018
One Deck Dungeon is a simple one or two character dungeon exploration game. The two character game can be played either cooperatively with another person or both run by the same individual. The game centers around rolling a handful of color coded die to overcome encounters. The more experience your character has the more dice they obtain and the more ways they have to increase die values, swap dice of different colors, or gain additional dice.
The game mechanics are simple. You pick either one or two characters from five choices (Fighter; Mage; Thief; Paladin; Archer). Each character has different starting attributes on four different variables (melee, magic, nimbleness and health). Different colored dice represent each attribute. Next you pick an opponent as the “boss” of the dungeon out of a set of choices. Bosses are rated at different difficulty levels and each changes the characteristics of the overall dungeon challenges.
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- Archer
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- Warrior
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- Rogue
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- Mage
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- Paladin
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A(nother) Review of Cruel Morning: Shiloh 1862
Another look at Tiny Battle’s ACW game ~
Jim Werbaneth, 27 July 2018
Cruel Morning Cover
The Battle of Shiloh was a harbinger of the bloodbath to come in the Civil War. It also marked a turning point in the leadership of both sides. Albert Sidney Johnston, one of the most highly-regarded Confederate generals at the start of the conflict, was mortally wounded, rendering him a “what if” in a theater characterized by rebel generals who were mediocre at best; how could the war have progressed had Johnston remained alive and in charge, in place of Braxton Bragg, Leonidas Polk, John Bell Hood or Joseph Johnston? On the Union side, Ulysses S. Grant prepared poorly, and was caught off guard by the Confederate onslaught. However, he recovered, and his Army of the Tennessee did not just survive, but with the aid of Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio, went on the offensive on the second day of battle. Despite heavy criticism of the early stages of the battle, a temporary sidelining afterward, Grant and his career survived, and he went on to become the premier, even definitive, military leader of the Civil War.
Cruel Morning is a brigade-scale treatment of Shiloh, on a time scale of daily turns. The footprint is small, with an eleven by seventeen-inch unmounted map. From its small size and relatively low unit count, one would expect it to be a fast-playing, easily-accessible game. However, the final project ends up as something different.
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