Monthly Archives: February 2014
Companion Reading for Rome 2 – Total War
Looking for some more history in your gaming? Want to get the backstory on all those pixels you’re pushing around?
Lloyd Sabin – February 10, 2014
Since I was a kid, I have always coupled my gaming with my reading. I think a lot of people do this, but as I have gotten older, it is rare that I read anything that isn’t directly or indirectly tied to what I am currently playing on the PC. Finally, after years of trying to combat this clear OCD-like behavior, I have given up and am going to attempt to do something productive with this quirk.
This first installment is focused on Rome 2: Total War and what I have read, and will be reading, while playing through my Iceni campaign. The Iceni are one of the stronger tribes located in Britannia and the British Isles. In my current campaign I currently hold all of Great Britain, including Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and have made significant progress in northwest Europe, particularly in Gaul. When not attempting to advance on the front and boost Iceni technological and military prowess, I have read the following title, with a few more on deck.
Imperial Governor – The Great Novel of Boudicca’s Revolt by George Shipway
Imperial Governor is the first title I cracked open for companion reading during my Iceni campaign. The title character, Paulinus, is instantly believable as he describes in detail his work in building up Britannia from a backward, swampy outpost to an integral part of the growing Roman Empire. He is a military man through and through, with little patience for insubordination and even less patience for treachery.
Imperial Governor has some great descriptive writing and paints mental imagery of a dark, foreboding, dangerous Britannia, crawling with hostile tribes. Boudicca herself does make a memorable entrance, but because Paulinus does not view her as anything more than scum most details are left out. This book is focused mainly on the Roman response and does it well, guiding the reader through a dense series of battles as well as providing a good order of battle on both sides, including the Celtic tribes aligned with the Iceni and the Roman legions and auxiliaries involved. There are also vivid descriptions of Roman military equipment, architecture and even food, producing a rich historical backdrop for the conflict.
A good part of Imperial Governor also covers Paulinus’ responsibility to both Rome and Britannia once he has put the revolt down, with little mercy. With almost all of Britannia destroyed, it is up to Paulinus to repair the damage, eliminate any remaining threat to Roman power in Britain, and also protect himself and his career from the subsequent fallout. Also keep an eye out for several historical characters with whom you may be familiar, especially if you enjoy Roman history.
Imperial Governor is a blunt and realistic title that doesn’t mince words, just like Paulinus himself. With a cunning, highly intelligent protagonist, some great descriptive writing and excellent battle scenes, George Shipway’s classic proved to be a great companion piece to my Rome 2 Iceni campaign. If interested, the author’s own life makes for some pretty good reading as well. Imperial Governor was his first novel.
Some other titles that I have on the night stand ready to go for more local color include:
Tuesday Screenshot – LNL Heroes of Stalingrad
This week, the Tuesday Screenshot returns with a look at the new Lock’n’Load: Heroes of Stalingrad, in haiku
Click to enlarge
Panzers plot their moves
Panic in the Russian ranks!
Will their resolve hold?
Image: Vance Strickland
Haiku: Brant will claim it, if forced at gunpoint
Grogheads Interview: The Command – Modern Air Naval Operations Team
Command: Modern Air Naval Operations is one of the most decorated wargames of 2013, including a hard-fought Usenet award, and both of its categories here at Grogheads. It’s also been one of our most-talked-about games of the past year in our forums. The guys behind the game took some time to chat with us about where Command came from and where they’re headed next.
So guys, let’s start at the beginning – what was the impetus behind Command, and why did you want to build your own game instead of continuing to build on existing proven platforms?
Command is a culmination of all our hobby experiences. Our interest was born reading & watching the great techno-thrillers of our youth (Forsyth, Clancy, Ludlum, Coyle, Brown etc.), absorbing all the political & military history and facets of the Cold War (which at that day seemed far from over) and playing some really great amazing games of the era (F-19, RSR, M1TP, SPI’s CentFront series, the Fleet series, Gunship, Steel Panthers, Fleet Defender, Tornado, Harpoon and loads more). Our involvement with Harpoon and AGSI helped cultivate it as we met each other through the Harpoon community and really started learning about modern warfare, talking with professionals and thinking about simulations. We started out as avid modders for Harpoon 2 and then 3 and had great success helping to grow the Harpoon community and helping AGSI develop their game (including doing the grunt work for their first pro deal). All of this played a part in our own development and helped us build a strong and skilled team that had a vision of the game they wanted to build and the energy and motivation to do it. So we reached a point where we really wanted to do our own thing and as is now self evident we went ahead and did just that.
When you have to describe Command to someone who doesn’t know wargaming, what’s the “elevator pitch” for the game? How do you hook a potential player with just 1-2 sentences?
If the guy is getting off at the next floor and I have only 5 seconds:
“Command is the ultimate modern air and naval wargamer’s sandbox.”
If we’re both heading for the loft and he’s stuck with me for just a bit more:
“Breakfast – you trade machine gun fire & rocket salvos with pirates & smugglers in the littoral.
Lunch – you plan and execute an Alpha Strike from a carrier.
Dinner – you launch a strategic nuclear attack over the North Pole.
Midnight snack – you spin your own historical or what-if anywhere on the globe, with practically any war machine in existence post-WW2.
All with high realism & accuracy. All in one game. Command.”
GARPA 38 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory
This week’s GARPA? A truckload of new games on Kickstarter, and some wargaming, too!
Board Games
GBACW: Twin Peaks (GMT Games)
p500 – not there yet! Pre-order price $41
Building off of one of wargaming’s most enduing game systems (TSS first rolled out in 1976), Twin Peaks govers the battles of Cedar Mountain and South Mountain, in the fall of 1862. It’s two games in one, and both part of the series that all ACW gamers already know and love. There’s a high level of complexity in the system, but that’s the tradeoff you make for the high degrees of realism and fidelity you get. It’s the seventh GMT game in this series, so you know what you’re getting into for art and design. Jump into the GBACW series with this while it’s on pre-order; hit GMT’s site to make your pledge.
Storm over Dien Bien Phu (MMP)
p500 – 156 of 520 needed, preorder price $33
The last gasp of the French in Southeast Asia, the decisive 1954 battle set set the stage for dramatic shifts in warfighting for the next half-century. MMP’s game gives players the familiar “Storm Over ____” system to jump into their game quickly, and augments gameplay with a deck of cards. The world was shifting from a WWII warfighting mindset ot something much more recognizably “modern” and you can game it out on your table if you pop over to MMP and place a pre-order for the game.
Birth of the Federation, an AAR, Part 2
Part 2: Terraformin’
Fortunately there are no alien life forms in the Tohvun system. While this is a sad little system with tiny little planets (two Barren, one Desert, one Jungle, and one Arctic), the Jungle planet has a food bonus for its fertile soil, and the Desert planet has some great angles or something to it so it catches lots of rays for solar energy absorption. Or something. It’s pretty scientific, you probably wouldn’t even understand.
Those brave colonists immediately began to terraform the planets in the Tohvun system. Meanwhile, I took a look at how things were here in the Sol system. That’s where Earth is, don’cha know.
We’ve managed to terraform Mars, but not Venus, Mercury, or Pluto. Right now we have room for about another 80 population, but if we terraformed those three planets we’d have a shot at really growing our britches off.
