Monthly Archives: April 2018
Gaming Nostalgia – Castle Falkenstein
#TBT at GrogHeads!
Someone really needs to explain why we don’t have a Castle Falkenstein series on Netflix yet. It was a perfect blend of steampunk and fantasy, before steampunk was ever a “thing”.
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GrogHeads Reviews Cruel Morning: Shiloh 1862
Tiny Battle Publishing promises “Tiny Package. Big Fun!” Does Shiloh live up to it? ~
Robert Ellis, 18 April 2018
– Designed by Sean Chick
– Published by Tiny Battle Publishing
– Scale is approximately 1/3 mile per hex (1700ft)
– Each turn is one hour.
– Units are Brigades.
The American Civil War has held a fascination for me for a great many years, and not only have I read an enormous number of books on the subject, I’ve also played a fair number of games, both board and PC varieties. However, the last, and as far as I remember, only game based on Shiloh that I’ve ever played, was the old 2 map SPI ‘Bloody April ‘from 1979 a bit of a monster game and one of the first in the ‘Great Battles of the American Civil War’ series. It was quite hard work to play, and I suspect it put me off from gaming that battle ever since.
Therefore, I was quite pleased at being given the chance to review a comparatively new game on the subject, albeit one based on a much different scale.
So, lets open the zip-lock bag and see what we get.
There is a 24 page Rulebook, several pages of which contains extensive scenario and set-up information, plus one optional rule. According to the game page on TBP website, this is a ‘full colour’ rulebook, but, apart from the cover, and a very few colour illustrations on pages 2 & 3, colour is limited to some highlighted text only.
Black Orchestra – First Look!
What’s inside Black Orchestra (2nd Edition, Starling Games, 2017) ~
Michael Eckenfels, 18 April 2018
“Is it twue what they say about boawd games wif ‘bwack’ in the title? (opens box)…Oh…it’s twue! It’s twue!”
– Lily Von Shtupp, upon receiving her copy of Black Orchestra, 2ndEdition…or so I imagine, anyway
Car Wars – A Trip Down The Memory Fast Lane, (the lost) Part 9
Remember that whole series from over a year ago? Yeah, we missed one… ~
Michael Eckenfels, 18 April 2018
click most images to enlarge
THE AADA ROAD ATLAS AND SURVIVAL GUIDE
VOLUME ONE: THE EAST COAST
The AADA Survival Guides, of which I believe there were seven, were essentially campaign game starter books that gave Car Wars-centric information for various regions of the United States. Or, at least, what was left of the United States. Further, it should be pointed out that these Guides are built to be used with the GURPS system (more specifically, the Autoduel GURPS rules).
RAF The Battle of Britain 1940 – The GrogHeads AAR, part 3 of 5
Michael’s fired his first load on England, and time for more ~
Michael Eckenfels, 17 April 2018
WAR DIARY ENTRY 2
RAID DAY 2: AUGUST 12, 1940
The successful bombings of yesterday are tempered with the large number of airframe and pilot losses. As I mentioned in yesterday’s operations diary, we can absorb it…for now.
Indications from Berlin are they are happy with the bombing results but the Fuhrer is not at all happy with the aircraft and pilot losses.
For today, seven viable targets for today’s raids. Only one of them is in LF2’s area of operations, though, which will limit my choices
MINOR RAIDS – all LF3
- WORTH (Radar Net)
MAJOR RAIDS – all LF2
- KENLEY (Airfield)
- TANGMERE (Airfield)
- HORNCHURCH (Airfield) x2
- BIGGIN HILL (Airfield)
- BEACHY HEAD (Radar Net)
I definitely want to have a go at the Radar Net at Worth, since it’s the only target that LF2 can commit to this game turn. As for LF3, Airfields are my priority; my job is to reduce the RAF to nothing, but the Beachy Head radar target is tempting, too. Berlin really wants us to take on Hornchurch again, as you can see.
