Michael Eckenfels, 1 May 2015

After seeing a few discussions about Quartermaster General online – both positive and negative commentary included – I reached out to Ian Brody at Griggling Games to get a review copy for GrogHeads. I was looking forward to receiving this since it seems to simulate World War 2 in a very different manner than most games.

Here’s the box. I admit, in my eagerness, I removed the plastic shrink-wrap. I feel terrible that I didn’t capture a picture of it with the shrink-wrap. Why? Only because that’s what I’ve always done with all my unboxing articles so far.

The back of the box. I’m liking the color and overall design of the game, just from what I see on the box.

First light of day, since it was packed, reveals a well-organized interior.

And bringing everything out shows that inside there’s four wrapped packs of cards, a rule book, a baggie with lots of pieces, a small counter sheet, and a full-color, mounted game board. So far, so good!

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Two of the baggies in the larger one hold the game’s pieces; one bag held all the tank pieces, while the other held all the naval pieces. I’ve seen a video or two on how the game plays and read through the rules already online, so I have an idea of how this all works now. I won’t give any of it away until the full review is written.

The pieces are pretty large. My first impression was that they looked rather silly in person, like the wooden toys of the 30s and 40s that kids would get in lieu of real things (because their parents hated them most likely). The tanks are difficult to visualize as tanks from above or any angle other than the side. That all said, I can get behind the design. It’s simple, it’s clean, and most importantly, it’s very easy to manipulate on the board. Unlike other games with bits that are pushed around in world-dominating games, they shouldn’t clutter the map or fall over if the map is slightly bumped.

Lots of baggies are included…

…which is great as I can store not only the cards for each participant, but also their pieces, too. I’ll talk more about the cards in the full review, but they’re the same size and thickness as normal playing cards.

Yes, if you’re familiar with QG, you can see I switched some pieces. I think years upon years of playing the original Axis & Allies game has gotten me used to seeing the British as khaki pieces and the Japanese as yellow pieces, so as they each have the exact same number of army and navy pieces, I just switched the two. TAKE THAT, OCD.

The rule book is really good; it’s short, it’s clear, there’s examples of play and illustrations aplenty, and takes next to no time to get through.

The mounted, full-color board looks great. I admit it’s hard to absorb a game that has only a handful of army and navy units per country, but when you see this, it’s pretty obvious they’re far ranging. It also makes it look like each country is just plain going to have to get used to the fact that they will have limited range. It’s very unlikely you’ll see Italian army pieces in the East Coast, for example. (I’m guessing, anyway…I need to read the rules again just to be sure.)

Conclusion

Overall, the game components are pretty good. The main reason why I reached out to Ian to get a copy of this is that it’s not like many World War 2 games I’ve seen, or played, at least not on a simple and relatively easy-to-learn scale. I’m hoping the gameplay will be on par with my expectations that this is a different title, and I am clearing the slate of any impressions I’ve gained from previous reviews or videos.

GrogHeads will have a review up soon – keep an eye out!

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