Tag Archives: Board Games

My First ConsimWorld Expo Experience

CSWEXPO SPLASH

Who ventures into the desert in summer?  Wargamers! ~

By Christian Snyder, 18 August 2018

A big thanks to Ric Van Dyke who took and provided the photos; he is a much better and more reliable photographer than I!

Even though ConsimWorld and its Expo are a staple of the wargaming hobby, (and have been for almost two decades) I hesitate to write this, as I feel like I am letting out the secret of one of the best Expos in Wargaming. Besides putting these words to paper, I have recounted this information dozens of times to family, friends, peers, anyone who I thought might be interested in knowing what ConsimWorld Expo was like. Additionally, in my first drafts, I tried listing all the designers, developers, and great people that I met. But in doing so, I would undoubtedly leave someone out, and instead, I would prefer to just focus on the ConsimWorld Expo experience. So other than a very few, I am omitting almost all names. First, I will explain what I thought ConsimWorld Expo was all about, then what my excited initial reaction was, and finally, the deep and great appreciation that I have for ConsimWorld Expo after some simple introspection. First and foremost, this was my first ConsimWorld Expo, my first board game expo, and my first true expo/con-anything. So maybe a grain of salt or two is required, but take a read, and see for yourself.

The Grand Ballroom

The Grand Ballroom of the Tempe Palms Hotel packed full of Wargamers

 

GrogHeads Reviews One Deck Dungeon

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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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A(nother) Review of Cruel Morning: Shiloh 1862

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Another look at Tiny Battle’s ACW game ~

Jim Werbaneth, 27 July 2018

Cruel Morning Cover Color

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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SEAL Team Flix – First Look!

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Who gives a flick about what’s in the box?! ~

Vance Strickland, 25 July 2018

Here’s an unboxing my latest game arrival, Seal Team Flix.

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Big heavy box.

 

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Here’s why it’s heavy. Lots and lots of cardboard and bits.

 

Thunder in the East: A First-time Player’s Perspective

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Our guest author takes us to ConSimWorld Expo for a report on VPG’s upcoming east front mini-monster ~

Christian Snyder, 21 July 2018

I recently had the amazing opportunity to sit down with some good folks at ConsimWorld Expo’s Monster Conand play Frank Chadwick’s Thunder in the East for the first time; it was fantastic! Full disclosure: I am currently awaiting my Kickstarter copy of the game and had seen some Vassal play prior to arriving in Tempe, Arizona. Seeing the game on videos and reading the rulebook, however, are nothing compared to sitting down to play with the printer’s proof copy at the show. Since the game is not available, this is not a review, but a first impression focusing on what impressed me about seeing, playing, and meeting the development team for Frank Chadwick’s ETO Vol. I: Thunder in the East.

Frank Chadwicks ETO Vol I thunder in the east

Frank Chadwick’s ETO Vol I: Thunder in the East! Nice maps, charts and counters!

Thunder in the East is a dynamic, action packed game covering the entire Eastern Front of World War 2 in six scenarios starting with the German Operation Barbarossa and ending with the Soviet Operation Bagration. You can do each scenario singularly or start a full campaign from these points with incredible systems for morale, seasonal activities, economy and unit reorganization. My experience consisted of three playthroughs of Operation Barbarossa using the optional and campaign game rules. For each of our playthroughs, we were typically unconcerned with capturing Moscow. However, to capture Moscow, along with Stalin, would have been a scenario automatic victory.