Author: Jim Zabek

01/16/14

Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm AAR Part 5 – Conclusion

When we left Part 4 I was sensing the tide of the battle had shifted. The Soviet offensive was stalled and I decided to start pushing forward and take advantage of their degrading communications and battered offensive forces. Make no mistake – the Soviets can still pack a punch. They have plenty of armor and massive amounts of artillery that can quickly reduce my small force to nothing if I’m not careful. But if I do this right I can capture some objectives, score some points and crush the Soviets.

Turn 11 – 26 minutes elapsed

The game is now four hours and twenty-six minutes into the fight. The scenario can run another five and a half hours, but I think the Soviets are in trouble. What I’m not feeling good about is the lack of damage I’ve taken. Aside for the beating my engineers took up north, I’m in good shape. Usually the Soviets beat me more badly. That tells me there’s some tough fighting yet to be done. Hopefully we can keep on the move and stay out of their artillery umbrella.

My luck is holding. Because my troops are on the move several barrages of Soviet artillery fall on empty fields in the south. Keep moving, men!

The mines I drop on a VP take out a couple of units. They’re hidden from me, but I hear the reports of their explosions. Fighting in the south heats up with heavy exchanges between all visible units. A suspected Soviet recce platoon is spotted near my HQ area and my mechanized units moving north to the central objective spot it and take it under fire. More Soviet artillery misses and we continue to push forward.

The turn comes to a close. Lots of Soviet artillery has fallen and none of it has found its mark. I intend to keep that streak going by making some unpredictable changes to the line of movement of some of my units.

Around the middle objective I can see more units now, including a stack of about nine tanks. Tempting as that may be for my MLRS I’m going to use my regular artillery to fire at it.

Turn 12 – 27 minutes elapsed

This round goes badly for me. The Soviet ground forces aren’t much of a threat, but their artillery seems to be everywhere and on target. Entire units go from full strength to zero and it hurts. Normally this kind of response is only drawn when I’m in proximity to an important HQ unit. The suspected air defense unit to the far east of the southern approach is probably more than it appears. The VPs around Dudenhofer to the south are clearly must-haves for the Soviets as they appear to be throwing everything they have at them to retake the VPs I have captured.

Soviet Armor pushes south toward Dudenhofer.
Soviet Armor pushes south toward Dudenhofer.

Turn 13 – 21 minutes elapsed

Note my decision cycle has decreased to 21 minutes while the Soviets have an estimated 37. I’m moving at almost twice their speed. Their success with artillery is probably due to the fact that it’s in LOS of mine and giving direct support to critical HQ units. Let’s see if we can break that pattern now.

There is now a significant cluster of units south of Weiskirchen and it’s time to bust out the MLRS.

MLRS FTW.
MLRS FTW.

I also order artillery to take out the suspect HQ unit to the far east of the southern objective, while my other artillery battery targets the nine tanks north of Jugesheim. Continue reading →

01/10/14

RAF – Boardgame Review

Michael’s thorough and detailed look inside of Decision Games’ RAF gives you everything you need to decide if this excellent air combat game should be gracing your tabletop.

Michael Eckenfels, 10 January 2014

Designer: John Butterfield and Publisher: Decision Games

as always, click images to enlarge

While I am quite a World War II geek, I’m not much into the airpower aspects of it. Most of my interest in that regard is with the bombing campaigns (and with it, games like B-17 Queen of the Skies); indeed, I’m more taken in with tactical and strategic ground combat and the games that focus on that arena. That said, the Battle of Britain has always fascinated me as a true ‘turning point’ campaign that had so many fulcrums and angles that it wasn’t really a foregone conclusion that the RAF would have pulled off a victory.

RAF21

It was with great anticipation that, back in the late 80s, I found the first edition of RAF on my favorite hobby shop’s shelves. Solitaire games were big for me as it was hard back then to find opponents, and gaming fixes were sometimes few and far between. I was initially a little disappointed that I could only control the RAF in battle and not the Luftwaffe, but the game itself was solid, always different and therefore highly replayable, and even better, had quite a bit of tension to it.

 

I grabbed my copy of the second edition of RAF late this past summer and have been playing with it as often as I can in a chaotic house with a middle-schooler and a high-schooler and a wife who’s not all that big into games. No cats, fortunately.

 

Overview

RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940 is a simulation of the trying days of 1940 when the Luftwaffe sought to wipe the RAF from the skies of southern England, in preparation for Operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of England itself. In the original first edition, you could only play the RAF, as I mentioned above; however, in this second edition, not only can you run the RAF solo, but also the Germans solo, or even play a two-player game. All the angles are covered here, and the added ability to run the German campaign solitaire seems to make for a hit-in-the-making. Of course, one must first open the box and see which way their initial impressions will run…

Out of the Box

Initial impressions were highly favorable when I opened my copy. The counters are nice and thick, with clearly-delineated information; these counters are much easier on the eyes, actually, than the old white silhouette from the older version. Unfortunately, these nice counters are almost impossible to separate cleanly and require trimming to do so, which is a major pain in the tail section. Perhaps it is simply my OCD, but I believe that counters must be clean and have sharply-defined edges – no rabbit bushy tails sticking out from the corners, thank you.

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The cards are very nice as well, but I’m not sure they’re an improvement on the old version. While the older version was no-frills and was pretty much print on a card, they were legible and easy to read. The Second Edition’s cards are busy, with lots of background to decorate them. The fonts are similar, in that they’re sans serif, large, and sharp, but these new cards might be difficult to read for some people on a few of the cards.

Continue reading →

01/7/14

Flashpoint Campaigns – GrogHeads Strike Back Winners!

Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm GrogHeads Strike Back Winners

When we started the Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm contest we had no idea what direction it would take. The developers, On Target Simulations, put a lot of effort into creating a custom scenario and building a game engine to allow players to experience the full features of the game without giving the entire game away. The results were great. We had eighteen participants who submitted a combined 41 entries.

bnrh
ComradeP’s fantastic performance.

The contestants came out swinging. Herman Hum threw the gauntlet down with an opening score of 64%. That in itself was impressive, as my first few go rounds were merely in the mid 50’s. However, better was yet to come. Ifseeney upped the ante with an impressive 68%. Others joined the fray and attempted to match the scores. ComradeP, our winning contestant submitted a first attempt of 66%, but then continued to improve. Other players eventually managed to best the 60th percentile, but when Comrade P finally submitted a whopping 98% everyone was impressed. It is an unimaginably high score and proof that no matter how well you think you can play a scenario, there’s room for improvement.

Congratulations to ComradeP as our grand prize winner, but we also have consolation prizes based on a random drawing. Those winners are: Uberhaus, Szeretni, Ifseeney, and Airborne Rifles.

01/3/14

GARPA 35 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Authors: Brant Guillory and Jim Zabek

If this winter has taught us one thing here in LongBladia, it is that it can always get colder and snowier. The highs next week are forecast to be subzero Fahrenheit. Simply put, it would be wise to stay indoors, peruse some crowd-funded gaming projects, and sip hot cocoa. If you must go outside, make sure you run by your local game store and thank them for getting out in the cold to open their doors and sell you games. It’s the least you can do.

But, what we can do here at GrogHeads is share some of the recon we’ve conducted on upcoming projects. So grab your mouse and hot cocoa and get ready for some temptation!

Tabletop Games

Wise Bayonets by Acies Games

Available for Purchase

GARPA-35-Wise-Bayonets50.1When a Napoleonic wargame is published in the Italian peninsula about a battle that took place on their soil, it’s worth a gander. Acies Games has published a number of games that range from ancient Rome to control for the island of Sardinia and beyond. To call these battles “obscure” is to deny our wargaming roots; we love this stuff! The chance to learn about the nuances of forgotten conflicts, to possibly change the course of history…this is the meat and potatoes of wargaming. And gamers seeking to refight the battle of Trebbia now have the opportunity to do so. No, it’s not crowd-funded, but it’s definitely worth checking out: http://www.aciesedizioni.it/trebbia-eng.htm

 

Fief – France 1429 by Academy Games

$47,524 pledged of $20,000 goal, ending February 11th

GARPA-35-Fief.75

 

Academy Games is no stranger to porting foreign language games into English, polishing them, andreleasing them to the English-speaking wargaming wilds. Fief – France 1429 is an existing French language game of medieval “dynastic ambition.” Players take control of one of four families, with which they use to attempt to gain control of various villages on the map. Players must both cooperate and compete with each other through marriages and alliances. Events such as papal annulments, good and bad harvests all pop up to help keep things interesting. And having already met its successful threshold for fundraising, players can expect unlocks of stretch goals to continually improve this game. Check it out on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/617871702/fief-france-1429

Gathering Storm by GMT Games

P500 not yet filled

GARPA-35-GatheringStorm-2.75What’s that you say? A World at War wasn’t big enough or long enough for your gaming tastes? Fear not, for Gathering Storm is here to fill the void. With Gathering Storm players can start the ramp-up to the Second World War as early as 1935. This prequel allows gamers to fiddle with the “what-ifs” leading up to the war, which can range from Doenitz successfully getting a significant investment in his submarine fleet to the French extending the Maginot Line, to the conflict breaking out in other parts of the world first, such as a French pre-emptive attack, or Germany going after Russia first. Crazy? Crazy like only a wargamer can be. This is the stuff we live for, and if you’re man enough to play A World at War you’re definitely going to want to get in on Gathering Storm’s action. Check it out here: http://www.gmtgames.com/p-467-gathering-storm.aspx

Continue reading →

12/20/13

GARPA 34 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Authors: Brant Guillory & Jim Zabek

As Santa’s elves are banging out the last of their projects to be delivered next week there have been a number of game developers who’ve been making similar plans but with the help of crowd-sourced funding. Those of us in the US have even enjoyed a reprieve in the weather, with temperatures around LongBladia managing to briefly climb above freezing. The levels of snow we’ve received could be characterized as harassing fire – enough to cover the lawn and roads but not enough to make the kids happy with a day of school closure. Not to fear, temps are expected to come crashing down soon, but you know what that means: spring can’t be far behind.

Tabletop Games

Castles – A Strategic Card Game by AAIIEEE! GAMES

$7,339 pledged of $2,500 goal ending January 2nd

GARPA-34-Castles-Card-GameIf Castles looks familiar to you, it did to me, too, and for good reason.

Way back in November AAIIEEE GAMES (their capitalization, not mine. Really.) launched Castles as a “Strategic Card Game For Two Players” and set their funding goal at $6000. It failed to come anywhere near that goal, gaining a modest 2,787. Undeterred, the developers have reworked their math and decided that they could make do with backers supplying a more modest goal of $2500 and removing the word “strategic” from their game’s name.

They must be evil geniuses because this time the public got solidly behind them, easily meeting the $2500 goal and – surprisingly – have more than four times the number of original backers have coughed up $7300 worth of support, an amount that would have surely satisfied their first attempt at funding.

Crowd-sourced games can be strange in that way. In any case, if you’re looking for strategic card game for two players, with mild elements of fantasy and some attractive artwork, Castles may be the game for you.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aaiieee/castles-a-card-game-for-two-players

 

MegaMat Gaming Mat by Frontline Gaming and TABLEWAR

$73,374 pledged of $15,000 goal ending December 22nd

GARPA-34-Megamat-ImageMiniatures gamers are constantly on the prowl for a better mousetrap. Anything which gives their gaming experience an edge is carefully considered for addition to what is likely to already be a well-stocked inventory of gaming accessories. The limits of discretionary income are often the greatest impediment to buying wholesale swathes of accessories for our tables and it is well that we should have limits lest we have no room to store our accumulated treasures.

So it is that I am well aware how tempting it will be to many readers when I place these gaming mats here for your consideration. The creators of the MegaMat have already reached a successful level of funding. Their offering is simple: 4’ x 4’ or 4’ x 6’ gaming mats that provide a color base on which to game. So far it appears as though three backgrounds are available: grassy plains and blast zone were the first two mats promised if the minimum fundraising goal was met, with additional plans for more mats to be unlocked as fundraising levels were achieved. Planned stretch goal maps will include urban combat, alpine, and barren wasteland.

The mats have been created by professional game artists and the printed resolution is promised to be at 300 dpi (current test images are said to have been at 150, which already looks quite good).

The material the maps are printed on is similar to that of a mousepad, which provides a flexible material for ease of storage that is also crease resistant, and has a rubber back to help secure it to whatever surface it is placed upon. The mats are also coated with a water-resistant material to help resist stains and keep it clean. If any of these mats needs to be on your gaming table you’d better hurry as the fundraising window is closing rapidly.

Continue reading →