Being a powerful warmage has its privileges. It also has its bad days. A good day sees a Spike Wall trap flinging a Swamp Troll head-over-heels down a flight of steps.
A bad day? Well, a bad day has half a dozen Fire Ogres beating me like a drum while I frantically try to lay a charm trap to get a couple of them to fight on my side.
Game: Orcs Must Die! 2
Author: Andrew J. Heller
Publisher: Strict Publishing International
Reviewing Author: Avery Abernethy
Grey Tide in the East is a short (164 page) World War One alternative history book. The movement towards war is unchanged from history up until the day before the German right flank is scheduled to cross the Belgian border in hopes of outflanking the French army and capturing Paris. Kaiser Wilhelm abruptly changes his mind about the war plans due to the almost certainty that the United Kingdom would enter the war if Germany violated Belgian neutrality. Instead, the majority of the Imperial German Army is packed into trains and sent to East Russia to fight the invading Russian army.
Even casual readers of the history of World War One understand that the mobilization timetables of the major armies were almost unstoppable once they were put into action. Those largely unfamiliar with the conflict could read Tuchman’s The Guns of August or Keegan’s The First World War to get an understanding of the importance of pre-war plans and mobilization schedules. The logistical operation to mobilize and move huge Corps on a fixed rail net was massive. In Grey Tide in the East the Kaiser orders Moltke to change the entire pre-war strategy at the almost the last possible moment.
Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Author: Son_of_Montfort
Historians, when defining the term “civilization,” emphasize the fact that all civilizations include gatherings of people, have some form of social, political, military, and religious hierarchy, and enjoy cultural developments in art, music, and literature. When playing Sid Meier’s Civilization V, it was quite easy to simulate the urban focus attributed to the great civilizations and the player could easily grab the reigns of social, political, and military authority. It was not until the Gods and Kings expansion that players could form their own religious authorities, conferring the benefits of belief to their citizens and attempting to spread that belief through zealous use of missionaries and prophets.
Still, Civ V gave short shrift to one major aspect of civilization, culture. Yes, players gained social policies through culture growth and could eventually build a theoretical “utopia project” to achieve a cultural victory, but this did not accurately represent how cultures really influenced one another by trade, proximity, aligned ideology, and how some civilizations cultivated a rich and popular society full of music, art, and writing. What I really mean is, until Brave New World, Civ V did not offer the option for players to use The Beatles to conquer the world.
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GARPA #24 – Dan Pinkham & Lloyd Sabin
Let’s face it, a long work week can get to all of us. And in the summer long weeks can feel even longer.
I focused on this point just a minute ago when my co-worker came in said good morning to me, found something on his desk and then said, “What fresh Hell is this?”
We’ve all been there. And that’s where GARPA comes in. You work yourself to the bone to get some money, and hopefully once the family is taken care of and the bills are paid, you have a bit leftover for yourself. We are here to help unload you of that burden as well as forget about any “fresh Hells” you had to endure to get it by providing updates on the best looking crowd-sourced games coming down the pike. Let’s get to it!
Board/Role-Playing Games
DemonWars – Reformation by R.A. Salvatore
$14,057 pledged of $50,000 goal, funding ends August 30
Speaking of fresh Hells, DemonWars – Reformation is looking to set your world on fire quickly and efficiently. Set in R.A. Salvatore’s world of Corona (not the one in Queens, NY) DemonWars-Reformation will have a game system akin to older tabletop board and role-playing games from the 1970s. The setting of Corona includes creatures that any self-respecting demon-slayer should expect to find: goblins, evil monks, and of course demons, along with intricate maps, in-game lore books, and a detailed gemstone magic system.
Want more detail? OK: DemonWars-Reformation puts the player in the role of a monk in the Abellican Church. The player is thrown against a rebellious church faction under the command of Marcalo De’Unnero. Confused yet? Me too. No worries though. The plot of DemonWars-Reformation is set after the events taking place in Salvatore’s novel Immortalis.
Clearly, fans of Salvatore’s work will be delighted to pick up DemonWars-Reformation. They will also be ecstatic to know that the game is in a working prototype mode right now, and play testing has been going on since the beginning of this year. Originally intended to include every faction in the DemonWars universe, Salvatore and his team have honed this down to the Abellican Church for the initial launch to flesh the faction out. With success, other factions from the books will be covered in future game modules.
It is refreshing to see a new game in production set in an untapped world. I know for me personally reading through the Kickstarter info got me interested in the DemonWars backstory and it looks to be progressing well enough with 30 days to go.
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Developer: R. Brent Ward
Pubhlisher: White Dog Games
Author: Scott R. Krol
Can nuclear war in the ‘50s translate into an exciting solo experience?
There was a time when kids looked to the skies in fear, expecting an incoming onslaught of Soviet missiles and bombers to wipe out the world in a blaze of nuclear fire at any moment. Today the biggest fear most kids have is not having enough Twitter followers. Times have definitely changed since the height of the Cold War, but now everyone can relive those glorious days of duck and cover with White Dog Games’ latest title, Red Menace. So put on a ‘I Like Ike!’ button, groove to Buddy Holly, and let’s fight the fight that never happened.
Red Menace is a solitaire board game set in the year 1959 of nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States, with collateral damage being spread to Canada, Greenland, Great Britain, and possibly Cuba. The player takes on the role of supreme commander of the joint forces of the USAF, RCAF, and RAF as they try to intercept waves of Soviet bombers, controlled partly by the game, before they drop their megadeath. At the same time the player sends out US and British bombers to turn Soviet cities into glowing piles of slag. Yep, family fun gaming at its most jolly!
What you get in the boxed version. Pretty cool components for a small company. Print and play and folio editions are also available.