Category: AARs

07/4/13

Warlock Four-Player AAR – The Command Tent Round 1

LongBlade: So far this four-player game of turn-based mayhem is going smashingly well. MetalDog kicked things off with a bang. Then we looked in on Bartheart to see how his kingdom was faring. For whatever reason Tuna’s initial moves have been lost to the instabilities of the magic weave. But fear not! I have his subsequent reports. So it is that we now turn to The Command Tent to peer in on his nascent empire…

The Command Tent: Turn 1

Behold my mighty city of Sagecliff.  Set on the coast and north of a natural bottleneck that will make defending enemy attacks from the south much easier.  First order of business is to explore the surrounding areas to find the other mages as well as scout for possible city locations.

Warlock Four-Player-AAR-Session1-TCT Turn 1

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06/27/13

Warlock Four-Player AAR

LongBlade: The first report of our four-player Warlock brawl was filed by MetalDog and can be found here. MetalDog, it should be noted, has a couple of nom de guerre and folks sometimes refer to him under his Steam moniker, Stophro. It’s the same guy, just a different name. Hopefully this won’t confuse readers if I warn you ahead of time.

I’ve started trying to color code each person’s name with the color of them in the game. MetalDog is blue. Bartheart, I have just learned, is yellow. Yellow (see what I mean?) doesn’t show up too well with a white background so I’m going to use a slightly different color, amber.

Anyway, during the last session the game was just starting and we were following MetalDog as he discovered Bartheart to his southeast. Now I will pick up the narrative from Bartheart’s perspective as he explains his starting position and his reaction to finding his neighbor, MetalDog, so close to his own borders.

Bartheart: Turn 1 – Déjà vu all over again

So, here we go again with a different group of vict… err… players that MetalDog has dug up for our bash fest. Should be interesting.
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06/23/13

Civilization V: The Guide to Mods

Chris Mohon, 23 June 2013

Your Guide to Civ V Modding Madness!

I am a gamer.

Like so many of you, I started gaming at an early age, pushing cardboard pieces around on colorful maps, shooing the family cat away, and rejoicing when the alien technology plucked out of the Roswell UFO crash resulted in a brand spanking new Commodore computer on my desk. Because really, of all the wonders that a computer can bring into your life, what’s better than computer gaming? Ummmm…..well, keeping in mind that this IS a family website, anyway…..

Without a doubt, no game has stolen more hours of my life away than Sid Meier’s Civilization series. I’ve logged in over 500 hours on Civ V alone, and I’ve played every previous version at least as much. Back in the days when a new top-of-the-line computer was obsolete within a year, two at most, occasionally  a game came along which drove otherwise rational gamers to upgrade their computers so they could play the darn game. Civilization II-III and Panzer General 2 were responsible for many pitiful explanations (by that I mean begging) to my wife as to exactly why I needed a new graphics card and more memory or the Holy Grail, a new machine!

Clearly, I’m not the only Civ junkie. Every new Civ is an automatic best-seller, but the most telling thing about the game is perhaps the devotion of the fans who create mods, civilizations, maps, units and scenarios for the various Civs. As thrilling as Civ has always been to me, the opportunity to add units and maps of my own preference to Civ is the icing on the cake. Dreadnaughts, air ships, helicopters, nuclear carriers and subs, panzers, giant Mechs, Celtic kings, and Southern Generals, huge maps of the real world and detailed maps of fantasy kingdoms, most of these things have found their way into proper Civ games at one time or another, with many being initially created by fans to be inserted into a very moddable Civ universe.
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06/20/13

Warlock Four-Player AAR

LongBlade: Sometimes I think working here at GrogHeads is like living in Valhalla. We fire up wargames, fight all day, at the end of the evening retire for some rest, pour a drink, and chat on our forums. Then we get up the next day and do it again.

In this AAR four of our forumites have taken up the sword and are playing a four-player multiplayer game of Warlock: Master of the Arcane. Although I know their real names (and they’re good ones) we’ll file each of these reports under their nom de guerres on our forums so that folks can direct any questions to them there without confusion.

MetalDog appears to be the instigator of this particular game (no surprise to any of us who follow the forums regularly) and he’s the guy setting up the game. I’ll let him set the scene from here:

MetalDog: Choosing the parameters.  Not sure how well versed everyone is, so, I chose Normal Difficulty.  Ten minute Turns should be enough time and you can only win by eliminating your rivals.

Warlock-aar-part1-MetalDog-2013-04-08_00001

The map is cylindrical allowing movement East to West over the border of the minimap and is made up of continents.  There are four total combatants and three other worlds.
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06/13/13

Thunderbolt Apache Leader AAR

Publisher: Dan Verssen Games

Author: Jim Zabek

I’ve had my eye on Thunderbolt-Apache Leader for a long time. Designed for solo play, it’s a modern era wargame where the player takes on the role of Close Air Support (CAS). Several campaigns are included in the game, and given the random nature of opposition force selection the possibilities are nearly endless.

As this is my first time with Thunderbolt-Apache Leader I start with the introductory scenario: the 1991 Iraq War campaign. Setting up the defending Iraqi units was straight forward but when it came time to choose my own forces I have to slow down and assess the options before me. I have a total of 30 Special Option (SO) points. SO points are spent purchasing aircraft but they are also used on other Special Conditions and Mission Events. Deciding how much to invest in aircraft and how much to hold back is a mystery to me, though I have followed JudgeDredd’s AAR in our forums with interest so I do have a sense that I should keep at least a handful back for later use. With 26 SO points in total, I decided I’ll aim for spending 20 points on planes and see how close I come to hitting that mark.

Thunderbolt Apache Leader June 2013 Start
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