Category: Featured Posts

03/28/15

GrogHeads Reviews: World At War Compendium 2

Is the new Compendium for you? Read on!

Jim Owczarski, 27 March 2015

And now, as a public service, a simple decision matrix to help you determine if you should purchase “World at War: Compendium #2” (hereafter Comp2) from Lock ‘n Load Publishing.

  • Are you a fan of the World at War series’ take on the Cold War gone hot?
  • Are you enough of  fan of this series that you have purchased many — not to say all — but many of the games, modules, and expansions that have come out since the release of Eisenbach Gap?
  • Even if you are a fan of the series, did you neglect to pick up issues 8-14 of Lock ‘n Load’s “Line of Fire” magazine?
  • Are you a fan of the Bauhaus font?

If you answered “yes” to all of the above, there is no reason that I can think of for you not to pick up Comp2.   It’s available for a scant $49.99 from www.lnlpublishing.com  You’ll be glad you did.  Thus endeth the review.

If, on the other hand, you answered “no” to any of the above, read on; matters are a bit more complicated.

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03/27/15

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #67

Two games, two gizmos, one GARPA.  Enjoy!

Holy Roman Empire (One Small Step)
$14k of $7k, ends 13 April 2015

An update to a venerable and revolutionary game, OSS’s Holy Roman Empire is a graphic feast that updates the original with the incorporation of older errata and the greater integration of the tactical battle board.  Counters, cards, player mats, and a host of scenarios round out a solid package for a true multi-player wargame with a heavy political layer that will keep your game group grogging for the long haul.  March over their Kickstarter campaign and tithe your gold to the lords of wargaming.

G67-hre

 

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03/19/15

Campaign: Leipzig – The Two-Sided AAR, part 4

19 March 2014

Cyrano and PanzerDE face off in the age of muskets and sabers, and find themselves on opposite sides of an Eastern German battlefield, in the first of a series of AARs that give you both sides of the action.

As a reminder, we are alternating between Jim (in blue) and Doug (in green)

As always, click images to enlarge

 

The tough part about doing an AAR and playing a game like this is that my aging brain forgets what the hell I was trying to accomplish during the long stretches between turns. I believe this to be a deliberate French tactic as Jim is younger than I am and less likely to forget why he walked into a room, for example.

Fortunately I drew a map early on and have previous entries in this AAR to remind me what group of pixel troops was doing what to whom. As a reminder, my strategy: 

Lowenburg_Plan

 

There are any number of reasons that I was never actually given the command of men in the field — not having enlisted surely among them — but I have to think that a profound lack of patience never looks good on an OCS evaluation sheet.

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03/14/15

GrogHeads Reviews Twilight’s Last Gleaming

Reviewed by Michael Eckenfels, 14 March 2015

Developed by Hexwar for iOS (iPad)

OVERVIEW

Twilight’s Last Gleaming first made an appearance almost 20 years ago as a board game by Decision Games, one that rates just below a somewhat above average 6 on BGG’s website. Hexwar’s recent partnership with Hunted Cow Studios has brought this title back into the gaming limelight, but playable on either a Mac or an iPad, and with many more battles to fight than the board game ever offered (three battles from the board game, and ten in this electronic version).

TLG-001

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03/13/15

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #66

GARPA AT SEEEEEEAAAAA!  OK, not just afloat, but there’s a pair of naval-heavy games for you this week to go with some gargantuan aircraft and more RPG hi-jinks.

 

Captain’s Sea (GMT Games)
P500 – Made the cut!  P500 price $45, MSRP $65

A ship-to-ship combat game with a mixture of a square grid (!) and octagonal counters (!!) that covers the actions of the fledgling US Navy in the early 1800s.  Battles include US ships against both British and French opponents, and focus on commanding a single ship through skillful maneuvering and solid crew allocations to weapons and rigging.  Flying monkeys and subsurface atomic bombs round out your arsenals (just kidding!).  Sail over to GMT while it’s still ‘officially’ on p500, but know that you’re going to get it, since it made the cut and is going to head to production sometime soon.

G66-CaptainsSea-1(RBM)

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