Category: Featured Posts

01/10/15

2015 GrogHeads Readers’ Choice Awards – Voting

ed note: After the shutdown of Twiigs.com, our polls disappeared, so you’ll see a lot of headers, but no polls, on older Readers Choice posts.  We’re using someone new now, so perhaps the older polls will still be visible.

All year long we asked for your input and your nominations for the best in gaming throughout 2014.  These polls are your polls, and let our readers vote on their own nominations.  Think we missed something?  Well, we’re already looking for nominations for 2015’s best in strategy gaming.

Polls are open now, and close on 28 January, so you’ve got 2-1/2 weeks to make your voice heard.  If you nominated ’em, we’ve got ’em in a poll somewhere.  All we did was weed out the non-2014 releases and then sort them into categories.

Tabletop Games

Historical / Strategy Game

poll by twiigs.com

Sci-Fi / Fantasy Game

poll by twiigs.com

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01/8/15

Campaign: Leipzig – The Two-Sided AAR, part 2

8 January 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.

When last we left our intrepid French heroes (or in this case hero, Marshal Ney, the now-occasionally jittery commander of the Army of the Bober) he had concluded his appreciation that the battle near Lowenberg would develop in three areas, roughly north, not quite so north, and south. Troops in the north, in division strength, were sent to drive past Ludwigsdorf and parts further east. Troops not so far north, also in division strength, were sent to hold a position just east of Plagwitz (pleasant sounding little dorf that) as well as its victory point location. Troops to the south, notably at the village of Siebeneichen, were to, in the immortal words of “The Longest Day”, hold until relieved by forces marching up from the south.

Veterans of the TIller Napoleonic series know the joy of moving long columns of men along roads. This is, of course, true to the period and does an excellent job of forcing the commander to choose between striking his opponent at the first opportunity and striking him when all of his troops are up. It also can dramatically slow a column that includes the plodding supply wagons that, in addition to being the only way to allieviate a unit’s “Low Ammo” status, must be protected against raids lest they fall into the hands of the enemy granting victory points. It’s with all this in mind that our attention turns to Brigadier General Senecal bravely steadying the men of the 35th Division’s First Brigade just west of Siebeneichen.

siebeneichen

Beyond maneuvering to concentrate my Prussians in the north, all of the early action is in the Russian attack at Siebneichen. 15th Division swings into the attack:

2014-10-11 20_11_34-Greenshot

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01/3/15

GrogHeads Reviews The Longest Day for iOS

The Longest Day invades your iPad.  Michael tells you where you’ll find all the sand afterwards.

Michael Eckenfels, 3 January 2015

click images to enlarge

The Longest Day is a second effort by the makers of Frontline: Road to Moscow, a game which I’ve heard of but have not played. If you’re looking for comparisons between the two, keep on looking because they ain’t here.

Instead, what you’ll see here is how Slitherine has created a fairly basic and AI-timid romp through the hedgerows and beaches of Normandy. It is June 6, 1944 (at least, on your iPad when you fire this up, like me), and you’ll find yourself in control of several Allied units looking to wrest control of Utah Beach from the occupying Germans.

However, before you get there, there’s a bit of confusion. The app itself is called “D-Day: The Longest Day,” but when you touch the icon, you get a mish-mash of images on a screen, including infantry storming a beach, but there’s no game title.

The giant in the background seems unimpressed.
The giant in the background seems unimpressed.

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01/2/15

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #61

Kick off the new year right – pledge some games!  Our first GARPA of 2015 (that still sounds weird, eh?) is an eclectic mix of games and game-related gizmos to get your monetary juices flowing…

 

Battle Brothers (Overhype Studio)
Steam Greenlight

It’s got both the strategic-level map and the tactical battles on the zoom-in level.  The storyline is a little trite – you’re a mercenary out for treasure and fame – but there is a large world-changing backstory that eventually finds its way to you.  They’re promising a wide variety of enemies and maps, including newly-generated world and tactical maps for each new game.  So give the campaign a look-see and offer some support for getting this one pushed through.  It’s visually appealing, and any good mix of strategic and tactical gameplay in a single package is always worthy of some attention.

 

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12/31/14

The GrogHeads Year In Review

31 December 2014

We reached out to our friends* in the game industry for some thoughts about the past year in games, and asked them for some insight about what’s coming next.

* yes, we actually have friends

Matthew Kirschenbaum, Academic-Gamer / Professor

2014 Highlight(s):  Highlight for me was working with the dozens of contributors on the Zones of Control book Pat Harrigan and I are editing for the MIT Press. This is an interdisciplinary as well as inter-professional volume, bringing together contributors from policy gaming, hobby gaming, and academia, writing about both tabletop and digital wargames. We have DoD types alongside of cultural theorists, and we designers alongside of their critics. We have the full spectrum represented in terms of politics and ethics as well. The book is on track for an early 2016 publication.

Looking Ahead at 2015:  In terms of a prediction, I’ll venture this: one major publisher in tabletop wargaming is going to go under. No, I don’t have anyone in particular in mind and I have no inside information–just a gut feeling.

 

Jim Zabek, GrogDude

2014 Highlight(s):  For me it seems the simplest things are worth the most. Game-wise two things stand out. First, I have managed to fall in with a great gaming crowd at the FLGS. The other thing that was a highlight was the re-issuance (I’m not sure how many times before) of Car Wars in more or less its original format. I don’t know why that seems to please me so much, but I guess it is the memory going back to my younger days and discovering it for the first time.

Looking Ahead at 2015:  As for what I think might make headlines in 2015? There are certain to be some sleepers that simply aren’t on my radar. But the one game I think lots of folks are going to be talking about – at least on Grogheads – will be Atilla Total War. There are over 3800 discussion posts on Rome 2 in the Grogheads forums. I suspect that Atilla may draw an equal amount of attention.

 

Erik Rutins, Director of Product Development at Matrix Games

2014 Highlight(s):  Distant Worlds: Universe and War in the West, two major new releases for 2014 that have been in the works for years and both were very well received by the community.  It was also great to work with the Command and Flashpoint Campaigns teams on their well-deserved re-launches.

Looking Ahead at 2015:  Lots of exciting releases coming – the new Brother against Brother Civil War wargame, the return of SSG, expansions for War in the West, a new Flashpoint Campaigns game and the first Command expansions!

 

Brain Train, Game Designer and Theorist (though he won’t admit to the latter) 

2014 Highlight(s):  Three little personal highlights for 2014 for me instead of one big one:

  • Getting a brief ripple of attention for Ukrainian Crisis, a 48-hour “one-man jam” game designed in the middle of the Crimean referendum crisis;
  • Speaking with Volko Ruhnke about the COIN series at Tableflip!, a very interesting conference on games and game design;
  • Launching BTR Games, a line of my personal games in DTP format released when and how I want them to be, with sales in the half-dozens so far.

Looking Ahead at 2015:  Three biggest news items in gaming in 2015 that I feel safest in predicting:

  • The COIN series will continue to attract talent and attention, with new designs and reprints coming;
  • More and more projects will be announced on Kickstarter, to chase less and less money;
  • BTR Games will have double-digit sales!

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