Category: Featured Posts

01/28/17

Designers of Napoleon 1806

From across the Atlantic, Julien & Denis join us for a chat ~

Jim Owczarski, 26 January 2017

It will surprise no one hereabouts that I’ve an interest in the struggle between Prussia and France in the Fall of 1806.  I’ve already written two articles about my planned trip to the Jena-Auerstadt battlefields this year and have been gleefully running a kriegsspiel of the campaign since October 2016 over in the Grogheads forum.

So, I would have been hard put to be more pleased when the Kickstarter campaign for Shakos’ Napoleon 1806  crawled across my news feed.  Reading the rules on-line and reading up on the backgrounds of the team behind all this, I backed quickly.  I wanted, though, to find out more about the this new company, the game’s designers, and what inspired them to take up what is, let’s be honest, not the most conspicuous of Napoleon’s campaigns.

boxart
The storm clouds gather

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01/26/17

Wow. Just… Wow.

So what happened 5 years ago today? ~

Brant Guillory, 26 January 2017

Screen Shot 2017-01-26 at 6.34.57 PM

Five years ago, we opened our forums here at GrogHeads.  Our front page followed shortly thereafter, and we’ve been talking games all along.

We wanted GrogHeads to be an independent voice in the strategy gaming world.  We also wanted to make sure we covered strategy gaming across the entire spectrum of gaming – tabletop, digital, team, distributed, multiplayer, whatevs! – and follow the interests of our members.

Do we get it right every time?  Nope.

Does that stop us from trying?  Double nope.
 5years

By the end of February, we had over 100 members in our forums.  Within 2 years, we were running a wargaming program at Origins.  Along the way, we’ve podcasted, reviewed, pontificated, sarcasmed, photo’ed, gamed, AAR’ed, voted, and discussed all manner of strategy games, and more.

We’re on our 4th iteration of our Readers’ Choice awards, planning our 4th GrogHeads Central Command at Origins, and in March we’ll run our 5th college hoops Bracket Challenge (hey, don’t laugh – it’s a big hit every year).  We’re a few dozen months, a few hundred reviews and a few thousand pictures into covering all sorts of games.

So how are you getting involved?  Are you talking games in our forums?  Sharing an AAR with the gang?  Coming to Origins to join us for a weekend-plus of great gaming?  Subscribing to the podcast?  Following us on Twitter?  Hanging with us on FaceBook?  All of the above?

Whatever it is, we hope you have a great time doing it, just like we do.

So from all of us here at GrogHeads, to all of you strategy gamers everywhere, wherever you are and whatever you’re playing – thank you, from the bottom of our dice cup.

Here’s to a many more years to come.

Chat about it below, or in our forums, or hit our FaceBook page >>

01/24/17

The Tuesday Interview – Wargaming Luminary Alan Emrich

The man behind Victory Point Games, and much more, joins us for this week’s chat ~

Michael Eckenfels, 24 January 2017

What was the first wargame you taught to someone else?

I started with a subscription to S&T, and so taught NAPOLEON AT WATERLOO to my gaming buddies. One of their dad’s had a treasure trove of Avalon Hill games in the garage, and we played those all summer! That was… 1973, I think.

 

What was the first wargame you ever designed (even if it didn’t see the light of day)?

Really, I’m more of a developer than a designer. I did some very satisfying work on Cosmic Encounter (designing a lot of expansion material) “back in the day,” and have done so much development work on some games I have ended up their “co-designer,” but I’m a rare bird in our industry to is happy developing games for others.

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01/23/17

Reminder! 2016 Readers’ Choice Award Voting

Don’t forget to have your say about your favorite 2016 games! ~

GrogHeads Staff, 23 January 2017

It’s time to get your votes in for the Readers’ Choice Awards for game-year 2016.

The only required items are the overall digital / tabletop games, at the end of each of those categories.

This year we’ve made a few changes:

  • We’ve consolidated the overall number of categories within the tabletop/digital divisions, to try to keep them as consistent as possible year-to-year
  • We’ve added an “AAR of the Year” category, at the request of the readers and members of our forums
  • We received no nominations for miniatures rules/expansions, so we’re not doing away with them as a category, but we can’t give you what you don’t nominate!

Chat about it below, or in our forums, or hit our FaceBook page >>

01/22/17

Order of Battle Pacific: US Marines – AAR, Scenario 9 Part 2

The Marines are closing in on Japan.  Next up? Guam! ~

Avery Abernethy, 22 January 2017

Click images to enlarge

 

Taking the rest of Guam was slow work. East Guam is covered with jungle. It is easy to hide snipers, bunkers and entire infantry platoons in the jungle. Only infantry can dig the Japanese out of the jungle. On the East Coast and in Central Guam the Japanese concentrated their armor, anti-aircraft and better infantry units. More and better defenders slowed the advance there. But overall it is easier for the Marines to crush larger forces in the open than it is to root out smaller forces in dense jungle terrain.

Guam Turn 16 Pushing Forward
Guam Turn 16 Pushing Forward

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