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First up, the new edition of Jim Werbaneth’s Rommel at Gazala, which got a significant graphic upgrade.
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I left Origins 2014 fairly heavily-laden (everybody here is coming to see us Grogheads Central Command this year, right?), but one game I left un-bought was Iello’s “Heroes of Normandie”. I’m a bit of a “Memoir ’44” obsessive, the fact that both my wife and son are willing to play it with me is likely argument sufficient, and the game as laid out on the demo tables at the convention read like a competitor so I spent elsewhere. I kept my eye on the game over the year since, though, drawn to its over-the-top graphic style and the representations of some that it played like a simplified miniature game with counters. So, when Amazon included it among its Tabletop Day sales items, I pulled the trigger. What follows is a bit of what’s inside.
Like I said, the box and everything within is, let’s say, dramatic. For this the game makes no apologies saying that this is World War II as fought in classic war films.
Michael Eckenfels, 1 May 2015
After seeing a few discussions about Quartermaster General online – both positive and negative commentary included – I reached out to Ian Brody at Griggling Games to get a review copy for GrogHeads. I was looking forward to receiving this since it seems to simulate World War 2 in a very different manner than most games.
Here’s the box. I admit, in my eagerness, I removed the plastic shrink-wrap. I feel terrible that I didn’t capture a picture of it with the shrink-wrap. Why? Only because that’s what I’ve always done with all my unboxing articles so far.
Michael Eckenfels, 26 December 2014
I am a board game addict. Card games, dice games, board-and-cool-bits games, name it and I’m all over it if I like the theme. I’ve also done some manuals for board games. What I’m trying to get at is, I’ve seen a lot and played a lot, and it’s really tough to impress me. With unboxing, that first impression is all important; even though I have yet to play Fleet Commander Nimitz, this unboxing was a glorious experience with only a few ‘huh?’ moments.
Fleet Commander Nimitz is a DVG game born from a Kickstarter campaign that ended up cultivating 50% more cash than the goal needed, and as such there were a couple of stretch goals reached – namely, a mounted Battle Board and a counter tray. When I opened the shipping box and took out its contents, this stack is what greeted me:
As far as I can tell, the mounted Battle Board and the counter tray are not included in the game itself, and you cannot get them unless you preordered the game. The DVG page does not indicate that either are included, at least not at this time. Perhaps there will be a ‘Deluxe’ version of FC: Nimitz in the future? Who knows…
The counter tray is pretty nice, but it’s almost laughable insofar as its capacity is, compared to the insane number of counters that come with this game. I know at least one GH forum member that went to Walmart to buy his own storage containers from the crafts section, and that’s something I will likely need to do. Another important question that you might be thinking: will it all fit back in the box? I will answer that shortly.
Brant’s copy is here and he shows us the innards.
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