Category: Previews

06/1/14

Home of Wargamers Report: An Unexpected Journey, part 2 of 2

A Boggit’s tale

Day 2 of Home of Wargamers 2014

Part 2 of a Boggit’s Tale concludes the story with the Day 2 presentations, and concludes on Day 3 with the Saracen Warrior Trophy competition. Let’s get back to the games presented…

Peacock Hall

Here we saw

  • To End All Wars

To End All Wars is a classic AGEOD style game addressing the First World War. Why on earth did AGEOD produce this when First World War Gold is ostensibly an AGEOD game? Doesn’t it compete? The fact is that it’s nowhere near the same as the other game save for the link with AGEOD. It is not set at the Army level as First World War Gold is, but at the corps level with divisions, brigades, and regiments putting in appearances. Also the learning curve doesn’t leave you fighting the game.

 

Philippe Malacher – ‘Pocus’ on the forums - takes us to the border of East Prussia in To End all Wars
Philippe Malacher – ‘Pocus’ on the forums – takes us to the border of East Prussia in To End all Wars

If you are a player of AGEOD games, you will ease relatively comfortably into this. As I mentioned earlier, this is classic AGEOD with all the depth, attention to detail, decisions, and political events. This is definitely on my review list! It’s a solid looking, but nonetheless a starter base game – as with other recent AGEOD titles, it will be fleshed out over time with DLC to extend the range of campaigns, and scenarios. There are two 1914 Campaign games, the standard one in August, and a ‘what if’ campaign as a preparation for war starting in July where players can try out differing deployments to test the various national war plans.

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05/30/14

Home of Wargamers Report: An Unexpected Journey, part 1 of 2

A Boggit’s tale

The Prologue

Living a quiet, unadventurous life as a Review Scribe, Boggit almost missed the opportunity to go to this annual event simply by not paying attention on the scrying screen, sometimes known as the forums! Far to the East in the distant land of Italy strange things were happening. Brant – the great wizard of Grog had heard news of great treasures, and was determined to send a scout to learn the truth. The first to answer the call was the Bard – Undercovergeek – but he was sidetracked by nubile Norwegian elves. The Paladin – Jarhead – having slain so many dragons, had problems finding a tame silver dragon to cross the Great Sea. At the last moment, when all seemed lost, Boggit from the Shire of Dorset piped up. “I’ll go!” And a great adventure began.

 

Boggit crosses the Alps. Hannibal did it the hard way!
Boggit crosses the Alps. Hannibal did it the hard way!

Leaving the Shire of Dorset, Boggit travelled the Great Road to a place where tame silver dragons could be found. Stopping overnight at an Inn he fell in with another adventurer -Fraser Brown a proud Northern Scribe – with whom he shared a few beers, and learnt of Fraser’s intrepid journeys to places of learning where clever warlocks display their magic arts. The next day the two adventurers left for the Cave of Dragons, finding a friendly one, and rode it to the mysterious land of Italy.

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05/28/14

Home of the Wargamers Report: “Clear and Present Gaming!”

Distant Worlds Universe and Other Imminent Matrix/Slitherine Releases meet Grogheads

An overview by Boggit

Following on from Home of Wargamers 2014, there has been a flurry of activity from Matrix/Slitherine regarding their new releases. Distant Worlds has only just released on 27th May, and is to be closely followed by Pandora First Contact: Return of the Messeri Expansion, Close Combat: Road to Caen, and Qvadriga on Steam.

 

Distant Worlds Universe

 

You can start straight away with a pre-set human campaign, or mix things up with a custom game
You can start straight away with a pre-set human campaign, or mix things up with a custom game

For those players who haven’t got Distant Worlds, it is a massively scoped game that conventionally focuses on making broad policy decisions to guide your race to success. Essentially, you represent “the state”, but much of the game is heavily reliant on your private citizens. These private citizens trade, colonise, and exploit much of the universe’s resource potential. Distant Worlds Universe can be an incredibly deep 4X game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) – if you want it to be. You can micromanage as much, or as little as you wish, although micromanaging carries the risk of your head exploding given the multitude of activities you can engage in! Continue reading →

05/23/14

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #45

Your semi-weekly wallet-blasting gallon of goodness is back! GARPA checks out some excellent new projects waiting for your pre-order dollars.

 

Kuzaarik Forgers: Freeblades Fantasy Miniatures (DGS Games)
$4100 of $8500, ends 18 June 2014

The boys from DGS are back with another nifty-looking expansion to Freeblades. Ramp up your fantasy games with some excellent new minis of the Kuzaarik, the Dwarves with a bit of a twist. The concept art is fantabulous, and if the minis are even half as good as the advance sketches, the backers of their new Kickstarter campaign will be some happy gamers. Pledge away, dear readers!

 

New York 1776 (Worthington Publishing)
$13k of $2500 – ends 27 May 2014, so hurry up!

A battle of the AWI, New York 1776 was a key campaign for the Brits following the loss of Boston. A hex-and-block game with integrated fog of war, New York 1776 has so ridiculously exceeded its Kickstarter goal that some of the stretch goals – terrain blocks? – almost seem like they were making it up as they went along. A combination of a strategic map and a tactical battle board gives battles some depth while retaining the ‘big picture’ of the strategic situation. Read more at their site, and hurry up with your pledges before the Kickstarter campaign ends.

g45-NY

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05/21/14

Home of the Wargamers Report: Frontline – Road to Moscow

Boggit hit the road to join Slitherine and Matrix at their unveiling of this year’s upcoming hits.  This is the first of his reports from adventure.

Logo_FRTM

Developed by “88mm” Games and Published by Matrix/Slitherine
Screenshots by Boggit

as always, click images to enlarge

The Blitzkrieg thunders East! Upcoming DLC will unlock with new time periods
The Blitzkrieg thunders East! Upcoming DLC will unlock with new time periods

Just released, I first saw this game just a few days ago over at Home of Wargamers 2014 in Italy. Whilst I haven’t had the opportunity to play it, I had the game presented to me, and had the opportunity to ask developer Ionut Georgescu about his debut game with Slitherine.

 

Lots of units add to the variety, which in turn affects gameplay
Lots of units add to the variety, which in turn affects gameplay

 

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