Category: Previews

01/3/14

GARPA 35 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Authors: Brant Guillory and Jim Zabek

If this winter has taught us one thing here in LongBladia, it is that it can always get colder and snowier. The highs next week are forecast to be subzero Fahrenheit. Simply put, it would be wise to stay indoors, peruse some crowd-funded gaming projects, and sip hot cocoa. If you must go outside, make sure you run by your local game store and thank them for getting out in the cold to open their doors and sell you games. It’s the least you can do.

But, what we can do here at GrogHeads is share some of the recon we’ve conducted on upcoming projects. So grab your mouse and hot cocoa and get ready for some temptation!

Tabletop Games

Wise Bayonets by Acies Games

Available for Purchase

GARPA-35-Wise-Bayonets50.1When a Napoleonic wargame is published in the Italian peninsula about a battle that took place on their soil, it’s worth a gander. Acies Games has published a number of games that range from ancient Rome to control for the island of Sardinia and beyond. To call these battles “obscure” is to deny our wargaming roots; we love this stuff! The chance to learn about the nuances of forgotten conflicts, to possibly change the course of history…this is the meat and potatoes of wargaming. And gamers seeking to refight the battle of Trebbia now have the opportunity to do so. No, it’s not crowd-funded, but it’s definitely worth checking out: http://www.aciesedizioni.it/trebbia-eng.htm

 

Fief – France 1429 by Academy Games

$47,524 pledged of $20,000 goal, ending February 11th

GARPA-35-Fief.75

 

Academy Games is no stranger to porting foreign language games into English, polishing them, andreleasing them to the English-speaking wargaming wilds. Fief – France 1429 is an existing French language game of medieval “dynastic ambition.” Players take control of one of four families, with which they use to attempt to gain control of various villages on the map. Players must both cooperate and compete with each other through marriages and alliances. Events such as papal annulments, good and bad harvests all pop up to help keep things interesting. And having already met its successful threshold for fundraising, players can expect unlocks of stretch goals to continually improve this game. Check it out on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/617871702/fief-france-1429

Gathering Storm by GMT Games

P500 not yet filled

GARPA-35-GatheringStorm-2.75What’s that you say? A World at War wasn’t big enough or long enough for your gaming tastes? Fear not, for Gathering Storm is here to fill the void. With Gathering Storm players can start the ramp-up to the Second World War as early as 1935. This prequel allows gamers to fiddle with the “what-ifs” leading up to the war, which can range from Doenitz successfully getting a significant investment in his submarine fleet to the French extending the Maginot Line, to the conflict breaking out in other parts of the world first, such as a French pre-emptive attack, or Germany going after Russia first. Crazy? Crazy like only a wargamer can be. This is the stuff we live for, and if you’re man enough to play A World at War you’re definitely going to want to get in on Gathering Storm’s action. Check it out here: http://www.gmtgames.com/p-467-gathering-storm.aspx

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12/20/13

GARPA 34 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Authors: Brant Guillory & Jim Zabek

As Santa’s elves are banging out the last of their projects to be delivered next week there have been a number of game developers who’ve been making similar plans but with the help of crowd-sourced funding. Those of us in the US have even enjoyed a reprieve in the weather, with temperatures around LongBladia managing to briefly climb above freezing. The levels of snow we’ve received could be characterized as harassing fire – enough to cover the lawn and roads but not enough to make the kids happy with a day of school closure. Not to fear, temps are expected to come crashing down soon, but you know what that means: spring can’t be far behind.

Tabletop Games

Castles – A Strategic Card Game by AAIIEEE! GAMES

$7,339 pledged of $2,500 goal ending January 2nd

GARPA-34-Castles-Card-GameIf Castles looks familiar to you, it did to me, too, and for good reason.

Way back in November AAIIEEE GAMES (their capitalization, not mine. Really.) launched Castles as a “Strategic Card Game For Two Players” and set their funding goal at $6000. It failed to come anywhere near that goal, gaining a modest 2,787. Undeterred, the developers have reworked their math and decided that they could make do with backers supplying a more modest goal of $2500 and removing the word “strategic” from their game’s name.

They must be evil geniuses because this time the public got solidly behind them, easily meeting the $2500 goal and – surprisingly – have more than four times the number of original backers have coughed up $7300 worth of support, an amount that would have surely satisfied their first attempt at funding.

Crowd-sourced games can be strange in that way. In any case, if you’re looking for strategic card game for two players, with mild elements of fantasy and some attractive artwork, Castles may be the game for you.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aaiieee/castles-a-card-game-for-two-players

 

MegaMat Gaming Mat by Frontline Gaming and TABLEWAR

$73,374 pledged of $15,000 goal ending December 22nd

GARPA-34-Megamat-ImageMiniatures gamers are constantly on the prowl for a better mousetrap. Anything which gives their gaming experience an edge is carefully considered for addition to what is likely to already be a well-stocked inventory of gaming accessories. The limits of discretionary income are often the greatest impediment to buying wholesale swathes of accessories for our tables and it is well that we should have limits lest we have no room to store our accumulated treasures.

So it is that I am well aware how tempting it will be to many readers when I place these gaming mats here for your consideration. The creators of the MegaMat have already reached a successful level of funding. Their offering is simple: 4’ x 4’ or 4’ x 6’ gaming mats that provide a color base on which to game. So far it appears as though three backgrounds are available: grassy plains and blast zone were the first two mats promised if the minimum fundraising goal was met, with additional plans for more mats to be unlocked as fundraising levels were achieved. Planned stretch goal maps will include urban combat, alpine, and barren wasteland.

The mats have been created by professional game artists and the printed resolution is promised to be at 300 dpi (current test images are said to have been at 150, which already looks quite good).

The material the maps are printed on is similar to that of a mousepad, which provides a flexible material for ease of storage that is also crease resistant, and has a rubber back to help secure it to whatever surface it is placed upon. The mats are also coated with a water-resistant material to help resist stains and keep it clean. If any of these mats needs to be on your gaming table you’d better hurry as the fundraising window is closing rapidly.

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12/16/13

Spearpoint 1943 with Designer Byron Collins – BONUS

Byron had sent some videos our way.  And in classic GrogHeads “we’re-making-this-up-as-we-go” style, we forgot to include them in this weekend’s post decided to devote a new article just for them, since they’re so outstandingly awesome.

Discuss this article in our forums >>

12/14/13

Spearpoint 1943, Kickstarter Preview and Interview with Designer Byron Collins

Byron Collins has launched a new Kickstarter campaign for the Spearpoint 1943 system, and is closing fast on his funding.  He took a few minutes out of his busy days pimping this excellent card-driven WWII game to, well, to continue pimping it, but with GrogHeads!

Brant Guillory, 14 December 2013

 

Give us 3 words to describe Spearpoint 1943 as a game system.

Quick, Fun, Deep

S43INT-Spearpoint1943MapExpansionPlay2

OK, now give us the short paragraph – what’s special about the way Spearpoint 1943 plays, and where are wargamers likely to fit this into their staple of wargames?

Spearpoint 1943 is an expandable card game at its core (non-collectible).  It’s highly portable with its small box and small footprint of play.  It’s quick, deep, and keeps players interested because as you play, the game really tells a story.  For players who want even more depth than just playing with cards, they can optionally expand it with the Village and Defensive Line Map Expansion that got a 2013 Origins Award Nomination for Best Historical Boardgame.  The Map Expansion adds terrain boards that set up differently each game- it really changes the game and takes it even deeper- offering new challenges to Spearpoint players.  It’s a very scalable system.  Spearpoint fits nicely into a gamer’s library who seeks a great fast filler that’s easy to teach (even to teenage sons/daughters), yet scratches that tactical itch without drowning players in minutia.  It’s also been called an excellent ‘filler’ game between larger wargames.

What was the genesis behind Spearpoint 1943 and what were some of the design challenges you experienced along the way?

Spearpoint 1943 came about at WBC one year.  I was trying to demonstrate my very first design, which was much more complex (Frontline General: Italian Campaign Introduction).  I didn’t have time to show such a complex game, so focused on demonstrating just one element of it- combat.  From there, Spearpoint was born.  After honing the game to be a standalone card game, the combat system became even better and more fun.  Breaking it out of my first game made me realize that everything else I had done with that original design wasn’t quite as fun as just focusing on the combat.  The original Spearpoint 1943 is my best-selling game, was my first game in distribution, and remains popular- hence the expansions and new standalone game- Spearpoint 1943 Eastern Front. Continue reading →

12/6/13

GARPA 33 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Author: Jim Zabek

Winter isn’t coming, it has arrived. The Landgrave of LongBladia is expecting tonight’s temperatures to fall into the low teens. Bitterly cold? I’m thinking we’re getting there.

To warm your hearts, if not your hearths, we’ve selected a few crowd-funded games to please the forward-looking gamer seeking to invest in a project with the hope of a grand return. Whether you consider this goal modest or grandiose, that is our mission the each GARPA column and we hope we live up to your expectation.

Digital Games

Approaching Infinity by Bob Saunders

$6,089 pledged of $5,000 goal ending December 11th

Approaching Infinity Garpa 33“Roguelike” is a term that often gets batted about. It’s a genre well-loved and much aspired to by gamers and developers alike. Approaching Infinity is a Roguelike 2D retro game of space exploration. With procedurally generated environments the universe is infinitely scalable, which means that it literally has no end. As the player increases is power and reaches further into the virtual universe, the game scales with him – without end.

The funding goal has been met which means that the developer is now working on code for the Mac platform. The PC code is already a given, and a demo can be found here: http://ibol17.wordpress.com/2013/11/16/approaching-infinity-v0-0-6-is-live/. If you’re looking for a retro 2D space exploration game that can go on forever, Approaching Infinity is approaching the end of its funding time, so check it out before it ends. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/181428952/approaching-infinity-a-space-adventure-roguelike
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