Bear’s Claw 1941 (GMT Games / Consim Press) P550 – not there yet
What the world really needs – just needs! – is another East front wargame, huh? Well, it’s printed by GMT and designed by CP, so it’s going to be a solid, quality production. And unlike those massive drive-to-the-Urals-at-company-level monster games, these battles are bite-sized games of specific actions. Over-runs, morale, unknown Soviet unit strengths, and air support all contribute to a solid level of detail. The counters are a little busy, but still gorgeous, so don’t hesitate to march off to GMT’s pledge site and get on board.
Hey now, it’s been a few weeks, so we thought we’d throw another GARPA at you. Plus, y’know, we had it on the schedule and all…
Brant Guillory, 18 September 2015
Mech Deck (Patrick Fahy) $19k of $75k, ends 1 October 2015
These guys may have over-reached with the funding goal, but it’s because they’re committed to the quality of the manufacturing. “Manufacturing what?” you ask. Customizable, multi-component, build-your-own mech-walker-battle-droid-giant-fighting-thingees (trying to avoid inadvertently violating someone’s copyright here, work with me). It’s a hex-and-minis skirmish game, but with mech figures that you can literally assemble on-the-fly to customize your arms, torso, legs, and “backpack” (back of torso) to make your own mech and then duke it out for bragging rights, or beer. There’s some card-based randomizing as well as a geomorphic map. Stomp over to the campaign page and fire off your pledge.
OK, so we’ve got something completely different for you this week.
Brant Guillory, 4 September 2015
Hawk The Hunter (Terry Marcel) $19k of $500k, ends 1 OCT 2015
Remember the old fantasy flick Hawk the Slayer? Of course you do. You totally plundered it for campaign ideas for your early no-prefix D&D games. Jack Palance chewing scenery. The hokey rapid-fire elf-archer effects. The cross-necklace-of-course-it’s-a-hidden-knife saving the day at the end. Well it’s taken them 30 years, but they finally got around to trying to make the sequel, and they’re kickstarting it. You can start at $5, and score the RiffTrax quip-along, and top out at a couple of grand that gets you a part in the movie. Why are you still here instead of pledging the campaign? Oh right, you’re here to watch the movie.
Jim gets his paws on an early copy of Fog & Friction and tells us what we’re in store for when the rest of us finally get our hooks into it.
Jim Owczarski, 22 August 2015
As an historical miniatures gamer down to my genome, I live for the spectacle of the gaming table. In moments of weakness I have considered those willing to play on tables smaller than those used for ping pong a lesser breed of men and been dismissive of those games and rule sets than enable them. With age comes wisdom, though, no matter what my wife would tell you, and I’ve grown to see the merits of games that offer a smaller footprint while still trying to offer a bit of what draws each of us to the hobby. In this light, Pondfoot Games’ “Fog and Friction” (hereafter F&F) is a fine offering — it brings some of the toys, drama, and tension that make gaming the Second World War so appealing and lets you do it all on your kitchen table.
I’ll leave aside the fits and starts that this project has experienced as it’s tried to make its way to market (more here) and say that my remarks will confine themselves to the promo copy of the base set I received from the folks at Pondfoot. The offering is simple enough: two 60-card core decks, one each for the Axis and the Allies, and two 30-card expansion decks. The game is non-collectible (first step towards toleration for me) but the designers hope to offer several expansion sets that will allow players to eventually fight in theaters other than the familiar terrain of Normandy represented in the base set as well as adding in new units and special cards.
Yep, decks of cards. You were expecting model T-34s?
