Monthly Archives: September 2013
Ranger Up Talks Suicide: An Introduction
This article was originally published September 8th on Ranger Up’s Rhino Den. It is one of seven articles they will publish on the subject over the next week.
By RU Rob
Suicide.
When put together, those seven letters can draw out a range of emotions from fear to anger, sorrow to shame, and everything in between. In recent times suicide has been brought to the forefront of the news within military circles due to the ever increasing occurrence. The sad statistics show that now, more than any other time in our military’s history, our service members are taking their own lives.
So what do we do about it?
There is no easy answer to this question. The stigma that suicide carries with it is one of solitude and secrecy. There is no clear cut answer to solve this problem but I believe the first step is to get people to start openly talking about it, without fear of repercussion.
In the days leading up to Memorial Day, 2013, Blake Powers (Laughing Wolf) from Black Five wrote a powerful article. It really struck a chord with me as I had just lost another friend to suicide. It was then that I decided that if I could rally our writers, we could meet this trend face to face, open the necessary dialogue, and get people talking—the first step in making a difference.
We have rallied and are ready.
What you will read over the next seven days has been three months in the making. The Rhino Den is going to approach this subject the way we do every subject—head on. The writers of The Rhino Den are as diverse as any unit in the military. You will be exposed to perspectives from enlisted and officer; active duty and Veteran; from just about every branch of service and multiple job specialties. We will be providing statistics, personal reflections, and our own thoughts as to why and how this trend is happening.
This is an extremely emotional series for us. Some of our writers faced personal demons in the composition of their pieces and you will experience their pain and anguish. I cannot guarantee that you will agree with everything we will say and, quite frankly, expect to anger a few of you at some point.
There are a few people who deserve mention as we delve into this subject. Karl Monger, Boone Cutler, Deb Boyce, Soldier Hard, and Antonio Centeno are all making huge contributions into the education and fight against suicide. There are many, many other people who are doing great and wonderful things, but I have had direct contact with these amazing people and wish to recognize them as such.
As we begin I hope that you will take the time to share this series with your friends, family, and loved ones. We can only be successful if we keep lines of communication open with each other.
RU Rob
Editor-in-Chief
Ranger Up’s – The Rhino Den
Total War: Rome II – First Impressions
Developer: Creative Assembly
Publisher: Sega
Author: Lloyd Sabin
This Is How We Do It
Here at Grogheads we do things a bit differently. We don’t race to get the latest review of the hottest game up before release day. We have never felt that was the correct way to go about it. So our “First Impressions” piece hasn’t been released in the first 24 hours. It has taken us a few days to reconnoiter the game. Four days of gameplay doesn’t make a review, but it has given us something worth reporting.
We slowly wade into games most of the time, patiently observing, trying out features, taking notes and then ranting and raving like drugged cave men if something is wrong. Which brings me to my first point.
Rome II is here, and there are many people with things to say about it as usual. Below are some of my notes on my first few hours with Creative Assembly’s latest.
Total War, Total Chaos
Once the dust has settled on the release of Total War: Rome II – More Gooder, The Sundering of Wallets, or just Total War: Rome II, for short, the next title should absolutely be Total War: Release Day Antics. I have been playing computer games for 25+ years and have been writing about them for 10+ years, and I have never seen such chaotic division, screaming, ranting, and virtual insanity as I have upon a Total War release – before the game was released.
Germany at War: Barbarossa 1941 – PC Game Review
Developer: Phobetor
Publisher: Slitherine/Matrix
Author: Jim Cobb
Panzer General has engendered many sequels, add-ons and clones over the last twenty years. All have kept the original interface’s feel and most have been interesting. Yet, historical accuracy has taken second place to ease of play and fun. With Germany at War – Barbarossa 1941, Slitherine/Matrix and developer Phobetor have refurbished their earlier Operation Barbarossa – The Struggle for Russia and have brought the genre to a higher level.
Dusty Steppes
Players used to the somewhat verdant fields of Panzer Corps may find the summer and fall terrain of the game a bit plain. Brown and tan are the dominant colors but nobody said Russia was Eden. Winter scenarios have the usual white landscape. Any aesthetic loss is made up for in clarity. Village and city names are printed on the map and terrain features including pillboxes are easily identifiable. Objectives are encircled by a gear-like symbol. Vehicle icons are slightly murky even when zoomed in but can be seen as their types. Action points determine the amount of activity possible in a turn but are distinctive enough. Infantry and artillery are portrayed well. Aircraft look fine except spinning props like a CD stuck on the plane’s nose. The strength of each unit is clearly indicated on the icon and the selected unit’s screen yields more details via tool tips. Players turned off by the icons can opt to use NATO symbols. Weather is displayed very well with sheets of rain and snow while heavy clouds swirl in the air. Animation is adequate with tanks and half-tracks moving smartly, infantry turning to meet challenges, and horses galloping.
The monotony of the steppes can cause agoraphobia.
Typical winter near Moscow.
Panzers ready to roll!
Allied Corps – AAR Part 3
When we left off with Part 2 of this AAR the Germans had pulled out everything but the kitchen sink. There weren’t a lot of German forces, but what we ran into was quality. Neberwerfers, tank-busting aircraft, Tigers, V-2s…the list was pretty long. Almost every piece of high-tech equipment the Germans could field late in the war had made a showing and I was the guy having to beat it up. As you may recall, dear reader, I was pushing my way into the Netherlands. I had to take objectives in the north, west, and south. Thus far I had chosen to focus on the west and south, leaving the north until later. Through some kind of luck – simply having troops occupying some rail hexes, I inadvertently captured a train with some hot cargo. That was a pleasant surprise.
With that, let’s pick up the story at Turn 9.
Allied Turn 9
I start by hammering on the troops around Leiden. I don’t need to attack them as I hold the objective, but I take them on for good measure. Note the captured train next to my jeep in the middle of the screen:
Then I move to attack the Nashorn. My Sherman 105s gives it a good shot and inflicts some decent hurt. Then my Hellcats move up and attack some more. The Nashorn drops to a single point left. I send my Sherman 76s to finish it off. They do.
Seasons – Deconstructing the Boardgame
So exactly what would you expect to find in a game simply titled Seasons with a wizards and a stylized nature scene on the box?
Brant Guillory, 4 September 2013
Photos by Henry Vogel
“Hey man! I need a new kind of game to play. Help me out and let’s design one together, OK?”
“Sure! What kind of game do you want?”
“Well, I’ve been a huge Magic: The Gathering fan for about five years now, so I definitely want something with some deck-building in it. But collectible games are getting such a bad rep that there’s no way we’re going to make any money off of it, so I’m thinking something like Dominion, where the cards all come in the box, y’know? But still magic and wizards and sorcerers and stuff.”
“OK, so kind of Magic: The Gathering, but all in one box? That’s intriguing. But how do we make it not so obvious that it’s just Magic-In-A-Box, or, maybe ‘Mox’ for short?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about this, and there’s other games like the new Warhammer Fantasy Role Play and Quarriors that have these custom dice with all sorts of different symbols on them, where the symbols determine what you get to do each turn, so that might be cool. It would mean that we could replace Magic’s mana cards with some kind of roll-dice-get-mana action or something. And we can do cool colors, too.”
“I like that. People love rolling dice. Well, except those snooty Eurogamers who don’t believe in randomness. But if you can put buckets of dice in there, you’ll definitely get anyone who loves a wargame to come running! But that just gets the mana distributed, and it doesn’t really tell you what kind of mana you have.”
