Monthly Archives: February 2014
Picket Duty: Kamikaze Attacks against U.S. Destroyers – Okinawa, 1945 – First Look!
Michael Eckenfels unboxes another recent discovery!
Legion Wargames’ Picket Duty is a solitaire game from Steve Dixon, a designer that had a hand in creating B-29 Superfortress and its expansion, Hell Over Korea. I’ve been watching this title for some time now and was quite eager to get a copy, even though I’ve read discussions over on BoardGameGeek about how the current version 1.0 of the rules are confusing and a newer version is due out soon. Regardless, what I followed in development looked like a game with a lot of potential and great components.
You can view the game on Legion Wargames’ page here.
The box is a standard-sized wargame box, if a bit thinner than a ‘normal’ one.
The Scramble for Africa – A Civ 5 AAR (Part 2)
We started off with a bang… dropped two cities, then drop-kicked the Zulus into a war.
By Brant Guillory, GrogDude
Click images to enlarge
So here goes the start of turn 2 or so. I mean, really – why waste time where there’s this much tail to kick?
Yes Dude, I got it…
You’re unhappy that I’m about to whip your butt.
D’oh!
Her majesty is upset at my land-grab. I’d rather her mad at me now than cultivating my vineyards on turn 11.
Another of those wacky victory conditions
Finding natural wonders scores points for the Europeans.
Book Review: Under a Graveyard Sky
A Review of Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo
Review by Avery Abernethy, 5 February 2014
John Ringo’s work is well known to many wargamers. He has many bestselling books with large amounts of tactical and strategic combat including the popular Posleen series, the Council War Series, and even an “X-Files meets the deadly soccer mom from Mississippi series” (Princess of Wands and Queen of Wands). A veteran of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, Ringo’s work has appealed to many readers interested in action-packed combat.
Under a Graveyard Sky is a survivalist novel of a zombie apocalypse. Although I like post-apocalyptic fiction, zombies have never held my interest., as they are the epitome of mindless, tactically brain-dead opponents. The whole idea of a zombie apocalypse has always seemed so weird and boring that I bought the book in hardback and let it sit for five months unopened. I shouldn’t have waited so long, as Ringo has actually written an interesting, post-apocalyptic zombie book.
Origins Pre-Registration is open
Gamers of all stripes are converging on Columbus, OH this summer for Origins, especially those coming to join the GrogHeads’ gathering that’ll be taking place there.
Pre-registration is now open for the Origins Game Fair!
And you can register for Origins here, and pick up your event tickets – which you’ll want for the fabulous GrogHeads events that’ll be going on.
GrogHeads Readers’ Choice Awards – WINNERS!
Wrapping up the last of our 2013 year-end coverage, we have the results of our annual Readers’ Choice Awards voting.
Our Readers’ Choice Awards are a pretty simple concept – it’s all up to you! We take nominations all year long in our forum threads, and any game that’s nominated that was released within that calendar year gets included. Our editorial team helps group some of the categories together, but if you nominated it, it’s here somewhere.
We divide our categories into tabletop and digital games, with miniatures normally included with the tabletop games. This year, however, we had no nominations for any miniatures games or products. Within each of the digital / tabletop branches, we break out some separate categories, but we always include an “overall” category for each, pitting every nomination against each other.
Without further ado, here are your winners of the GrogHeads 2013 Readers Choice Awards:
Our winners in each category are awarded the GrogHeads Readers’ Choice Award Gold Medal
The tabletop world saw nominations into several categories, include Wargames, Strategy Games, Magazine games and scenarios, Expansions, Reprints, and the ever-coveted Overall category.
Consim Press’ The Hunters hammered the competition for the Tabletop Wargame of the Year, with only A Distant Plain, even garnering double digits as A Distant Second. The Ogre Designer Edition brought up the third place tail.
Competition in the Tabletop Strategy Game of the Year was a little more heated, with the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game narrowly edging out the much-anticipated Firefly Board Game to take the title. Eldritch Horror nailed down third place.
