Monthly Archives: June 2014
First Impressions of Combat Mission Red Thunder
Grumpy Grog Says: “Combat Mission Red Thunder is more impressive than a Katyusha barrage. Uurrraaaah!”
Developed and Published by Battlefront Inc.
First Impressions by Boggit
Red Thunder is the newest arrival in the Combat Mission series on the Eastern Front. It focuses on the battles during and just after the great Soviet offensive – Operation Bagration – from June to September 1944, covering the area of modern day Belarus, to the gates of Warsaw in Poland. The developers chose this period because, in terms of experience, the Red Army was generally able to match the German Army, thus in principle creating a more balanced game.
Advancing through woods, we make contact!
Since this is a first impressions piece, I haven’t spent as much time in actual gameplay as I usually put in with my full Combat Mission reviews. The article is based upon a couple of the new scenarios, half a dozen quick battles, and with some useful feedback from Steve Grammont of Battlefront regarding the changes to the game engine from the V3.0 upgrade.
GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #46
A new D-Day game, and (finally!) the digital version of one of boardgaming’s most popular conflict games of all time. Smells like…. GARPA!
Twilight Struggle, digital edition (GMT Games)
$115k of $50k goal (though that’ll be surpassed by the time you read this), ends 3 July 2014
For several years, it could be wryly joked that the “Struggle” in Twilight Struggle was for the difficulties in getting the digital version deployed. No more. It’s not uncommon to see a Kickstarter campaign blow well past the full funding mark, into ridiculous levels of stretch goals. It’s rare to see a Kickstarter campaign fully funded within hours. Yes, hours. Twilight Struggle was at $30000 around 400pm on June 5th, having only launched earlier that day, and within the next 90 minutes they almost doubled that total, to exceed their $50k goal. They’ve doubled that goal within the first 24 hours. Why are we not talking about the game itself? Do we really need to? It’s to top-ranked “wargame” at BoardGameGeek (though admittedly, discussions of whether or not it’s a “wargame” waste plenty of hours online). A forum/team game has been running here at GrogHeads for a while now, and countless schoolteachers around the US use it to introduce their students to the Cold War. Seriously, you don’t need convincing. You just need to go figure out your pledge level and get it over with already.
Day of Days (MMP)
181 of 650 orders needed
It wouldn’t be D-Day without us digging up an Overlord game, right? MMP has a new SCS game for D-Day that’s designed to cover not just the landings themselves, but the breakouts that followed. There are even scenarios designed to skip the amphibious assault, and start with Allied forces on the beach. This game is new enough that there’s no draft cover art, playtest photos, or anything else that’s leaked out. We were able to scrape up a very rough image of the maps (yes, plural) to show the scope and scale of the game, which will include scenarios that focus just on the British landings, or the US landings. It’s an MMP game, so it’s going to be a solid and well-tested game on a known platform (SCS) and all those great touches that come with MMP tackling the subject in depth. Go get a pre-order in!
Prosciutto – Hamming it up with the di Parmas… Part 25
Two weeks in a row? You guys are special!
click images to enlarge
In Part 24 Matilda of Tuscany declared war on Parma in a bid to reclaim land rightfully held by Oberto. By concentrating his forces and those of his allies from Bohemia on the strongest armies of Tuscany, Oberto whittled down Matilda’s army to a mere guerilla force, and then called in Ceowulf and his Saxon band to mop up, after Radislav of Bulgaria and his men were lost in Parma itself. With victory almost in their grasp Matilda’s allies strike a final blow at Oberto. In this part, death of an innocent, an old crow begs, a viper for hire and the tears of a people.
In the hills of Sospiro the best of Breisgau are thwarted by the Saxon band and the last of Oberto’s men. Mathilda’s lands are left wide open to siege
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of enemy Apulia over one thousand Muslims land on the coast and begin to seige the region of Benevento
Tuesday Screenshot – Making History: The Great War
Revisiting Muzzy Lane’s excellent WWI game, which we had previously covered here.
click to enlarge
Rebellion Against
Another sprawling empire
A long time ago…
