Monthly Archives: July 2014
AARsday – Airship Dragoon – The Battle of Verdun, Part 1
Sauron’s recent escapades in Airship Dragoon included a shootout near Verdun between the Brits and an unspecified “Asian” force.
I have the feeling it will be bloody!!!
Wargaming History – A Look Into The Past
University of Maryland Professor (and more importantly, wargamer!) Matt Kirschenbaum is on a European odyssey this summer. While in Switzerland for an academic conference, he made time to swing by a local museum and found an excellent display of wargaming history.
I was recently in Lausanne, Switzerland for a conference and, well, it rained the entire week. Looking around for something to do I noticed the Swiss Games Musuem, Le Musee Suisse du Jeu, was a short train ride away in the nearby town of La Tour de Pielz. Reading further, I discovered the museum was housed in a castle. A games museum in a castle? Let’s go! Upon arrival, I found two unexpected bonuses: first, the weather briefly cleared, *and* there was a special exhibition of WWI games on!
Tuesday Screenshot – Picket Duty
We’ve shown you the unboxing on Picket Duty, and we’ve got a review coming up. But for today, here’s a tease of the game on the table.
click to enlarge
Photo: Michael Eckenfels
GrogHeads Reviews Valiant Hearts: The Great War
A review by Lloyd Sabin, 20 July 2014
Published by Ubisoft Montpellier
As always, click images to enlarge
Emotions and War
I don’t typically wear my emotions on my sleeve. In the last 20 years I think I have shed tears three times in front of my own wife. But there are certain events and historical phenomenon that bring out the sensitive, skinny-jean-and-mesh-truck-cap wearing emo in me…and World War I is at that top of the list.
Why, specifically? I don’t know. Maybe I view World War I through too romantic a lens and I believe so much of what has been written about it: “lions led by donkeys,” the “death of innocence” and “good bye to all that.” Those terms and the emotions, places, and situations they describe really resonate with me in a way that no other historical era does.
Zeppelins are portrayed in Valiant Hearts and you’ll have to learn how to take them down!
It’s strange because I had direct contact with World War II through my grandparents: its horrors and its triumphs – so much so that World War II became almost commonplace to me. Where and when I grew up, everyone had a father, or more likely a grandfather, who fought in it. World War I is murkier; I have never knowingly met anyone who was there, so I have constructed what it was like for combatants on all sides in my own head. And this has produced a war where vengeance and justice have been replaced with melancholy and the longing for “the way things were before.” By World War II the world collectively knew that there was no going back; during World War I this loss was still very new and very fresh. This hazy, general feeling of loss and grief is captured masterfully by Valiant Hearts: The Great War (VH:TGW).
Paris at night, before the Battle of the Marne.
GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #49
GARPA lands with three not-yet-funded projects that all look tres cool, and one that did make the cut that looks overwhelmingly cool.
Battle of the Electric Vikings (Black Slither Games)
$2400 of $4700, ends 6 August 2014
Rock out with your c… well, you know the rest. Black Slither Games gives everyone a chance to be their own heavy metal poet by piecing together your own song titles, lyrics, and albums from a bag of word tiles with the most metal of meaningful choices. Who cares if you win? It only matters if you ROCK! And that you pledge over at the Kickstarter page. That’s important, too.
