Month: March 2015

03/6/15

GrogHeads Interviews Tom Russell of Yaah! Magazine

Flying Pig Games is launching their new quarterly gaming magazine, Yaah! Magazine.  Their editor, Tom Russell, took some time out of his busy schedule to chat with us about the launch of the magazine, and what to expect from the next few issues.

click to enlarge images; images courtesy of Tom Russell

Sum up Yaah! Magazine for us in 5 words. Go!

That’s really hard. “Full-color quarterly print gaming magazine” gets across what it’s about, but not how it’s about it, if you know what I mean. But we’ll go with that.

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OK, so more details – fill in these blanks for us:
If you love _____, you’re going to love Yaah! Magazine, but if _____ isn’t your cup of tea, you probably want to read something else.

If you love games about conflict, you’re gonna love Yaah! If games about conflict aren’t your cup of tea, then I’m not sure why you’re reading this interview. In all seriousness– I can’t imagine someone with a wargaming background not loving the magazine, but admittedly this is really a recurring problem I have. I get so excited about what I’m working on, and who I’m working with, and how much I’m digging it that I can’t fathom why someone else wouldn’t dig it. It’s like that bit from one of Woody Allen’s films, I can’t quite recall which one, in which they ask his character (who is a filmmaker) who he sees as the target demographic. And he says, “This will appeal to adults, teenagers, young adults, and kids, adolescents, toddlers, I imagine. Newborns.”

I guess looking at it slightly more seriously, the focus of the magazine is pretty broad in some respects, as we’re looking at conflict-based hobby gaming. So it’s not, strictly speaking, a wargaming magazine, in the sense of historical wargames, though wargames are a big part of it. We’re also going to cover fantasy and science fiction gaming, horror, really anything with combat or other forms of direct conflict. So I guess there are people who would turn their nose up at it for that reason, because they’d really want something focused squarely on historical wargames. But really, I think there’s enough “real wargame”-related content in the magazine that it will appeal to those people, and they might look at some of the other stuff and say, “Oh, that looks neat; maybe I’ll try that.”

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03/5/15

Prosciutto – Hamming it up with the di Parmas, parto 32-o!

You missed the first 30 episodes?  You bad person.  Go read them all first, then come back here.

In Part 31 Benvenuto continued his Father’s ambition to become King of Sicily and assaulted the island and Sultan Yahya – its Muslim ruler.

A counter attack in Benvenuto’s homeland was beaten back by the Emperor’s forces, and the men of Salerno marched onto Malta with the aid of the Knights Templar.

Advised by his war council that more territory would need to be captured to force his demands for Sicily, Benvenuto needs to set sail for Northern Africa to take on the Sultan’s forces in his home territory. In this part, victorious Templars, a new beard, and a cool new hat.

 

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After a lot of bloodshed, a lot of retreating, regrouping and restorming, Malta finally falls to Benvenuto and the Templars. With a warscore of 90% its still not enough to force a full surrender – to Africa!!!!!!!

 

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Meanwhile in Bari……… Croatia comes back to take the region from the beaten down Muslims. So enraged is Benvenuto he grows an extra long beard and it turns white

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03/4/15

GrogHeads Previews Vietnam ‘65

Boggit, 4 March 2015

Developed by Every Single Soldier and published by Matrix/Slitherine

 

Vietnam ’65 is a single player, tactical-level game, focused on the American involvement in Vietnam in 1965. You play as the commander of the American forces allocated to a province somewhere on the Cambodian border.  Playing as the Viet Cong (VC)/North Vietnamese Army (NVA) is not presently an option, but may be a possibility for a future expansion.

The title screen captures the image of Air Cavalry in Vietnam. I can also hear the sound of helo’s and radio chatter in the background.
The title screen captures the image of Air Cavalry in Vietnam. I can also hear the sound of helo’s and radio chatter in the background.

Setting up a new game is easy. Click on New Game, and a random map of 10 villages is created. The game then plays out in a ‘Skirmish’ mode, as there are no ‘historical’ maps as such, so there is no replication of specific actions like Operation Silver Bayonet (Battles of LZ-Xray and LZ-Albany), or Operation Long Reach. To be fair, that is not really what the game is about as it provides a more general Vietnam ‘search and destroy’ gaming experience, and the randomly created maps ensure variety in the battlefield. Given the way the game is designed it would probably be difficult to properly replicate the historical actions meaningfully, as the games victory conditions are not focused specifically on winning a battle in conventional wargame terms.

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