Month: August 2015

08/22/15

A Preview of Fog & Friction

Jim gets his paws on an early copy of Fog & Friction and tells us what we’re in store for when the rest of us finally get our hooks into it.

Jim Owczarski, 22 August 2015

As an historical miniatures gamer down to my genome, I live for the spectacle of the gaming table.  In moments of weakness I have considered those willing to play on tables smaller than those used for ping pong a lesser breed of men and been dismissive of those games and rule sets than enable them.  With age comes wisdom, though, no matter what my wife would tell you, and I’ve grown to see the merits of games that offer a smaller footprint while still trying to offer a bit of what draws each of us to the hobby.  In this light, Pondfoot Games’ “Fog and Friction” (hereafter F&F) is a fine offering — it brings some of the toys, drama, and tension that make gaming the Second World War so appealing and lets you do it all on your kitchen table.

I’ll leave aside the fits and starts that this project has experienced as it’s tried to make its way to market (more here) and say that my remarks will confine themselves to the promo copy of the base set I received from the folks at Pondfoot.  The offering is simple enough:  two 60-card core decks, one each for the Axis and the Allies, and two 30-card expansion decks.  The game is non-collectible (first step towards toleration for me) but the designers hope to offer several expansion sets that will allow players to eventually fight in theaters other than the familiar terrain of Normandy represented in the base set as well as adding in new units and special cards.

Yep, decks of cards.  You were expecting model T-34s?
Yep, decks of cards.  You were expecting model T-34s?

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08/21/15

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #75

Game accoutrements take center stage this week.  But don’t worry, we’ve got games, too!

Brant Guillory, 21 August 2015

Carolina Game Tables (Clint & Jodi Black)
$19k of $15k, ends 10 September 2015

Gorgeous, hand-crafted, drop-center game tables that pull double-duty as your dining room table are perfect for your gaming clan, uh… family.  Carolina Game Tables are a startup from a family that’s been in the furniture business for a few generations, and they’re putting that expertise to work for your benefit.  More affordable than the giant Geek Chic tables, Carolina Game Tables will hook you up with a great addition to your gaming life, but only in CONUS.  Sorry, Hawaii.  Drop your pledge on their Kickstarter campaign and then post the pics in our forums when it gets delivered and make us all jealous.

g75-table

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08/19/15

Tank on Tank – First Look!

LNLP reboots the Tank on Tank franchise with 2 new boxed games

Brant Guillory, 19 August 2015

Click images to enlarge

Lock’n’Load Publishing has brought back the Tank on Tank franchise, with the long-awaited East Front stand-alone game to accompany the previous version, now labeled as West Front.  What’s in the boxes?  Lessee…

The boxes are the standard LNLP "thin" boxes, which stack nicely on the game shelf alongside all their others.
The boxes are the standard LNLP “thin” boxes, which stack nicely on the game shelf alongside all their others.

edit: to clarify, when referring to the standard LNLP “thin” box, we’re referring to the height of the box, and not the thickness of the actual box material.  These things are pretty substantial, but are only about 1″ high.  They are not the paper-thin tuck boxes of LNLP days gone by.

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08/18/15

Tuesday Gaming Nostalgia – Palladium’s Weapons Books

click images to enlarge

While the GrogCast is on Summer vacation, we thought we’d bring you some entertaining blasts-from-gaming’s-past with some classic print ads to conjure up some reminiscing.

Palladium's books were always lavishly illustrated
Palladium’s books were always lavishly illustrated

OK, hands up – who had these?!

 

Sound off below, or pop into our forums for a chat >>

08/15/15

Attila: Total War – The Last Roman 

Developed by Creative Assembly and Published by SEGA

By Lloyd Sabin 15 August 2015

click images to enlarge

Let’s Be Honest with Each Other

I love Attila: Total War, but I’m not very good at it to be honest. I’ve played campaigns as the Geats, Langobards and the Huns in the standard game and after many, many false starts and immediate ass-whuppings, the best I could come up with so far is ‘not getting slaughtered at the very beginning.’ Even then, my Geat campaign ended in piles of ash where my capital city once stood and I don’t think I made it to 50 turns as the Huns. My Langobard campaign is ongoing…fingers crossed. I suppose that’s not too bad considering the main goal of these campaigns is to simply survive until a certain date but still…not a very stellar performance.

Cue the Last Roman campaign, featuring the Last Roman himself, Belisarius. The campaign is set on a mini-map which is virtually identical to the map that Creative Assembly produced for the Hannibal at the Gates campaign for Rome 2: Total War…it’s just set much later, obviously, in the 6th century AD. Playable factions include the Roman Expedition led by Belisarius (not the Eastern Roman Empire, led by an AI Justinian), the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths and the Franks. I chose to play the Roman Expedition first.

Excellent, I am 'losing decisively!' Wait a minute...
Excellent, I am ‘losing decisively!’ Wait a minute…

 

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