Month: October 2015

10/10/15

Bonus AAR! Rommel Attacks, ’43 (part 2)

What does a 4-player throwdown look like in Gary Grigsby’s War in the West: Operation Torch?  The gang at Matrix Games shows us ~

Matrix Games, 10 October 2015

Turn 3

Axis Air Commander

On Turns 2 and 3 I provided Stuka Ground Attacks on enemy concentrations until Fatigue and Low Morale forced me to ground the Stukas to recover.  At this point my goal switched to keeping the enemy aircraft away from our Ground Forces by flying Air Superiority Missions over the most dangerous part of our Front, which was in the Center.  I believe this was also quite successful although I was not able to see the Air Battles raging during the Ground Phase.

Axis Ground Commander

The battle continues to rage to the north of Sdid Bouzid but the Allies are unable to exploit forward.

Torch-017-screenshot

I take this turn quietly and ensure that I take easy chances to push back units that have over extended. I bide my time as I don’t want to exhaust my combat power and open myself to being caught by a counter attack.

Continue reading →

10/9/15

Bonus AAR! Rommel Attacks, ’43 (part 1)

What does a 4-player throwdown look like in Gary Grigsby’s War in the West: Operation Torch?  The gang at Matrix Games shows us ~

Matrix Games, 9 October 2015

This is an AAR of a 4 player game of the Rommel Attacks 43 scenario from Gary Grigsby’s War in the West: Operation Torch. Rommel Attacks is a short 5 turn scenario that covers the Axis counter-attack that led to the Battle of the Kasserine Pass. In the actual battle, after initial success, the Axis attack was halted and the German command withdraw some of the forces to focus on the British 8th Army arriving from Libya. In this scenario, the German forces are retained by the Axis player for the duration of the scenario, so the Axis side is expected to seize critical objectives and hold them.

Operation Torch allows each side to be split in two for true multiplayer play, with one player commanding the air forces and the other the ground forces. The players in this game, all from the Torch development team, were:

  • Axis Air Commander – Randy Seger (scenario designer)
  • Axis Ground Commander – John Young (scenario designer)
  • Allied Air Commander – Erik Rutins (producer)
  • Allied Ground Commander – Joel Billings (game developer)

This AAR will mix in comments from the different players. This was John’s first play through the scenario, while Joel had the advantage of having played an earlier version of the scenario as the German ground commander in a 4 player test game.

Torch-001-screenshot

There are 7 territorial objectives in this scenario, with various victory points awarded, each turn and at the end of the game, for control of these objectives. In addition, victory points are awarded for causing casualties, but the bulk of the victory points in the scenario stem from control of the objectives.

Continue reading →

10/8/15

Gaming Nostalgia – Centurion Games

Folks dug the Nostalgia ads so much that we’re keeping them around, and just changing the day. Look for our blasts-from-gaming’s-past to show up on #tbt from now on, and occasionally some other day, just to keep you on your toes.

Nostalgia--2
OK, everyone that’s heard of Centurion Games, raise your hand. Yeah, you in the back? You’re lying. Seriously. No one has ever heard of Centurion Games.

click images to enlarge

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

10/8/15

Birth of the Federation, an AAR, Part 16

CHAPTER XVI: MAKING FRIENDS AND INFLUENCING ALIENS

BOTF-16-001

Well, I offered a Friendship Treaty to both the Edo and the Xindi. I didn’t expect the Xindi to offer me their own Friendship Treaty, which I accept heartily. I can now establish trade routes with them, and make even more money! Woo-hoo!

The Edo, unsurprisingly, rejected my Friendship Treaty. It’s going to take a little while before they’ll warm up. Usually, bribing a minor alien race is best done when you put about five turns between bribes, to ensure their effectiveness. So it’ll be about 20 turns or so before they warm up. Meanwhile, the bug-faces find themselves inundated by human trade ships, in something very akin to a California Gold Rush, or the Great Beanie Baby Scam of 1995.

Continue reading →

10/7/15

Tiny Epic Galaxies – First Look!

The Kickstarter sensation is starting to land on peoples’ tables.  What’s inside? ~

Brant Guillory, 7 October 2015

We first brought up Tiny Epic Galaxies in our GARPA column, where we noted how quickly they blew through their initial funding goals in 90 minutes, and hit six-figures within their first day.  Now that it’s arrived, here’s what finally shipped after all the stretch goals piled in.

TEG-1-Cover
The box. Standard size small Gamelyn box, but feels sturdier than the others like TEK.
TEG-2-Back
Nicely-illustrated back cover

Continue reading →