Monthly Archives: July 2016
GrogHeads Interviews Terry Sofian of Hive, Queen and Country
We connected at Origins, and continued the electronic conversation afterwards ~
Corinne Mahaffey, 30 July 2016
I sat down for an email interview with Terry Sofian, the creator of Hive, Queen and Country, a steampunk world where the European powers are, with the help of the mineral aerolith, extending their imperial reach to the rest of the solar system. They recently ran a 3 day game at Origins wherein a hive in Brazil was besieged by American and British forces.
What are your games and world about?
Our games are about telling stories in an altered Victorian era, one in which the already stunning challenges of exploring frontiers on six continents, the seas and the polar ice cap, making scientific discoveries that fashioned the world in which we live today and developing amazing new technologies, are compounded with air and space travel and explorations both in deep space but also on several worlds within our solar system. The stories can be about fighting hordes of angry alien bugs. They could be about building a city on Venus. Perhaps they are about solving murder mysteries on any of a number of worlds.
The Hive, Queen and Country Universe was started as a sandbox in which a bunch of folks could get together to and discuss ideas set in such an altered time line. We designed the Universe to be a place where gamers, writers, artists, model builders and any other creative types could build “sand castles”. The games and world are designed to provide a framework for people to work within.
HQC in action at Origins
Gaming Nostalgia – Flashpoint: Golan
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Back when VG was still cranking out some of our favorite games…
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The Battle of Waterloo: A Comparative Exercise, Part 3
In the finale of our Waterloo comparisons, our resident Napoleonicist continues his side-by-side comparisons with the groggiest of the grog games ~
Jim Owczarski, 23 July 2016
The 201st anniversary of the Great Battle has passed, Spring has turned to the heat of Summer, and, for those who have come this far, it’s time to explore the rarefied air breathed by the more complex simulations of the Battle of Waterloo. (ed note, links to read part 1 and part 2)
I begin with a game to which I react much like that famous speech from the end of so many relationships, viz.: “it’s not you, it’s me.” Martin Wallace is one of the great Euro-game designers of our time and there’s much conceptually to admire in his “Waterloo”, but, despite my best efforts, I’ve never been able to bring myself to love it the way some do.
You can keep your Mona Lisa.
Gaming Nostalgia – The Original Atari 2600
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For many of us, this is where our love of console games started.
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Today’s Screenshot: Combat Mission Shock Force
Driver’s License? We don’t need no driver’s license! ~
Boggit, 19 July 2016
The élite of the Syrian tank driving school
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