Month: March 2018

03/31/18

GrogHeads Reviews Battle of Britain (the new one!)

Never have so many spent so much backing a game by so few that plays…  so well? ~

Jim Owczarski, 31 March 2018

During the mad era when Lorraine Williams lead TSR, the company released, counter intuitively to some, a few of the most popular wargames ever created.  Chief among these was The Hunt for Red October, but the list also includes bright lights like Red Storm Rising, A Line in the Sand, and, less brightly, Europe Aflame.  This list was joined in 1990 by Battle of Britain (hereafter just BoB), a Richard Borg design that brought Mr. Borg’s love of light simulation and dice-heavy combat resolution to the skies over Britain and the English Channel in those early years of the Second World War.

More than 25 years later, the Plastic Soldier Company, which partnered with Mr. Borg to create the First World War iteration of his Commands and Colors system, launched a Kickstarter to re-release BoB and bring its production values up to contemporary wargame standards.  The Kickstarter was well received, but, as with many of these endeavors, there were lots of delays, allegations of poor communication on the part of the company, and a fair amount of displeasure with the quality of some of the components.  I received my own copy over a year after I backed it — about eight months after I expected it — and I’ve been having a go at the game with my son.  What do I think of the re-boot?  That would be telling; please read on.

Lovely cover art

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03/28/18

Classic Reviews – Operation Blockade

Another treasure from the vault of our GrogHeads’ writers ~

Michael Eckenfels, 28 March 2018

Developer/Publisher: Infogrames

Fans of shoot-em-ups, have we got something to tell you about! To be honest, though…I’m not a fan. I never had too much fun with the ‘move-fire-madly-flip a switch-next level’ stuff, having thoroughly taken part of such excitement (and passed a ton of quarters) to the stand-up arcade monsters of the 1980’s. I didn’t relish the possibilities of this title much, but every so often even the most anachronistic wargamer should poke their head out of their board game dungeon and try their hand at a little action.

So here is Operation: Blockade. While a shoot-em-up, it is deftly clever at covering up its own inadequacies, simplistic ideas, and never-changing worldviews, by injecting a hot load of steel-and-fire addictive game play. The gamer will probably be disappointed in some aspects of this title, but that should be balanced through some surprisingly attractive graphics and cleverly manipulated sound.

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03/26/18

What’s Gus Playing? Endless Space 2, part 1

The eloquent elf of exploration expresses endless exultation ~

Lloyd Sabin, 26 March 2018

Although I have only played a couple of hours of it, The Great Meshing™ happened with Endless Space 2.

Some games just mesh with us. The art style, the UI, the characters, the writing…all of it just coalesces in to a greater whole that digs its claws in to us and we love everything about it. I can always count on the Assassin’s Creed games, the Total War series, Warner Brothers games like Mad Max and Shadow of War and the Witcher series, among others, to really blow my mind, even after numerous iterations. When this Great Meshing™ happens unexpectedly with a new title, it can blow your mind.

Although I have only played a couple of hours of it, The Great Meshing™ happened with Endless Space 2. Admittedly, for most of the time I played it, I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on, learning the game’s systems, reading up on it’s factions, and generally attempting to keep my head above water. I had chosen the Vodyani to play as, which may not have been the best choice…when I return to Endless Space 2 – and I am certainly going to – I should probably chose a more straight forward faction to try.

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03/24/18

GrogHeads Interviews Glenn Drover of Forbidden Games

FoG Glenn Drover is launching a new venture, and stops by to tell us all about it ~

Jim Owczarski, 24 March 2018

Glenn Drover has been in the game business for quite a few years now.  Despite an abiding love of historic gaming — notably in offerings like Napoleon in Europe and Victory and Glory: Napoleon — his biggest successes have been lighter fare including time spent at digital developer PopCap.  Earlier this week, he and fellow PopCap alum announced a new venture — Forbidden Games.  It seemed like a logical time to do a little catching up.

So, for the six people reading this who don’t know you, what were the last three games — digital, tabletop or otherwise — you were involved with?

The last three games that I worked on that were published were:

  • Victory & Glory: Napoleon, a lighter grand strategy game of the Napoleonic Wars for the PC, published by Matrix  (Note: I finally finished the board game version, which will be shipping in April, published by Forbidden)
  • Galactic Rebellion, a sequel (of sorts) to Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery, published by Eagle Games
  • WarQuest, a fantasy strategy game (with amazing miniatures) inspired by Divine Right, published by Mr. B Games

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