02/7/15

GrogHeads Interviews Joel Billings of 2By3 Games

Boggit, 7 February 2015

Joel Billings of 2By3 Games talks to Boggit about War in the West and game design in general

As always, click images to enlarge

GrogHeads:  Joel, thank you for agreeing to talk to Grogheads about your recent work. War in the West is your latest release and shows some interesting innovations in the development of 2By3 games.

Tell us about yourself. How did you get into wargame design?

Joel Billings:  I started SSI in 1979 when I had just graduated from college. I was a long time player of historical wargames and had tinkered with various game rules and created miniature campaigns. I started SSI because I thought computers were a natural evolution for wargames which would allow for better fog of war and an AI opponent.

War in the West ships with 10 scenarios, including 3 full campaigns, and two introductory scenarios.
War in the West ships with 10 scenarios, including 3 full campaigns, and two introductory scenarios.

GH: Your recent products of War in the East and War in the West are massive in scope and detail, which might be potentially off-putting to all but the most hardcore gamers. Tell us about the design decisions in making such apparently challenging games.

JB: The first decision was whether to go with an IGOUGO system or a plot and execution system. Gary had used the later in his previous Eastern Front games. We decided to go with the IGOUGO because we thought it would attract more players as it could be made to be a very addictive game where you want to keep making one more move, one more combat. This is especially true in 1941 Russia. Of course we wanted the extreme detail that people expect from Gary, and that comes from the database.

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02/5/15

Campaign: Leipzig – The Two-Sided AAR, part 3

5 February 2014

Cyrano and PanzerDE face off in the age of muskets and sabers, and find themselves on opposite sides of an Eastern German battlefield, in the first of a series of AARs that give you both sides of the action.

As a reminder, we are alternating between Jim (in blue) and Doug (in green)

As always, click images to enlarge

1030 August 19, 1813

Well, if, indeed, there are to be three scraps in this fight for Lowenberg (per Marechal Ney’s original appreciation), the two other scraps had better get a good deal more hotted up

In the north, some may remember, GD Maison had detailed GB Penne to take his First Brigade, 18th Division, V Corps and see if anything couldn’t be done to help their brethren preparing to fight near Plagwitz.
taketheroadsouth8

Between the time this screenshot was taken (turn eight) and the end of turn 10, Penne finally located the Prussians coming from east of Deutmannsdorf and preparing to cross the Deutschbach Stream. These troops at first were cavalry piquets and, as no JTS Napoleonic commander worth his salt(peter) would turn down a chance to shoot at horses with infantry, I had Penne move his men up and form into line. Shortly thereafter, though, they were joined by well north of 1,000 foot in two battalions and, choosing the better part of valor, Penne began a withdrawal back to Maison’s main force.

It’s been an eventful five turns, particularly in and around Siebeneichen.

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02/4/15

Classic Reviews: Tide of Iron

Review by Brant Guillory, 4 February 2015

 

INTRODUCTION

So you may have heard about this little shooting match that happened waaaaaaaay back in the ‘40s? Started out when the Germans decided they needed a little more elbow room and they decided that Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and most of Western Europe was perfectly suited to their needs? No? Buddy, you really need to read up on your WWII history.

Tide of Iron is a hex-and-figures boardgame (a combination gaining in popularity) covering actions between the US and German forces on the Western Front in WWII. It is played at the tactical level – squads of soldiers and individual vehicles – and decked out in Fantasy Flight’s trademark gorgeous components and graphics.

Tide of Iron also supports a four-player mode, in which teams play each side; the pieces are color-coordinated in two different shades to support this multiplayer mode.

TOI-26

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02/1/15

2014 Readers Choice Awards WINNERS

Who took home the coveted Readers Choice titles for games released in 2014?  Charge on and see!

GHRCWinnerGold
FIRST PLACE WINNERS
Unconditional Surrender (Tabletop Strategy / Historical Game)
Dead of Winter (Tabletop Sci-Fi / Fantasy Game of the Year)
EH – Mountains of Madness (Tabletop Expansion of the Year)
Thunder Alley (Tabletop Euro / Casual Game of the Year)
Imperial Settlers (Tabletop 4X Game of the Year)
The Hunters (2d printing) (Tabletop Reprint / Reissue of the Year)
Unconditional Surrender (Tabletop Game of the Year)
East Prussia ’14 (Digital Strategy / Historical Game of the Year)
Distant Worlds: Universe (Digital Sci-Fi / Fantasy Game of the Year)
EUIV – Art of War (Digital Expansion / DLC of the Year)
Dragon Age: Inquisition (Digital RPG / Action Game of the Year)
East Prussia ’14 (Digital Game of the Year)

Our Readers’ Choice Awards process isn’t hard to figure out – it’s all up to you!  All year long we take your nominations in the forum threads we keep open for the whole year, and any game that’s nominated (and that was released within that calendar year) gets included.  Our editorial team helps group some of the categories together, but if you nominated it, it’s here somewhere – we only edit out the games that don’t qualify based on their release dates.

This year, we saw some excellent games nominated, and some excellent games not nominated (looking at you, Divinity!), but overall, the readership seems to have conferred the coveted “Readers Choice” titles on some outstanding games

Our bread-and-butter, the Tabletop Strategy / Historical Game, didn’t see a ton of nominations.  But to be fair it was a down year overall for tabletop wargame releases.  GMT’s Unconditional Surrender handily won with 40% of the vote. For the second year in a row, a COIN system game finished second, as Fire in the Lake had a strong showing.  Third and fourth place were both DVG games, with Fleet Commander Nimitz claiming the final spot in this category.

The Tabletop Sci-Fi / Fantasy Game of the Year voting would have been a runaway in any other year, with Dead of Winter taking over half the vote.  Xia: Legends of a Drift System finished second, and Run, Fight or Die tied with Mars Attacks for third.

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