Revenge of the British! An Airship Dragoon AAR
Our favorite Frenchman (Sauron) goes back to Airship Dragoon for a quick-and-dirty – and we do mean “dirty” – shootout with the Queen’s soldiers ~
Vincent Kowolik, 14 October 2015
10/14/15
Tag: Age of Gunpowder
10/3/15
GrogHeads (Exclusive) First Look at Victory and Glory: Napoleon
What’s Glenn Drover been up to since he stopped by The GrogCast last Spring? Apparently he’s making more games ~
Jim Zabek, 3 October 2015
A new Napoleonic game for the PC is about to hit the shelves like a blast from the Grande Batterie.
Designed to allow the player to command at both a strategic and tactical level, the objective of Victory and Glory: Napoleon is simple – build the French Empire of Napoleon. Six full campaign scenarios will be included with Victory and Glory: Napoleon. They will each have a unique starting date and conditions. The first will be the 1800 campaign made famous by Napoleon’s brilliant victories in Northern Italy. The second is called 1805, The Dash for the Danube and starts with French troops poised on the English Channel but ready to drive toward Austria and glory at Austerlitz. Next is the 1806 campaign that starts after the Austrian defeat with the Prussians taking up the bayonet. Followed by the 1809 campaign where Austria re-enters the war while Napoleon is embroiled in Spain. The 1812 starting point campaign begins as Napoleon’s vast army prepares to invade Russia. And the last and most challenging campaign begins in 1813 immediately after Napoleon’s wrecked Grande Armee has struggled out of Russia.
09/18/15
GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #77
Hey now, it’s been a few weeks, so we thought we’d throw another GARPA at you. Plus, y’know, we had it on the schedule and all…
Brant Guillory, 18 September 2015
Mech Deck (Patrick Fahy)
$19k of $75k, ends 1 October 2015
These guys may have over-reached with the funding goal, but it’s because they’re committed to the quality of the manufacturing. “Manufacturing what?” you ask. Customizable, multi-component, build-your-own mech-walker-battle-droid-giant-fighting-thingees (trying to avoid inadvertently violating someone’s copyright here, work with me). It’s a hex-and-minis skirmish game, but with mech figures that you can literally assemble on-the-fly to customize your arms, torso, legs, and “backpack” (back of torso) to make your own mech and then duke it out for bragging rights, or beer. There’s some card-based randomizing as well as a geomorphic map. Stomp over to the campaign page and fire off your pledge.
09/12/15
Screenshot Feature: Thirty Years War
Screenshots by Boggit, 12 September 2015
Developed by Headquarter and Published by AGEOD/Slitherine
Many a crown shines spotless now
That yet was deeply sullied in the winning.”
Friedrich Schiller (Act II, sc. ii. – Wallenstein)
The Thirty Years War was one of the defining periods of the Seventeenth Century, and has been of interest to me for years, so I was delighted when AGEOD/Slitherine published Thirty Years War. Here are a few screenshots from the first few turns of the Grand Campaign from the perspective of the Imperialists to give you a flavour of what is being offered.
08/29/15
GrogHeads Reviews Colonial Conquest
Colonial Conquest has landed on our shores. But how all-conquering is it? Jim O takes a look.
Jim Owczarski, 29 August 2015
I love the moment in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” when Napoleon, having told the protagonists how he will conquer Europe with water slides, is gainsaid by them and proceeds to smack what I’ve always taken to be a “Risk” board with his sword declaring, “triomphe Napoleon!” It’s not only wonderfully silly, but it reminds me of why “Risk” remains one of the best games ever designed — for all its faults. It’s simple, it’s nasty, and when you finally do kick your opponent out of Australia (yes, it can be done), it makes you feel like a conqueror. Lots of games since have tried to capture what it is that makes “Risk” special — there’s enough branded adaptations to fill shelves — and so Argonauts Interactive’s “Colonial Conquest” (hereafter CC) joins a crowded field. It’s far from a bad game, and it’s nicely priced, but I can’t help but feel it was shipped a bit sooner than it should have been.
Much here will be familiar and I think that works in the game’s favor. The learning curve is certainly gentle. CC is played out over a map of the world divided into national areas and sea zones. The board is more granular than “Risk” (although some familiar friends are present) which tends to lengthen play. There are some strange geographic decisions relating to which territories are adjacent to which. If I read the support forums for the game correctly, some of these were unintentional and are being fixed. Others, like that below, remain and cause no small amount of frustration for reasons I’ll get into shortly.
