The Seven Years War: Frederick’s Gamble (GMT)
p500 $48, MSRP $69 – not there yet
Borrowing a well-loved system from The Napoleonic Wars that can play 2-4 players, this new one from GMT lets you play out the “real” first World War across Europe, North America, and India. A truckload of counters, 110 cards, and a bunch of accessories fill out the box. Chatter on CSW is pretty positive, and players interested in a global view of what’s generally played only as a North American-centric conflict will likely find what they’re looking for here. GMT is taking p500 pledges on their site. March over and place yours!
Hey, it’s still Friday somewhere. Here’s GARPA, just a little late
Spearpoint 1943 Eastern Front Heavy Weapons Expansion (Collins Epic Wargames) $1900 of $500, ends 17 July 2015
Bringing some new toys to the East Front action of the Spearpoint 1943, this expansion lets you add new vehicles, and even some bombers, to your deck before launching death and destruction toward your opponent. We discussed the game in GrogCast 16, and if you didn’t listen – WHY NOT?! One of the pledge levels nets you the base game with the expansion, and another also stages the other expansions for you, so you’ve really go no reason to avoid this game. It’s fast, furious fun with a cinematic flair and a perfect lightweight wargame when you lack time for a big game, or lack opponents willing to take the plunge on something more hex-y. Rumble over to the Kickstarter page and check out all the toys you get.
Freeblades: Creatures of Faelon (DGS Games) $2800 of $8500, ends 21 July 2015
The guys from DGS Games are back with some new toys for their Freeblades minis collection. These are wilder creatures that sport all manner of fangs, scales, claws, and… well, bark. Their last Kickstarter campaign dropped some jaws with their final sculpts, and their fantasy world is high fantasy with nice interesting twists. Hit their campaign page and drop your coin to get these minis funded.
Boggit returns from his own exile on the 200th anniversary of (arguably) the most consequential battle in Western History to conquer Scourge of War: Waterloo.
By Boggit, 18 June 2015
Developed by NorbSoftDev and Published by Slitherine
I was intrigued by NorbSoftDev’sScourge of War: Waterloo. I had played some of the earlier iterations of the game engine (1st Bull Run, and 2nd Manassas), which had been good. With that in mind, and knowing that the development team had worked on several other titles in the meantime, it would be interesting to see how far they had advanced the game, and how well it captured the flavour of Napoleonic combat, as hitherto all their games were from the American Civil War.
The Menu and loading screens all use contemporary art, which adds a nice period feel.
Scourge of War: Waterloo is a pausable real-time representation of small to very large actions (including the whole battle) of Waterloo. It comes with 20 historical scenarios ranging from small brigade size actions to the ‘full Monty’ at army level. In addition there is a sandbox campaign, a sandbox mode (in which you can take any units from the order of battle (OB), and fight on eight different battlefields), and modifications, which include the OB for the entire French Grand Armée (i.e. with Marshal Grouchy at Waterloo), and a Grog mode for extra realism.
Here are the French scenarios, rising in complexity from clearing the woods at the Chateau of Goumont (aka Hougoumont) to the full battle (shown here).
The long-awaited modern urban warfare game from the artistic geniuses over in France, the guys at Nuts! have finally put Urban Operations up on preorder. A combination of blocks and cards, with over a dozen scenarios to keep you challenged, Urban Operations is looking to fill that modern tactical niche that ranges from Cold-War-goes-hot through the 90s world of “peacekeeping” up to today’s counter-terror operations. Why are you still reading? Go order it already.
