Tag: Board Games

09/12/14

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #53

The first GARPA of football season brings you a variety of gaming projects for you to throw your backing behind, and includes (gasp!) digital games!  Also of note is that none of these have hit their funding goals yet, so they all need your help.

 

Hitler’s Reich (GMT Games)
P500 price $48, not there yet

GMT recently dropped 5 new games on their p500 system, but Hitler’s Reich is the one that grabbed our attention as being the first of a new series of strategic level card-based games.  We can’t wait to see some art samples, as a fast-playing game that lets your re-fight WWII while still incorporating key personalities like Patton and Zhukov.  An economics model truly puts this at the “full-theater” level and if it really can be played in one sitting, then it’s totally worth dropping your pre-order dime at GMT’s site.

HitlersReich

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08/29/14

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #52

It’s the last GARPA of the Summer, so here’s your holiday weekend bundle of goodness!

Clockwork Wars (Eagle Games)
$50k of $25k goal, Ends 3 September 2014

Steam-powered warfare?  Check.  Fantasy races?  Check.  Tanks?  Hells, yeah!  Fight for control of a modular mapboard, in a 4X-ish game of conquest that mixes and matches magic and steampunk technology.  One nice touch are map tiles that can be used on an artistic side, or purely-functional “giant symbol” side not unlike the strategic hex-view in Civ5.  It’s an Eagle Games production, so you know that it’ll be over-the-top gorgeous, barely fit on a ping-pong table, be a ton of fun to play, and go out of print in about 11 seconds.  So truck on over to the site for the campaign, and plunk down your pledge, and maybe throw a few extra coins in for the expansions, which look equally cool and will not doubt be gone in a hot minute on the open market.

G52-clockwork

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08/20/14

GenCon 2014 – A Report From The Floor

Cyrano ventures south (from him!) to Indianapolis, to file this report from GenCon

Somewhere, amidst all the other detritus I’ve gathered, I have this angry pin. It was made the year after Those Who Make Gen Con (TM) chose to take historical miniatures gaming and place it in a dark basement (I neither jest nor exaggerate) of the Milwaukee Auditorium. It reads simply: “I found the miniatures games at Gen Con”.

Gen Con left my hometown for the center of Indiana over a decade ago, and historical gaming of all kinds has fared little better since. Cards and clicks may have been replaced by cards, anime, and cosplay, but it still takes a dedicated grog to find something appropriate to his or her tastes.

Role-playing, of course, can be found in abundance
Role-playing, of course, can be found in abundance

And Gen Con this year took real patience. It’s fairly well known that the hotel block reserved by convention organizers was significantly increased this year but still sold out in less than an hour. The on-line “wishlist” event registration system resulted in large queues and, at least anecdotally, gamers not getting into their first, second, or third choices. The exhibit hall was expanded yet again and yet, according to the folks to whom I spoke, sold out in near record time. I’ve long made it my habit to hit the convention hard Wednesday through Friday in the hope of avoiding the worst of the crush of humanity that arrives on Saturday. This year the crowds came on Wednesday night and never seemed to let up.

In all this, though, there were those flying the wargaming colors and I write this to honor them.

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08/15/14

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #51

Wow. There’s suddenly a whole lot of excellent gaming available for your pre-order happiness.

Eight-Minute Empire: Lost Lands (Red Raven Games)
$35k of $15k, ends 25 August 2014
A sequel to the insanely good Eight-Minute Empire (which we reviewed), this new expansion adds new map boards, new cards, and new mechanics to your favorite one-sitting empire builder. There are new player boards to help you organize your cards as you acquire them, new cards that change some of the mechanics, and a ‘faster’ gameplay option that seems very 7 Wonders-ish that involves passing hands around the table. The original was a great game, this one really kicks it up another notch. Head over to Kickstarter now and pledge, yo!

g51-8mE

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