Tag: Board Games

09/27/13

GARPA 28 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

GARPA #28, Grogheads Staff

Fall is the best time of year…this is not even debatable, primarily because the heat of summer has been broken and the weather is cooler. But there is so much more that fall has to offer! Like fear. Fear brought to you by darkening days, the harvest possibly coming up short and the impending onset of winter…even if we don’t farm, there’s a natural connection to autumn that brings both excitement and a niggling sense of unease. All of this culminates in Halloween, The World’s Best Holiday.

You probably think we are going to bring you a series of planned board and PC games that intend to scare the crap out players. But would we be the GARPA guys if we were so obvious? Maybe. But that’s not what we’re doing in this installment…plenty of time for scares in the next few weeks. For now, enjoy the seasonally appropriate impending doom evident in the following planned projects!

Board Games

BattleAxeBattleAxe by Nick Ryan

$3,135 pledged of $110,000 goal, funding ends Wednesday, October 23

HTML: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nickryan/battleaxe?ref=category

If you are 35 or older, you may remember an awesome game from the early 1980s called Crossbows & Catapults in which players literally hurled miniature projectiles at each other’s medieval strongholds in hopes of capturing their enemy’s keep. It was a violent but awesomely fun, basic game. BattleAxe appears to be in a similar vein, but hopes to be more advanced.

BattleAxe is set during the Dark Ages (I don’t care what people are calling it these days, they will always be the Dark Ages to me) and, like Crossbows & Catapults, players will assemble and command armies, build a keep, and attempt to kill the enemy king. Think chess but in three dimensions, using armored spearmen, axemen, swordsmen, and cavalry in your army and towers, walls, trenches, and fire for defense. An oversized battlefield map and custom dice are also included. The game takes a realistic angle and makes a point in not including fantasy elements of any kind…this is a game of Dark Age combat and tactics.

Nick Ryan, the developer of BattleAxe, assures potential players that the game itself is already 95% done and has been in play testing for two years, with “only funding” required at this point. That’s a big missing link, but if the game plays well tactically and strategically as promised, it will be worth investing in. Let’s hope BattleAxe can capture some of the magic that Crossbows & Catapults had for us older guys.

GARPA 28 - ReluctantPre-Order: Reluctant Enemies (MMP)

766 of 640 orders needed, Pre-order price of $39.00

Reluctant Enemies is designed as a ‘gateway’ game into the OCS series, but it also covers the rarely-gamed Middle Eastern ‘front’ in WWII, as the British sought to shore up their territories on the eastern edge of the Med.  The reluctant enemies in this fight are the Brits – with their Australian, Indian, and Free French allies – opposing the Vichy French seeking to make mischief in Lebanon and Iraq.  Once the Vichy French allowed German aircraft to overfly their airspace en route to an anti-British coup in Iraq, well… it was on!

The OCS series is known for its monster Case Blue-like games, but Reluctant Enemies is a one-map “son of OCS” specifically designed for players new to monster gaming’s premier system.

Get your pre-orders in before the price jumps.

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09/13/13

GARPA 27 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Starting the second year of GARPA – yes, this is episode 27 – we bring you an advance look as upcoming projects that have caught our wargaming eye, for both tabletop and computer.

 

Tabletop Gaming

Next Wave – Tide of Iron Starter Set & Stalingrad Expansion by 1A Games LLC
$6,183 pledged of a $30,000 goal funding ending October 17th

garpa27-toiTide of Iron, the successful squad based tactical World War II boardgame has come to Kickstarter.  Well, not the original but a quick start set and an expansion.  Now that Fantasy Flight has licensed 1A Games LLC to produce the Tide of Iron series we are seeing the first of their new editions that fall under the “Next Wave” moniker.  This crowd funding project has two main parts.  First is the Stalingrad expansion that you must own the TOI starter set in order to play.  If you don’t have the starter set the other half of the project is the TOI Starter Set “Next Wave” edition.  However, the Stalingrad expansion works best with the original TOI if you already own that.  This new “Next Wave” line of products is compatible with the original games and expansions.  They keep the same game system but provide quick start scenarios and present the rules in such a way that they are easy to learn and start playing.

The Stalingrad expansion contains the Soviet infantry and armor as well as the German armor needed to compliment the base game in order to recreate the brutal street fight of one of World War II most important battles.  In all it comes to “90 figures, bases and vehicles.”  In addition to the playing pieces this expansion comes with 12 double-sided urban terrain maps that include factories, streets, buildings and sewers that add another dimension to the game.  Eight new scenarios, introductory battles and four linked campaigns also ship with the game.

The “Next Wave” TOI starter set reprints the tokens, reference charts and core rules from the original game.  It also comes with double sided map boards, German and American infantry, tanks and half-tracks.  As we stated before all of this is compatible with all the previous editions and expansions of the TOI series.  This starter set reprint kicks off 1A Games plan for a full series of “Next Wave” expansions and games for TOI.

I highly recommend you head over and check out the projects Kickstarter page.  Not only are your standard reward levels included but as you go up the reward levels you unlock some very cool rewards that include limited edition game cards, 3d models of a German sIG 33 armored self-propelled howitzer, and laser cut wooden initiative cards.

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09/4/13

Seasons – Deconstructing the Boardgame

So exactly what would you expect to find in a game simply titled Seasons with a wizards and a stylized nature scene on the box?

Brant Guillory, 4 September 2013
Photos by Henry Vogel

“Hey man! I need a new kind of game to play.  Help me out and let’s design one together, OK?”

“Sure!  What kind of game do you want?”

“Well, I’ve been a huge Magic: The Gathering fan for about five years now, so I definitely want something with some deck-building in it.  But collectible games are getting such a bad rep that there’s no way we’re going to make any money off of it, so I’m thinking something like Dominion, where the cards all come in the box, y’know?  But still magic and wizards and sorcerers and stuff.”

“OK, so kind of Magic: The Gathering, but all in one box?  That’s intriguing.  But how do we make it not so obvious that it’s just Magic-In-A-Box, or, maybe ‘Mox’ for short?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about this, and there’s other games like the new Warhammer Fantasy Role Play and Quarriors that have these custom dice with all sorts of different symbols on them, where the symbols determine what you get to do each turn, so that might be cool.  It would mean that we could replace Magic’s mana cards with some kind of roll-dice-get-mana action or something.  And we can do cool colors, too.”

“I like that.  People love rolling dice.  Well, except those snooty Eurogamers who don’t believe in randomness.  But if you can put buckets of dice in there, you’ll definitely get anyone who loves a wargame to come running!  But that just gets the mana distributed, and it doesn’t really tell you what kind of mana you have.” Continue reading →

08/30/13

GARPA 26 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Authors: Dan Pinkham & Lloyd Sabin

Ahh…there is almost a chill in the air and the children are being herded back to school.  That means football season and fall must almost be here. Unfortunately that also means pumpkin in everything you can eat and drink but never fear: GARPA shall remain pumpkin free but still contain all the gaming nutrition you expect.

Board and Tabletop Games

A War of Kings –Playing Cards by Andy Fischer

$8,056 pledged of a $10,500 goal funding ending September 7th

1 War of KingsTo be honest I am getting off easy with this entry but it is too cool looking of a project not to feature here at GARPA. It is a deck of cards. That’s right, 54 playing cards.  However, “each suit is a distinctly different set of fantasy characters, featuring White and Dark Knights, Fire Mages and Barbarians.”  That’s the project, that’s all there is: a card deck with some sweet looking fantasy art. We’ll post some pictures here but make sure to check out their project page for even more art samples.

Fantasy Frontier by Gamelyn Games

$5,187 pledged of a $25,000 goal funding ending October 8th

There is something so very intriguing about airships. Perhaps it is the well-known disaster of the Hindenburg and the idea of what could have been had it not happened. Maybe it is just the notion of slowly drifting through the clouds in your very own dirigible. Whatever the case may be I thought most of us, if honest, find the idea at least interesting.

Since we can’t all go out and buy an airship, we have to keep dreaming and game with them. Fantasy Frontier is here to help with “a 2-4 player game of airships and exploration” that brings the airship fantasy alive on a tabletop.

3 Fantasy FrontierDesigned to be played in about 90 minutes this will make a great game for the coming winter months.  “Each player controls a unique airship with a crew of pioneers. Players manage the actions of these pioneers each turn in an effort to scout the land, gather resources, construct townships, and even battle it out in aerial combat.”

To create the game world over which the airships fly, players develop “geographic patterns via tile placement, the players will develop a new world each time they play.” Each turn players use their workers to perform seven actions: piloting the airship, R&D, scouting the land, gathering resources, constructing a township, aerial combat, or repairing ship damage.

The game comes with over 200 components and looks to be a very unique experience.  Combine the possible turn strategies with the geomorphic playing surface and players get lots of replayability options. If you want to see some cool game art, components, or an early gameplay video then make sure to check out the project’s Kickstarter page.

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