Tag: Board Games

11/3/12

GrogHeads Reviews Star Wars X-Wing

Review by Scott Krol, 3 November 2012

Designed and published by Fantasy Flight Games

Is the Force with Fantasy Flight Games’ X-Wing Miniatures Game or is it a Jar Jar Binks mess of plastic and cardboard?

 

Science fiction may be a genre that is often looked down upon, seen as a realm populated by thirty-year olds living in their parents’ basements, but it has spawned a surprisingly large number of series in both television and film. Many of these series have legions of devoted fans, but none have had a bigger global impact than Star Trek and Star Wars. Arguably, while both are universally known, Star Wars, with its Campbell-esque Hero’s Journey, has had the bigger impact of the two. Yet when it comes to the world of board/table top gaming Star Trek has dominated.

This is somewhat odd for a series that was all about peaceful exploration of the galaxy (just consider the difference in names—Trek versus Wars), and yet there have been numerous wargames of tactical and strategic warfare in the Trek universe. Star Fleet Battles is the best known of these, with literally dozens of expansions and now thousands of pages of rules, yet there are many other flavors of Star Trek wargames available (see Jim Zabek’s recent AAR of Federation Commander).

Fans of Star Wars have had to make do with very few options. Star Warriors from West End Games was a “serious” game of tactical fighter combat, perhaps a little too serious considering the subject matter. Wizards of the Coast released a collectible miniatures game of space combat, but the less said about it, the better. The recent release of Fantasy Flight Games’ X-Wing, a tactical game of frictionless furballs between fighters in the Star Wars universe, is therefore a welcome addition to any Star Wars fan’s game library.

X-Wing is a miniatures game of fighter versus fighter combat in the Star Wars universe using pre-painted plastic minis scaled at 1/270. Don’t let the fact that these are pre-painted plastic minis scare you off; the quality is impressive. And for anyone who shudders at what the fighters looked like in the Wizards of the Coast game, these models are essentially Ferraris to Wizards’ Yugos. It should also be said that this is not a collectible game in the sense of blind packaging.

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All the currently available fighters, though you can bet we’ll be seeing A-Wings, B-Wings, TIE Interceptors, and more. The bases have interchangable stat cards, showing the fighter’s stats, actions, and firing arc at a glance.

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10/14/12

GrogHeads Reviews Bomber Command

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Designer: Lee Brimmicombe-Wood

Publisher: GMT Games

Left Hand Reviews, 14 October, 2012

 

How closely can a boardgame come to simulating the Allies’ strategic night bombing raids of World War II?

 

In an effort to cripple the German war machine and bring the 3rd Reich to its knees, the British Royal Air Force conducted countless night raids in the late stages of the war, 1943-1945. The targets included military manufacturing facilities, populated cities, as well as critical supply routes. Despite the extraordinarily high mortality rate of the bomber squadrons, they continued to fight bravely and eventually succeeded in forcing the German High Command to shift to the defensive.

Bomber Command is a tactical wargame in which one player will control the British bombers, attempting to take out key objectives, while the other play represents the German night fighters and flak batteries desperately trying to infiltrate the Allied bomber squadrons and prevent the destruction of not only brick and mortar targets but the morale of the people as well.

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07/13/12

GrogHeads Reviews Empires in America

Designed by Joe Miranda for Victory Point Games

By Brant Guillory, 13 July 2012

A perfect blend of size, simplicity, and skill, Empires in America challenges players with an interesting variation on a tower defense scenario, well-blended with a nice dash of history.

Victory Point Games is still considered by some to be a “small” publisher.  If so, I’m curious what the definition of “small” is.  These guys churn out a game a week – and excellent games, too.  One way they’re able to do so is by relying on some well-tested basic mechanics, such as the solo game rules known as the States of Siege series.  These card- and track-movement-driven games provide a player with a significant and well-balanced challenge, in a variety of genres, including the Israeli War for Independence, and the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Empires in America, the third entry in the States of Siege series, covers the French and Indian Wars in North America.  A precursor to the American War for Independence, the French and Indian Wars were the battles in New World as a part of the larger Seven Years’ War across the globe between various European powers.
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