Tag: Boggit

05/26/18

GrogHeads First Impressions of Stars in Shadow

Screenshots of snake-people swashbuckling around the stars ~

Boggit, 26 May 2018

Developed by Ashdar Games Inc and published by Iceberg Interactive

I’ve been meaning to have a look at this game for some time now and finally have got around to it. Playing Emperor “Gritok the Devourer” of the Gremak Empire – an aristocratic race of four-eyed cobra alien slavers – I took to the stars in a huge Galaxy to try my luck as the mean and nasty imperialist snake people!

Here’s a collection of screenshots from my early expansion into the stars, which gives you an idea of how the game is presented, as well as the sort of options available to players. I liked the artwork, which unlike a lot of space games is nice, bright and colourful – and even a bit cartoony – which added to the fun. I liked what I saw with this game, which reminded me of the classic Master of Orion 2 in terms of gameplay. A big plus is that it is simple to play like Master of Orion 2, yet had sufficient depth to keep my attention.

 

So here we start at our home planet of Gremal. We’ve already made life a misery for the poor Enfi race that shares our planet having enslaved those centuries before. Now we have a chance to enslave other species to our will.

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05/5/18

The Art of War & Field of Glory II

Boggit takes a look at Field of Glory 2’s units on parade ~

Boggit, 5 May 2018

One of my favourite games is Slitherine’s Field of Glory, which in Field of Glory 2 has seen a facelift in its graphics and a whole new game engine developed by Byzantine Games. Field of Glory 2 continues to use the Pike and Shot game system introduced a couple of years ago in Pike and Shot Campaigns, and subsequently Sengoku Jidai  – Shadow of the Shogun. It is not an exact clone of Pike and Shot, as several new rules and features have been added. Where it is truly different from Pike and Shot, and Sengoku Jidaiis in the map and unit graphics, which are totally different, and in my opinion very attractive.

Developed by Byzantine Games
Published by Matrix/Slitherine

Field of Glory 2as I mentioned is an upgraded version of the Pike and Shotgame system, and is in many ways very different from the older Field of Glory, which has different game mechanics, and a lot more units on the map. Field of Glory 2does come with a slight drawback on older machines compared to the original Field of Glory, and Pike and Shot/Sengoku Jidaiin that panning around the map and the speed of reaction to mouse commands is noticeably slower – most likely because of the vastly improved map and unit graphics, however, more modern graphics cards should cope easily with this issue.

I still enjoy playing the original Field of Glory as it has a very different feel to the gameplay of Field of Glory 2, which is something noticed by quite a few of my on-line opponents. This takes nothing away from Field of Glory 2, being just a matter of “apples and oranges”, as both are good in their own ways. Continue reading →

07/29/17

Reflections on Gettysburg – The Tide Turns

Developed by Shenandoah Studio and published by Matrix/Slitherine

Boggit reflects on the Battle of Gettysburg while playing “Gettysburg – The Tide Turns” ~

Boggit, 29 July 2017

“I have bin in one battle, and that satisfied me with war, and I would beg to be excused next time”

Private Haban R. Foster, 34th Virginia Infantry, 1862.

 

I’m playing the First Day scenario. My view is that if Lee can’t get an easy win on Day 1, then he’s going to be facing an increasingly worsening attrition battle, one that even if he does win the battle itself will mean the end of his campaign and any prospect of actually winning the war due to excessive, and hard to replace losses.

 

Gettysburg – The Tide Turns is a game reconstructing the strategically decisive battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War (1861-65) between the Union (Northern) and Confederate (Southern) states in America. In many ways it was the first modern war where weapons development and tactics presaged the carnage that would be seen a few years later in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and the early months of the First World War (1914-18) where modern weapons met Napoleonic tactics with predictable results.

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06/10/17

Vietnam ‘65 vs Afghanistan ‘11 – Two sides of the same COIN?

How do the two counterinsurgency games stack up? ~

Boggit, 10 June 2017

Developed by Every Single Soldier and published by Matrix/Slitherine

The opening screen summarising the game parameters. A player can tweak these in the options screen.

A couple of years ago I did an article on Every Single Soldier’s debut release – Vietnam ‘65. At the time I thought with a bit of tweaking and updating of the game engine they could make a decent Afghanistan game, which is exactly what they have done. So what is different and how does it play out?

 

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03/28/17

The Tuesday Interview – Straylight Studios

The team behind Sanctus Reach stops by for a chat ~

Boggit, 28 March 2017

Gordon, Kimberley, Mark, and Alex thank you for agreeing to talk to Grogheads about Sanctus Reach.

Tell us something about yourselves. Slitherine mentioned to me is that you are all from Elgin in Scotland, and all have previous video game industry experience – but this is your first big project together.

That’s the gist of it. We came to Elgin from all over the country for work where we met and became friends. We’ve all worked on all sorts of different projects over the years and collectively have 20 years of experience, but this is by far the biggest and most challenging project any of us have undertaken.

Sanctus Reach ships with a tutorial and two campaigns for the Space Wolves. There is also a skirmish game, and a multiplayer feature. Sadly, there is no Ork campaign yet, although that may be on the cards as a future DLC.
Sanctus Reach ships with a tutorial and two campaigns for the Space Wolves. There is also a skirmish game, and a multiplayer feature. Sadly, there is no Ork campaign yet, although that may be on the cards as a future DLC.

Continue reading →