Tag: Brant

01/11/16

Tracer Rounds – Uses for Wargaming

Seeing a new way to do things ~

Brant Guillory, 11 January 2016

I had a completely different plan for today’s column, and then I started writing.  Remember last week when I said I was going to do this without an editor? This week is one of those weeks where I needed that editor. My first attempt at a column was pretty lousy. I’m a revisit it and try to shine it up for later use, and see if I can salvage something for the hour of work I put in. But that didn’t solve the problem that on a Sunday night I needed something to publish on Monday. There’s nothing like a weekly column to put the abject terror of failure in you. So instead, I am pulling ahead a topic I was planning to write about much later

The professionals talk about wargaming in very different terms than the casual hobbyists do. Don’t get me wrong, the professionals know the difference between a hobby or game and their jobs. Most of them also wargame for fun, and have a huge knowledge of the hobby. But for casual wargamers the professional uses of wargames mainly seem like two cases, and an occasional third.

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01/4/16

Tracer Rounds – The Inaugural Column

A new weekly column ~

Brant Guillory, 4 January 2016

 

So it’s a new year, with an updated look in our forums, and the continuing evolution of our community overall here at GrogHeads.  And with the new year, we’re launching a few new ideas, starting with this one, a new weekly column.  I’m going to have some regular things I’ll hit each week, but first, I wanted to take a few moments and talk about where this comes from.

GHLogoTextFirst, this needs come clarifying:  I’m not “the guy that runs GrogHeads”.  There’s a partnership of several of us.  We had a few other founders who have left the team for their own personal reasons over the years, but there’s more than just me here steering the ship, and always has been.  I’m just the most visible one, because I’m the editorial content guy here, and that also translates into making sure we distribute the content through social media channels.  But anyone that thinks that les GrogHeads c’est moi is mistaken.

When we decided we wanted to include ‘front page’ content – regular columns, reviews, AARs, etc – the hope was to recapture some of the intelligent, erudite, and insightful commentary we’d previously been a part of elsewhere.  It was a high bar to shoot for, and it would be foolish to claim we’ve cleared it regularly, though not for lack of trying.  Personally, I was hoping for the front page to become the “Grantland of wargaming” which is crazy-hard to do with our budget, which consists of a handful of free games, some pocket lint, and about 11¢.  But there’s another reason why it’s so hard.

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01/1/16

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #84

Give us a break… we’ve been watching football all day ~

 

Forgotten War, The Korean War ASL (MMP)
Preorder price $96

ASL goes to Korea… officially! Seriously, what else do you need to know. OK, how about what’s in the box? 7 countersheets and 4 maps, plus a bunch of rules additions. Now, the caveat – you need the ASL base rules to play, so in addition to your $96 here, you still need a bunch of other stuff to play. But hey, you can finally get off the Eastern front, or the beaches of Normandy, or wherever you’ve been treading water in your ASL games. Storm over to MMP’s site and place your pre-order and re-fight the first conventional battles of the Cold War.

G84-ASL-Korea

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12/19/15

GrogHeads Reviews Tank on Tank West Front

TANKS!  Oooga oooga.  GUNNER-SABOT-WARGAME!  Rumbarumbarumba.  Schwooooosh.  BOOM! ~

Brant Guillory, 19 December 2015

click images to enlarge

Tank on Tank is LNLP’s re-release of their older WWII tactical combat game.  Unlike the LNL Tactical system, this one focuses on – wait for it – TANKS!

Counters are individual fighting vehicles, with additional infantry platoons running around.  The West Front box (this review) has Panzer IVs, Priests, Pershings, and Panthers.  There’s also playing pieces that pon’t part with “P”, like Shermans and Stukas, Wolverines and Armored Infantry.  The maps are 50m hexes, and include a “winter” map on the backside of each of the standard maps.

Inside the Box

Production values are the usual LNLP high-quality, with a standard 1” deep box, individually-cut pieces (no corner clipping!), and vibrant colors and graphics.  The play aids are useful without being obtrusive, and the rules are simple, concise, and compact.  Although the production value is excellent, the West Front box seems a tad sparse for $34.99.  For only an extra $5, the East Front box certainly packs more into the same size box – twice the counters and three times the maps.  You can see the comparison in our previous unboxing article here.

The comparatively sparse West Front box has 1 countersheet, 2 double-sided maps, and the rulebook and player aid card. And dice (pictured).
The comparatively sparse West Front box has 1 countersheet, 2 double-sided maps, and the rulebook and player aid card. And dice (pictured).

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12/18/15

Book Review: Crosswind

An adventure yarn of another time and place, but grounded in familiar themes that take the reader on an an enjoyable ride through intrigue and aerial derring-do.

Brant Guillory, 18 December 2015

Crosswind is Steve Rzasa’s first book about the Sark brothers, Winchell and Copernicus.  Winchell is a journalist at a small newspaper, and his brother is a pilot, in the frontier town of Perch.

crosswindThe brothers stumble into an intrigue filled plot involving a larger town to their South known as Trestleway.
While Cope is the adventurous brother, alternating between stunt pilot antics in the air and ladies man smoothness on the ground, Winch is the conservative family man with a wife and children.  The brothers stumble upon the mystery when Cope flies his brother out to the wreck of another aircraft to take pictures and write a story for the newspaper. I rather unfriendly gentleman masquerading as a local rancher tries to steal a coded message that the brothers discover in the aircraft wreckage. It turns out this man is from Trestleway, and the coded message is a warning of an impending “invasion” that was being flown in by the nephew of Perch’s mayor-general.

The brothers are sent to investigate, and report back to home. Along the way, they discover a variety of intrigue, and a few interesting technical – and mystical – tricks up Trestleway’s sleeves. Continue reading →