Tag: Brant

08/21/15

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #75

Game accoutrements take center stage this week.  But don’t worry, we’ve got games, too!

Brant Guillory, 21 August 2015

Carolina Game Tables (Clint & Jodi Black)
$19k of $15k, ends 10 September 2015

Gorgeous, hand-crafted, drop-center game tables that pull double-duty as your dining room table are perfect for your gaming clan, uh… family.  Carolina Game Tables are a startup from a family that’s been in the furniture business for a few generations, and they’re putting that expertise to work for your benefit.  More affordable than the giant Geek Chic tables, Carolina Game Tables will hook you up with a great addition to your gaming life, but only in CONUS.  Sorry, Hawaii.  Drop your pledge on their Kickstarter campaign and then post the pics in our forums when it gets delivered and make us all jealous.

g75-table

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08/19/15

Tank on Tank – First Look!

LNLP reboots the Tank on Tank franchise with 2 new boxed games

Brant Guillory, 19 August 2015

Click images to enlarge

Lock’n’Load Publishing has brought back the Tank on Tank franchise, with the long-awaited East Front stand-alone game to accompany the previous version, now labeled as West Front.  What’s in the boxes?  Lessee…

The boxes are the standard LNLP "thin" boxes, which stack nicely on the game shelf alongside all their others.
The boxes are the standard LNLP “thin” boxes, which stack nicely on the game shelf alongside all their others.

edit: to clarify, when referring to the standard LNLP “thin” box, we’re referring to the height of the box, and not the thickness of the actual box material.  These things are pretty substantial, but are only about 1″ high.  They are not the paper-thin tuck boxes of LNLP days gone by.

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08/7/15

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #74

A mixed bag of pre-order goodness for you

The Seven Years War: Frederick’s Gamble  (GMT)
p500 $48, MSRP $69 – not there yet

Borrowing a well-loved system from The Napoleonic Wars that can play 2-4 players, this new one from GMT lets you play out the “real” first World War across Europe, North America, and India.  A truckload of counters, 110 cards, and a bunch of accessories fill out the box.  Chatter on CSW is pretty positive, and players interested in a global view of what’s generally played only as a North American-centric conflict will likely find what they’re looking for here.  GMT is taking p500 pledges on their site.  March over and place yours!

g74-sywbanner1

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07/24/15

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #73

GARPA eschews all hexes for something different this week,

The Day of the Rangers  (Radio Dishdash Publishing Ltd.)
$320 of $4600, ends 23 August 2015

A combination of both rules and minis, this newly-launched game series has built their first expansion around the (in)famous BlackHawk Down battle in Mogadishu.  The figures are excellent and could easily be re-used in any number of post-Cold War games.  The campaign page also includes some 360° videos of the sample sculpts, so fast-rope over to their page and see how much you want to plunk down.

g73-rangers

 

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07/18/15

Why I Love Diplomacy

The venerable classic timelessly soldiers on.

by Brant Guillory

The original Diplomacy board game has a huge following, even among non-wargamers, despite being sold as a wargamer for its thirty-year lifespan. Why?

Well, it’s a wargame that abstracts battlefield prowess to the point that it’s almost irrelevant. Tactical ability is nothing – I repeat, nothing – in this game. It matters not how well you can anticipate the moment for the cavalry charge, plan the artillery bombardment, or outflank your enemy with your panzer corps. In this game, all armies, and generals, are created equal, and numerical superiority is the only relevant statistic.

In fact, the only ability of note is your ability to successfully negotiate your way through the intrigue of the game as the leader of a country. In this respect, Diplomacy has succeeded, and continues to succeed, in a class all it’s own.

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