Tag: Drummy

05/4/13

Battle of Coral Sea – A Carriers at War AAR

carriers-at-war-box

Developer: Strategic Studies Group (SSG)

Publisher: Matrix Games

Author: Sean Drummy

Carriers at War is a classic game, and I’m not even talking about the original from way back in the day, I’m referring to the remake by Matrix Games. Most wargames require a substantial investment of time to complete a scenario, let alone a campaign, but the brilliance of Carriers at War is how succinct and utterly merciless the gameplay is. Depending on how brilliantly (or stupidly) you perform a scenario the game could be played through in as little as five minutes before a decisive victor is declared. In many ways this is a very wise design decision. If I just spent an hour setting up my weapons loadouts and task groups only to find five minutes in my ships are spotted and then bombed into oblivion I may be a little disappointed (read: infuriated).
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04/25/13

SimCity AAR, Part 1

aar

Sean Drummy, 25 April 2013

Apparently… manning a nuclear power plant with people that do not have a high school education is dangerous. Also, somewhat related conclusion, SimCity does not allow you to build on radioactive ground.

Click images to enlarge

SimCity AAR – Part 1 – Drill baby drill!

AARs are like floral arrangements. You should put them together when everything is fresh otherwise things may become a mess. (Did I just work in a floral arrangement analogy? Do I know the Grogheads demographic or what?) Unfortunately in this case I did not take this advice and am recounting the trials and tribulations of my city long after they happened.

But, don’t fret! The fascinating part about SimCity, is that the mistakes I made many game-days ago still manifest themselves in conspicuously bad ways on my city today. I can’t remember precisely why I built this one structure here or why I neglected to plan for vital utility X – but I know that these shortcomings are snowballing into even more complex challenges as my city’s population steadily increases while the space I have to accommodate them seems as if it is getting smaller and smaller.

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