Tag Archives: Eastern Front
Quick & Dirty! First Impressions of Battle Academy 2: Battle of Kursk Expansion
We’ve got a full review coming later, but we wanted to tease you with some first impressions from Slitherine’s new Battle Academy expansion.
Vance Strickland, 8 April 2015
The newest offering for Slitherine’s Battle Academy 2 is an expansion pack containing 2 new campaigns.
Each campaign takes place during the Battle for Kursk in July 1943. Players take on the role of the German attackers in the northern fighting and the Russian defenders in the southern pincer fighting.
Germans fight in the north.
Flash Review of Combat Mission Black Sea
Developed and Published by Battlefront Inc.
Reviewed by Boggit 14 February 2015
Black Sea is the latest addition to the Combat Mission series. It focuses on a speculative continuation and escalation of the present Ukraine crisis to a new flashpoint in the central Ukraine Dneipr river/Donetsk area set during the summer of 2017. NATO has now been drawn into the fight and with the release of this game we see US troops joining the fight between the Ukrainians and Russians. Conceived well before the current crisis in the Ukraine, this is another of Steve Grammont’s eerily prophetic modern Combat Mission games – the last one was Combat Mission: Shock Force set in Syria in 2008!
Ukrainian scouts cautiously advance. A barrage meanwhile slows any advances on their left flank.
As a flash review/first impressions feature, this article is based on my gameplay of a couple of the scenarios, and around half a dozen quick battles. It’s not exhaustive by any means, but I hope that I’ve covered things sufficiently to give some useful insights into what the game is all about. If I’ve missed something – it happens – well now you’ll know why. 😉
Tuesday Screenshot – PanzerGrenadier
WWII in hexes and counters
Fred Schwarz, 30 December 2014
click to enlarge
German in assault
Dogged Russians in defense
What’s up with the duck?!
image from Fred Schwarz
(Bad) Haiku from Brant
GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #58
We kick off TANKSgiving with a GARPA full of tracks and turrets. GUNNER – SABOT – PREORDER!
MBT (GMT Games)
P500 $65 (retail $95) – Made the cut
The Cold War goes hot in 1987 and the Reds are rolling West. 100m hexes hold individual tanks, infantry squads, and all manner of nasty battlefield surprises. With a whole arsenal of tanks, helicopters, ATGMs, and close-air support at your disposal, combined arms warfare splays across a collection of geomorphic maps and into your game room. Expansions are already on p500, and the mapboards are compatible with GMT’s Panzer to give you more to play with. Check out their p500 page for a LOT more info, and get your order in now.
The JTS Interview
By Boggit, 8 November 2014
John Tiller and Ed ‘Volcano Man’ Williams take us on a tour of their new releases
German infantry advance though a ruined East Prussian Town ©Deutsches Bundesarchiv
John and Ed, thank you for agreeing to talk to Grogheads about your recent work. Both East Prussia ‘14, and Panzer Battles: Kursk, the Southern Flank are recent releases and show some interesting developments in John Tiller Software games
Ed, I know that you’ve put many years of research into the First World War Campaigns. What attracted you to the period in the first place, and do you have any favourite campaigns you’d like to explore?
Ed Williams: I have always been interested in World War One for as long as I can remember. I am not sure what initially attracted me to the subject, perhaps it was the movie Lawrence of Arabia, but I recall my desire to read and watch movies and documentaries about the war all the way back in grade school. About ten years ago I was attending college and I took a history class taught by an excellent professor (Dr. Robert Bruce) and the class covered the war, but not all the boring economic and political stuff, it was purely about the battles and the conflict itself.
I suppose it was that class that piqued my interest, but it did so at a perfect moment since I had just finished the HPS Korea ’85 game some years before and I was basically twiddling my thumbs with nothing to do.
So, I had the experience to develop a new title, the free time to do it, and a renewed spark of interest in the subject matter. I took the interest and came up with an idea of a World War One game using the Panzer Campaigns engine at its core, but of course it would need to be modified. I set about creating a list of modifications that were necessary and I presented them to John, and he was receptive to the idea, made the appropriate adjustments, and so I intentionally charged forward before I had time to think about how difficult of a task it would be.
As for my personal favourite campaigns, I am interested in all campaigns of the war but my personal favourites would have to be anything in Palestine and Mesopotamia, the Galicia campaign, and the 1918 battles.
The first bombardment at Tannenburg by I ArmeeKorps field artillery starts auspiciously with the disruption of a Russian unit – an assault will soon follow. New features like radio intercepts now add to the game experience in East Prussia 1914
