Tag: Eckenfels

07/1/15

Hornet Leader – First Look!

 Unboxing DVG’s Hornet Leader

Michael Eckenfels, 1 July 2015

The arrival of Hornet Leader: Carrier Air Operations (hereafter referred to has simply Hornet Leader) at my doorstep was something I was greatly looking forward to. For one, I was a HUGE fan and player of the original Thunderbolt/Apache Leader game, from 1991 when it was made by GMT. I absolutely loved being in control of my own squadron of Warthogs and Apaches and taking out targets in modern air-to-ground (and sometimes, air-to-air) combat.

I’ve head good things about Hornet Leader, but don’t really know what to expect as the game seems more balanced between air-to-air and air-to-ground combat. There’s also a choice between playing a US Navy campaign or a US Marine Corps campaign.

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The game box is huge, probably close to two inches thick and with a bookcase-sized height and width. It’s very nicely designed, though personally, I’m not a huge fan of the F/A-18 Hornet. Rather, I’m more excited about the possibility of controlling F-14 Tomcats and A-6 Intruders. This game will let you do those, and many more.

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06/21/15

GrogHeads Reviews Quartermaster General

Euro wargame?  Card-driven Diplomacy?  The first fun game of logistics?  Michael reveals all.

Review by Michael Eckenfels, 20 June 2015

Click images to enlarge

Quartermaster General is a board game focused on World War II. “Oh great,” you’re probably thinking, “another World War II board game.” The issue with thinking like that, though, is that you might think that for just about any game coming out about World War II, especially one named “Quartermaster General.” It’s not exactly a name that inspires fascination or even interest. For me, the title itself might be somewhat uninspired, but this is precisely why it caught my eye.

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The name alone indicates there’s much more to this game than what its title is letting on to. It sounds like it’s more a game about supply and logistics, which is not something that’s covered solely in any board game I’ve ever heard of (feel free, though, to correct me in the forum’s Feedback page for this review, as I’d love to learn more about them). To me, though, the idea of a game solely revolving around logistics sounds incomprehensibly boring, compared with pushing minis or cardboard counters about a map in a struggle for supremacy!

And that’s precisely what this game says it is about, though – supply. As a player in this game, you are one (or more) of six countries involved in the planet-engulfing conflict that was World War II, and the game’s system revolves around spreading your control via Armies and Navies and trying to keep intact lines of supply to keep them operating. The six countries are divided evenly between the Axis and Allies – Germany, Italy, and Japan on one side, and the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union on the other. The game is for two to six players, with players doubling up on countries if there’s less than six.

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06/10/15

Star Wars Imperial Assault – First Look!

Michael Eckenfels, 10 June 2015

So the shrink-wrap is cracked and pieces are out.  Is it Jar-Jar Binks, or Boba Fett?

It was with GREAT anticipation that I received a copy of Star Wars Imperial Assault by Fantasy Flight Games. This and Star Wars: Armada are two of three games I’ve really wanted for the last year or so (Fortune and Glory being the third), and when the heavy box arrived from Amazon, it felt like Christmas morning. Don’t get me wrong – I love getting games, and goodness knows I get lots of them in the course of the reviews and AARs I write, but this is Star Wars, man.

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The box, in all its shrink-wrapped glory. It is almost six inches thick and weighs a ton, which just testifies to the goodies loaded inside.

 

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The back of the box. Hard to believe that there used to be a time where this backside of a box was pretty much your only source of knowledge when you came across a game on a shelf somewhere.

 

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05/1/15

Quartermaster General – First Look!

Michael Eckenfels, 1 May 2015

After seeing a few discussions about Quartermaster General online – both positive and negative commentary included – I reached out to Ian Brody at Griggling Games to get a review copy for GrogHeads. I was looking forward to receiving this since it seems to simulate World War 2 in a very different manner than most games.

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Here’s the box. I admit, in my eagerness, I removed the plastic shrink-wrap. I feel terrible that I didn’t capture a picture of it with the shrink-wrap. Why? Only because that’s what I’ve always done with all my unboxing articles so far.

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03/14/15

GrogHeads Reviews Twilight’s Last Gleaming

Reviewed by Michael Eckenfels, 14 March 2015

Developed by Hexwar for iOS (iPad)

OVERVIEW

Twilight’s Last Gleaming first made an appearance almost 20 years ago as a board game by Decision Games, one that rates just below a somewhat above average 6 on BGG’s website. Hexwar’s recent partnership with Hunted Cow Studios has brought this title back into the gaming limelight, but playable on either a Mac or an iPad, and with many more battles to fight than the board game ever offered (three battles from the board game, and ten in this electronic version).

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