Tag: Fantasy

06/20/14

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #47

This week’s GARPA might be short on titles (only 3), but it’s long on success – they’ve all made the cut and will be adorning tabletops near you this year.

Scotland Rising  (Worthington Publishing)
$5000 of $2500, ends 20 July 2014

C’mon, now – you’ve seen Braveheart, right?  Scottish Wars of Independence ringing a bell?  And as a wargamer and history buff, you must know that we’re coming up on the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, right?   Well, not only that, but there’s a Scottish independence vote coming up in a few months, too.  So what better time than to take a trip back through history and check out Worthington’s upcoming game on the Battle of Bannockburn.  And if they hit their stretch goals, you’ll get the battles of Stirling Bridge and Falkirk, too, which should satisfy anyone’s desire for 14th-century hack-and-slash combat in the Scottish border country.  But they only hit all those stretch goals if you go plunk down your coins on the Kickstarter page, right?

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06/6/14

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #46

A new D-Day game, and (finally!) the digital version of one of boardgaming’s most popular conflict games of all time.  Smells like…. GARPA!

g46-twilightTwilight Struggle, digital edition (GMT Games)
$115k of $50k goal (though that’ll be surpassed by the time you read this), ends 3 July 2014

For several years, it could be wryly joked that the “Struggle” in Twilight Struggle was for the difficulties in getting the digital version deployed.  No more.  It’s not uncommon to see a Kickstarter campaign blow well past the full funding mark, into ridiculous levels of stretch goals.  It’s rare to see a Kickstarter campaign fully funded within hours.  Yes, hours.  Twilight Struggle was at $30000 around 400pm on June 5th, having only launched earlier that day, and within the next 90 minutes they almost doubled that total, to exceed their $50k goal.  They’ve doubled that goal within the first 24 hours.  Why are we not talking about the game itself?  Do we really need to?  It’s to top-ranked “wargame” at BoardGameGeek (though admittedly, discussions of whether or not it’s a “wargame” waste plenty of hours online).  A forum/team game has been running here at GrogHeads for a while now, and countless schoolteachers around the US use it to introduce their students to the Cold War.  Seriously, you don’t need convincing.  You just need to go figure out your pledge level and get it over with already.

 

Day of Days (MMP)
181 of 650 orders needed

It wouldn’t be D-Day without us digging up an Overlord game, right?  MMP has a new SCS game for D-Day that’s designed to cover not just the landings themselves, but the breakouts that followed.  There are even scenarios designed to skip the amphibious assault, and start with Allied forces on the beach.  This game is new enough that there’s no draft cover art, playtest photos, or anything else that’s leaked out.  We were able to scrape up a very rough image of the maps (yes, plural) to show the scope and scale of the game, which will include scenarios that focus just on the British landings, or the US landings.  It’s an MMP game, so it’s going to be a solid and well-tested game on a known platform (SCS) and all those great touches that come with MMP tackling the subject in depth.  Go get a pre-order in!

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06/4/14

Cards of Cthulhu – First Look!

Vance Strickland cracks open his fresh-outta-the-mail copy of Cards of Cthulhu and shares the guts with us.

 

Discuss the unleashing of Cthulhu in our forums>>

Share your own unboxing photos here >>

05/23/14

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #45

Your semi-weekly wallet-blasting gallon of goodness is back! GARPA checks out some excellent new projects waiting for your pre-order dollars.

 

Kuzaarik Forgers: Freeblades Fantasy Miniatures (DGS Games)
$4100 of $8500, ends 18 June 2014

The boys from DGS are back with another nifty-looking expansion to Freeblades. Ramp up your fantasy games with some excellent new minis of the Kuzaarik, the Dwarves with a bit of a twist. The concept art is fantabulous, and if the minis are even half as good as the advance sketches, the backers of their new Kickstarter campaign will be some happy gamers. Pledge away, dear readers!

 

New York 1776 (Worthington Publishing)
$13k of $2500 – ends 27 May 2014, so hurry up!

A battle of the AWI, New York 1776 was a key campaign for the Brits following the loss of Boston. A hex-and-block game with integrated fog of war, New York 1776 has so ridiculously exceeded its Kickstarter goal that some of the stretch goals – terrain blocks? – almost seem like they were making it up as they went along. A combination of a strategic map and a tactical battle board gives battles some depth while retaining the ‘big picture’ of the strategic situation. Read more at their site, and hurry up with your pledges before the Kickstarter campaign ends.

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