Tag Archives: Flying Pig Games
GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #85
GARPA! Special Weekend Edition ~
Invierno Cubano: Castro’s Counterinsurgency, 1959-1965 (GMT Games)
p500 $19, MSRP $28 (not there yet)
An expansion for Cuba Libre, Invierno Cubano expands Cuba Libre to focus on Castro’s initial time in charge, as he consolidated power through his own counterinsurgency. Factions include Casto’s forces, the rich landowners threatened by the socialist revolution, the escapees to the US that want to strike back at the new government, and Batista’s holdouts hoping to take the country back. It’s almost like a whole new game on the same map. Wade ashore at GMT’s p500 site to get your order in!
GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #83
Here comes GARPA! ~
Mark H Walker’s ’65 (Flying Pig Games)
$27k of $16k, ends 17 December 2015
The latest Kickstarter for Flying Pig is here, as previewed on The GrogCast – ’65 brings tactical combat in Vietnam to your desktop. Building on the same system they’re using for Night of Man, this card-driven game forces some agonizing decisions on you to manage your forces during intense shootouts. All the Mark Walker hallmarks are here – stunning counters, tight storylines, and fast, fun gameplay. March over to the campaign page and pledge already!
Grogheads Reviews YAAH! magazine issue #1
Flying Pig’s new magazine is out there. We’ve already interviewed the editor. Now see what Vance thinks about the finished product.
Vance Strickland, 13 June 2015
Click images to enlarge
I usually don’t read magazines. Not sure why, but the format to me seems to never have enough information on any particular story contain therein. Books are great and for fast information I usually prefer the interwebs or radio or TV. Wargame magazines are different however. I love to pick one up and devour the articles about games that I might be interested in or have never even heard of.
When I heard that Mark Walker’s new company, Flying Pig Games, was putting out a new magazine as well, I had to pick it up. mark stated early on that the magazine was not going to be a mouth piece for his game company and that it would be about more than just “war games”.
YAAH! comes with a right bold cover and in a very large ziplock bag
Just inside the front cover Tom Russell introduces himself as the editor. Now I had never heard of Tom before this moment, but it appears that he is an accomplished writer and creator of board games. In the EZOC, Editor’s Zone of Control, he lays out that YAAH! is striving to be a magazine about all type of conflict based game not just war games in the traditional sense. This, to me, is great because it will expose me to a variety of new games that I normally might miss because of my usual narrow focus on traditional hex and counter “War Games”.
GrogHeads Interviews Tom Russell of Yaah! Magazine
Flying Pig Games is launching their new quarterly gaming magazine, Yaah! Magazine. Their editor, Tom Russell, took some time out of his busy schedule to chat with us about the launch of the magazine, and what to expect from the next few issues.
click to enlarge images; images courtesy of Tom Russell
Sum up Yaah! Magazine for us in 5 words. Go!
That’s really hard. “Full-color quarterly print gaming magazine” gets across what it’s about, but not how it’s about it, if you know what I mean. But we’ll go with that.
OK, so more details – fill in these blanks for us:
If you love _____, you’re going to love Yaah! Magazine, but if _____ isn’t your cup of tea, you probably want to read something else.
If you love games about conflict, you’re gonna love Yaah! If games about conflict aren’t your cup of tea, then I’m not sure why you’re reading this interview. In all seriousness– I can’t imagine someone with a wargaming background not loving the magazine, but admittedly this is really a recurring problem I have. I get so excited about what I’m working on, and who I’m working with, and how much I’m digging it that I can’t fathom why someone else wouldn’t dig it. It’s like that bit from one of Woody Allen’s films, I can’t quite recall which one, in which they ask his character (who is a filmmaker) who he sees as the target demographic. And he says, “This will appeal to adults, teenagers, young adults, and kids, adolescents, toddlers, I imagine. Newborns.”
I guess looking at it slightly more seriously, the focus of the magazine is pretty broad in some respects, as we’re looking at conflict-based hobby gaming. So it’s not, strictly speaking, a wargaming magazine, in the sense of historical wargames, though wargames are a big part of it. We’re also going to cover fantasy and science fiction gaming, horror, really anything with combat or other forms of direct conflict. So I guess there are people who would turn their nose up at it for that reason, because they’d really want something focused squarely on historical wargames. But really, I think there’s enough “real wargame”-related content in the magazine that it will appeal to those people, and they might look at some of the other stuff and say, “Oh, that looks neat; maybe I’ll try that.”
GrogHeads Interviews Mark Walker of Flying Pig Games
Interview by Brant Guillory, 21 January 2014
Mark Walker has launched his latest venture, Flying Pig Games. He graciously took a few hours out of his recent weekend to give us the lowdown on the new company and some of its upcoming games, as well as some lessons learned.
Of all the names you could’ve concocted, why “Flying Pig” games?
MHW: Well, Lock ‘n Load was taken. 😉 Seriously, there are a couple of reasons. I didn’t want a name that screamed “WAR GAME.” Especially not “SERIOUS WAR GAME COMPANY!” Don’t get me wrong, I love war games, I’m pretty sure they are my favorite genre, but there is so much else that I enjoy, and that other people enjoy. I want FPG to have the latitude to publish a diversity of games. To not be limited by our name. Given that thought, I tried to think up names. It came down to Howling Moon Games (a knock off of a famous Sam Bush song) and FPG. I already had the shoulder tat, so FPG it was. Oh yeah, and a flying pig is sort of the age old symbol meaning anything’s possible. And the motto? “Ipsum Sine Timore, Consector!” Loosely translated, it means “Screw it, just do it!”
Who else are you bringing along on this aerial-porcine adventure with you? What other designers are you bringing on to the Flying Pig ship that we should know about? Are they just freelancing for you, or are they committed to Flying Pig long term?
MHW: Some I can name, some I can’t. I can tell you that will have signed Shayne Logan, Tom Russel, and Brian Train. Armageddon is a co-design with a soon-to-be-announced designer and myself. We are in negotiations with another company to do a co-release that will incorporate the universe of Armageddon War and their game system. The goal is to release six boxed games and four issues of Yaah! in year one. But as many gamers have seen, it’s easy to put out snappy press releases and spiffy show and tells. Getting boxes into gamers’ hands is much more difficult.
