Tag: GMT

12/5/14

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #59

With the impending arrival of the annual GrogHeads Holiday Buying Guide and/or List Of Things Your Family Will Never Get You™, we took a slightly different turn on GARPA this time, and tried to cover a variety of different bases, without repeating categories…

 

The wargame:  Liberty or Death: The American Insurrection (GMT Games)
P500, $57 pre-order, $82 MSRP – made the cut!

So the real question everyone has with the 4-headed COIN game set in the AWI is this : How do the French win?!  The latest COIN game brings in Indian raids, brilliant strokes, and the usual 4-headed multi-player madness that occasional devolves into players bribing each other with beer during the game.  The map might not be the prettiest of the COIN maps, but it does have one different feature – the cities of the colonies are called out as separate spaces distinct from the overall territories of the colonies themselves.  Many of the cards are named after historical actors in the AWI, and when the French enter, there’s no trumping it.  Check out their p500 page to get your pre-order in while they’re still taking them.

g59-LibertyDeath-P500-1 Continue reading →

10/25/14

GrogHeads Reviews Fire in the Lake

Michael Eckenfels, 25 October 2014

Michael gives GMT Games’ latest COIN offering a work-thru

 

It’s 2014, and when you take stock of history, it’s almost unbelievable how time has marched on. The strangest thing is that our Vietnam War vets are in their 60s and 70s these days, whereas back in the 80s when I was in high school, this was the age range of our World War II vets. As these soldiers fade into history through inexorable tick-tocking of time, it’s good to know that the subject of the Vietnam War remains in the modern psyche, whether through books or companies like GMT producing games such as this.

Games simulating the Vietnam War (and yes, I’ll call it a war – let’s not get into a debate over ‘war’ or ‘police action’ or ‘conflict’ – unless you want to take it to the GH forums, of course) are fairly rare, though if you enter “Vietnam” in the BGG website you’ll get 45 titles, about 12 of which have been done since 2010. This of course doesn’t include games that have to do with Vietnam, but don’t have ‘Vietnam’ in the title – like this very game.

Several are all about tactical combat, though, and few actually try to detail the entire war including combat, politics, and internal struggles between alliances. When you buy Fire in the Lake, you’re going to get a complete package that includes all of this. If you’re only interested in the military aspects of the Vietnam War, you’re going to miss out on some interesting game play. First, let’s take a look at what comes in the box.

fitl-SPLASH

Continue reading →

10/24/14

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #56

Brant Guillory, 24 October 2014

Not another GARPA!

War & Seas (Wargame Process Edition)
P500 for $49, or 39€

There’s a definite ‘ooh and ahh’ factor to this one.  It’s an age-of-sail slugfest with a build-your-own-ship twist.  You kit out your ship by the use of mix-and-match blacks that represent cannons, crew, officers, etc. and the blast away.  The combat dice are not normal d6s either; they are multi-symbol faces that apply numbers to the actions you’ve chose.  It’s a small fleet action with built-in multiplayer support, and well, did we mention it looks cool?  Go get a p500 order in now and get this thing made already!

g56-seas

Continue reading →

09/17/14

Fire In The Lake – First Look!

By: Michael Eckenfels, 17 September 2014

I’ve never played any of the COIN (COunter INsurgency) games by GMT (so far, there’s A Distant Plain, Andean Abyss, and Cuba Libre). To be honest, only A Distant Plain sounded interesting to me personally, though I’d heard good things about all three. When Fire in the Lake came around as a possible review title, I jumped on the chance. The Vietnam War is of interest to me and I wanted to learn some more about their COIN system, so I jumped at the chance.

I did watch the tutorial video that the designers (Volko Ruhnke and Mark Herman) produced for YouTube – you can check it out here. I highly suggest it if you’re interested in the game and want to get a feel for its flow; it’s what sold me on my choice to check this out for review. (The camera work is, well…let’s just say there’s an immediate apology from Mark on his camera work. But that’s easily overlooked.)

A review will be coming by the end of October to a beloved wargaming website near you (cough, cough). In the meantime, I thought I’d provide some teasing bits through an unboxing ceremony that, for me, has become a standard thing now with every game I buy, it seems.

 

FITL-coverThe box in all its shrink-wrapped glory. This thing is thick and heavy. I love the good feel of a heavy wargame box in the morning (though it’s late in the evening when I take these pics). It feels like…well, you know. I really like the cover artwork and the subdued darkness that makes you feel like you’re staring into a quagmire. Huge props to the artist on this venture!

Continue reading →

07/4/14

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #48

So the 4th of the July, we’re bringing 4 excellent GARPA possibilities. No, we won’t bring you 19 on the 19th.

 

BOAR, MBT Expansion (GMT Games)
203 Orders to date – not there yet

GMT’s modern-day tank shootout MBT has the usual suspects: the US 7th Army and the GSFG. But there’s plenty of tank-blasting goodness up on the Lüneberger Heide where the British Army of the Rhine was facing down an equally vast array of Soviet forces. The MBT games are scaled at the squad and individual vehicle level, ensuring tight focus on tactical shootouts where a bayonet charge is always possible. MBT is on p500 itself, but while you’re over there, get an order in for BAOR, too, and refight the whole shebang back in the late ‘80s.

C&CNapoleonicsbn1(RBM)

Continue reading →