Tag: Matrix

12/12/15

GrogHeads Interviews Richard Bodley Scott of Pike & Shot

Richard Bodley Scott talks to Grogheads ~

Interview by Boggit, 12 December 2015

Click images to enlarge

Richard, thank you for talking to Grogheads about yourself and your work. Pike and Shot Campaigns is your latest release, but you are no newcomer to either computer or tabletop wargames.

  1. Tell us about yourself. How did you get into wargaming, and why are you passionate about it?

When I was a kid, my father took us to see all sorts of ancient and medieval monuments in Britain and on holiday abroad. When I discovered in 1971 that there was such a thing as ancient wargaming, I never looked back. I have been playing table-top ancient and medieval figure games for 44 years, and Pike and Shot on and off for 25.

The original Pike and Shot has seen massive expansion and improvement with Pike and Shot Campaigns.
The original Pike and Shot has seen massive expansion and improvement with Pike and Shot Campaigns.

Continue reading →

11/14/15

Grogheads Previews Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa

Your first look at the newest release coming from VR Designs and Matrix Games ~

Vance Strickland, 14 November 2015

click images to enlarge

Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa, DC3 from here on, is the third in the series of operational level hex and counter wargames from VR Designs, published by Martix Games. The first, Decisive Campaigns: Warsaw to Paris (DC1), let us fight the beginnings of WWII with the invasions of Poland, France and a hypothetical Sealion. It had regiment level units with historical OOB’s. Hundreds of units representing infantry, artillery, and armoured units on the ground and fighter and bomber formations in the air for all the major combatants. Next came Decisive Campaigns: Case Blue (DC2). With the same scale of units and map it took us to the Eastern Front of WWII to participate in the massive German offensive of 1942 again with detailed OOB’s conveyed by hundreds of counters on huge maps. This game upped the detail of the supply modelling and refined some of the Command and Control aspects of the first game.

Let’s see what we can expect from the latest installment of this excellent line of games.

Note: This preview is from a pre-release beta version of the game. Some art and content may change on release.

What’s New

Title screen only the main event... so far...
Title screen only the main event… so far…

The main entrance seems bare compared to the last version because there is only one scenario – the main event! There is no editor listed either but that apparently will be released as a separate entity that will work with the previous games as well. Also that that PBEM is now handled by Slitherine’s PBEM++ server system.

A plethora of options for lots of gaming
A plethora of options for lots of gaming

Continue reading →

10/10/15

Bonus AAR! Rommel Attacks, ’43 (part 2)

What does a 4-player throwdown look like in Gary Grigsby’s War in the West: Operation Torch?  The gang at Matrix Games shows us ~

Matrix Games, 10 October 2015

Turn 3

Axis Air Commander

On Turns 2 and 3 I provided Stuka Ground Attacks on enemy concentrations until Fatigue and Low Morale forced me to ground the Stukas to recover.  At this point my goal switched to keeping the enemy aircraft away from our Ground Forces by flying Air Superiority Missions over the most dangerous part of our Front, which was in the Center.  I believe this was also quite successful although I was not able to see the Air Battles raging during the Ground Phase.

Axis Ground Commander

The battle continues to rage to the north of Sdid Bouzid but the Allies are unable to exploit forward.

Torch-017-screenshot

I take this turn quietly and ensure that I take easy chances to push back units that have over extended. I bide my time as I don’t want to exhaust my combat power and open myself to being caught by a counter attack.

Continue reading →

10/9/15

Bonus AAR! Rommel Attacks, ’43 (part 1)

What does a 4-player throwdown look like in Gary Grigsby’s War in the West: Operation Torch?  The gang at Matrix Games shows us ~

Matrix Games, 9 October 2015

This is an AAR of a 4 player game of the Rommel Attacks 43 scenario from Gary Grigsby’s War in the West: Operation Torch. Rommel Attacks is a short 5 turn scenario that covers the Axis counter-attack that led to the Battle of the Kasserine Pass. In the actual battle, after initial success, the Axis attack was halted and the German command withdraw some of the forces to focus on the British 8th Army arriving from Libya. In this scenario, the German forces are retained by the Axis player for the duration of the scenario, so the Axis side is expected to seize critical objectives and hold them.

Operation Torch allows each side to be split in two for true multiplayer play, with one player commanding the air forces and the other the ground forces. The players in this game, all from the Torch development team, were:

  • Axis Air Commander – Randy Seger (scenario designer)
  • Axis Ground Commander – John Young (scenario designer)
  • Allied Air Commander – Erik Rutins (producer)
  • Allied Ground Commander – Joel Billings (game developer)

This AAR will mix in comments from the different players. This was John’s first play through the scenario, while Joel had the advantage of having played an earlier version of the scenario as the German ground commander in a 4 player test game.

Torch-001-screenshot

There are 7 territorial objectives in this scenario, with various victory points awarded, each turn and at the end of the game, for control of these objectives. In addition, victory points are awarded for causing casualties, but the bulk of the victory points in the scenario stem from control of the objectives.

Continue reading →

09/12/15

Screenshot Feature: Thirty Years War

Screenshots by Boggit, 12 September 2015

Developed by Headquarter and Published by AGEOD/Slitherine

Many a crown shines spotless now
That yet was deeply sullied in the winning.”
Friedrich Schiller (Act II, sc. ii. – Wallenstein)

The Thirty Years War was one of the defining periods of the Seventeenth Century, and has been of interest to me for years, so I was delighted when AGEOD/Slitherine published Thirty Years War. Here are a few screenshots from the first few turns of the Grand Campaign from the perspective of the Imperialists to give you a flavour of what is being offered.

Thirty Years War comes with 8 scenarios. Three are tutorials, four deal with key phases of the war and one is the Grand Campaign.
Thirty Years War comes with 8 scenarios. Three are tutorials, four deal with key phases of the war and one is the Grand Campaign.

 

Turn one of the Grand Campaign starring General Bucquoy with a small force of some 6,500 men preparing to put down the Bohemian revolt. He needs more troops, but must act soon to squash the revolt before it gets out of hand.
Turn one of the Grand Campaign starring General Bucquoy with a small force of some 6,500 men preparing to put down the Bohemian revolt. He needs more troops, but must act soon to squash the revolt before it gets out of hand.

Continue reading →