John Ringo’s work is well known to many wargamers. He has many bestselling books with large amounts of tactical and strategic combat including the popular Posleen series, the Council War Series, and even an “X-Files meets the deadly soccer mom from Mississippi series” (Princess of Wands and Queen of Wands). A veteran of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, Ringo’s work has appealed to many readers interested in action-packed combat.
Under a Graveyard Sky is a survivalist novel of a zombie apocalypse. Although I like post-apocalyptic fiction, zombies have never held my interest., as they are the epitome of mindless, tactically brain-dead opponents. The whole idea of a zombie apocalypse has always seemed so weird and boring that I bought the book in hardback and let it sit for five months unopened. I shouldn’t have waited so long, as Ringo has actually written an interesting, post-apocalyptic zombie book.
There are several reasons why A Distant Plain can be tough to review. That said, they are all the same reasons that make it a compelling game. How many multiplayer wargames have you played where the players are not simply extensions of a team, but rather working at cross purposes as often as not? How many wargames have you played with an elastic time scale? How many wargames eschew anything resembling unit factors or quantified values? And now take all those tweaks and roll them into a single game, and drop into an ongoing conflict whose outcomes are not yet truly determined.
The Story
There are four players: The Coalition, The Government, The Taliban, and the Warlords. Of these, the Taliban are the only one for whom you can draw a reasonably straight line directly from the real life organization in Afghanistan directly to a game role. The Government essentially represents the Karzai administration, but there are game effects that seem to clearly outstrip the existing government’s capabilities. The Coalition is a mix of ISAF, the US, some NGO capabilities, and other external actors attempting to influence actions in Afghanistan. Finally, the greatest amalgam – the Warlords – are the ultimate ‘floater’ faction representing a collection of decidedly non-aligned ‘real’ actors who nevertheless represent a unified set of goals within the mechanics of the game.
The varying scenarios allow you start the war in 2002, 2005, or 2009, but all tend to end around 2013 or so. Obviously, the 2009 scenario is the quickest of them, but any of them will take most of an afternoon, if not more.
The setup for the “surge” scenario, starting in 2009.
Opening the Box
We’ve covered the unboxing before, but to save you jumping to the link, here’s what you get: a solid, 8-panel, mounted, folding map with a ton of useful marginal tracks, boxes, and record-keeping tools; a single sheet of mounted, die-cut counters that are virtually all administrative in nature; a bag of Euro-game-ish markers for the players, representing bases and forces; some dice and pawns; a bunch of plastic bags; the deck of cards used to drive the game along; and a ton of very clear, useful, and well-designed player cards that clearly lay out what players can do on any given turn. Continue reading →
Michael Eckenfels takes a look at two of Lock’n’Load’s key expansions to the World at War universe
Lock ‘N Load’s World at War series is a huge compendium of NATO vs. Warsaw Pack wargaming goodness, with several titles detailing that hypothetical conflict. In this First Impressions article, we’re taking a look at both Blood and Bridges and Operation Garbo as they are unboxed.
Click images to enlarge. A lot.
Blood and Bridges has what I’d think of as a ‘standard’ size wargame box, with Garbo being a bit smaller in both height and width. That’s a little annoying to someone as anal as I am when it comes to storing and displaying games (as well as books, actually), but that’s about the only bad thing I can say (and it’s not even THAT bad). The artwork, done by veteran artist Marc von Martial, is his usual high standard of excellence.
GrogHeads has partnered with On Target Simulations and Matrix Games to bring a fantastic year-end shootout, with a chance to win some excellent prizes from Matrix Games and the GrogHeads prize vault.
Here’s how it works:
1. You have to play a game. We know, right?! Let us say that again: You have to play a game. See, you’re loving this contest already.
1c. This is a custom-modified self-contained game and scenario for Flashpoint Campaigns. This scenario is not available as a part of the standard install, so even if you already have the game (and OTS loves you if you do!) then you still need to download and install this package to play.
2. When you complete the game, you save your final score report, and upload it to the GrogHeads forum in the designated thread.
2a. Entries that are emailed, faxed, posted, sent by courier, carrier pigeon, or paper airplane won’t count. You have to upload the entry in our forums, in the proper thread for your entry to be a part of the contest.
2b. The highest score (percent) will be the grand prize winner. In the event of a tie, the first tiebreaker is VP locations held, then enemy units killed (see image for scoring order).
You need to capture and post the Staff Summary Report from the end of your game. If your screen doesn’t look like this, you posted the wrong screen.
3. But wait! Some chucklehead scored 98% of day 2 of the contest! It’s hopeless! How can I ever win? Fear not, fellow Grogs! Every entry into the contest gets one virtual ticket thrown into the digital raffle hat for a consolation prize. That’s right, every separate score screen you upload after playing the game gets you another chance to win. So you might never score out of the 30s – who cares!? Score in the 30s eighteen different times, and you get 18 different chances to win in the consolation drawings.
3a. You can also earn an entry to the consolation drawing by “liking” the contest post on Facebook, and another by “sharing” the contest post on Facebook. 2 clicks for 2 entries! w00t!
4. You keep talking about “prizes”. Yes, yes we do. Because we’re just building the suspense.
4a. How are we doing?
4b. Still in suspense?
4c. Can’t wait to find out what you’re playing for?
5. All entries must be posted in the forums, with a forums time-stamp no later than Midnight Eastern (US) Standard Time, Sunday 5 January 2014. That’s midnight when Saturday rolls into Sunday. Entries posted or received after that time will not be counted for the grand prize, or consolation drawings.
4d. How’s that ‘suspense’ thing working out for us?
6. Legalese: At the bottom of this article is the full set of legal terms and conditions. You participation in this contest is your acceptance of those conditions. Remember that our in-house counsel is an excellent shot and owns a LOT of firearms.
4e. You’re just waiting to find out what you can win, right?
7. Forum membership is required for submitting your entries. You must be a registered member of the GrogHeads forums to enter. But hey, registration is free! What a deal!
7c. Don’t mix them up. If you post an entry in the discussion thread, it won’t count. If you post a discussion question in the entry thread, you will be mercilessly mocked.
4f. Prizes? Oh yeah! Prizes! Here’s what you’re playing for:
GRAND PRIZE: $65 credit at the Matrix Games store – enough to cover a boxed copy of Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm, or any number of excellent titles from the largest publisher of digital strategy games.
CONSOLATION PRIZES: Four total. Two winners will get $20 credit to the Matrix Games store. Two other winners will get random prize grab-bags pulled from the GrogHeads prize vault, with a retail value of at least $20. Consolation prize winners do not get to pick which prize we send you. They come out in the order they come out.
Winners will be notified by message through the forums, and the winners will be announced publicly on 6 January 2014.
Under a Graveyard Sky is a survivalist novel of a zombie apocalypse. Although I like post-apocalyptic fiction, zombies have never held my interest., as they are the epitome of mindless, tactically brain-dead opponents. The whole idea of a zombie apocalypse has always seemed so weird and boring that I bought the book in hardback and let it sit for five months unopened. I shouldn’t have waited so long, as Ringo has actually written an interesting, post-apocalyptic zombie book.
