Tag Archives: Naval Warfare
Tracer Rounds: Attack of the Killer Poetry
What do you do with a backlog of reviews? ~
Brant, 04 April 2016
We get all kinds of games sent to us, along with the ones we pick up one our own. Some good, some bad, some gorgeous, some not so much. We try – we really do try – to get to all of them for review purposes, but it doesn’t always happen. There’s a reason I’ve got a weekly blurb here called “What I’m doing this week when I should be playing games”. Moreover, when I play a game for review, I want to play it multiple times to ensure that the review I’m writing is accurate based on how the game is balanced, and how it plays over time – especially if replayability is one of the key factors we want to discuss.
Among the reasons I’ve made it a point to start republishing a bunch of the ‘classic reviews’ are that I don’t want my reviews to be dependent on someone else’s site continuing to exist, as well as wanting folks to be able to find opinions on older games that they may want to take for a spin. Additionally, many of those older reviews (some of which I’m going to get to soon) were longer borderline-investigative-journalism pieces that really dug into the games through repeated plays. That was a lot easier when I was in grad school. Working 3 different teaching jobs, plus being the editorial director here, makes all that a lot tougher.
So, this episode of Tracer Rounds is designed to catch up on those reviews – with a twist.
GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #86
An episode of GARPA full of un-funded projects. Don’t let that stop you 🙂 ~
Polyversal (Collins Epic Wargames)
$13k of $80k, ends 27 March 2016
We’ve been following Polyversal for a few years now. Yes, years. Here’s the photographic proof at Origins! (Heck, here’s another from 2013…) It’s 6mm sci-fi warfare, so you can play out a large battle over a medium-sized table. There’s a unique visual representation of the command structures based on hexagonal-shaped unit cards whose layout provides a quick look at the unit relationships. There’s even an online unit assessment tool that lets you bring your own minis to the game, so all those WH40K epic-scale minis that have been languishing in your garage can now come back to life. Teleport over to their campaign page, NOW!
First Impressions of NWS’s Rule the Waves
Developed and published by NWS
Reviewed by Boggit, 26 September 2015
“They [the Sea Lords] must cease to say ‘This is the ideal plan; How can we get enough money to carry it out?’ They must say instead ‘Here is a sovereign; How much can we squeeze out of it that will really count for victory in a naval war?’” Lord Selborne, First Lord of the Admiralty. (Selborne to the Admiralty Permanent Secretary (16th February 1903) in “Distribution of Business 1904”, Adm. 1/7737 P.R.O.). (The quote refers to Selborne’s concern of impending financial crisis arising from the continued construction of modern warships in the numbers and varieties required to protect all of Britain’s maritime interests.)
The British Grand Fleet in WW1 (Courtesy: British Library)
Rule the Waves is the latest game presentation from NWS covering the naval arms race period of 1900-1925. The campaign map covers the entire world, portrayed as areas representing the spheres of influence of the Great Powers of the time. The scale of the game is in monthly turns, and your units range from little minesweepers to massive dreadnoughts. Working with a limited budget you face Lord Selborne’s dilemma of creating and maintaining a navy that will win a naval war.
GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #77
Hey now, it’s been a few weeks, so we thought we’d throw another GARPA at you. Plus, y’know, we had it on the schedule and all…
Brant Guillory, 18 September 2015
Mech Deck (Patrick Fahy)
$19k of $75k, ends 1 October 2015
These guys may have over-reached with the funding goal, but it’s because they’re committed to the quality of the manufacturing. “Manufacturing what?” you ask. Customizable, multi-component, build-your-own mech-walker-battle-droid-giant-fighting-thingees (trying to avoid inadvertently violating someone’s copyright here, work with me). It’s a hex-and-minis skirmish game, but with mech figures that you can literally assemble on-the-fly to customize your arms, torso, legs, and “backpack” (back of torso) to make your own mech and then duke it out for bragging rights, or beer. There’s some card-based randomizing as well as a geomorphic map. Stomp over to the campaign page and fire off your pledge.
GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #66
GARPA AT SEEEEEEAAAAA! OK, not just afloat, but there’s a pair of naval-heavy games for you this week to go with some gargantuan aircraft and more RPG hi-jinks.
Captain’s Sea (GMT Games)
P500 – Made the cut! P500 price $45, MSRP $65
A ship-to-ship combat game with a mixture of a square grid (!) and octagonal counters (!!) that covers the actions of the fledgling US Navy in the early 1800s. Battles include US ships against both British and French opponents, and focus on commanding a single ship through skillful maneuvering and solid crew allocations to weapons and rigging. Flying monkeys and subsurface atomic bombs round out your arsenals (just kidding!). Sail over to GMT while it’s still ‘officially’ on p500, but know that you’re going to get it, since it made the cut and is going to head to production sometime soon.
