Tag: PC Games

01/30/16

The Battle for Brettevillette ~ An AAR

After Action Report for JTS’s Panzer Battles: Normandy ~

Boggit, 30 January 2016

John Tiller Software has released yet another Panzer Battles game – the first being Kursk: The Southern Front last year. From my perspective I find it a fascinating period, and the game not only looks extremely pretty, but has the usual wealth of historical research and elegant gameplay that players can expect as standard from John Tiller Software. The computer opponent is certainly much better than I’ve seen in some older John Tiller titles, and it is a very rewarding game for a single player. That said I suspect – as with other John Tiller titles – that the optimal opponent is another human. Play by email is fully supported, and from experience I will add that it’s an easy system to use multiplayer.

The Normandy campaign can in some ways get understated given the scale of what was happening at the time on the Eastern Front with Operation Bagration, but don’t lose sight of the fact that during this campaign more German troops became casualties, or surrendered than at the better known Battle of Stalingrad. The Normandy campaign led to the near total collapse of German forces on the Western front for nearly a month, during which France and much of Belgium were liberated. To give you a flavour of what is being offered, here are some screenshots and an AAR from the Brettevillette scenario, a historical action set during 28th June 1944 (mid-way through the Normandy campaign). Enjoy.

Panzer Battles: Normandy has 65 standalone scenarios. 59 are unique and 6 are AI ‘variants’ focused for the single player against the computer. The spread of scenarios cover the whole campaign starting with the initial airborne attacks on 6th June 1944, and end with the decisive Falaise battle on 20th August. Two campaigns and five variable scenarios provide a further 28 variants of scenarios.
Panzer Battles: Normandy has 65 standalone scenarios. 59 are unique and 6 are AI ‘variants’ focused for the single player against the computer. The spread of scenarios cover the whole campaign starting with the initial airborne attacks on 6th June 1944, and end with the decisive Falaise battle on 20th August. Two campaigns and five variable scenarios provide a further 28 variants of scenarios.

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01/27/16

GrogHeads Reviews Heroes of Steel

Dungeon Crawling Underground!  But how does it play? ~

By Avery Abernethy

 

Heroes of Steel is a turn based, combat RPG set in an underground world. Your four characters follow the traditional meme of a medieval world. This is a small party, turn based, combat sim. There is a story to string the combat along, but you have no choices in character personality or alignment. You are good. Your enemies are evil. You need to kill all of the evil.

To strike down the evil hordes you have a party composed of a fighter, a cleric, a thief and a wizard. There is one variant for each character type. For example, your cleric can be based more on healing or more on combat. The thief can be a bow equipped sniper who opens chests and detects traps. Or your thief can be more focused on a stealthy hand-to-hand combat while also opening locked chests and detecting traps.

HofSteel-Your fighter

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01/23/16

Shogun 2 – Fall of the Samurai

Gus takes on Fall of the Samurai for your weekend entertainment ~

Lloyd Sabin, 22 January 2016

I love you, Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai. You are truly the pinnacle of the Total War series as far as AI wilyness, graphical atmosphere, and all around immersion. But oh…how I hate you as well, never having been able to beat you. I am the closest I have ever been right now, with the help of the Radious mod, which adds a giant rice bowl’s worth of features, including a tamping down of the dreaded Realm Divide event that occurs in the late game pitting whatever clans are left against the player.  I presently hold 10 of the required 14 domains needed for a Short Campaign victory by 1882…the year of my last turn is 1870. I am moving on Kyoto, with plans to take Musashi as my final move. The last time I played, a few years ago, I actually ran out of time while besieging Musashi and lost the campaign by samurai’s hair. Not again…not again!

S2-FOTS-1

Early in my campaign, capturing the island prefecture of Tsushima was one of my first victories. Looting was not yet on my mind – I didn’t want all of Japan turning against me so early in the campaign due to bad battlefield behavior.

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01/9/16

2015 Readers’ Choice Tabletop Awards Voting!

Vote now for your 2015 Readers’ Choice Awards winners ~

This year, we have separate polls covering digital and tabletop gaming.  All the games listed were nominated by you, our readers and forum-goers.  Don’t see your pick for the 2015 games of the year?  You should’ve nominated it!  Check out our forums where you can start now with your nominations for the 2016 games of the year, both digital and tabletop.  (click through to vote)

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