Tag: Role-Playing

04/16/14

The Joy of Discovery, or A Love-Letter to a Bygone Era of Gaming

Brant waxes nostalgic.  For no good reason, we might add.

16 April 2014

One of the great tragedies that the internet has brought about in the gaming world is the loss of a sense of wonder and discovery of a brand new game that no one else has heard of. One of my first tasks whenever I would get to a new town was to find a local game shop. Back then, things were all very different. There were no chain stores, unless you counted the book stores in the mall (though to be fair, there still aren’t any in the gaming world). Every game store in every town was different. They all had their own different unique games in stock that catered to the whims of the staff.

Since there was very little uniformity from store to store , and the gaming marketplace was much more fragmented, you never knew what you would find in those local game stores. Moreover, if you found something off the wall, it was almost guaranteed that no one back in your gaming group had heard of it, because there was no internet for everyone to hop on and find out about the same games all at the same time.

In my own explorations, I ran across all sorts of interesting nuggets and obscure games that would hardly be categorized as obscure today, because someone would’ve already read about them online. It’s not that they have any wider appeal than they did before, but they almost certainly have wider distribution and knowledge of that distribution thanks to the web. Continue reading →

04/11/14

GARPA 42 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory


This week, GARPA dips into the pre-order troves of some wargame companies, as well as tiptoeing through Kickstarter, to find you some great upcoming games.

 

Huzzah! Four Battles of the American Civil War Vol. 1 (One Small Step)
$39.95 pre-order

Company-level actions in the ACW comes to your tabletop in a quad-game package with 4 small, but important, battles from the 1860s.  You get Grant’s first real battle, out in Missouri.  You’ll also get Burnside in North Carolina, and two other fights.  The colorful counters give you a solid period feel, and the maps a compact and get you into the fight in a hurry.  Check out the preorder page and load your muskets!

 

G42-huzzah

 

G42-KwaKawaguchi’s Gamble: Edson’s Ridge (MMP)
$33.00 pre-order

A gorgeous area-movement game of the Japanese attacks to over-run the USMC airfield on Guadalcanal, Kawaguchi’s Gamble is up on pre-order right now with MMP.  Outnumbered over 3-to-1, the Marines are holding Edson’s Ridge from Japanese attacks that include banzai charges and gas attacks.  Drop in on the pre-order page for the game and check out some playtest images and place your order.

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04/6/14

A Retro Review of Covert Action

A review of Covert Action as released on www.gog.com

By Avery Abernethy, 6 April 2014

Covert Action is a game of international espionage originally released by Microprose Software in 1990.  Covert Action is a classic MS-DOS computer game written by Sid Meier and his programming team.  You take the role of Max (or Maxine) Remington, a CIA trouble shooter attempting to unravel complex international criminal conspiracies from a multitude of hostile government and terrorist organizations.

My first copy of Covert Action was purchased in 1990.  I loved it and it became one of my favorite all time games.  I mourned when Microsoft stopped supporting DOS and donated my original copy of Covert Action to charity prior to moving to a new home.  I rejoiced when DOSBOX was invented which enabled people to play MS-DOS games on a modern computer systems.  This review is not based on fond memories, but on more than twenty hours of play of the www.gog.com version of Covert Action.

Each mission starts in a similar fashion.  A CIA leader at HQ warns trouble is brewing.  Briefings are often vague with a handful of clues and perhaps an indication of one of the organizations involved in the plot.  Plots include blackmailing important officials, assassinations, stealing important bits of technology, or similar cold-war era operations.  Multiple enemy groups are involved in every plot.  The mastermind works through minions who perform the nasty deeds.  Max then has lots and lots of choices with little to go on.  Max often starts unravelling the plot by placing wiretaps on organizations or individuals who may be involved.  This may yield coded messages which must be decrypted.

CA-message decoding

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03/28/14

GARPA 41 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Today it’s all about GARPA GARPA GARPA

 

Next War: Taiwan, GMT Games
p500 made the cut – shipping date not set yet

With a $30 discount for preordering, GMT’s latest entry in the Next War line of games aims for the near-future Chinese invasion of Taiwan.  It includes rules for some basic naval conflict, given the amphibious nature of the likely assault.  The standard game is the ground war shootout, and the advanced rules layer on some robust tracking of airpower.  It’s battalion- and brigade-level wargaming that’s not for newbies to the tabletop, but is a well-tested system for modern conflicts that has many fans in the grognard community.  Go give it a look and get your order in.

NWTaiwan-1(RBM)

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02/14/14

GARPA 38 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

This week’s GARPA? A truckload of new games on Kickstarter, and some wargaming, too!

Board Games

GBACW: Twin Peaks (GMT Games)
p500 – not there yet!  Pre-order price $41

Building off of one of wargaming’s most enduing game systems (TSS first rolled out in 1976), Twin Peaks govers the battles of Cedar Mountain and South Mountain, in the fall of 1862.  It’s two games in one, and both part of the series that all ACW gamers already know and love.  There’s a high level of complexity in the system, but that’s the tradeoff you make for the high degrees of realism and fidelity you get.  It’s the seventh GMT game in this series, so you know what you’re getting into for art and design.  Jump into the GBACW series with this while it’s on pre-order; hit GMT’s site to make your pledge.G38-twin

 

Storm over Dien Bien Phu (MMP)G38-storm
p500 – 156 of 520 needed, preorder price $33

The last gasp of the French in Southeast Asia, the decisive 1954 battle set set the stage for dramatic shifts in warfighting for the next half-century.  MMP’s game gives players the familiar “Storm Over ____” system to jump into their game quickly, and augments gameplay with a deck of cards.  The world was shifting from a WWII warfighting mindset ot something much more recognizably “modern” and you can game it out on your table if you pop over to MMP and place a pre-order for the game.

 

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