Tag Archives: Staff

Moving On!

A note from the content editor ~

Brant Guillory, 9 September 2018

Hey folks,

If you frequent our forums, then you’ve probably seen the announcement that I’m leaving GrogHeads. This wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s the one I felt the need to make at this point in my life.

I’m leaving behind a fun, vibrant, exciting community that didn’t exist 7 years ago. Together, we took GrogHeads from “non-existent” to a serious site in the wargaming world. At one point we were one of the top 100k sites in the US, and were regularly killing our competition in some pretty neat measurables, like the time the average user spent on the site.

You guys rallied around your fellow community members like no other. One of our Wives of Grog™ got inundated with Christmas cards when they’d moved to a new base only weeks earlier, and he had to pack up for Afghanistan, leaving her with a newborn and few other kids in a new town for the holidays. Twice, you guys rallied to support Bayonet Jr getting to a major soccer tournament when I was un(der)employed. You pitched in for the community ranging from fighting childhood cancer to surprise birthday card avalanches to helping a young man fighting possible vision loss.  We’ve had Grogs show up a funerals for folks we only knew through online interactions, with cards signed on behalf of the whole family.
That generous spirit is a key reason we had an active and vibrant thread just to donate extra copies of games to each other, usually digital codes, but often tabletop games, too.
And the annual family reunion that was Origins became a tentpole event for some people’s summer vacations.

We started a podcast, a video show, tried a few different recurring series, and peppered a variety of Civ AARs with unnecessary sexual innuendos. We wore our bowling shirts like a university history department tried to form a biker gang and ended up going out for tacos instead, and what started on a lark turned into 2500+ posts of puns to torture MetalDog.

It’s been a fun 6-1/2 years, but it’s time to pass the torch. Gus & Jarhead will be steering the ship now, and it’ll be exciting to see where they take it.
I’d tell y’all to give them the same amount of love you gave me, but that’s just kind of a mean thing to wish on them!

You guys take care, and remember that it’s all just one big, dysfunctional gaming family.

— Bayonet 06, Out.


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Origins 2018 – The Coolest Thing You Saw

What did the Grogs think was the coolest thing they saw at the show?  Let them tell you ~

The GrogHeads, 27 June 2018

video by Merkusa


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2018 – Looking Ahead to the Next Year in Wargaming

We also asked folks in the hobby to look into the next year and take a stab at predicting the future –

GrogHeads, 30 December 2017

Ty Bomba, Game Designer

I’m taking part in the founding of a new, 116-page, quarterly, one-topic-per-issue magazine from S&T Press to be titled Strategy & Tactics Quarterly. At least at the start, there won’t be any issue-wargame inside; instead there will be a full-size, two-sided, frame-able poster. At the same time, the 116-page format will allow us to get into each issue’s topics in such depth that most wargamers won’t be able to resist getting into them. My first two issue contributions will be: Stalingrad: The Whole Story, and Cold War World Wars: Armageddon’s that Might’ve Been, 1945-1991. 

Alan Emrich, Victory Point Games

I predict the hobby will soldier on, but with a continuing need for more introductory wargames on topics that will send new players to learn more about the battles, campaigns, and personalities. Since they don’t do justice to history in schools as they used to, lighting that fire of passion in the next generation is vital.

2017 – Looking Back on the Year in Wargaming

We asked folks in the hobby what their biggest personal accomplishment was this past year.  Here’s what we got from them –

GrogHeads, 23 December 2017

Iain McNeil, Slitherine

That’s a tricky one as it depends if I use my business hat or my gamer hat. Battlestar Galactica Deadlock has been a huge project for us and is going really well on PC and just released on console, but from a personal point of view I love Field of Glory II. It’s not as commercial as BSG but I’m very pleased with how it has turned out and still enjoy playing when I get the time.

Stronghold Games

SURVIVING this year is my biggest accomplishment!  28 releases for a small company is rather astonishing.  And also moving operations for Stronghold Games (and my residence) to Florida made this year very challenging to say the least.

However, if that’s copping out, then I’ll go with Terraforming Mars.  While released in the latter half of 2016, the success of the game was truly realized in 2017.  Getting out two expansions in 2017, “Terraforming Mars: Hellas & Elysium” and “Terraforming Mars: Venus Next” (releasing on 12/31/17 worldwide!), solidified its stature as one of the most significant hobby game releases of all time.  Terraforming Mars is now ranked #6 (soon to be #5) on BoardGameGeek.com.

A Look Back at 2017 from GrogHeads

2017 – What hath we wrought?

It’s been an eventful year here at GrogHeads.

We’ve expanded almost everything we do – more articles, more pictures in our articles, more traffic in the forums, more podcasts, more events at Origins, waaaaay more games to give away at Origins, more advertising partners to help us keep the lights on, more video features, and more members of our forums.

But none of that does much for us without you, the reader, to join us for the ride, and for that we are the most thankful. Our readership stats have gone up aross every metric: clicks, reads, time on the site, and reach with our social media.

So what’s coming next year?

Well, we’ve got a handful of things to work on. First, we’re going to updating some of our merchandise options, with new shirts and new products. We’ve got a podcast series already out there, and a new video series, too, but we don’t do much with live video, and we’ll look to start experimenting with some of that.

We’ve got some ideas getting more involved in the wider gaming community, too. We already plan, sponsor, and execute a bunch of events at Origins each summer, but that really only reaches the Grogs that can make it to Origins, so we’re going to look into some plans that can help reach our Grogience where you live and play – at your FLGS and smaller conventions. We’ve got some ideas about how to tie that into our social presence, too, but that’s admittedly a bit of a science project.

2017 By The Numbers:
– Over 200 articles
– Over 150 new members
– Over 30 Interviews
– 16 GrogCast Episodes
– 16 New Videos
– 68 Origins Events
– (20 just for kids!)
– 7 Conventions Covered
– 28 T-Shirts given away

Finally, we’re going to start experimenting with some new graphics updates on the site to go along with some new (Gus!) and reborn (GARPA) columns we’ll be putting back into rotation.

As with everything we work on – these are moving targets. We’re going to try something, and if it works (The GrogCast, #TBT ads) we’ll keep doing them, and if it doesn’t (Tuesday Screenshot, How To Make It In The Game Business) we’ll cut it out.

Most importantly, though, we’re going to try to have even more fun this coming year than last year, because ultimately that’s what this is all about, right?


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