Tag: Tactical

07/13/14

GrogHeads Reviews World at War: Blood & Bridges

World at War: Blood and Bridges, Published by Lock ‘n Load Publishing

Review by Michael Eckenfels, 13 July 2014

 

INTRODUCTION

The fascination with the hypothetical balloon going up in Europe in the 80s doesn’t cease to amaze me. I think this is mainly because I am a child of the 80s and during that time, as I was getting into wargaming, a conventional NATO vs. Warsaw Pact ground war was a very real possibility. Gaming it out to bloody completion was compelling and riveting for me. And now, about a quarter century after the Berlin Wall fell and communism (more or less) has left Europe and Russia, it’s still something of a hot gaming topic. Whether you play it out on your PC or on your dining room table, there’s commie tanks looking to grind outnumbered Westerners under their treads, somewhere. photo 2 Blood and Bridges is a Lock ‘n Load game that captures a slice of the West vs. East “war” in the 1980s. It is not a grand strategic game, but rather a tactical one, that focuses on platoon-level combat. If you’re looking to decide the fate of the entirety of Western Europe, you’re going to be disappointed. However, this game delivers, in a way, something better: a focal point battle (or series of battles) fought over the Rhine River Valley in the western part of West Germany. The premise is: the Soviets have taken something of a beating from NATO ground forces, but have doggedly ground their way forward, and are making a final, massive thrust towards this all-important geographic feature. In their way is the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), making a steadfast final stand of sorts – a very British thing to do! Continue reading →

07/10/14

AARsday! Sergeants Miniatures Game at Origins 2014

Game Master extraordinaire Vance Strickland gives us a quick dash thru one of the games he supervised at the GrogHeads Wargaming Central Command at Origins.

Vance Strickland, 10 July 2014

Click images to enlarge

The last organized game of Sergeants Miniatures Game (SMG) of the con was to be a team game. We had three people show up, along with one guy’s wife who he convinced to be his team mate. She was obviously a gamer but said she was not a wargamer.

So with four people, two playing the US paratroopers and two playing the German light infantry, Rob Belli from Lost Battalion Games set about explaining the rules. While this was going on the husband kept asking me about the tactics of the game, how certain terrain worked, what was the best way to use a firebase and a maneuver group etc… which was all good, but this wasn’t Advanced Squad Leader.  SMG is a light skirmish-level game that’s meant to be fun and fairly quick to play. His wife was listening intently to Rob’s explanations as were the two German players.

In my head I gave each of the players name tags. Cpt. Ernest and Plucky Wife were the US players. The German players were a gentleman in his early 60’s and young man in his 20’s. Both German players were wargamers and recognized SMG for what it was. The German players became Junior German and Senior German to me.

Each team player was given a section consisting of five troops, including a mix of rifle and sub-machine gun armed men, an NCO leader, and a machine gunner. The NCO leader gives you more action cards to draw each turn, which gives you more options for what you can do in a turn. It’s best to protect these guys but you can’t leave them too far behind because they are also the ones that can rally your pinned troopers.

 

Rob Belli explains the rules to the teams
Rob Belli explains the rules to the teams

  Continue reading →

07/4/14

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #48

So the 4th of the July, we’re bringing 4 excellent GARPA possibilities. No, we won’t bring you 19 on the 19th.

 

BOAR, MBT Expansion (GMT Games)
203 Orders to date – not there yet

GMT’s modern-day tank shootout MBT has the usual suspects: the US 7th Army and the GSFG. But there’s plenty of tank-blasting goodness up on the Lüneberger Heide where the British Army of the Rhine was facing down an equally vast array of Soviet forces. The MBT games are scaled at the squad and individual vehicle level, ensuring tight focus on tactical shootouts where a bayonet charge is always possible. MBT is on p500 itself, but while you’re over there, get an order in for BAOR, too, and refight the whole shebang back in the late ‘80s.

C&CNapoleonicsbn1(RBM)

Continue reading →

06/8/14

First Impressions of Combat Mission Red Thunder

Grumpy Grog Says:  “Combat Mission Red Thunder is more impressive than a Katyusha barrage. Uurrraaaah!”

Developed and Published by Battlefront Inc.

First Impressions by Boggit

Red Thunder is the newest arrival in the Combat Mission series on the Eastern Front. It focuses on the battles during and just after the great Soviet offensive – Operation Bagration – from June to September 1944, covering the area of modern day Belarus, to the gates of Warsaw in Poland. The developers chose this period because, in terms of experience, the Red Army was generally able to match the German Army, thus in principle creating a more balanced game.

Advancing through woods, we make contact!
Advancing through woods, we make contact!

Since this is a first impressions piece, I haven’t spent as much time in actual gameplay as I usually put in with my full Combat Mission reviews. The article is based upon a couple of the new scenarios, half a dozen quick battles, and with some useful feedback from Steve Grammont of Battlefront regarding the changes to the game engine from the V3.0 upgrade.

Continue reading →

05/28/14

Home of the Wargamers Report: “Clear and Present Gaming!”

Distant Worlds Universe and Other Imminent Matrix/Slitherine Releases meet Grogheads

An overview by Boggit

Following on from Home of Wargamers 2014, there has been a flurry of activity from Matrix/Slitherine regarding their new releases. Distant Worlds has only just released on 27th May, and is to be closely followed by Pandora First Contact: Return of the Messeri Expansion, Close Combat: Road to Caen, and Qvadriga on Steam.

 

Distant Worlds Universe

 

You can start straight away with a pre-set human campaign, or mix things up with a custom game
You can start straight away with a pre-set human campaign, or mix things up with a custom game

For those players who haven’t got Distant Worlds, it is a massively scoped game that conventionally focuses on making broad policy decisions to guide your race to success. Essentially, you represent “the state”, but much of the game is heavily reliant on your private citizens. These private citizens trade, colonise, and exploit much of the universe’s resource potential. Distant Worlds Universe can be an incredibly deep 4X game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) – if you want it to be. You can micromanage as much, or as little as you wish, although micromanaging carries the risk of your head exploding given the multitude of activities you can engage in! Continue reading →