Tag Archives: Tactical
Classic Reviews – Operation Blockade
Another treasure from the vault of our GrogHeads’ writers ~
Michael Eckenfels, 28 March 2018
Developer/Publisher: Infogrames
Fans of shoot-em-ups, have we got something to tell you about! To be honest, though…I’m not a fan. I never had too much fun with the ‘move-fire-madly-flip a switch-next level’ stuff, having thoroughly taken part of such excitement (and passed a ton of quarters) to the stand-up arcade monsters of the 1980’s. I didn’t relish the possibilities of this title much, but every so often even the most anachronistic wargamer should poke their head out of their board game dungeon and try their hand at a little action.
So here is Operation: Blockade. While a shoot-em-up, it is deftly clever at covering up its own inadequacies, simplistic ideas, and never-changing worldviews, by injecting a hot load of steel-and-fire addictive game play. The gamer will probably be disappointed in some aspects of this title, but that should be balanced through some surprisingly attractive graphics and cleverly manipulated sound.
What’s Gus Playing? Endless Space 2, part 1
The eloquent elf of exploration expresses endless exultation ~
Lloyd Sabin, 26 March 2018
Although I have only played a couple of hours of it, The Great Meshing™ happened with Endless Space 2.
Some games just mesh with us. The art style, the UI, the characters, the writing…all of it just coalesces in to a greater whole that digs its claws in to us and we love everything about it. I can always count on the Assassin’s Creed games, the Total War series, Warner Brothers games like Mad Max and Shadow of War and the Witcher series, among others, to really blow my mind, even after numerous iterations. When this Great Meshing™ happens unexpectedly with a new title, it can blow your mind.
Although I have only played a couple of hours of it, The Great Meshing™ happened with Endless Space 2. Admittedly, for most of the time I played it, I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on, learning the game’s systems, reading up on it’s factions, and generally attempting to keep my head above water. I had chosen the Vodyani to play as, which may not have been the best choice…when I return to Endless Space 2 – and I am certainly going to – I should probably chose a more straight forward faction to try.
Sword & Sorcery: Immortal Souls – First Look!
Another new box-full-o’-minis in an oversize tabletop dungeon crawl ~
Michael Eckenfels, 21 March 2017
There’s about sixteen billion board games now dealing with dungeon crawls and sporting cool minis, or enough to choke a bag of holding – whichever reference you get first.
I’ve since realized I was expecting an RPG experience
I hadn’t heard of Sword & Sorcery before (go figure). According to BGG’s page, this game “is an epic -fantasy cooperative board game in which 1-5 players fight together against the forces of evil, which are controlled by the game itself.”
This last bit was enough to intrigue me. I’d had a momentary flirtation with the D&D games; specifically with Castle Ravenloft, which I played, and Temple of Elemental Evil, which I have yet to play. These D&D games struck me as too simplistic, but I’ve since realized I was expecting an RPG experience, and was disappointed because of it. I need to revisit those games with a different outlook on what to expect.
This one, though, seemed pretty cool for a variety of reasons. Not only the “1-5 player” aspect of it, which is admittedly a huge selling point for me (I like running multiple players in cooperative games), but also because this game has a lot of Galaxy Defenders (another game) in it. And it should, because Gremlin Productions created both of these games.
There’s also the 8.3 rating on BGG, which is impressive in and of itself, as well as the 95 (!) videos covering it, as well as over twelve hundred threads in the BGG page for it. Not bad for a game that was just released in 2017.
For a final reason, the minis are cool as hell, as you will see momentarily.
GrogHeads Reviews Platoon Commander – Poland Strikes
The wars of the future are on your tabletop now ~
Robert Ellis, 20 March 2018
Designed by Mark H.Walker
Published by Tiny Battles Publishing.
About the game
Poland Strikes is one of four games in the ‘Platoon Commander’ series and depicts an hypothetical war between Poland and Hungary taking place within a wider European conflict.
The game uses the latest v1.5 series rules and features an 11×17-in map, 88 x 5/8” counters, a nicely laid out and very colourful player aid card, plus 18 ‘action cards’
I assume that these latest rules are backwards compatible with the other games in the series.
Each hex represent approx 150 meters, and each game turn 15-60 minutes.
What’s Gus Playing? Call of Duty – Infinite Warfare pt3
GrogHeads’ moon midget muses meanderingly on martial mayhem ~
Lloyd Sabin, 19 March 2018
I loved this game. A lot.
And now…the last round of my gushing praise for Call of Duty – Infinite Warfare. I loved this game. A lot. Particularly the single player campaign.
You may know this already from the gushing I did last week, and the week before that. This is it, I swear. Next week will feature a whole new game and set of screen shots to gush over. Or despise. Who knows, really?
Anything can happen when it comes to what I am playing on my PC, for I am so very fickle, hour to hour. Here, have these screenies
