Kick off the new year right – pledge some games! Our first GARPA of 2015 (that still sounds weird, eh?) is an eclectic mix of games and game-related gizmos to get your monetary juices flowing…
It’s got both the strategic-level map and the tactical battles on the zoom-in level. The storyline is a little trite – you’re a mercenary out for treasure and fame – but there is a large world-changing backstory that eventually finds its way to you. They’re promising a wide variety of enemies and maps, including newly-generated world and tactical maps for each new game. So give the campaign a look-see and offer some support for getting this one pushed through. It’s visually appealing, and any good mix of strategic and tactical gameplay in a single package is always worthy of some attention.
Lloyd delves into the historical archives to dig out an interesting bit of TANKSgiving history.
Lloyd Sabin, 28 November 2014
I struggled for a while this year to come up with something for TANKSgiving. In years’ passed I have done bits on rare WWI armored vehicles, early tanks…you know, the usual awesome stuff. This year for some reason I could not come up with an appropriate topic. Until I found the below picture during some online research.
We kick off TANKSgiving with a GARPA full of tracks and turrets. GUNNER – SABOT – PREORDER!
MBT (GMT Games) P500 $65 (retail $95) – Made the cut
The Cold War goes hot in 1987 and the Reds are rolling West. 100m hexes hold individual tanks, infantry squads, and all manner of nasty battlefield surprises. With a whole arsenal of tanks, helicopters, ATGMs, and close-air support at your disposal, combined arms warfare splays across a collection of geomorphic maps and into your game room. Expansions are already on p500, and the mapboards are compatible with GMT’s Panzer to give you more to play with. Check out their p500 page for a LOT more info, and get your order in now.
I talk about my gaming childhood all the time around here – games that I grew up with, that introduced me to the hobby, that left an imprint on my personality, and whose theme songs I still hum in the shower 25 years later. Moreso than Gunship!, F-19 Stealth Fighter, Impossible Mission, Archon or Winter Games, or two dozen other titles from the 1980s and 1990s, memories of Wings! have been with me, branded into my gaming soul, since it was released almost 25 years ago.
The original is one of my favorite games of all time, probably in my personal top five list, because of the game’s perfect World War I atmosphere, generated by a combination of music, art and mood that really placed my impressionable brain in the Great War. Combined with the [albeit] linear campaign, the authentic sounding names in the pilot roster, the unit journal of the 56th Aerosquadron and the goings-on of the unit while off duty, Wings!, while not realistic by any measure other than a human one, grabbed my gaming brain and never let go.
Some of the game’s intro screens are shown so many times it will drive you insane, like this one.
John and Ed, thank you for agreeing to talk to Grogheads about your recent work. Both East Prussia ‘14, and Panzer Battles: Kursk, the Southern Flank are recent releases and show some interesting developments in John Tiller Software games
Ed, I know that you’ve put many years of research into the First World War Campaigns. What attracted you to the period in the first place, and do you have any favourite campaigns you’d like to explore?
Ed Williams: I have always been interested in World War One for as long as I can remember. I am not sure what initially attracted me to the subject, perhaps it was the movie Lawrence of Arabia, but I recall my desire to read and watch movies and documentaries about the war all the way back in grade school. About ten years ago I was attending college and I took a history class taught by an excellent professor (Dr. Robert Bruce) and the class covered the war, but not all the boring economic and political stuff, it was purely about the battles and the conflict itself.
I suppose it was that class that piqued my interest, but it did so at a perfect moment since I had just finished the HPS Korea ’85 game some years before and I was basically twiddling my thumbs with nothing to do.
So, I had the experience to develop a new title, the free time to do it, and a renewed spark of interest in the subject matter. I took the interest and came up with an idea of a World War One game using the Panzer Campaigns engine at its core, but of course it would need to be modified. I set about creating a list of modifications that were necessary and I presented them to John, and he was receptive to the idea, made the appropriate adjustments, and so I intentionally charged forward before I had time to think about how difficult of a task it would be.
As for my personal favourite campaigns, I am interested in all campaigns of the war but my personal favourites would have to be anything in Palestine and Mesopotamia, the Galicia campaign, and the 1918 battles.
The first bombardment at Tannenburg by I ArmeeKorps field artillery starts auspiciously with the disruption of a Russian unit – an assault will soon follow. New features like radio intercepts now add to the game experience in East Prussia 1914
