So back when GMT had their sale-most-excellent at the beginning of the summer, Vance picked up their strategic WWII ETO game Unconditional Surrender, and has shared the photos of their unboxing.
Another Tuesday Screenshot visit to Lock’n’Load: Heroes of Stalingrad, and another assault on the Eastern Front with our haiku
Click to enlarge
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.
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.
Twilight Struggle, digital edition (GMT Games)
$115k of $50k goal (though that’ll be surpassed by the time you read this), ends 3 July 2014
For several years, it could be wryly joked that the “Struggle” in Twilight Struggle was for the difficulties in getting the digital version deployed. No more. It’s not uncommon to see a Kickstarter campaign blow well past the full funding mark, into ridiculous levels of stretch goals. It’s rare to see a Kickstarter campaign fully funded within hours. Yes, hours. Twilight Struggle was at $30000 around 400pm on June 5th, having only launched earlier that day, and within the next 90 minutes they almost doubled that total, to exceed their $50k goal. They’ve doubled that goal within the first 24 hours. Why are we not talking about the game itself? Do we really need to? It’s to top-ranked “wargame” at BoardGameGeek (though admittedly, discussions of whether or not it’s a “wargame” waste plenty of hours online). A forum/team game has been running here at GrogHeads for a while now, and countless schoolteachers around the US use it to introduce their students to the Cold War. Seriously, you don’t need convincing. You just need to go figure out your pledge level and get it over with already.
Day of Days (MMP)
181 of 650 orders needed
It wouldn’t be D-Day without us digging up an Overlord game, right? MMP has a new SCS game for D-Day that’s designed to cover not just the landings themselves, but the breakouts that followed. There are even scenarios designed to skip the amphibious assault, and start with Allied forces on the beach. This game is new enough that there’s no draft cover art, playtest photos, or anything else that’s leaked out. We were able to scrape up a very rough image of the maps (yes, plural) to show the scope and scale of the game, which will include scenarios that focus just on the British landings, or the US landings. It’s an MMP game, so it’s going to be a solid and well-tested game on a known platform (SCS) and all those great touches that come with MMP tackling the subject in depth. Go get a pre-order in!
The Prologue
Living a quiet, unadventurous life as a Review Scribe, Boggit almost missed the opportunity to go to this annual event simply by not paying attention on the scrying screen, sometimes known as the forums! Far to the East in the distant land of Italy strange things were happening. Brant – the great wizard of Grog had heard news of great treasures, and was determined to send a scout to learn the truth. The first to answer the call was the Bard – Undercovergeek – but he was sidetracked by nubile Norwegian elves. The Paladin – Jarhead – having slain so many dragons, had problems finding a tame silver dragon to cross the Great Sea. At the last moment, when all seemed lost, Boggit from the Shire of Dorset piped up. “I’ll go!” And a great adventure began.
Leaving the Shire of Dorset, Boggit travelled the Great Road to a place where tame silver dragons could be found. Stopping overnight at an Inn he fell in with another adventurer -Fraser Brown a proud Northern Scribe – with whom he shared a few beers, and learnt of Fraser’s intrepid journeys to places of learning where clever warlocks display their magic arts. The next day the two adventurers left for the Cave of Dragons, finding a friendly one, and rode it to the mysterious land of Italy.