Tag: Zabek

07/29/13

Sir, You Are Being Hunted – Interview

GrogHeads Editor Jim Zabek eagerly jumped at the opportunity to interview James Carey, Designer of Sir, You Are Being Hunted. The team at

GrogHeads (GH): Can you tell us about Big Robot and the people behind it?

James Carey (JC): Big Robot is a core of three people, two full time, with a couple of art freelancers into the mix as well. We started the company to make a game called Fallen City for a British TV broadcaster (which is still freely available through Channel 4’s website). Since then we’ve released a second title called AVSEQ (available on our website or through Steam) and successfully ran a Kickstarter campaign to fund Sir, You Are Being Hunted last year. The core team is: Jim Rossignol – Creative Director, author of This Gaming Life and co founder of RockPaperShotgun.com. Tom Betts – Programmer, procedural generation genius, and then me, James Carey – Designer, before Big Robot I worked on Arma 2 and for the Creative Assembly.

GH: Tweedpunk? What’s up with that? It sounds instantly cool. If you guys haven’t invented the genre, you’re definitely putting a big stamp on it. What does Tweedpunk mean to you and where do you see it going?

Sir-you-are-being-hunted-interview-july-2013-poacher_concept_s

JC: We came up with the term ‘Tweedpunk’ as a sort of off-the-cuff line for an interview. It seemed to get pounced on by everyone even though we only meant it as a half-joke. Basically we wanted to try and distinguish ourselves a bit from being ‘steampunk’ because Sir is not really Victorian in that way – we have modern phone boxes and wind turbines and stuff like that in the world – it’s more a sort of parody of the British upper classes, of fox hunting and tweed-wearing privilege.

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06/13/13

Thunderbolt Apache Leader AAR

Publisher: Dan Verssen Games

Author: Jim Zabek

I’ve had my eye on Thunderbolt-Apache Leader for a long time. Designed for solo play, it’s a modern era wargame where the player takes on the role of Close Air Support (CAS). Several campaigns are included in the game, and given the random nature of opposition force selection the possibilities are nearly endless.

As this is my first time with Thunderbolt-Apache Leader I start with the introductory scenario: the 1991 Iraq War campaign. Setting up the defending Iraqi units was straight forward but when it came time to choose my own forces I have to slow down and assess the options before me. I have a total of 30 Special Option (SO) points. SO points are spent purchasing aircraft but they are also used on other Special Conditions and Mission Events. Deciding how much to invest in aircraft and how much to hold back is a mystery to me, though I have followed JudgeDredd’s AAR in our forums with interest so I do have a sense that I should keep at least a handful back for later use. With 26 SO points in total, I decided I’ll aim for spending 20 points on planes and see how close I come to hitting that mark.

Thunderbolt Apache Leader June 2013 Start
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06/9/13

Book Review: Baneblade

Author: Guy Haley

Publisher: Black Library

Reviewing Author: Jim Zabek

Reading Warhammer: 40,000 fan fiction is something of a guilty pleasure. It fills the time when I’m not in the mood for military history. Its quality is usually high but I’ve run across a few books that weren’t quite up to snuff. But sometimes I run across a novel that stands above the normally solid entertainment that this genre offers, and Baneblade is that book. It’s not only a great Warhammer: 40,000 novel, it’s a great fictional war novel.
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06/6/13

Allied Corps – D-Day AAR

Developer: The Lordz Game Studios

Publisher: Slitherine, Ltd.

Author: Jim Zabek

Today, June 6, 2013, is the 69th anniversary of D-Day. As the years go by the Second World War becomes more distant. Few vets of that conflict still live, and fewer people, like me, grew up with them around us. Despite the fact that they almost never discussed their experiences, many of us felt like there was an infusion of that war’s significance as we grew up. It didn’t need to be said – we simply understood that something significant had happened. The Second World War, how it was conducted and how it ended, shaped our world for better and worse. The world we live in today can directly trace many of its current conflicts to it.

Recognizing the anniversary of D-Day with a game of course fails to do the battle justice and risks trivializing the significance. As a life-long wargamer I recognize the potential hazards. Despite my enjoyment of the hobby there does linger in the back of my mind that the pixels, pewter, or cardboard I order around represents once real lives. So at the risk of treading too casually on history, I will try write an enjoyable review of one of my games in the hope that it is appreciated for what it is: an appreciation for those who were there for real. Thank you.
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