Reviews
Dystopian Wars — Review
Imagine a world similar to our own, but subtly different. Now imagine the year is 1870 and the Industrial Revolution occurred decades earlier than in our own world. Technology is far advanced, and in many cases, unrecognizable, which has led to the development of fantastic naval vessels, hulking land ships and terror from the skies in the form of airships and war balloons.
The Dystopian Wars game is set in a Victorian Steampunk world and we have designed the rules to ensure a fun game with a large selection of high quality models in a couple of hours. The rules support Naval, Aerial and Land models from the outset, so that you can set up battles and scenarios in any combat setting.
Well the D6 Generation boys have outdid themselves once again. They have done a mammoth review of Dystopian Wars, the new miniatures game from Spartan Games. Craig outdoes himself with a wonderful dramatic Dystopian Wars introduction. The review is in fact so big they had to split it into two segments (1st at 1:12 and 2nd at 2:32). This is by far their best review yet. They go into exacting detail on the game’s background, the rules, the miniatures as well as the actual game play. It is also one of their best reviews in terms of overall listening entertainment and general flow.
You can download very well done ship/vehicle stat cards from the Spartan Forums.
Also don’t miss the D6G’s excellent interview with Spartan Games’ owner Neil Fawcett.
We have bought a number of games that we never would have based on input from the D6 Generation and Dystopian Wars will probably be yet another. While the miniatures are of the same high quality and detail as Spartan’s Firestorm Armada miniatures, they do not particularly appeal to us, but the rules sound so good we will probably pick some minis up anyway or may proxy in FA ships or even WW2 ship minis.
Also see the Spartan Games Interview. Also see Dystopian Wars — Getting Started Week.
On a related note, I picked up Boneshaker after hearing Craig praise it a few times. I have never read any Steampunk titles before and only a few zombie titles. Boneshaker is rather light on both but is a very well written and interesting adventure story with an evocative world and some strong female characters. If you want a good read give it a shot.
[Updated: 18NOV11]
Forged in Battle Miniatures — Review
Forged in Battle is a new historical miniatures company. They produce 15mm resin and metal WW2 miniatures. The line includes both infantry and vehicles. The FiB infantry are traditional metal figures and are packaged in sets usable for Flames of War or other WW2 fireteam based games. We did not compare them directly but looking at them in the store they appear to maybe be a just a bit smaller (slighter) than the FoW infantry minis but we are not sure. Comparing the infantry figures that came with the 88mm guns they are less chunky than FoW figs. The quality seems just fine. The line is expanding but they currently have infantry for American, British, German, and Russian forces. Read the rest of this entry »
Battles of Westeros — Review
The D6 Generation does it again! They have an excellent review of Fantasy Flight Games’ new Battles of Westeros board game. If you are not familiar with the title, it is a medieval fantasy, tactical wargame using a modification of the BattleLore system. It takes place in the world of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire). Forward to 2hr 32mins into the podcast to get right to the review.
It is a testament to the strength of this game that it is literally the first fantasy game we have ever purchased. Of course Game of Thrones is much more medieval fiction than it is fantasy and this emphasis comes across very well in the game. The D6G gang do a great job covering the game in their review.
FFG have the Battles of Westeros rulebook available for download as a PDF. They also have a FAQ and a scenario.
But a great review was not enough for the D6G. No, they also interviewed the game’s designer, Robert Kouba. It is an interesting and informative interview overall and if you like, you know, designer input, you’ll really, like, you know, enjoy it (listen and you’ll see what we mean!). Forward to 58min into the show to get to the interview with Rob.
[Updated: 25JAN11]
Epic: Armageddon — Review
The D6 Generation gang have done a great review of the classic Epic: Armageddon. We agree with their review and Russ’ conclusion that Epic: Armageddon is a great game marred by lack of support and a lack of miniatures. But if you don’t mind doing some work you will find Epic: Armageddon worth the effort. It is still one of the best games for a sci-fi invasion or larger grand-tactical conflict. Fast forward to 2hr 38min into the show to get right to the review.
Craig mentions the excellent Epic: Armageddon Handbook 2008 from the TacticalWargames.net site. It is essentially the official rulebook with all errata (as of 2008) integrated into it. Also the original Epic: Armageddon rules and army lists are available, for free, from GW directly. NetEpic is the fan produced version of the early Epic V2 rules (this is basically a different game from Epic: Armageddon).
The World’s End Radio podcast also has an excellent review of Epic in their Episode #48 – Epic WIN. Forward to 0:47:31 to get right to it.
We like to use Litko Aero’s Small Artillery Strike Markers and Blast Markers for blast markers and the Mini Smoke Markers or Small Flaming Wreckage as destroyed markers.
[Updated: 23JAN11]
Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich — Review
Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge was recently released by Matrix Games. I have only had a chance to play around with the training mission so far but it quickly became apparent that CO:BftB is simply an evolution of the original Airborne Assault series. CO:BftB has numerous improvements but basic play is essentially the same. Considering that Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich is one of my all time favorite computer wargames this is a good thing. It also means if you are considering purchasing CO:Battles from the Bulge then a look at Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich should help you make your decision.
Below is a review I wrote a few years back for Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich. It is too early for me to comment on changes in CO:BftB, but I can mention a few things that have not changed: There is still no ability for units to scale with zoom; no ability to rewind to watch other events; no ability to see a regular TO&E diagram view for formations; graphics and sound are basically the same. But CO:BftB still has the same great game play and it is after all the Bulge!
Incursion MI-13 Commandos– Review
We got the pre-release pack of the new Incursion MI-13 Commando miniatures. The MI-13 are the new British special forces unit for Incursion. As with all Grindhouse Games’ minis they arrived quickly and were crisply cast with almost no flash. The unit consists of 7 complete models: 2x Gut-Gunner, 1x Grenadier, 1x Paddy Mayne, 2x Commando, and 1x Corporal. Except for Paddy all the units have separate heads so you can mix and match as you wish or use heads from other ranges. The weapons are separate but mostly consist of just the forward half of the weapon along with a molded on hand so you can’t swap weapons between figures. Read the rest of this entry »
Apple iPad Review — A Gamer’s Perspective
With the release of the Apple iPad we thought we would break a bit from our usual gaming coverage to give a gamer’s eye review of the new tablet. We have had the iPad since Saturday (3APR10) and have been using it quite a bit. So we have had time to find most of its faults and enjoy its benefits.
We will not repeat what you can read in a hundred other iPad reviews by now. Suffice it to say the hardware is gorgeous, the display vibrant, the performance amazing, and the battery life really is 10 hours (if not more). The WiFi-only model is available now and the 3G model will be available at the end of April. But what does the iPad mean to you as a gamer? Well it has a number of applications (no pun intended), some obvious and some not so obvious.
Firestorm Armada — Review
Well the fellows over at the D6 Generation wasted no time and have done an outstanding review of the new Firestorm Armada sci-fi ship combat miniatures game by Spartan Games. Forward to 2hr 24min into the podcast to get right to the review.
We agree with the D6G overall that Firestorm Armada has the potential to be an outstanding game. The only real negative we have seen so far in the game is that there seems to be no allowance for disparate fleets. To keep a solid balance the six fleets currently in the game all have a similar balance of support ships, capital ships, and carriers. None of the fleets focus heavily in one area such as smaller ships, wings, or large capital ships. We have not tried playing a disparate scenario yet so it is possible the system can handle it, but we suspect such a game would be considerably unbalanced. A race would probably need to be designed from the ground up to make such a unique composition balanced with the existing fleets.
If you have even the slightest interest in sci-fi ship combat give Firestorm Armada a look.
Also see Firestorm Armada — First Impressions and Spartan Games Interview.
[Updated: 7DEC13]
Heroes of the Blitzkreig — Review
Armchair General magazine has a nice review of Lock ‘N Load Games’ Heroes of the Blitzkrieg. HotB is the latest addition to LnL’s WW2 tactical combat board game system. The rules are the new V3.0 rules and it was the first game to include the new graphic design with small, super high gloss map panels.
The second edition of Band of Heroes is also available. It also includes the V3.0 rules and new map panels without the halo hexes.
Joe Steadman from The Dice Tower also has a video look at the game.
[Updated: 17DEC09]
Test of Battle: Operation Market-Garden — Review
Command Decision, Test of Battle: Operation Market-Garden is a campaign book for Test of Battle Games’ Test of Battle WW2 miniature rules system. The book is a softcover 8 1/2″ x 11″ format. The cover is heavy cardstock in full color. Operation Market-Garden is 54 black and white pages long.
The product is designed for use with the Test of Battle rules but can be easily adapted for almost any WW2 battalion level system. Unlike earlier expansions, such as Stars and Stripes Forever, Market-Garden is a campaign book not an army book and includes a short, seven page, introduction to the historical Market-Garden campaign. The rest of the book is dedicated to the included ten battles (scenarios) that cover the actions of Market-Garden. At the end of the book is a complete set of vehicle and weapon data charts for all included forces (these are also available as PDFs on the ToB site). Lastly is a short bibliography on Operation Market-Garden. Read the rest of this entry »
The View from the Turret 
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