#Wargame Reviews

[simonbreeze]

Starting a new read!

🤞 this next book in the series is better than the last and gets back on with the Indomitus Crusade. (It's Guy Haley, so I'm feeling pretty confident 😊).

[tabletopbellhop]

Dragon Dice Review!

A look at the 2 player starter set, Firewalker VS Treefolk from SFR, Inc.

Did you know that the classic TSR dice game, Dragon Dice is still going strong under the watchful eye of SFR Inc.

Learn about how the game has evolved here:

[cannibalhalflinggaming]

"

I toss down a disc of nanobots that quickly assembles itself into a squad beacon, sending its beam of light up from the balcony of the building I’m in and into the sky, before looking through the scope of my sniper rifle. A squadmate, Ultra Rare, is trying to 1v1 an assault trooper using only her knuckleblades, and I sigh wistfully; we used to be an item before I accidentally got her demoted. I fire a shot, miss terribly, and am immediately targeted by the assault trooper’s team and ripped to shreds by machine gun fire.

Reassembled in orbit, switching from a force recon loadout to that of an engineer, I crash onto the balcony in a drop pod next to the beacon and the nanodust that was the smear I left behind. I exchange greetings and a salute with another squadmate – “Butler.” “Setback.” – who walked into the room while I was dead, and I look down into the courtyard. An enemy mech is literally stomping all over an allied squad – what a bunch of blueberries. I raise my anti-materiel rifle and blast off one of its arms – and am splattered across the wall behind me by the weapons in its other one. 

I’m considering another drop pod, when suddenly I schlorp back together, on the ground next to Goblin, who apparently got splattered as well at some point. Between us is a spent revive grenade, and standing over us is Butler. More salutes, more greetings. “Setback. Goblin.” “Butler.”

Just another day on PLANET FIST."

[trve-grimdark]

Condensed Warhammer The Old World Review:

The good:

Mix of iconic 6th-8th rules mechanics

New rules and updated reference organization

Lots of customization between wargear and unit loadout

Nicely fleshed out unit organization and types

Better use of command groups

Cut back on hyper meta min/max style armies

The Bad:

Magic phase is needlessly complicated and spread out

The Magic is an adhoc mess of various lores jammed together

Some new rules (like 3 types of retreats) get over baked

Combined Character+Mount profile is nonsensical

Game was rushed and lacking some of the promised lore flavor

The Conclusion:

It's not perfect and the bag is more mixed than a twitter profile's identity flags and politics, but I got to say its a good game structure over all. Enough nostalgia mixed with new freshness that only gets in the way occasionally, very obviously made to give the crowd who missed out on WHF back in the day their time up at bat, while giving us older players something new yet familiar to play with.

If your the type who prizes old style army crunch with rules that don't assume your a moron who just walked into the store off the street, and you can spare the time to grapple with some of the needless over bake, I would say this game is certainly worth trying, its just WHF enough you might think its 1999 again while your playing it.

[kirbyddd]

why does wikipedia have the review from Games Workshop's own magazine about its own game as critical reception

[chimeracreations-art]

Hey hey my newest video discussing and talking about the latest battletech novel elements of treason: honor just dropped.

It a long one but I think it an interesting case of flaws and positives of the book that is flawed.

[cbsa82]

The Nerdsletter Issue #124 – Playing in the MUD

The first Nerdsletter of 2025. Hooray? I guess? Lets get started. Continue reading The Nerdsletter Issue #124 – Playing in the MUD

[tzekkaz]

Review:Speedpaints

Eager to try out The Army Painter Speedpaints I found some old Viking models I had never done anything with. I tried different methods of undercoating to see what I could do with them.

I tried plain white undercoat, zenithal highlighting and grey undercoat. below are the end results,

The top model is the one i did using grey undercoat, the middle picture is plain white and the bottom one is zenithal highlighting.

The paints are very watery but strong in pigment, I have been pleasantly surprised by the skin tones and the metallics, the rest I am not so impressed with. The watery nature of the Speedpaints means that there is little room for error. Personally I would wait for one colour to dry before applying the next colour, this I have rarely had to do with regular paints. i am not entirely impressed with the Speedpaints but I am not going to give up on them yet, I will try to add them to my arsenal of painting supplies and techniques. i think I may have not given them a fair chance. I will try painting something else in them. I think they have the potential to be really good and useful to painters, particularly those just starting out or the real champion painters, for middle of the road painters such as myself I am not sure how useful they are going to be.

That is all for now people,

until next time

Happy hobbying

[reviewsclown]

Wargames (1983)

Solid movie, no notes. Kid is a hacker and has fun hacking, hacks into something way above his paygrade and hijinx ensues. A very subtle movie about how war is bad, and perhaps also that automating things that require a human mind could also be bad? that's like tertiary though, it's entirely about how war, specifically the cold war, is bad.

Movie looked really good, but I guess it's not like they had to invent new things for set design, it's just a military control center. Not a lot of depth to the characters really, not like they have arcs or anything. But also not like they really need arcs it felt like? it works as is.

The final scene, which is the famous one and what the movie is most popular for. is pretty good, running all the simulations at 4x speed trying to find outcomes. It was very cool. WOPR in general, was pretty cool.

Final review: movie is good, you should watch it.

[thejaymo]

Little Wars of the Worlds | 2405

A review of HG Wells’ most important work, Little Wars. The book that changed the way table top war games were played and paved the way for the development of role-playing and modern war games.

April 20, 2024 | Permanently Moved 🔊 | Review 📃

[simonbreeze]

Dawn of Fire Book 4: Throne of Light Book 4

By Guy Haley

What's it about: 

The Indomitus Crusade continues its war across the stars. The primarch Roboute Guilliman has finally broken through the orkish threat bedevilling the sectors near Fenris, and makes ready to push on his bid to stabilise the Imperium Sanctus – but old and bitter foes stand in his way.

Kor Phaeron, the Dark Cardinal, threatens the previously stable core of the Segmentum Solar. Waves of rebellion instigated by his infiltrating priests suggest an imminent, large-scale invasion by the Word Bearers Legion. Worse yet, the Dark Cardinal's warriors are targeting the Black Ships, threatening to starve Terra of the pyskers the Emperor needs to survive.

Through this turbulent warzone Inquisitor Rostov continues his search for the Hand of Abaddon. Yet when strange, miraculous visions are traced back to the astropathic relay on Srinagar, his quest is diverted – for the visions foretell hope for the Imperium, a hope the fanatical worshippers of Chaos will do anything to snuff out…

Why read it:

Guy Haley is back! Not only that, he's putting the series back on track as he focus on the Indomitus Crusade and its core of characters.

What could have been better:

As a big fan of the Black Templars and also the Sisters of Silence, would really have liked a bit more story time for these guys. However, there is a lot going on in this book, and the time dedicated to them is short, but fantastic.

Favourite bit:

It has to be Guy Haley bringing the focus back to the main story and characters. The last book, wolf Time, was such a side step, and I really didn't get well on with story. It was fantastic to be back in the thick of things again.

And finally...

This is a really solid book and a very enjoyable read. Guy Haley gets things back on track and progressing with lots of action and great character moments.

[aroundtable]

Oggi scopiremo assieme le meccaniche di uno dei giochi da tavolo che vi ho presentato nelle score edizioni del tg table: Marabunta, piccolo grande roll & write di controllo territoriale. Un boardgame davvero interessante che come sempre non ho potuto lasciare sugli scaffali degli amici di Hirtemis.

Con le giornate che si approssimano al bello è il momento di cominciare a racimolare, quelli che io definisco boardgame da zainetto: giochi da tavolo super portatili, accattivanti, adatti a tutti e Marabunta è proprio tutto ciò.

Marabunta è un roll & write in cui dovremo fare più punti rispetto ai nostri avversari, acquisendo cup cake, aprendo le casse con i punti ma soprattutto ottenendo il controllo di territori: ad ogni turno il primo giocatore scoprirà una delle tessere del gioco e dovrà lanciare 6 dadi, dividerà tessera e dadi in due riserve che però potrà scegliere l'altro giocatore. I numeri sui dadi ci permetteranno di ottenere il controllo del territorio, scrivendo sui territori MA SOLO rispettando la regola di adiacenza, che ci costringerà a scrivere i nostri numeri solo accanto a numeri che abbiamo già scritto noi stessi. Altro interessantissimo twist è il valore dei territori, che Knizia ha deciso di far dipendere dall'andamento della partita stessa da parte dei giocatori!

Marabunta si è rivelato un ottimo "war game" in roll & write per 2 giocatori, con delle meccaniche ben ottimizzate che risulta chiaro nel flusso di gioco sin dalle prime partite, ma che non risulta mai banale, grazie alle intuizioni di game design di Knizia, il tutto in un boardgame che potrete portare con voi ovunque!

Marabunta è un boardgame roll & write per 2 giocatori, consigliato dai 10 anni in su, con partite dalla durata di una mezz'ora edito da @AsmodeeItalia .

[misternizz]

55 Days at Peking playtest

BLUF: a nice, simple tactical game of the siege of the Siege of the Legations in Peking, 1900. The most dramatic event of the Boxer Rebellion. 55 Days at Peking box As I mentioned in my post about Historicon 2023, one of my recent acquisitions is a purchase of 55 Days at Peking, from The Historical War Game Company, published by Blue Panther Games. Right up front, I’ll say I do love their…

[allosaurusfragilis]

There was a time when I used to do a lot of things. One of those things was to review LEGO sets in relation to a game called Mobile Frame Zero, which is a table top wargame involving LEGO and, um, dice. That's kinda it. Part of the Mobile Frame lore is a sentient symbiotic alien life form called the Ijad. The weird sloth guy is a creature that has been joined with the alien, and now they do stuff together. Like golf, probably. The Mixels were a great addition to the game, which I think this photo review proves. Um.  

[vixensdungeon]

The weird thing about reading old editions of (Advanced) Dungeons & Dragons is that you often feel like you're reading part of a conversation you're not entirely privy to. For example, the original edition never explains how percentile dice work, because you're just sort of supposed to know that from playing miniatures wargames, duh.

Or when the original Players Handbook makes all these statements about the bard that make no sense unless you've read the issue of The Strategic Review where the class originally appeared.

Or when the Dungeon Masters Guide brings up how you shouldn't just roll 3d6 in order for your ability scores, which you might not have known to do anyway unless you played a previous version of the game.

Or when 2nd Edition spends a lot of words defending the designers' decision to make player characters weaker by making 3d6 in order for ability scores the default again and it's actually cool if your character's stats are garbage, trust me.

[chimeracreations-art]

Got my next video up and running ready for ya'll to watch, hope ya'll like it.