My review of the medieval war game XIII Century: Death or Glory is up at Crispy Gamer. I didn’t like it all that much, which puts me at odds with the only other review online, Brett Todd’s positive review at Gamespot.
It’s interesting how two reviewers can come to such different conclusions. Where he sees good […]

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Matrix Games has released War Engine into the wilds of the internet as a celebration of tax day. The only reward I need is the security that my money is being well spent on a well-managed war that makes America safer from its enemies. But since that’s not happening, I guess this will have to […]

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Given the long history of portraying ancient battles in board games, it’s surprising that it took so long for historically faithful interpretations of the battles of Alexander, Hannibal and Caesar to hit the computer. Avalon Hill’s Alexander the Great portrayed the battle of Gaugamela way back in 1971. The same year saw SPI do a […]

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In 1988, Cases Computer Simulations and R.T. Smith released Encyclopedia of War: Ancient Battles, a game that was intended to be the first in a series of historical miniature games. The mid 80s was probably the high point of wargame dominance in the computer gaming market, and there were really no ancient wargames on the […]

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Guns of August (Adanac Command Studies/Matrix Games) is a rare example of how to capture the seemingly uncapturable. Making a good game about World War I requires a design that forces the player to accept stasis on some fronts as a matter of course. It means creating rules that limit how much progress the player […]

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In their continuing effort to revamp, revisit and release every great old wargame from the past, Matrix Games has announced the arrival of Larry Bond’s Harpoon - Commander’s Edition. This isn’t the realistic and ugly Harpoon 2 and 3, it’s the classic Harpoon design with a few new bells and whistles.
Harpoon was the first game […]

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Via Scott Krol, Gamespy has an article from John Keefer about the wargames of the past and their connection to the cons we know and love.
I was reading the article (and Krol’s fact checking) as I took a break from writing my review of Armageddon Empires. Then it hit me why wargaming and serious strategy […]

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My long delayed review of Combat Mission: Shock Force is up at Gameshark. Apologies for the crappy screenshots.
The 1.01 version I played was a significant improvement from the 1.00 version that I derided a couple of months ago, derision that led to an influx of visitors from the Battlefront forums. (”Few stayed to bowl.”) It’s […]

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I’m not a doctor. Or at least not the kind of doctor that can do you any good.
So maybe there is a legitimate reason why Guns of August has an epilepsy warning.
It seems like a very unlikely game to cause seizures, though. Especially since the warning cites “strong, flashing lights” as a trigger. Guns of […]

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From Steve Butts’ IGN review of For Liberty!:
While it’s historically accurate that few Revolutionary battles achieved a clear decision, we found it a bit anti-climactic to have a 20,000 man battle decided with only a few hundred casualties on each side. Trying to actually eliminate an enemy unit is next to impossible. Instead, you’ll find […]

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