{"id":118,"date":"2005-05-13T10:53:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-13T14:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/?p=118"},"modified":"2006-08-19T20:33:51","modified_gmt":"2006-08-20T00:33:51","slug":"tin-soldiers-rides-awaywith-my-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/2005\/05\/13\/tin-soldiers-rides-awaywith-my-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Tin Soldiers rides away&#8230;with my heart"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My most recent editorial for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.diygames.com\">DIYGames<\/a> was partly about how the confusion between realistic graphics and good graphics gets in the way of appreciating how a distinctive, if stylized, look can add a lot to a game. I cited <i>Outpost Kaloki<\/i> and <i>Darwinia<\/i> as good examples, and <i>Dominions II<\/i> as a cautionary tale.<\/p>\n<p>Now a word or two on Koios Works&#8217; <i>Tin Soldiers<\/i> games. They have released two ancients war games in the last six months &#8211;  <i><a href=\"http:\/\/diygames.com\/index.php?p=805&amp;more=1\">Alexander<\/a> <\/i>and <i>Julius Caesar<\/i>. Both are, in many ways, your typical wargames. They are turn based, they emphasize maneuver and flanking and are aimed at a niche audience.<\/p>\n<p>They are also very attractive because they have decided to make this game as close to miniature wargaming as possible. The units are drawn like painted miniatures and a giant hand descends from the heavens to pick up the eliminated stands. Even the ground looks like it is made of plastic matting and styrofoam.<\/p>\n<p>The entire effect is very convincing. It does a lot to make an average wargame and above average wargame. My review of <i>Alexander<\/i> sets out my main objections, some of which were addressed in <i>Julius Caesar<\/i> and some that were not. (More on that if and when my review gets published.) Both could use an editor and the chance to paint your own units, but I have no critical complaints against either.<\/p>\n<p>The <i>Tin Soldiers<\/i> games are an exciting opening move from a new developer. Both are available through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.matrixgames.com\">Matrix Games<\/a>, and at a decent price too. If you have any interest in these types of games, check them out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My most recent editorial for DIYGames was partly about how the confusion between realistic graphics and good graphics gets in the way of appreciating how a distinctive, if stylized, look can add a lot to a game. I cited Outpost Kaloki and Darwinia as good examples, and Dominions II as a cautionary tale. Now a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5GFeQ-1U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}