PC/Mac • It’s got tanks and it’s turn-based, so there’s no reason for us not to be excited to play the latest iteration of Battle Fleet from Mythical City Games. Whereas the old Battle Fleets centered on, well, fleets, this latest takes the combat inland and puts it on treads. Battle Fleet: Ground Assault has arrived for PC/Mac today and it’s on sale to boot.
PC/Mac • Back in 2014 Mythical City Games released a turn-based military sim onto Steam and mobile called Battle Fleet 2. Some guy named Owen reviewed it back then and summed everything up with three stars, whatever that means. I could go and read the thing but, let’s face it, Owen’s writing is way over my head. An Owen metaphor, “A gruesome struggle of life and death becomes a badminton match played with high explosive shuttlecocks.” My metaphor, “A gruesome struggle of life and death becomes raccoons eating garbage on a Saturday night in my driveway while listening to the Original Broadway Cast recording of Cats.” See? He’s just way better at this than I’ll ever be. Anyway, Mythical City is back with Battle Fleet 2’s sequel that, due to a change in theme, isn’t simply Battle Fleet 3. That’s right, instead of steering mighty warships we’re driving nimble juggernauts of destruction: tanks. Welcome to Battle Fleet: Ground Assault.
PC • The original Ogre was designed by Steve Jackson way back in 1977, nearly 25 years before his own publishing company would become synonymous with a little card game called Munchkin. It’s had several editions since it’s days with long lost publisher, Metagaming Concepts, culminating in a ridiculously gigantic new edition (seriously, this thing weighs in at over 30 pounds) funded a few years ago, with the sixth edition hitting shelves in 2016. Part of the Ogre revival includes a digital version which was just released for PC.
Windows, Mac • You ever get an email from someone that triggers a memory of a long-ago email that you were supposed to reply to, but forgot and now you feel like an ass? It happens to me at least three times a week, with the latest being an incoming missive from Jo Bader, the developer who brought the digital version of Tank on Tank to life. We reported on our ignorance of Tank on Tank’s existence back in February which prompted a discussion between us and the fine folks at Lock ‘n Load that we let die an inglorious death in our inbox. This is why I yell at my kids to be more organized, so they don’t grow up to be major screw ups like their old man (that, and I’m sick of always picking up their crap). Anyway, back to Mr. Bader’s email. If, for some reason, you’ve been putting off getting Tank on Tank directly from the LnL website and really wanted it in your Steam library instead, today’s your lucky day.
iOS Universal, PC/Mac • The Games Workshop licensing bonanza continues. Crazy Warehouse Man says all licenses must go by midnight tonight! No exceptions. Battlefleet Gothic: SOLD! Man-o-War: Bring your floaties, we’ve got the flintlocks! Necromunda: It just makes such perfect sense! And don’t think we forgot about your massed armour fans! Sadly, that’s as excited as I’ll ever get when discussing HexWar’s absolutely perfunctory turn-based effort. I’m beginning to think they’ve kept the art team on and sent the coders home. What makes The Horus Heresy: Battle of Tallarn a tough one to level criticism at is a by-the-book approach to both source material and its tactical crunch. If ever a game felt like it was helping a studio reach a monthly quota, Battle of Tallarn is it.
iOS Universal, PC/Mac • HexWar, HexWar, HexWar. Seems like we can’t go a week without more HexWar news popping up. It’s not rehashing a release we’ve already talked about before, either, it’s all new stuff. First The Great War launches, then we find out they’ve teamed up with GMT Games for more Commands & Colors, and now we learn they’re going to tackle endless war by entering into the Warhammer 40K universe. That’s right, they’ve teamed up with Games Workshop and are bringing a new Warhammer title to PC, Mac and iOS: The Battle of Tallarn.