Rob Zacny

Rob, Julian, and Troy "Stonewall" Goodfellow get together to talk about Ultimate General: Gettysburg. Is this the bargain we've been waiting for? The next great Gettysburg game? The game that finally introduces the importance of Lollazapoola Hill? Listen here.

Game Designer Chris King joins Rob and Troy to talk about crisis management and political tension in video games. In this anniversary year of World War I it's only fitting to discuss the systems and mechanics that create the powder kegs that eventually spawn global conflict. It's also never a bad time to talk about Victoria 2. Listen here.

Rob is joined by game designers and 3MA regulars Soren Johnson and Rob Daviau to talk about the balance between building an empire and going to war. Sometimes you just want to build a sand castle. Sometimes Montezuma comes along and kicks your sand castle over. Then you have to go to war, but you've been researching some bigass lighthouse. Now what? Listen here.

Rob, Troy, and regular panelist Fraser Brown try to figure out just what Wargame Red Dragon is. Is it a wargame? RTS? A real-time wargame? A platforming roguelike? Tune in and find out where Red Dragon ranks in the Wargame series. Listen here.

An all-star panel of Julian Murdoch, David V. Heron, and Troy "Well Played!" Goodfellow get together to talk about Hearthstone. Blizzard's CCG seems to be the darling of the gaming community, but David has his reservations. Listen here.

Pork sandwiches. Salsa music. Awesome hats. Politically motivated murder. Tropico is back again and Polygon's Charlie Hall is here to talk to Rob and Troy about the latest installment in the long-running series. Has the well been tapped? Is the series still going strong? How awesome would Rob look in a white linen suit and hat? Listen here.

This week Rob and Bruce round out the evergreen Winter of Wargaming by talking about wargames with Firaxis Games' Ananda Gupta. Any topic related to strategy gaming is in play, ranging from solitaire wargames to Hearthstone and Batman. Listen here.

Rob is joined by a full complement of guests with Rowan Kaiser, Kat Bailey, and Jason Wilson on board to talk about Warlock 2: The Exiled. The original Warlock was regarded as a solid foundation of a game with room for improvement. Does Warlock 2 deliver? Listen here.

Bruce concludes his three-part series with game designer and Vietnam veteran John Poniske. The pair discuss John's game Hearts and Minds: Vietnam 1965-1975 and its inspiration and design decisions. Hearts and Minds at Boardgamegeek. Listen here.

Rob is joined by author and EVE historian Andrew Groen as well as fleet commanders Molle and Manny to discuss EVE Online. Player machinations form the base upon which EVE Online is built and result in battles that are publicized for their massive player count, coordination, and real-world costs. Listen in to learn how and why these conflicts start and get an inside glimpse at the often intimidating EVE universe. Make sure to check out Andrew's Kickstarter. Listen here.

Bruce talks to Shenandoah Studio founder and game designer Nick Karp about his 1984 game, "Vietnam 1965-1975". The pair discuss the challenges of designing a game around a conflict still fresh in the minds of the country and the world as well as where Nick got the information and inspiration for his game. Listen here. The other big news as part of Bruce's series: Bruce has a website! Now you can find all of the various articles Bruce has written over the years compiled into one site. Head on over to http://www.wargamespace.com/ and read up on what our OG 3MA panelist has written.

Bruce Geryk begins his three-part look at games based on the Vietnam war by talking to game designer Dave Kershaw. The pair talk about Dave's game Vietnam Solitaire, the assumptions that it challenges, and modeling an unwinnable war. Make sure to check out Dave's site and Boardgamegeek profile. Listen here.

This week Troy and Rob talk about Galactic Civilizations 3 with lead designer Paul Boyer. Paul explains the goals of the alpha and what early backers can expect at this stage of development as well as future builds. Rob and Troy rattle off a few items from their wishlist, and both of them are wrong once again about how fun the ship builder was in GalCiv2. --Michael Join in and listen to our 2^8 episode. Listen here.

Rob and Bruce continue their Winter of Wargaming by talking about Conflict of Heroes and the critical changes that took place as the game transitioned to the PC. Come for the gaming discussion, stay for the talk of relevant books and history. Books mentioned: The Forgotten Soldier The Retreat by Michael Jones Listen here.

Rob and Troy talk about wargame scenario objectives and the balance between one-off tactical battles and the larger strategic picture. Listen here.

Rowan Kaiser, Cassandra Khaw, and Greg Tito join Troy to talk about a return to the city-building genre with Banished from Shining Rock Software. Alternate titles: Tales from Rowan-oke, Miners & Minors. Rowan Kaiser's review at IGN Cassandra's review at USGamer Greg Tito's review at The Escapist Listen to the episode here.

Pieter de Jong and Tomislav Uzelac join Rob and Bruce to talk about the Black Turn expansion for Unity of Command. They go in-depth on the Eastern Front and principles of scenario design. Listen

Mohawk Games' Soren Johnson joins Troy and Bruce to talk about Drive on Moscow, the followup to last year's Battle of the Bulge. Bruce gives some insight from behind the scenes and Soren explains why writing a good AI is a large undertaking. Listen here.

Tom makes the bold claim that the traditional RTS is dead by the hands of Lords Managements. Troy still likes Civ and Rob discusses his space minivan as well as pushing through the less savory parts of SimCity. Listen to Episode 245 Linked Notes: Banished Developer Interview at Gamasutra

Polygon's Danielle Riendeau joins Rob and Troy to talk about the long marches and difficult decisions in Banner Saga. Well-marked spoilers are present between 30:58 and 38:26. Listen Here Read Danielle's review of Banner Saga at Polygon.

Rob and Troy go deep into Roman history to talk about the expansion to Total War: Rome II - Caeser in Gaul. Has Creative Assembly turned their trimreme around? Listen in to see if Rob is less irate and hear Troy drop the best sound bite in the history of the show. Alternate title: You've Got Some Gaul Listen to it here.

This is a critical point. Rome 2 is a return to the bad old days of Rome 1 in some key ways, when battles were decided quickly as the AI came headlong into the player's position. It's much better now, because the AI can dress a battle line and use formations, but the fact remains there's not really a dance of units in Rome 2. Once two armies get near each other, they almost magnetically attract and smash into one another. And yeah, at that point, the legionaries do great because they just wear down the enemy. Even if their position sucks, they don't panic until they've killed a lot of enemies. Heck, a lot of times they fight to the last man. Rome 2 tries to solve this by making them a really expensive unit, so you don't have TOO many of them. But they're so cost efficient that you might as well spend the extra money and just count on them to grind through the enemy.

@Gormongous - Yeah, it took a bit to adjust to the way Banner Saga wants you to wear an entire team down, not lone targets. Which I guess kind of solves something that bugs me a lot in tactical RPGs, which is that they tend to become about ganging up on one target and snowballing to victory. It took me some time to adjust, but it's quite clever. @MikeO - Tom Chick made a similar point at QT3 and... I just think you're both nuts. I don't know why, but for some reason I find this UI really readable and easy to use. It is tough in dense traffic, but not so much that I've ever had an issue. Just a reminder of how differently people can react to UI.

Julian, Bruce, and Rob sit down to discuss their favorite things from 2013. Rob and Bruce look forward to a Winter of Wargaming. Bruce and Julian argue about Waterdeep. Listen

Andrew Groen and Taylor Cocke join Rob to talk about the eSports scene in 2013. The crew discusses how the different games have evolved and where they'd like to see eSports go in the future. Link to episode 244