Three Moves Ahead

Freelance writer Phill Cameron joins Rob and Troy for a discussion of the games they've been playing that haven't quite fit into recent writings or podcasts. New Men of War DLC, Troy and Rob's changing views on Panzer Corps , RTS time-traveler Achron , high-level Blood Bowl , Out of the Park 11 , and racing games all come up for discussion in this open-ended discussion.

GWJ's Cory Banks finally dips his toes in the waters of turn-based wargaming with Matrix / Slitherine's new Panzer General remake, Panzer Corps. He joins Julian and Rob to talk about wargaming-lite, whether this really improves on Panzer General , and Panzer Corps' puzzle-based approach to scenario design. Rob realizes a newfound appreciation for daunting complexity.

PC Gamer EIC Logan Decker joins Rob and Julian for a discussion of Christoph Hartmann's comments that strategy is not a contemporary genre. They dig into his interview, and what he meant. They also cover other publishing models, and how they stack up to what game publishers do, and discuss how Hartmann's comments reflect a much broader struggle to figure out what people want in a new media landsca...

Troy and Rob are over the moon about Longbow's Hegemony: Philip of Macedon , and invite programmer and writer Rick Yorgason to the show so they can ask that timeless question: "How awesome is your game?" The three go into detail on the game's simplicity, its superb camera controls and artwork, its integrated and effective tutorial, and the compromises and adjustments Longbow made to the design alo...

Taking a moment from their respective vacations, Rob and Julian pick up the pieces after a couple show ideas fall apart at the last minute. Julian wants to talk about card mechanics and why he likes them so much. Rob wonders if most PC games eschew cards because they tend to symbolize and abstract concepts, and the PC tends to place a premium on the literal. Julian also theorizes that poker's popu...

Ars Technica's Ben Kuchera visits Three Moves Ahead to continue a discussion he started about reviewing standards and practices. Troy and Rob try to keep up as the panel discusses how writers' relationships with their readers can affect their approach to reviews, what are a reviewer's obligations, and the value of genre expertise.

Mode 7's Paul Taylor visits with Julian, Rob, and PC Gamer's Dan Stapleton to talk about Frozen Synapse . They discuss the game's development, its lengthy beta process and how that has contributed to the game's success, and the decision to sell the game as a 2-for-1 package. Paul gets into the fiction a little bit, and how it has been received. Apologies for any audio issues. Some interference got...

Paradox France's Philippe Thibaut and GWJ's Erik Hanson colonize 3MA this week to talk about Pride of Nations , Paradox France's new grand-strategy game of imperialism. Erik and Rob are intrigued by Pride's cynical view of colonial competition and its novel mechanics. Philippe explains the game's origins and how it is at once a departure for Paradox France and a natural extension of their work as...

Vic Davis rides back into town to talk about Six Gun Saga , his new solitaire card-based strategy game. Julian is mighty fond of it, but wants to play with the rest of his posse. Rob is curious how Vic's Armageddon Empires and Solium Infernum fans have greeted this unusual game, and where Vic is headed next.

An exhausted Julian and Rob welcome Cory Banks back to the show to go over what they played at Julian's board gaming retreat. Could Agricola's position be threatened by young up-and-comer 7 Wonders ? Why is Battleship Galaxies the best space game since Sins of a Solar Empire ? Is Castle Ravenloft a baby game, or an appropriate introduction to strategy and wargaming for children and novices? On the...

Ralph Trickey takes a break from updating and improving The Operational Art of War III to talk about the series with Rob, Troy, and Bruce. They discuss how the game is changing through patches, and then debate whether TOAW is a game so much as it is a set of tools. They also talk about how scenario designers have put those tools to use, and what shortcomings afflict the system. Everyone shares his...

Elemental and Civilization V come in for a follow-up appointment with Julian, Troy, and Rob. Have the major changes that have been patched into these games translated into major improvements for the player? How much post-release support should players reasonably expect, and what can developers accomplish with it? What flawed games have become great with patching?

Here come the creeps, led by Rob and Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Quintin Smith! Fortunately, they encounter a maze of discussion and towers of topics. Inspired by first-person tower defender Sanctum and tower attacker Anomaly: Warzone Earth , Quinns and Rob explore how these games change the tower defense formula, and what about that formula needed changing? Are we doing a disservice to a neat mechanic...

Rob is pleasantly surprised by Revolution Under Siege and rounds up Troy Goodfellow and Broken Toys ' Scott Jennings to talk about it. What is the context for a Russian Revolution game, and how does Revolution Under Siege communicate that? Is the AGE system a good one for this kind of game, and why is it such a turn-off for some people? Most importantly, how the hell does an armored train work? Wh...

Gamers With Jobs continues colonizing 3MA, but the natives still welcome Cory Banks because he brings whiskey and podcast topics. Fantasy Flight games is upset about an iOS game that bears a significant resemblance to Richard Borg's Command & Colors system, and Bruce, Cory, and Rob wonder what it all means. Before they reveal themselves as ignoramuses yet again, William Flachsbart , intellectual p...

Ah, good day, Herr General. The General Staff have prepared this podcast analyzing the strength and dispositions of the Panzer General series. You will have access to some new units for this mission. Bruce will shatter its defenses with an explanation of why he is not very fond of it, and Julian and Rob will go through the gap with an argument for its simplicity and refinement. Troy can provide ai...

On the 150th anniversary of the attack on Fort Sumter, Troy and Rob rally around the bonnie blue flag and find Gamers With Jobs' Erik Hanson waiting for them there. Then they march off to discuss the American Civil War and its gaming legacy. They discuss how changes in a game's scale also change how the war is presented, why the war has such a hold on the imagination, and what were its defining fe...

Bill Abner and Dan Stapleton arrive to help Rob sort out the long-delayed Dawn of War II: Retribution episode. Rob isn't wild about the campaign for a few reasons, and eventually he starts to figure out why. Bill dislikes Chaos Marines wailing on electric guitars, and he thinks that's indicative of the direction the 40K universe has gone. Everything goes brilliantly until the show ends and Dan ask...

GameShark's Bill Abner joins Troy and Rob to discuss Shogun 2 , mortality rates among Japanese generals, and Bill's enchanted copy of Shogun 2 , in which everything awesome that can happen, does. Rob's Gamepro series: Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 Bill's GameShark review

After the panel completely falls apart on the eve of recording a Dawn of War 2: Retribution episode, Troy and Rob soldier on by themselves. Troy hasn't played Retribution , but he is happy to announce his upcoming marriage to Field of Glory . Rob forgets that he's on a podcast and just starts talking with Troy, and along the way he mangles a great Provost Zakharov quote and explains why he thinks...

Julian and Rob are at death's door following PAX East and a week of cruel beatings at the hands of Men of War: Assault Squad . Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Jim Rossignol, author of This Gaming Life , comes to their rescue, and together they try to figure out why this genre-breaking, rule-defying battlefield simulator exerts such a tremendous fascination. Wot Alec Meer Thot of the original Men of War Jim...

During GDC, Tom Chick and Soren Johnson hosted a talk that was so good that a single panel couldn't contain them. They have invaded Three Moves Ahead to talk to Rob and Bruce about why strategy gaming is in a platinum age, how the business of development is changing, and the relative importance of AI in the development process. Then Tom, Bruce, and Soren freak out over League of Legends , although...

Paradox's Johan Andersson talks to Rob about EU3: Divine Wind , expansions, the design process at Paradox, and the newly-announced Sengoku . Johan's Q&A with GameShark

In the wake of another successful Rabbitcon, Lara Crigger and Rob Daviau join Julian and Rob to talk about good luck, bad luck, and fun luck. Rob and Lara discuss her first wargaming experience, Hold the Line , and how it came down to a photo finish despite some unspeakably bad luck for her American forces at the start. Rob Daviau explains how luck aids the storyteller, and shapes game narratives....

Bruce and Rob welcome Troy back to the show by monopolizing conversation as they describe their reactions to War in the East . Bruce consults von Manstein's Lost Victories in the hopes of discovering where they went, but Rob is pretty sure the Germans dropped them somewhere in the Pripyat Marshes. All Troy knows for sure is that 2by3 scored a big win with this game. Then Rob takes a trip into Dung...