Grognard Wargamer Thread!

What a show…

Here we go…

Seriously, my favorite part of that awesome movie.

Yeah, its actually fairly deep on the history in the lyrics too…while being freaking hilarious. Great film. Kinda gets lost sometimes among all his other great works.

Whenever the age old “Nazis and Commies in wargaming” horse gets exhumed to be ceremonially rebeaten again before being reburied I always have this pop into my head:

I think it gets exhumed, as you put it, because it never really died. Since the beginning of board wargaming the hobby has wrestled with its image. Sometimes the obloquy hurled at wargamers was unjustified, and the product of utter ignorance. Sometimes, there was fire to go with the smoke. I think one of the issues with WWII games, for example, is that the seemingly logical approach that most wargamers take, which is to separate the politics from the military history stuff, really is an attempt to what really can’t be done. Yes, you can carve off specific areas to focus on and leave other areas out, as long as the focus is narrow and the time frame is short. But ultimately, it all is of a piece, and you can’t fundamentally understand the battlefield performance of armies without considering the social, military, economic, and political context within which they operate. Unfortunately, for WWII, this brings people into areas where too many folks simply aren’t willing to do the heavy lifting necessary to compartmentalize when necessary without losing sight of the big picture. Too many want to oversimplify things one way or the other, and in my experience, the Nazi fanbois are by far the most numerous of these offenders.

I think it gets exhumed because people wanna make the same points they did the last time. :). And the time before that. Recursion!

Not sure if this is mentioned above somewhere but Compass Games is having their holiday sale until the end of the month. Use the code HOLIDAY19 to get 25-30% off. Not sure they have anything I can’t live without. Decisions, decisions…

Until they get an errata-free, unbroken design out the door, beware my friend.

OK, thanks. So even something like Bitter Woods or Enemy Action Ardennes are suspect?

IDK, but with those specific titles, I’d search around BGG first and see what the vox populi are saying regarding a title. Their track record is so bad, that with them that would be my first step if I was getting a Compass title.

Good idea. Thanks.

Bitter Woods I don’t know about the Compass Edition (I only have the AH version). Enemy Action Ardennes is fine.

Thanks Brooski. I mean, you can never have too many Bulge games right? :)

image

I wrote this up.

Nice writeup @Brooski. Don’t feel bad, I’m sure even some of the greatest generals in history couldn’t do first grade math either. :P

Sorry, been busy with guests for a few days. How about this: TWT43_Learners_Manual_v190820.pdf - Google Drive

Absolutely awesome. Thank you!

So,

is it me or this looks very similar to ASL but with a good interface?

I’ve been playing Flashpoint Campaigns nonstop for a few days now, and it’s really got me jonesing for more NATO vs Warsaw Pact action.

And then I thought of John Tiller’s Modern Campaigns games for the first time in over a decade. I’ve got a copy of Fulda Gap 85 somewhere on disc in storage, though it’s a almost a 20-year-old game, and while 2D, it was made when 1024x768 was considered high resolution.

The “3D” view

Weird timing, because Wargame Design Studio posted this yesterday.

They’ve spent the past couple of years updating Tiller’s other games, including his Civil War and World War II games. These updates include improved art, improvements to code, and occasionally new content.

And the good news is that they’ve spent the year working on the Modern Campaign series, and they plan to have updated versions of all of them by the end of the year!

Looking forward, there will hopefully be one more series updated before the end of the year. The WDS team have been hard at work bringing the five games in the Modern Campaign series up to the same standard as the Panzer Campaigns Gold releases. Like the Gold releases it’s intended to include all Volcano man scenario packages, rules changes from Panzer Campaigns as well as updated map and unit graphics.

The graphics update has been another big job, as none of the various images had been created before due to our prior ‘narrow’ focus on World War 2. Though only five titles, we have three different theaters to cover; Europe, the Middle East and Korea with different protagonists. This has expanded the required artwork and has been one of the biggest time sinks.

Currently two games, Korea ’85 & North German Plain ‘85 are completed, and this is what will be included in each update;

Korea ’85 has all new 2D and 3D graphics, unit cards and updated game interface. The scenarios included are the original base game as well as the Chinese intervention expansion pack bringing the scenario count to 155. We’re very happy with how this update has come together and here are some sample screenshots of the map and various units;