Grognard Wargamer Thread!

Happy to oblige!

We will cease our disruption of the gentle rhythm of the Grognard thread now.

I should really check this thread more often! HIS is my favorite grognardy game, this from the perspective of a mostly Euro-style board gamer.

Yeah, that’s certainly my experience in the few game of this I’ve managed. Moreover, the problem with the Habsburgs is that that player must know almost all the game mechanics whereas the others can (mostly) get by with only knowing the few that involve them. Certain factions are way simpler in this way than others (Like Papacy are mostly concerned with religious rules, Ottomans need to understand piracy but are fairly straightforward otherwise, etc.). France is rather difficult as well for similar reasons as the Habsburgs, though to a lesser degree. But, all the asymmetry is what makes this game shine.

I agree, Haps/Habs are probably the hardest to play, I never enjoy playing the guy everyone else gangs up on in games, even games where you have the power to handle it. I like to just keep my head down and quietly collect my points.

I just received my copy of Atlantic Chase. Opened the box and 5 manuals spilled out. The main manual and tutorial are fairly thick.

I am only going to play solitaire since my daughter does not play board games much, so was wondering if It behooves me to play through the tutorial book first and then the manual. Lots of times I just read the manual and skip the play through manuals like with Comancheria but this one might be a bit more involved and maybe the tutorial is recommended?

Thanks

It’s not all that complicated but it might seem kind of weird. The tutorials should serve to help you become familiar with the various actions.

After reading this thread, I ordered a copy of Atlantic Chase last week. No idea when it arrive.

Mine took 8 days or so…business days.

Ordering wargames is like stepping back in time, when you’d send off an envelope with a check in it and a month later a box would arrive at your door. Order status? What’s that? The last one I ordered arrived at my door with the website status still showing “waiting for shipping.”

It’s oddly enjoyable. Like, I have no idea when this will arrive.

As much as I hesitate on some kickstarters, I actually enjoyed ordering 5-6 a few years back and then just forgot about them and when they showed up, xmas!

Exactly! We need more serendipity!

When I was a kid I worked at a supermarket and used to stock the soda machine out front. I’d put all sorts of things in there instead of the correct soda. Tomato soup instead of Diet Pepsi, Pepsi instead of Coke, Cans of corn. It was awesome, and I’m pretty sure everyone loved it.

Not to derail things too much with side details, but I figured out how to bring GMT Games delivery system into the 21st century. GMT’s site still lists the game as “not shipped”, but if you register with UPS for their My Choice service (completely free), they notify you of any packages in their system coming to your address. I just got an alert that Atlantic Chase will arrive tomorrow.

Figured this might be helpful to others too.

Just broken out my copy of Fallen Eagles: Quatre Bras for the first time and am getting to grips with the system…so far it doesn’t look to bad at all. Rulebook is excellent I have to say. Would have preferred a QRS with the turn sequence on it, but as always “the internet provides!”

While exploring some wargame PBEM options, I was encouraged to check out VASSAL last night. My goodness!

(I’m sure VASSAL is 20-year-old news for most everyone in here, and mentioning this as “news to me” will get me tossed into grognard serfdom, especially in this thread with its high level of expertise. But if you’ve been away for a … long while … it’s a pretty impressive thing to stumble onto.)

Sighs

Kids these days, right?

I think it’s been mentioned as the primary prompting here to those who bemoan “I play solo two-handed because I can’t find anyone to play with” near 1,000 times in this thread (although, I’ve become convinced that the above sad lament is more of a canard or a rationalization and should read “I play two-handed solo because I really just want to do that.” ).

Yeah, I wasn’t suggesting it as news so much as a personal revelation of someone very late to the party.

I also realized this morning that VASSAL was discussed just a half dozen posts above mine. D’oh. Kind of like when you learn a new word and you realize it’s used all around you and you just never saw it. For whatever reason, VASSAL never registered until someone hit me over the head with it. I realized after digging in last night that I’ve even seen lots of YT videos of people (some from this thread) using it to play online.

If I might add one thing…

As someone less experienced with wargames, sometimes this 8k-post thread can be …well, a bit intimidating, not so much from its length but from the qualify of experience of many people here who have decades with the genre. I confess I’m sometimes not quite sure to what degree more basic conversation is welcome, and I’ve deleted things before posting them a number of times because I just wan’t sure. I genuinely don’t want to annoy those here, and apologize if I’ve done that.

Grognard means grumbler, and a certain number of posters seem to want to adhere to the thread title no matter what.
But no need to be hesitant about sharing your views; no one owns this thread.

From my point of view, wargames are such a small subsection of gaming that any fresh post(ers) are more than welcome- especially enthusiastic ones.
Keep it coming!

I’ve been enjoying wargames since Tobruk and theatre Europe on the C64, and am still amazed about how far wargaming on the PC has progressed and how much great choice we have.

I don’t play as much as I used to and definitely do not post as much as on Usenet (war-historical for life) but really enjoyed quite a wide variety of titles recently:

  • HOI4 for global real-time grand strategy, with the excitement excellent Kaiserreich mod for alternative WW2 where Germany won ww1
  • Strategic command war WW1 for a more standard but clever turn based take
  • unity of command 2 for operational scenarios with a UI and graphics slick as butter
  • order of battle WW2 for a better take on Panzer general
  • fields of glory 2 for a boardgame on a PC where you push little Legionaries around

And as you mention, VASSAL allows you to play a metric ton of titles against opponents across the world as well.

Not a bad state of play for a genre that used to be moribund.

You should post anything ! If you just asked about vassal earlier We could’ve hit you over the head with it earlier! :-) Seriously you should ask anything in here.

Okay, thanks! Good to know, and I’ll hesitate less going forward.

I can totally understand that it could be painful to have to explain basic things to newbies all the time, though.

Related question on forum etiquette…

If one were to post a multi-post AAR, would that be best done in a new thread? I’ve seen some done both ways here, so not sure about protocol, or even if there is protocol.