2041

I’ve invested more than any game in recent memory so really hoping to get it to the table.

  • Slightly inflated BGG market price for unpunched copy in shrink ($80?)
  • Bought the deluxe map from the same guy, not realizing it wasn’t the mounted map ($20), but at least I received the physical 2.0 rules
  • Actual mounted map ($20)
  • I usually don’t sleeve CDGs but since this one was out of print, decided to splurge on my favorite brand of expensive sleeves (KMC Japanese). But I didn’t realize that KMC sleeves came in packs of 80 and there are 82 Allied and 83 Japanese cards in the deck. So I had to buy additional packs in both colors. ($35)

Going to try to find time to walk co-workers through how to run an offensive today. I’m thinking I might “gamemaster” a 1943 scenario as the two of them learn.

2042

Please post updates! You may convince me to get into it. It LOOKS so good. You watched Calandale play through?

2043

Command is live on the Matrix site, $79.95.

2044

Man, I predicted $90. So much for closest without going over.

2045

Well, the boxed edition is $94.95, so you’re still in line for the prize!

2046

I, for one, am glad it’s priced so high. If it were $30 or $40 I’d be tempted to get it. I would install it, play the tutorial, fire up a scenario, stare at it in befuddlement for a few minutes, and go play something else before uninstalling. This has been my experience with War in the Pacific and War in the East, and I promised myself I’d never buy another $80 game form Matrix.

So thank you, Matrix Software. Now I have an extra $40 to spend on a game I will actually play and enjoy.

2047

Ding ding ding, winner! AUD$90 over here.

I was going to sook, as I am obviously entitled to, but that actually seems about right given the current exchange rate.

I had never heard of this game, but I read a couple of the AARs and some more info about it. I have to confess I am intrigued.

Now, am I intrigued enough for someone to convince me I should buy it?

2048

We need recce dammit, who is going in?

2049

I’ve got it, but it’s on my home machine.
I tried to remote in from work, but that’s never a good solution!
From initial look over of data base, tutorial briefing, etc (everything I can do except actually play), it looks fantastic.

2050

Good stuff. Am I really going to drop that much money on this thing?

God dammit I think I am…

2051

I bit. I mean, I spent so many hours on various versions of Harpoon, as well as Red Storm Rising and pretty much every other naval/air sim like this over the years, that I almost felt compelled to get this.

It really is expensive, so unless you’re a die-hard fan of this genre, I wouldn’t even think of trying to get you to go for it. I’ve done the first tutorial, and so far it seems to deliver what it promises. It’s a modern, complex, reasonably accessible take on this type of game, with a full geographical database for Google Earth-like maps (lower visual quality and just the geographical stuff not the photos of cities, etc.), extensive databases of weapon systems, platforms, and sensors (databases which are like browsing Jane’s, though unless you get the freebie enhancements from the developer’s website, you don’t get images I don’t think), and a rather Byzantine but ultimately rather logical missions and orders system. The message logs are chock full of details, though you can filter most of it, and you can even get the numbers and probability rolls the game makes for each action.

This thing is made by uber air/naval war geeks, and if you love jabbering about Fan Song and Flat Face, Goas, and Gainfuls, and don’t associate SEAD with gardening, this game will probably have a lot of allure for you. It’s too early to tell how it handles large battles–I’m worried a bit about both human and machine overload–but if you’ve been waiting for a new Harpoon, this seems to be it.

2052

Fair enough, though I have to say this is a hell of a lot less intimidating than War in the East, if only because it doesn’t try to model an entire war across four years and thousands of kilometers. It is something that will take me a lot of time to figure out though, so your point is perfectly valid.

2053

I’d like to encourage someone to write front page articles to let us play Command vicariously like we did with Bruce’s War in the East series. It doesn’t have to be right away.

2054

It’s not the same game, but I’ve been meaning to do a forum AAR of Command Ops for a while now, especially since they fixed a few issues with the combat engine.

2055

You could easily make a series out of your DCS posts too. One aircraft per day. Just need to relate to the readers a bit, maybe to some flight sims they played in the past.

2056

I’ve been sampling Gary Grigsby’s Finest Hour – Steel Panthers, that is. I’m not ashamed to admit that so far my favorite part about wargames is the sound: penetrating hits in Combat Mission, critical attacks in Unity of Command, and machinegun chatter in Steel Panthers. I guess Korsun Pocket was pretty boring about that. But it had catchy music.

It’s tough to follow the flow of battle in Steel Panthers with this unfortunate interface. When I make an attack, I either press the T key to check the hit chance at the bottom of the screen or skip that step and glance at the top status bar to see what it is after I take a shot. Then I look down to the bottom status bar to see if there were any casualties. Then I look at the main screen to make sure that was really the enemy and not my own troops dying from opportunity fire. It’s easy to get lost once I start hammering the fire button. I could probably slow down the message speed. But then it’d be too slow for the boring times when a plane flies over AA or when I just want to dump all my small arms shots. I wish there was a button to speed that up and tell me the total casualties at the end.

I suppose putting all the important information on opposite sides of the interface was fine 20 years ago when people had 14" monitors playing at 640x480 with giant text. These days it’s enough to make a designer weep.

I’ll take it though. At least it’s readable with the font size mod. And somehow I completely missed the window mode feature in winSPWW2, since I usually play every game fullscreen. Window mode doesn’t require the invasive hacks to play fullscreen. I’m more willing to fire it up for a quick scenario now. Unfortunately you have to look at the Windows title bar the whole time. What they ought to do is enable a borderless window mode. I even suggested it on the forums. It sounds like it would be pretty challenging for them. But that’s definitely the way forward.

So far after a handful of scenarios, I still prefer the slightly more organic flow in Combat Mission, thanks to the TacAI doing most of the magic. I’ll never forget the first time I snuck up to a dug-in position that immediately broke because I surprised them. It’s not clear to me whether flanking bonuses like that exist in Steel Panthers, even after reading the manual, Shrapnel’s game guide, and an online strategy guide. But there are some fascinating mechanics to explore: how it does movement speed and halting in a turn-based game, the rally function, dealing with opportunity fire, and a fairly open suppression system. Not to mention the wide variety of units, theaters, and years.

That does make it hard to find good scenarios to play. Combat Mission fans wrote enough best-of lists on the Battlefront forum that I had more scenarios to play than I ever had time for. I only found a few recommendations on the best Steel Panthers scenarios. Instead, I’m leaning toward the custom generated campaign where core units are carried over between missions. I got a little bit of that from Panzer General Forever. But I’d like to try it at this level in a somewhat dynamic campaign. The hard part will be getting past the first screen. I have to pick from so many different platoons to build my force. It’d be nice to tell the game to pick a balanced starter set until I’m ready to make tweaks later.

2057

Well, the Matrix deal this week is Khakov/Across the Dnepr. I managed to resist picking up Battles in Italy/Normandy last week, but now I am sore tempted. Across the Dnepr is from 2010! That’s, like, not that old! Although admittedly it is an update to the first edition from 2003, and, as far as I can tell from the screenshots, still has the same… uh… interface issues.

2058

Matrix released a game I’m actually pretty excited about, España 1936, about the Spanish Civil War. It’s by Ageod. Spanish Civil War games can be tricky to do - warfare evolved abruptly during the conflict, and an accurate order of battle is hard to come by. Maybe one doesn’t exist. Anyway, I’ll be trying this out. Time to re-read The Spanish Labyrinth!

2059

Installed WITP yet again. I’ve thought about trying this numerous times over the years but never do. Now. I’m going to give it the old college try again. Playing as the US, ran the first Japanese turn, and now am somewhat ready to spend a few hours or weeks looking over all my assets and working on getting a small grip on the bit picture. I did play Uncommon Valor back in the day so I have an idea of the gameplay but will be spending hours at the Matrix forum looking for answers!

2060

Yeah, I tried UV but WITP scared the bejeezus out of me. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!