I had a really weird dream last night that I was teaching a bunch of people to play some monster operational-level WWI Eastern Front game. Like, laying out the chits on the hexmap detailed. There was the usual big-game drama of keeping the chits all appropriately segregated. The scenario involved sneaking a bunch of flimsy supply units through between the solid chit walls of the front lines.
It was all OK until I tried to find the CRT sheet in the massive pile of documents. It wasn’t there. Everybody started leaving.
Yep. I like the production wheel, but tastes may differ.
Interesting. The ground wars do move slowly in China, but elsewhere I find them pretty fluid. And I really like the integration of air/land/sea ops. I always felt like naval warfare was too abstract in the Third Reich series, and air too for that matter. But we shall see. I’m used to playing this system on a computer, which speeds things along. It may feel different on cardboard.
Don’t get me wrong on my criticism…I don’t think there is a “Silver Bullet” Grand Strategy global ww2 game out there, period. But the Pacific felt sloggy, yes. Tell me how it feels to you. I really want to find a Global WW2 game tat does it for me.
I’ll let you know! The Pacific is my favorite theater, and I suppose my favorite boardgame treatment is Mark Herman’s Empire of the Sun. Have you tried it? It’s a card-driven game with a reasonably detailed mix of air, land and ground counters, and some brain-bending rules. I like it, but it’s not global. I haven’t tried the Totaler Krieg games. On the PC, my favorite Pacific game is Grisby’s War in the Pacific / Admiral’s Edition, but again it’s not global, and it is certainly sloggy, as it has one-day turns.
I played Bataan! Once, a long time ago. A small scenario. I didn’t like it, it all hinged on controlling a single hex, which makes for a boring scenario. The campaign or larger scenarios are probably better. The event chit system was cool though (if I’m remembering the right game). Von Borries games are usually good.
I like EoTS (and would be willing to Vassal it, wink wink) but my favorite Herman design on the subject is Pacific War. Heck my favorite design on the conflict is Pacific War (in my top 5 all-time). Less luck, more choices. YOu just have to accept that as the Japanese you are not going to win, and that the historic result, if a wargame, was like a “Marginal Victory”.
I have the TK/DaiSenso set and it feels even more accountant-y and sloggy than WiF - with cards. And a baked in 1937 start.
Grigsby bugs me. WiTE was great. WiTW is meh. And all his stuff is still 80 bucks, but won’t run properly on a 1080p Windows 10 machine. I am getting tired of that sort of nonsense from Slitherine/Matrix.
You have to buy it used. There’s a lotta reprint talk about a lot of old Victory Games titles. I don’t trust any of it unless GMT/MMP and maybe Legion or Compass were involved. It’s been discussed online at BGG and on Social Media.
This was the Great Nuts! scare of 2014.
I always think, hmmm…Tony Curtis at GMT published Victory Insider for VG and he and Herman go waaay back…if he was going to revamp it, why some tiny publisher and not GMT?
I hope so. I’ve just never seen anything beyond the great Nuts! post of 2014. I certainly didn’t hear anything on a Wild Weasel about that. I know that while live-tweeting Pacific War @Brooski asked him point blank, but I didn’t see a response. Which means nothing, obviously. We’ll see if and when it ever comes out. To be clear if it is published, this will be me:
Yeah, I’m not sure why he isn’t doing it with GMT. They have done enough of his other games, and I’d think they would be happy to add it to the catalog.
