One of the Panzer Corps games? Haven’t played them myself, but they’re supposed to be basically clones of Panzer General, so would seem to fit your criteria pretty well, and they seem to have good reviews.
Oh gosh, what about Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa? To a by all accounts conventional but solid operational hexncounters wargame it adds an RPG layer not seen before or since, where you actually are Franz Halder (or for the Soviets, Stalin, though that side of things doesn’t sound quite as interesting [I’ve only played Axis]) and have to deal with various “human” aspects of the operation’s prosecution, such as Hitler’s potentially inane demands and the recalcitrance of subordinates.
DC: Barbarossa is excellent IMHO.
If you want beer and pretzels check out Battle Academy 2; Eastern Front: http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=541 I had fun with that a while back.
Which Strategic Command 3 game do you have? If you don’t have both just get the other one.
I forgot I had the first Panzer Corps. Fun puzzle game but I’m looking more for grand strategy.
If you like that system, SC:World at War lets you play the Pacific War as well (plus you will eventually get to play my mod based on the Grigsby War in the Pacific map http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4588714
Just a heads up, Victory Point Games has a sale now through June 28th. Some good deals. I bought Thunder in the East, finally, mostly because Chadwick. Marked down to a still steep $99.
Yeah, I don’t Russia much and I still bought it for the same reason. Still on shelf, but it will get played. The Chadwick abides.
This is 61% off on Steam, which is a heckuvalot cheaper than my 35% off coupon, so I think that I’m in.
Sounds like you’ll enjoy it. The other title, Decisive Campaigns: The Blitzkrieg from Warsaw to Paris, is pretty good too, IMO.
Some good deals in the summer sale.
War in the East 70% off
Vietnam '65 75% off (seriously get this for a few bucks)
CMANO 70% off
Distant Worlds 75% off
So, re Consimworld Expo: overall a great time. Really only played three games: two short Empire of the Sun games against Mark Herman, and a four-player Pericles with me, Mark, Nick Karp, and John Butterfield which was called after two turns due to the late hour: (pictured L-R: me, John with back to camera, Nick, and Smiling Mark)
I very much enjoyed seeing the monster games set up (Frank Chadwick was there with the playtest set of The Middle Sea although I’m not sure that’s a true monster) and even thought about signing up for one next year, but I’m wondering if after a few hours I’d be wanting to try something else. By the time I was leaving, both Root and Gloomhaven had made an appearance. But there was lots of cool stuff, including a multi-squadron game of Skies Above the Reich run by the designers:
I also got my favorite desert wargame, Mark Simonitch’s The Legend Begins, signed by the designer.
Btw, if you’re looking for old, out-of-print games, the flea market here is a great demonstration of how elastic boardgame prices are when people just want the stuff out of their house. You can usually make a deal. Cash is attractive. And the prices usually start out lower than BGG. At some point, it’s all just cardboard someone doesn’t want to store anymore.
I think next year I will go for the whole week. Wasn’t possible this year due to work schedule, but I should be able to clear it next year. @dstone112 you’re on notice.
@Brooski - Was Mike Lam running his Down in Flames campaign? That thing has been going since 2003 or so. I need to work it out with my wife, but I’d like to go next year as well. We are supposed to be heading to some national parks next year, so will have to work that around the csw dates once John posts them. Looking at Mike’s website, it has been 13 years since I last attended.
Down in Flames campaigns were definitely in progress! Every time I passed that table, though, I didn’t see anyone actually playing.
I may try to make it next year…have always wanted to go. Then again, Origins is in my city, and I rarely seem to make it to that.
As a postscript to that whole thing, I did pick up a few games, including this mint, unpunched (in shrink!) copy of War of Resistance about the Sino-Japanese War.
I have been looking casually for this game for a while and probably would have eventually paid market price but this one was $75 so that was a nice find. I don’t know that I’ll ever get to really play it, but I really wanted to look at the design and research because to my knowledge there is only one other real game covering the Sino-Japanese War, and that’s War of the Suns. Since I’m very interested in comparative design I want to see how something like this, which was designed within the constraints of the Europa system, answers these questions. I know that designer Mark Royer has been lauded for his research, but I don’t know on what basis.
The game is part of the “Glory” Pacific extension to the Europa system, so it has some “extra” maps.
My favorite thing, though, is these overlays that represent the effect of destroying certain dams:
Historically accurate!
Interesting Kickstarter ongoing: