Grognard Wargamer Thread!

vyshka · 2020-09-21T21:17:56.309Z

Apparently there is another about called Cold War Game by some Russian studio that was up on Steam for early access, then got DMCA’d off the store (guessing by Eugen) but apparently they are working on resolving the issues.

Panzeh · 2020-09-21T21:22:01.260Z

vyshka:

Apparently there is another about called Cold War Game by some Russian studio that was up on Steam for early access, then got DMCA’d off the store (guessing by Eugen) but apparently they are working on resolving the issues.

I played that one, too, but was completely unimpressed with what they were doing up to that point. It’s a pretty literal translation of Wargame: European Escalation without anything added.

Otagan · 2020-09-21T22:03:32.046Z

I do not have a source on this, but I heard they actually got DMCA’d by someone they stole their unit models from. Which is a totally believable thing for a Russian studio to do.

Either way, yeah, it was effectively European Escalation with half the countries and an earlier timeframe.

SamS · 2020-09-21T22:31:25.680Z

JeffL:

without having to micromanage a ton of logistics such as making sure I am building enough bladders to carry fuel on refuel ships and have the right nozzles built in order to refuel a specific DD,

That’s the best part! Grigsby War in the Pacific all the way.

JeffL · 2020-09-22T12:26:08.956Z

SamS:

That’s the best part! Grigsby War in the Pacific all the way.

LOL! Yeah, no time or desire for that.

Although Grigsby’s Guadalcanal game back on the Apple 2 is really what I’m looking for. It was pure cat and mouse, fog of war. Where are those damned Japanese CVs? Sending out search planes that report a CV TF, getting your attack planes ready, launching them, then finding out as they attack the search plane made a mistake and it is NOT a CV TF, and now my attack planes are all out, then getting hit by the Japanese TF I didn’t see. The Bettys from Rabaul hitting Henderson Field and trying to intercept them. It was very simple and really made me sweat. I found a version of it not long ago that could run on my notebook. I thought, I don’t need graphics! I just need that experience!

Um - very slow, very clumsy, very ugly. Although at the time it was state of the art.

Kolbex · 2020-09-22T13:13:44.539Z

Sounds like you want Carrier Battles 4 Guadalcanal:

Also on iOS.

Woolen_Horde · 2020-09-22T14:57:03.002Z

Michael Dean of Fine Games sent out an email this morning. He’s going to retire in 1-2 years, after 28 years in business, and the task begins of liquidating his inventory of 9,000 wargames.

Let the pre-retirement sale begin!

http://www.finegames.com/retirement.htm?utm_source=BenchmarkEmail&utm_campaign=Retirement_01_Mags_9-21-20&utm_medium=email

JeffL · 2020-09-22T18:05:10.381Z

Kolbex:

Sounds like you want Carrier Battles 4 Guadalcanal:

That does look interesting, thanks.

vyshka · 2020-09-23T00:07:51.912Z

Finally got around to doing the P500 for the latest edition, along with Pacific War. Took a chance on Compass as well and did the P500 for NATO, Air & Armor, and Third World War.

Spock · 2020-09-23T01:06:36.830Z

Mr Dean has an impressive catalog of games! His website is a throwback, to say the least, but it has a certain charm. I’m curious – how old is he? He looks fit in the picture of his bicycle. I’m always curious to hear people’s retirement stories – the when, the why, the how.

Have you ever ordered from him? I didn’t see anything that grabbed me at first glance, but I’m going to visit again.

Woolen_Horde · 2020-09-23T01:15:20.240Z

Spock:

Mr Dean has an impressive catalog of games! His website is a throwback, to say the least, but it has a certain charm. I’m curious – how old is he? He looks fit in the picture of his bicycle. I’m always curious to hear people’s retirement stories – the when, the why, the how.

Have you ever ordered from him? I didn’t see anything that grabbed me at first glance, but I’m going to visit again.

Not recently, but I ordered a bunch of Avalon Hill wargames from him in the past, and everything was exactly as described. I got a never-used copy of MBT and a used copy of Tac Air. Hmmm… I should probably get IDF…

vyshka · 2020-09-23T02:19:57.804Z

I seem to remember the business going back to the 90s, and possibly the 80s. I’ve bought from him before and it has always been as promised.

vyshka · 2020-09-24T00:41:08.252Z

Wow, they did a patch for Eagle Day / Bombing the Reich:

https://www.matrixgames.com/news/gary-grigsbys-eagle-day-to-bombing-the-reich-new-update

It’s time to suit up and switch on those magnetos, the latest patch for Gary Grigsby’s Eagle Day to Bombing the Reich is out now! Building on the tireless efforts of the previous patches, version 1.06.05 fixes even more minor bugs and adds several new features including:

A new “Find Air Units” tab is added to the reaction phase to allow you to easily find the location of each of your air groups during the heat of the action showing the current fatigue, morale, fuel, and damage of each individual pilot and planes. Or, momentarily stop the action and simply select one of your air groups on the map to get its current status - including mission type and even if the pilot is wounded!

The weather system has been reworked to introduce next day forecasting and variable wind direction. Now you can “stand down” and refit your air groups during a bad weather turn, knowing that tomorrow promises to be less cloudy or foggy in your sector. You can now also get the current weather report for all of Europe during the planning phase from a single glance at the strategic map.

All of this and much, much more awaits you with this latest patch for the most realistic and in-depth game of the Battle of Britain and the Strategic Bombing Campaign against Germany ever produced.

Spock · 2020-09-24T01:24:34.175Z

I guess today is the 11th anniversary of the release date of the game, but yeah, I’m amazed they’re still patching it. I never bought it, even though I love Grigsby; even now, they’re asking $50 for it, which seems a lot. Do you own the game? How is it?

BrianRubin · 2020-09-24T01:45:31.170Z

Holy crap, time to reinstall.

Navaronegun · 2020-09-24T11:53:14.188Z

I only buy stuff like that through steam - if it sucks, refund is available.

TheWombat · 2020-09-29T23:34:29.346Z

I haven’t bought a board game in ages, for good reasons (like, I never play them). But I could not resist two pre-orders when I saw the Compass Games flyer that came in the mail. A reprint of VG’s Fulda, which was one of my absolute faves back in the day. I got the map laminated and everything, and a CSS game, company level, on the (hypothetical) battle for Berlin, circa 1985, called The Enemy is At the Gates. They aren’t cheap, but damn, I lived in Berlin twice in my life, before and right after the game’s timeframe, so I kind of had to.

vyshka · 2020-09-30T05:49:16.924Z

I will be interested to hear your thoughts since I preordered a number of games from them last week. My hope is that the games I preordered, NATO + Air & Armor (Bruce Maxwell) and the Third World War (Chris Fawcett) will be good because they seem to have solid teams working on them and are based on good designs. I think @Navaronegun has had some bad luck with them on a couple titles.

Navaronegun · 2020-09-30T11:22:59.594Z

If by “Bad Luck” you mean I I am boycotting them until they begin to release games that don’t have component or map errata at best or broken systems/title rules mechanics that still haven’t been fixed after 3 years at worst (while still having component/map errata), then yes, I’ve had some “bad luck”.

vyshka · 2020-09-30T11:30:39.438Z

Am I remembering correctly that the thought was that Compass pretty much left quality control up to the designers? I guess I should dig around and see how Herman’s France game turned out.