If you got the polarity or whatever wonky with the magnetic holders, things flew around pretty funnily.
That was a fun read - but good lord nothing has ever made me less want to play a game than that story.
Matrix have revealed 4 new titles - wargaming is big business these days!!
Slitherine is currently investing in more than 15 unannounced projects and has over £10m invested in active development projects. We strive to bring strategy gaming to a wider audience, with a coherent mix of owned IPs and licensed properties. 40 different development studios of varied sizes are contributing to this long-term project, of which today we just unveiled a tiny fraction", said Iain McNeil, CEO Slitherine
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Thanks @Juan_Raigada! I can see how it could work great for many games though, especially if you have limited flat space.
@Strollen - That’s interesting. I was poking about the Internets the last day or so and World in Flames seemed to get more favorable comments than A World at War for solitaire. After reading that World at War article, I’m rethinking things a bit on the whole, too. I’m thinking it might be better to play a few other games before attempting a massive game like either of these. Made me wonder if there are some Global World War II games that don’t involve thousands of pieces and 150+ hours.
Man, that Broken Arrow trailer seems like it’s cinematics circa 2003 at times.
It is actually a step up for Slitherine/Matrix. I’m not sure what Broken Arrow is supposed to be. An rts? The MoM trailer is more their speed.
Broken Arrow is another take on a Wargame: Red Dragon sequel, along with Microprose’s Regiments.
Well, to be fair, nothing would make me want to play AWAW.
Some of my favorite maps ever. But opinions vary. Was very sorry to hear the news. Still has maps upcoming from several games, but a great loss. I have posted this though elsewhere, but his ‘Summer Storm’ has one of the best maps I’ve ever seen. Of course he has done variations of his Gettysburg maps in numerous other games.
I could see how some might not like his style. It reminds of older maps in some civil war books.
I’m playing WiF solitaire now. I have it on a table that’s about 12’ x 6’. Personally I think it’s more fun solitaire than the Third Reich series, but I’ve never really given AWaW a fair shake, so I’m not sure. WiF is a pretty big commitment, though. It’s taken me 6-8 months of active play to get to Nov/Dec 1944. I’ve loved it but I’m ready to be done with my current game, which the Axis is winning. Italy is still alive and kicking. The Allies have invaded France and are poised to take Paris, but the Luftwaffe is intact and it’s slow going. The Russians are behind schedule, just now approaching Kiev, and still haven’t regained Leningrad. The US is making slow progress in the Pacific. Here’s a recent photo:
Garg! I had slid this idea to the side but … your post. Honestly, that sounds like such a fun winter project. resistance crumbling
EDIT: Is that the Deluxe edition you’re playing? Looks like there are two versions of the game, Classic (1600 counters) and Deluxe (with all expansions, 4900 counters)?
Mine is indeed the Collectors Edition Deluxe game, which now sells for $269. Yep, it comes with most of the expansions. It omits a couple expansions that I didn’t really want anyway, like Factories in Flames, and it doesn’t have a separate Africa or Scandinavian map, but I haven’t needed those. One does have to get used to a slightly abstracted system of sea-zones around the abbreviated Africa map that comes with the game, but it’s not that hard.
Yes, WiF was a great winter project – really a great pandemic project. I was stuck indoors anyway, so why not play a monster game? But now that the weather is nice, I’m finding it harder to get to the wargaming table. :)
Really nothing in WiF is conceptually difficult; it’s just that there’s lots of everything! Lots of rules, lots of counters, lots of map space, heh.
Learning the rules is the biggest challenge, and it’s not that bad. I’m pretty sure you can download the rulebook for free, though the online version doesn’t have all the pretty pictures in the printed rulebook. Those illustrations really do help, as mostly they’re useful examples of play. I like the conversational tone of the rulebook. It’s much smaller and easier to learn than, say, Advanced Squad Leader – I know that’s not saying much, lol. The hardest thing about the rules is that WiF innovates in surprising ways. Major powers can’t do everything every impulse; they choose an Air, Land, Naval, or Combined (“a little of everything”) action. Naval movement and warfare centers around a brilliant system of sea-boxes within sea areas; these boxes represent time on station, fuel, etc. The land game is the most familiar to traditional grognards, but even this has its surprises.
For me, the coolest thing of WiF is seeing how what’s going on in the Med impacts the Far East and vice-versa; deciding which front to send troops to; stuff like that. The worldwide scope is awesome.
I don’t want to push WiF too hard, because I’d hate for you to spend all that money and then never get past the rulebook. I’d suggest downloading the rules and browsing through them casually, to see whether it’s your sort of thing.
Thank you much for the thoughtful response, Spock. That’s super helpful.
I spent some time tonight spot reading the rules and watching a bit of a Let’s Play on the game. It looks like exactly what I’m looking for. I ended up pulling the trigger on the Deluxe version (found it for $229 on Compass Games site) after reading up on the differences between the two versions.
I also rationalized my decision because there are so many scenarios in the game. It’s really like 20 games in one, which means it’s not really that expensive at all. :)
I’m thinking I can play some of the smaller scenarios to learn elements of the game, then shift into a full-scale playthrough in the winter.
Congratulations! I don’t think you’ll regret it. Yes, a common way to learn is to fire up a smaller scenario first – Barbarossa, say, to learn land/air, and then maybe Guadalcanal to learn naval stuff. If you have rules questions, please don’t hesitate to post them here.
Thanks. I’m pretty excited.
I want to ramp up homeland production over the summer to support the effort. We can’t support the war with our current infrastructure. First step is addressing table issues. I’ve found preliminary table-construction intel that I think we can adapt, but still looking around for more ideas.
Excellent! Keep us posted as you level-up your table-construction intel level. :)
Wait, UC is on boardgamearena? Set it up!
Here’s some more wargame “writing.”