Grognard Wargamer Thread!

spelk · 2012-07-09T00:29:48.000Z

Sarkus:

Any updated impressions on this one? Or an official forum where its being discussed so I can see what that general consensus is?

I’ve not given it any time yet, but the consensus of opinion seems to be that it’s Time of Fury Lite.

There was some discussion on the game over at The Wargamer, here:
http://www.wargamer.com/forums/posts.asp?t=583377

I believe the “official” forums are on Wastelands Interactive boards, here:

The Wastelands Interactive forum

Strategic War in Europe - Discussion

Wastelands Interactive community forum

SamS · 2012-07-12T19:42:05.000Z

Panzer Command: Ostfront is now 50% off with a huge new patch.

Worth getting for someone who already has Operation Star?

Canuck · 2012-08-06T03:19:52.000Z

I thought this might be as good a thread as any-usually Amazon’s Daily Kindle Deals aren’t worth getting but sometimes a gem comes through. Today’s Daily Deal is a book called Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjager on the Eastern Front, 1941-43. It is a young soldier’s journals of the conflict in the East and was written at the time the events occurred not 20 years later so it should be unvarnished reality. It’s on sale for $1.99 (normally $9.99) for the next 20 hours.

awdougherty · 2012-08-06T09:51:29.000Z

Not sure where this should go since it’s a board game, but it is a Real Wargame. Totaler Krieg AAR in progress, not sure how far I’ll get when all is said and done, but I’m enjoying it a lot at the moment.

A Walkthrough AAR: For Newbies Written by a Newbie

Rod_Humble · 2012-08-06T10:30:59.000Z

awdougherty:

Not sure where this should go since it’s a board game, but it is a Real Wargame. Totaler Krieg AAR in progress, not sure how far I’ll get when all is said and done, but I’m enjoying it a lot at the moment.

A Walkthrough AAR: For Newbies Written by a Newbie

This is excellent. Please keep it going!

SlyFrog · 2012-08-06T15:09:25.000Z

Agreed - I will keep reading it.

JeffL · 2012-08-07T17:18:58.000Z

Canuck:

I thought this might be as good a thread as any-usually Amazon’s Daily Kindle Deals aren’t worth getting but sometimes a gem comes through. Today’s Daily Deal is a book called Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjager on the Eastern Front, 1941-43. It is a young soldier’s journals of the conflict in the East and was written at the time the events occurred not 20 years later so it should be unvarnished reality. It’s on sale for $1.99 (normally $9.99) for the next 20 hours.

Crap!!! Missed the timing - may just buy it at 9.99 anyway. Thanks for the heads up.

Benhur · 2012-08-15T05:01:44.000Z

Sorry if this has been discussed befiore, but I have a need to watch post-steampunk armies duke it out, so I’m looking for the BEST WW1 strategy game out there. I prefer a grand scale with limited micro, so I’d like to be able to recruit units, maybe research technology, but not have to spend an hour per turn becuase I need to move 1,000 units. I’ve looked at Strategic Command WW1, but that didn’t really impress me. I’ve heard nothing but bad about Ageod’s WW1 Gold, but perhaps there have been improvements. I’ve been playing a mod for HoI 2’s Darkest Hour, but that doesn’t really feel like WW1 to me. Any recommendations?

Nikolaj · 2012-08-15T05:45:21.000Z

Ageod’s WW1 Gold might be what you’re looking for. The release was a complete disaster, probably the worst I’ve ever seen, although it might have been topped by Sword of the Stars II last year.

Anyway, it’s come a long way since then, although I don’t think there have been any updated reviews or anything like that (that I’ve seen, anyway), which might be why it still has such a bad reputation.

It’s still not perfect, but it’s not the horrible mess it was at release. It does have pretty much everything you say you’re looking for: grand scale, but not too much micromanagement and research. It also has some very interesting mechanics, where you can play cards that reflect historical events and characters, as well as a choice of warplans at the start of the war. It also has some historical multi-choice events. It also does a very good job of modelling and reflecting the rapidly changing military technologies and doctrines of WW1.

All in all, it’s probably the best WW1 strategy game that I’ve ever played, although admittedly, the list isn’t that long.

The game still receives some support, btw, although I’m pretty sure it’s not a top priority for Ageod anymore. There was a patch a few months ago. There’s also a demo for Gold, so it’s probably a good idea to check that out before buying, just to be safe.

Fishbreath · 2012-08-15T06:02:35.000Z

When you say “looked at” Strategic Command: WWI, how do you mean? After spending a few hours just starting a grand campaign, I have to say it’s far and away the best WWI gaming experience I’ve had yet. It has the proper sort of WWI feel, with railroads being critically important and supply being even more so. The Western Front bogged down into trenches and the East remained fluid as a result of the mechanics (although I did make it all the way to Calais!).

Neutral things: it feels very much like a board game, and except for unit strength reductions and the morale and readiness calculations, it’s probably less complicated than something like Rise and Decline of the Third Reich.

Things I didn’t like as much: some of the rules aren’t particularly intuitive, and the interface is, if not actually bad, certainly mediocre. It’s big on historical events and such and focused completely on Europe, so no weird wars like you can play in HoI-alike games. Sometimes fighting in mountains is frustrating because you can very easily get to a point where you can’t move your units at all (moving from a high-supply square into a lower supply square). Oh, and squares.

I feel like, on the whole, it’s worth the money.

Benhur · 2012-08-16T04:55:13.000Z

Fishbreath:

When you say “looked at” Strategic Command: WWI, how do you mean? After spending a few hours just starting a grand campaign, I have to say it’s far and away the best WWI gaming experience I’ve had yet. It has the proper sort of WWI feel, with railroads being critically important and supply being even more so. The Western Front bogged down into trenches and the East remained fluid as a result of the mechanics (although I did make it all the way to Calais!).

Neutral things: it feels very much like a board game, and except for unit strength reductions and the morale and readiness calculations, it’s probably less complicated than something like Rise and Decline of the Third Reich.

Things I didn’t like as much: some of the rules aren’t particularly intuitive, and the interface is, if not actually bad, certainly mediocre. It’s big on historical events and such and focused completely on Europe, so no weird wars like you can play in HoI-alike games. Sometimes fighting in mountains is frustrating because you can very easily get to a point where you can’t move your units at all (moving from a high-supply square into a lower supply square). Oh, and squares.

I feel like, on the whole, it’s worth the money.

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I played the demo for a bit and I didn’t like that I had to play ALL of the Central Powers. I would prefert o play one of the powers, like Germany or Austria, and let the AI work with me. It doesn’t look like I can do that in any of the Strategic Command games (specifically Global Conflict or WW1), however. Are you going to get the Breakthrough expansion when it is released?

I looked at the manual for World War One Gold and it looks extremely complicated.

Fishbreath · 2012-08-16T06:10:39.000Z

Right, I’m pretty sure you’re stuck playing a whole side. Breakthrough! looks interesting, since I found the miniature campaigns very enjoyable. The nature of a grand campaign along historical lines is that it takes a long time* to play out to the point where you can compare your result against the real one. The operational campaigns took an hour or two to play through, at which point I could revel in my superiority/pretend I hadn’t done worse than the real generals.

Although I can’t see a 1914-1918 war taking more than 10-20 hours to play, unless you’re really agonizing over every move.

Fishbreath · 2012-08-19T16:14:47.000Z

At yonder Broken Forum, I’m playing through the tutorial scenario in Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge.

JoshL · 2012-08-30T08:23:27.000Z

Strategic War in Europe, anybody know anything about this?

http://slitherine.com/games/swie_pc

It looks like a low-complexity board-style wargame, and it’s $15, which is pretty cheap for a Matrix-published game. Has anybody played it?

Fishbreath · 2012-08-30T08:34:32.000Z

Canuck has, in this very thread.

OutOfEight reviewed it slightly less well.

JoshL · 2012-08-30T09:22:00.000Z

Fishbreath:

Canuck has, in this very thread.

OutOfEight reviewed it slightly less well.

Ah, thanks, I missed that. I didn’t realize it came out two months ago. I saw it in the Slitherine newsletter and thought it was just released. Shows what I know!

That OutOfEight review doesn’t sound so bad to me. Might pick this up.

Canuck · 2012-08-30T15:58:17.000Z

I think it’s a pretty good game. To be honest, I haven’t gotten into it that much. That’s not the game’s fault, it’s mine and my gaming ADD. It basically allows you to play the whole European campaign in just a couple of hours (i think it’s a total of 40 or 60 turns or something) ; and it does that well. I was originally looking for something like the original Strategic Command game and I think this one compares nicely to that. For $15 its hard to go wrong.

Sarkus · 2012-08-30T22:36:19.000Z

Canuck:

I think it’s a pretty good game. To be honest, I haven’t gotten into it that much. That’s not the game’s fault, it’s mine and my gaming ADD. It basically allows you to play the whole European campaign in just a couple of hours (i think it’s a total of 40 or 60 turns or something) ; and it does that well. I was originally looking for something like the original Strategic Command game and I think this one compares nicely to that. For $15 its hard to go wrong.

I was looking at it earlier this summer but never quite bit. One thing I couldn’t find out was how it handled the various countries on each side - do you always play all the allies and all the axis, or only one country, or is it a choice.

The reason being that for relatively simpler games like that I like to play all the countries. That and the fact that even much more complicated WW2 strategy games like HOI3 can’t figure out how to pull off multinational combinations.

JoshL · 2012-08-30T22:37:43.000Z

Oh, and now I notice that Time of Wrath is on sale for $6.80 on GMG. Oh, and Strategic War in Europe is on Steam greenlight. If anybody who’s played it wants to vote for it.

peterb · 2012-09-04T09:00:07.000Z

The authors of Hexwar.com have just released this great little turn-based strategy game for iPad. I was one of the beta-testers, and I liked it.

App Store

‎Civil War: 1863 on the App Store

‎Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Civil War: 1863. Download Civil War: 1863 and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Going to cross-post this in the iOS thread, please don’t hate me.