Grognard Wargamer Thread!

TimJames · 2013-04-21T12:45:59.000Z

I’m playing Korsun Pocket!

It was super easy to follow the tutorials using the player’s guide. I smiled at how much was the same in Unity of Command. Even Battle of the Bulge has a similar Replacement Data screen that shows armor and infantry replacements on the current and subsequent turns. The rest of the interface seems tolerable to me. There are a lot of little buttons I have to click or press each turn, and de-selecting units is annoying.

It’s a little daunting to try to figure out what to do. In Unity of Command it was simple. That game was about breakthroughs and encirclement. It was usually easy to find a weak point through the lines. After that, I just drove through and tried to form tidy lines behind the enemy. The Combat Advisor in KP helps a lot. But on the big scenarios it looks like there are so many choices. Now I see why grognards consult the historical plan of attack if they need some good ideas!

I played the Wiking Whiteout ahistorical meeting engagement to get used to how it works. I got a draw against the easy AI. I mis-estimated how quickly some of the Axis units could reach my supply trucks and VP locations. Very similar fist-shaking experience to Unity of Command. But I destroyed plenty of units and took a couple VPs of my own.

I’m looking forward to playing some more! I also need to finish reading Hell’s Gate so I can find out what’s supposed to happen. :)

TheWombat · 2013-04-21T12:50:31.000Z

Tim James:

I’m playing Korsun Pocket!

It was super easy to follow the tutorials using the player’s guide. I smiled at how much was the same in Unity of Command. Even Battle of the Bulge has a similar Replacement Data screen that shows armor and infantry replacements on the current and subsequent turns. The rest of the interface seems tolerable to me. There are a lot of little buttons I have to click or press each turn, and de-selecting units is annoying.

It’s a little daunting to try to figure out what to do. In Unity of Command it was simple. That game was about breakthroughs and encirclement. It was usually easy to find a weak point through the lines. After that, I just drove through and tried to form tidy lines behind the enemy. The Combat Advisor in KP helps a lot. But on the big scenarios it looks like there are so many choices. Now I see why grognards consult the historical plan of attack if they need some good ideas!

I played the Wiking Whiteout ahistorical meeting engagement to get used to how it works. I got a draw against the easy AI. I mis-estimated how quickly some of the Axis units could reach my supply trucks and VP locations. Very similar fist-shaking experience to Unity of Command. But I destroyed plenty of units and took a couple VPs of my own.

I’m looking forward to playing some more! I also need to finish reading Hell’s Gate so I can find out what’s supposed to happen. :)

Are you running this on Win 7 or later? One thing that always bugged me was the fixed, non-widescreen and relatively low rez of the game on modern systems. Good game though.

Brooski · 2013-04-21T12:53:34.000Z

Tim James:

I’m playing Korsun Pocket!

Love it! Can’t wait to hear how it goes.

The big scenarios are all about the pondering and the beard-stroking. Basic grognardism at its finest.

TimJames · 2013-04-21T12:58:29.000Z

TheWombat:

Are you running this on Win 7 or later? One thing that always bugged me was the fixed, non-widescreen and relatively low rez of the game on modern systems. Good game though.

Yes, Win7-64. I don’t recall having to do anything special to install from CD, patch it up, and run it.

The resolution (1024x768) is annoying but I’ve found that most wargames from that era are over-sharpened for shitty CRTs. I’m using my Nvidia control panel to scale the image to the same aspect ratio on a 24" widescreen LCD. It’s perfectly readable, just a little un-sharp. I wouldn’t even call it blurry.

TheWombat · 2013-04-21T14:02:14.000Z

Tim James:

Yes, Win7-64. I don’t recall having to do anything special to install from CD, patch it up, and run it.

The resolution (1024x768) is annoying but I’ve found that most wargames from that era are over-sharpened for shitty CRTs. I’m using my Nvidia control panel to scale the image to the same aspect ratio on a 24" widescreen LCD. It’s perfectly readable, just a little un-sharp. I wouldn’t even call it blurry.

Hmm. Maybe I should give it and it’s ilk a go on my machine. I have all of them on disk around here somewhere.

Canuck · 2013-04-21T16:33:28.000Z

Ahh Korsun Pocket. My first non-beer’n’pretzels wargame. I think I picked it up for 20 quid back when I was staying in Brighton for 3 months. The sequels, Battles in Normandy and Battles in Italy are even better in my opinion. I bought Battlefront when it came out and I don’t think I even installed it. Sad.

Canuck · 2013-04-21T16:36:07.000Z

Actually, the real sad thing is that is probably still more expensive on Matrix’ webstore than when I bought it in the store 10 years ago.

tgb123 · 2013-04-21T17:53:09.000Z

Surprising, since as far as I can tell the NDA is still in effect for those of us in the beta, but there’s now a video up of the first mission in the German campaign in Lock 'n Load- Heroes of Stalingrad.

I have an email out to tptb at Matrix as to how much testers are now allowed to say. If I can answer any questions, I will.

Rod_Humble · 2013-04-21T17:59:50.000Z

tgb123:

Surprising, since as far as I can tell the NDA is still in effect for those of us in the beta, but there’s now a video up of the first mission in the German campaign in Lock 'n Load- Heroes of Stalingrad.

I have an email out to tptb at Matrix as to how much testers are now allowed to say. If I can answer any questions, I will.

Disregard if any of this is under NDA (I never understood how they worked to be honest).

1.) Is it fully featured from the board game?
2.) Does it include a scenario maker?
3.) How long till I can buy the damn thing? :)

tgb123 · 2013-04-21T18:06:32.000Z

I can easily answer #1 - I never played the board game so I have no idea :-)

Rod_Humble · 2013-04-21T19:49:28.000Z

tgb123:

I can easily answer #1 - I never played the board game so I have no idea :-)

Fair enough! :)

sharaleo · 2013-04-25T22:57:06.000Z

Rod Humble:

Disregard if any of this is under NDA (I never understood how they worked to be honest).

1.) Is it fully featured from the board game?

Watched the video and from my memory of the last time I played the boardgame, I am going to say, yes, it looks to be doing quite a good job of emulating all the rules - at least in regards to infantry for movement, spotting, combat, melee, command, morale, hero generation, etc. It also looked to be doing an excellent job of relaying feedback to all the rules going on in the background - die rolls, modifiers, etc. I’d even go so far as to say I’d be surprised if full rules for armour and ordnance are not also implemented, particularly by looking at the toolbar which has options for armour facing, turret rotation, smoke, reverse, rear facing MG’s, etc.

All in all, that is looking pretty damn good.

Rod_Humble · 2013-04-25T23:02:09.000Z

sharaleo:

Watched the video and from my memory of the last time I played the boardgame, I am going to say, yes, it looks to be doing quite a good job of emulating all the rules - at least in regards to infantry for movement, spotting, combat, melee, command, morale, hero generation, etc. It also looked to be doing an excellent job of relaying feedback to all the rules going on in the background - die rolls, modifiers, etc. I’d even go so far as to say I’d be surprised if full rules for armour and ordnance are not also implemented, particularly by looking at the toolbar which has options for armour facing, turret rotation, smoke, reverse, rear facing MG’s, etc.

All in all, that is looking pretty damn good.

Thanks! This sounds very good indeed.

TimJames · 2013-04-26T05:19:52.000Z

There’s a post on the Matrix forums defending/discussing their business strategy. It’s somewhat in response to another thread where Johan of Paradox came in to discuss his philosophy – for example, good interfaces plus good reviews means you can sell a lot of copies in Steam sales, but you have to reach a minimum point of accessibility or no one will bother. There were a few tidbits of information about Pride of Nations, if anyone is looking for more details on that situation.

Anyway, there’s not a whole lot new there. No need to rehash it all here, I just thought people might want to read what a couple publishers are saying about niche strategy games. Matrix did hint that they might consider running packaged sales for old games like Tim Stone at RPS suggested.

Canuck · 2013-04-26T05:41:12.000Z

The whole error of their ways is right in their subject heading. They call wargaming a niche. Wargaming is a niche because of companies like Matrix who put out poorly designed games with poorly designed UIs and charge $50 for a 10 year old game. If it wasn’t for the forward thinking of Paradox, I’m sure that games like Crusader Kings would also be a niche genre.

TheWombat · 2013-04-26T06:16:43.000Z

Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm, a sort of evolution/reboot of Flashpoint: Germany, is in the works over at Matrix. The link is to some screenshots; it’s looking really interesting. With this and Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations coming up, the Cold War is getting a bit of a renaissance it seems.

tgb123 · 2013-04-26T06:33:51.000Z

TheWombat:

Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm, a sort of evolution/reboot of Flashpoint: Germany, is in the works over at Matrix. The link is to some screenshots; it’s looking really interesting. With this and Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations coming up, the Cold War is getting a bit of a renaissance it seems.

Don’t forget Paradox’ East/West, which, if done right (focus on geopolitics and small-scale local conflicts), can be a worthy successor to Balance of Power

TheWombat · 2013-04-26T07:35:52.000Z

tgb123:

Don’t forget Paradox’ East/West, which, if done right (focus on geopolitics and small-scale local conflicts), can be a worthy successor to Balance of Power

Hmm, haven’t seen that. I haven’t followed Paradox much, but I’ll give it a look.

rezaf · 2013-04-26T08:16:13.000Z

Tim James:

There’s a post on the Matrix forums defending/discussing their business strategy. It’s somewhat in response to another thread where Johan of Paradox came in to discuss his philosophy – for example, good interfaces plus good reviews means you can sell a lot of copies in Steam sales, but you have to reach a minimum point of accessibility or no one will bother. There were a few tidbits of information about Pride of Nations, if anyone is looking for more details on that situation.

Anyway, there’s not a whole lot new there. No need to rehash it all here, I just thought people might want to read what a couple publishers are saying about niche strategy games. Matrix did hint that they might consider running packaged sales for old games like Tim Stone at RPS suggested.

Thanks for the links Tim. Oh my, Matrix is really weird. Enforcing a minimum price of $30 for a turd such as PoN … and poor Johan struggling desperately (and still failing, at least a bit) to stay polite when commenting about PoN’s turn times and interface.

In any event, PoN is a weird choice when trying to defend wargame pricing. I completely agree with Johan - a better interface and VASTLY improved turn times could have made this a decently selling title. But AGEOD failed to polish this up to ANY degree, be it prior to post-release. So, yeah, the audience willing to even play this is miniscule, I guess Matrix, in a twisted way, is right on this one - pricing hardly matters. After all, there’s a tiny number of folks that actually find the game in it’s current shape entertaining enough to defend it.
I’m really quite fond of the AGE engine and most games running on it, but PoN … no way.

rezaf

Tom_Mc · 2013-04-26T08:58:37.000Z

PoN I wanted so much to enjoy. I could even wade through the interface; I mean your running an empire it’s gonna be a little complicated right? But, I couldn’t get that delusion past the load times and when your on turn 4 of 1000 you realize that this isn’t ever ending. It’s one thing when I am browsing through and the long turn times are the result of me arranging orders. If the turn times were not an issue I would prefer PoN over Victoria it’s rare that performance makes such a difference for me. I think it might be the way they process time on a day by day basis as if it were ACW and calculating if any given brigades happen to be in the same area, evasion, etc. That’s just not a feasible way to process a game on a global scale.

BTW so I can end this on a positive. AACW great Civil War game or greatest Civil War game ;)

Tom M