Let's Talk About! The Consolidated Super thread

Started by Jarhead0331, January 29, 2021, 03:24:44 PM

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Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

rustyshackleford

Seeing someone post Battlezone earlier (oh the memories!), I just purchased Battlezone 98 Redux from GoG - and I gotta say, although arcadey, it is FUN and has a unique RTS/FPS element to it. If you're into tanks at all, I'd recommend picking this up:


Father Ted

The venerable Darkest Hour is still a great way to do WW2 tanks

JasonPratt

#33
!! Armored Commander II !!

Wait, sorry, let me affect a British accent... ahem...

!! Armoured Commander II !!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1292020/Armoured_Commander_II/

How can a game using graphics explicitly based on the Commodore 64 be so good? By being in effect the best Dan Verssen solitaire game not actually designed by DVG. (It's more specifically inspired by the classic Patton's Best boardgame from 1987, but far, far, faaaaarrr beyond it in content.)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Jarhead0331

Thank you to everyone who participated!

The lucky winner for the first official round of Let's Talk About! is SirSlash!

Congrats buddy. Check your PM for the code.

Stay tuned for the next round!
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Jarhead0331

Round two of Grogheads' new weekly contest! You know the rules - all you have to do is talk about a particular subject as it relates to our favorite games and after a few days, everyone who posts will be eligible to participate in our drawing. The randomly selected winner will receive a free copy of a game!

The subject for this week's drawing is - WWII Battles! So, talk about your favorite battle to study and game.  Simple!

The randomly selected winner will receive a free copy of: Sudden Strike 4!



Cut off for entries is February 10!
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Sir Slash

Thanks Jar. I appreciate what you're doing here to kick-up interest in these subjects. Now for my....short...Acceptance Speech ( unravels 8 feet long sheet of paper).
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Jarhead0331

Thank you, Sir Slash. I have no shame resorting to bribery to make this a better place for all.

With that said, I've merged the threads into one super thread that will be pinned so the most current topic and giveaway is easy to find...
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Silent Disapproval Robot

#38
RAF Bomber Command night bombing campaign.  I'm kind of obsessed with it and am bummed that there aren't more PC and board games covering the topic.

For the PC, I have Defending the Reich from HPS Simulations.  It's light but decent (and you need special files from HPS to get it to run on Win 10). 




Bomber Crew was a fun little crew management game where you crewed a generic Lancaster bomber.  The cutsey graphics were a turn off for me but I enjoyed the gameplay and the nods to historical missions as you progressed through the war.


I've also got Eagle Day to Bombing the Reich from Matrix but the GUI is so awful that I never touch it. 

I fly the Halifax and the Lancaster in War Thunder but sadly, they don't have any missions or campaigns specifically focussing on night ops and massed bomber raids.  It's just a random grab bag these days so more often than not, I find myself flying a Halifax over Kursk in broad daylight while being escorted by some Zeroes, a P-47, and 3 Yaks while we fight off B-17s, Me109s, and Spitfires.  (sure looks pretty though.)


For board games,  I really like Bomber Command from GMT Games.  I also like Duel in the Dark and Duel in the Dark: Baby Blitz even though they're more abstract and play more like a Euro-style game than a true wargame.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27101/bomber-command-night-raids





https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/32646/duel-dark-baby-blitz




Nightfighter from GMT Games is a tactical level game.  Kind of weird in that one player actively controls nightfighters and tries to hunt down and kill enemy bombers.  The player controlling the bombers is basically passive and acts more like an umpire than a true opponent.  It's interesting but hard to find someone willing to play as the ump.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/33924/nightfighter




Enemy Coast Ahead from GMT is a great solo game (that can also be played co-op) covering the Dams raids by 617 Sqn (Dambusters).  The next game in the series that covers the Doolittle raid on Japan is also excellent.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/142889/enemy-coast-ahead-dambuster-raid





Target For Tonight from Legion Games is a solo game where you control a single bomber crew manning your choice of a Stirling, Halifax, Lancaster, or Wellington.  It's a narrative-driven game where you roll on a series of tables to determine what happens to your plane during each leg of the journey to and from the target.  It's based on the Target For Today game which was based on B-17 Queen of the Skies.  I have to say that I find this one rather disappointing.  They simply ported the combat over from Target For Today and that makes absolutely no sense for a night combat game.  Nightfighters should not be making high speed, head-on passes against bombers in the dead of night.  Modders have done some excellent work over at BGG in an attempt to make the game more historically accurate but that requires you to print out a tonne of new components and tables.  The game should never have been released without way more playtesting and input from fans.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/300591/target-tonight-britains-strategic-air-campaign-ove





Finally, I have a collection of Lancaster bombers and several nightfighters for the miniatures system, Wings of Glory.  While the game itself doesn't have rules covering night fighting, I've managed to cobble some together and we have a lot of fun with it.


Here of some shots of a game I put together covering the Dambusters raid  (with some night fighters thrown in to make it more interesting).  We played with dimmed lights and spotlights on the table because...why not? 







Jarhead0331

Holy shit...SDR fires a devastating salvo to kick off round duex!
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


FarAway Sooner

Dang!  I was just going to talk about how much l liked studying the Battle of Midway, but I'd never found any good games to play that resembled it!!

For me, Midway was fascinating because it was early in the Pacific war, both sides were struggling to mesh together technology, doctrine, weapon systems, and training, and both sides had some huge weaknesses.  The Japanese were vastly superior in carrier air group ops (getting large formations launched and formed into a strike group quickly) while the Americans had real trouble even getting their squadrons to find each other after they'd launched from the same carrier.  The Japanese were light on anti-aircraft weapons, and didn't even have the fire control directors to do much but shoot shells in the general direction of diving bombers.

The Japanese had mature dogfighting tactics, while the Americans were still trying to figure out anything more advanced than "If a Jap gets on your tail, dive for the deck to get away and then hope nobody else finds you."  Neither side had an appreciation for the importance of reconnaissance in a duel between carriers, but the American aircraft were vastly better suited to that mission (and in particular the land-based float planes, the PBY Catalinas).  The Japanese torpedoes (from their planes and their ships) were deadly, while the Americans' only effective anti-ship weapon system was their dive bombers.  The Americans already had fairly mature damage control techniques, while the Japanese relied on personal bravery as the glue to hold together their damage control efforts (to disastrous effect in the ensuing battle).

The two sides were relatively evenly matched, which lent much more drama to the battle than most of the one-sided affairs fought in WW II.

The same thing that makes this stuff so fascinating to study makes it almost impossible to wargame in any satisfying manner.  At least, I've never found any satisfying tactical naval games set in the Pacific, much less any that specifically tackle the Battle of Midway successfully!

Sir Slash

Damn fine minnies there SDR. Who doesn't love Lancasters? A favorite game battle is Battle Academy: Metz 1944 because I love blowing up forts too. BTW, Since I just won give my shot a winning to someone else.
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Silent Disapproval Robot

Quote from: FarAway Sooner on February 03, 2021, 09:09:38 PM
Dang!  I was just going to talk about how much l liked studying the Battle of Midway, but I'd never found any good games to play that resembled it!!

For me, Midway was fascinating because it was early in the Pacific war, both sides were struggling to mesh together technology, doctrine, weapon systems, and training, and both sides had some huge weaknesses.  The Japanese were vastly superior in carrier air group ops (getting large formations launched and formed into a strike group quickly) while the Americans had real trouble even getting their squadrons to find each other after they'd launched from the same carrier.  The Japanese were light on anti-aircraft weapons, and didn't even have the fire control directors to do much but shoot shells in the general direction of diving bombers.

The Japanese had mature dogfighting tactics, while the Americans were still trying to figure out anything more advanced than "If a Jap gets on your tail, dive for the deck to get away and then hope nobody else finds you."  Neither side had an appreciation for the importance of reconnaissance in a duel between carriers, but the American aircraft were vastly better suited to that mission (and in particular the land-based float planes, the PBY Catalinas).  The Japanese torpedoes (from their planes and their ships) were deadly, while the Americans' only effective anti-ship weapon system was their dive bombers.  The Americans already had fairly mature damage control techniques, while the Japanese relied on personal bravery as the glue to hold together their damage control efforts (to disastrous effect in the ensuing battle).

The two sides were relatively evenly matched, which lent much more drama to the battle than most of the one-sided affairs fought in WW II.

The same thing that makes this stuff so fascinating to study makes it almost impossible to wargame in any satisfying manner.  At least, I've never found any satisfying tactical naval games set in the Pacific, much less any that specifically tackle the Battle of Midway successfully!

Couple of boardgames that you might want to check out are:

Fires of Midway.


and


2nd World War at Sea: Midway.



Fires of Midway is a light, card-driven wargame but it does an excellent job conveying the feeling and theme.  There's a search aspect that will determine the size of your hand and determine which side has the initiative (which means they get to modify the order in which carriers activate but also means their admiral is confident so you get penalized in some way.  Each admiral has different penalties.  Eg, Fletcher means you have to include Devastators in any strike package you put together, Halsey will force you to try to close the distance on every movement phase, etc).  Once the search phase is complete, each side sets up their carrier groups on the map, then one card is dealt out for each carrier in play.  The cards determine which order each carrier activates.  The ones that activate early in the round have a chance to get the jump on the enemy, but they are more limited in the size of the strike they can put together.  You then plot the course that your strike will take on the map and draw cards based on the distance to see how much fuel is used.  If you go over the limit, you still get to attack but your planes will be much less effective (and much less likely to make it back home after the attack).  Defenders get to try to spot the incoming raid and respond by intercepting with CAP or by drawing extra cards in hopes of getting extra cards that will help with air combat or AAA.

US carriers are better at spotting (radar), have better AAA, and better damage control.  Japanese have better planes with much longer range.  It's a really fun cat and mouse game with a lot of push your luck elements.   In addition to Midway, the game also has scenarios for Coral Sea battles, Santa Cruz, and Eastern Solomons.    (there's also the far-too-often used Final Countdown scenario with F-14s vs. Zekes.)



https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/57073/fires-midway


2nd World War at Sea: Midway is part of a series of games so the engine can feel a little bit generic.  The strength of the game is the amount of detail in the scenarios with very accurate OOBs.  Each game in the series offers theatre specific rules to add chrome but for some reason, the rules for Midway are pretty generic.  Having said all that, the game is a lot of fun and the tension you feel while trying to find and fix the enemy carriers before they find you is palpable.   

http://www.avalanchepress.com/gameMidwayDeluxe.php

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13254/second-world-war-sea-midway

I haven't managed to find any videos covering the Midway game, but there are a few covering other games in the series.  The guy who made them is....well....not my cup of tea.  YMMV.






matt3916


FarAway Sooner

SDR, thanks!  I'll look up the Fires of Midway game!!  If there's a Vassal Module out for it, I might even have a buddy who's willing to play it.

Matt, I've not tried the JTS game.  I loved the one or two titles of his that I've had the time to master, but I feel like I scarcely ever have that much time to spend on anything besides sleep!  Is it accessible?  And does it handle the carrier-based and land-based air components in a satisfactory fashion?