Challenge yourself to master a game

[Redwolf]

get distracted, and when I come back to the game a year later, I can't remember how to play anymore.

For me that happens by the next weekend...

[Senex]

Civil War II
Destiny of the World
Field of Glory - Kingdoms
Humankind
Millennia
Napoleon's Eagles
SSG We the People
Victoria 3

The first one was a gift from my wife eight years ago.

[Zulu1966]

I've got more and more games in my library that I bought with every intention of learning to play, only to get discouraged by the learning curve and abandon them after only a cursory effort.  In the past, I did force myself to sit down and get to grips with some and ended up quite enjoying them.  Hearts of Iron III, Dangerous Waters, and Achtung Panzer/Mius Front spring to mind.

I've decided to try and tackle some of my backlog and force myself to get comfortable enough with the game mechanics that I can play the game rather than fight the interface and see if there's something there that I can get enjoyment out of.

Over the next six months, I'm going to try to become competent enough to fully play:

1) War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition

2) Terra Invicta

3) Command: Modern Operations

4) Starsector


Not sure which one I'll tackle first.  Anyone else wanna chime in with some titles they want to learn?

 Might be able to find some folks here who can offer up some tips.

Great post. I keep setting myself the same rules ... But keep buying more. If I didn't have to work would probably get through more but no 1 on the hit list would be WiTE 2. Have forever wanted a detailed full eastern front game.

I know you can play things at a certain level but game like this I have to know how it works.

I guess that was the thing with board games when I used to play them, knowing how they worked was a necessity

Oh yes. And the graviteam games ... Lost count of how many times I have tired with that one.

[undercovergeek]

I've got more and more games in my library that I bought with every intention of learning to play, only to get discouraged by the learning curve and abandon them after only a cursory effort.  In the past, I did force myself to sit down and get to grips with some and ended up quite enjoying them.  Hearts of Iron III, Dangerous Waters, and Achtung Panzer/Mius Front spring to mind.

I've decided to try and tackle some of my backlog and force myself to get comfortable enough with the game mechanics that I can play the game rather than fight the interface and see if there's something there that I can get enjoyment out of.

Over the next six months, I'm going to try to become competent enough to fully play:

1) War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition

2) Terra Invicta

3) Command: Modern Operations

4) Starsector


Not sure which one I'll tackle first.  Anyone else wanna chime in with some titles they want to learn?

 Might be able to find some folks here who can offer up some tips.

Revisiting your game list - I find it the same as mine - I didn't see starsector there first time!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

...  I actually started this with Grand Tactician: Civil War a while back, but too much time has gone by so I'd have to start again.

1. Grand Tactician
2. WitP:AE (thinking of just doing the Guadalcanal scenario, maybe from both sides)
3. War on the Sea
4. Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter

I completely forgot I have Grand Tactician

One more added to my list.

I'm pretty dialled in with Destroyer.  Happy to help with any questions if I can.

[SlagDog]

Oh This is a topic that I totally resonate with. I have the same sort of feelings when it comes to games. I have several that I would love to play and get good at but, for whatever reason. I never get to them. It's frustrating. I'm all for something that nudges me into something that helps me towards playing some of the games I've always wanted to get into. Mine happen to be:

Dominions x
Distant Worlds II
Old World
Second Front
Imperiums: Greek Wars

I find that I will 'get into them' for a night but then the next day my Gaming ADHD kicks in and I'm Doug from Up and "SQUIRREL!" And I'm off to another thing. Sigh. These posts have inspired me to attempt to stick to one of those games and 'see it through'. Thanks for the nudge. For the next 6 months I'm going to focus . . . until something else is release . . . I mean, I'm going to focus, yes, focus on those games! 

[Gusington]

^Old World for sure. Fascinating game but so much is always happening I can never keep tabs on it all.

[Uberhaus]

I'm not bad at Second Front, I hope it gets MP so I can see how I fair against the better players.

I'm getting better at FP: Southern Storm, it has MP, so I have no excuse for not playing a human from time to time.

I'm enjoying Radio Commander, interesting co-ordinating the radio and map.  The battle of Dak-To had a nasty surprise that blind sided me.

Will try and master Combat Mission:Red Sea and btw Slitherine just acquired Battlefront.  https://www.matrixgames.com/news/slitherine-acquires-battlefront-elevating-the-combat-mission-series-to-new-heights

The ultimate will be learning to play, let alone mastering CMO.  I have the absolute minimum exposure to naval combat, I'll guess I'll have to reread Captain Hughes Fleet Tactics and Coastal Combat, then understand the platforms, systems, weapon envelopes and all that jazz.  I'll have the game mastered in time for the release of MP.

[Anguille]

The story of my life 

I always try to schedule games from my library and check the games i have played the least. Not having much time with the kids, i usually end-up playing games i am already familiar with (even though i still have plenty to discover with these, like Civilization 5).

My top list of games i want to learn to play:

- Fields of Glory: Empire (it's a tough one for me for some reason).
- Old World
- Distant Worlds 2
- Knights of Honor 2 (haven't played it as much as i would have liked).
- Total War: Shogun 2

These are all fairly recent games. Top list of older games i want to learn to play

- Storm over the pacific
- Anno 1701
- Age of Empires 3
- The Settlers 5
- Hearts of Iron 2

And that's just the top of the iceberg!
 

[Rayfer]

I have to say, this thread may well be one of the most interesting ones I have seen in a long time. At 73 years old I find myself slipping more and more into less complicated games even though I still long to master many of those you guys have posted here.

[Destraex]

I have to say, this thread may well be one of the most interesting ones I have seen in a long time. At 73 years old I find myself slipping more and more into less complicated games even though I still long to master many of those you guys have posted here.

Is that because of lack of time or age causing attention span issues? Because the great thing I think a lot would look forward to is retiring and having the time to enjoy gaming. But that is slipping away as newer generations are forced to retire later and later.

[Wburn]

I have to say, this thread may well be one of the most interesting ones I have seen in a long time. At 73 years old I find myself slipping more and more into less complicated games even though I still long to master many of those you guys have posted here.

Is that because of lack of time or age causing attention span issues? Because the great thing I think a lot would look forward to is retiring and having the time to enjoy gaming. But that is slipping away as newer generations are forced to retire later and later.

I just turned 71 recently, but still like to master a game or rwo. The longest time I've spent currently has been Command Modern Operations, there is so much going on under the hood of this sim they may make this into a prerequisite for a military degree.  I like taking war thunder to by most fun game I think I know where I need to be depend on my silent teemmates. They tend direction on occasion.
Anyway you don't need to be an expert but just need so understand cover and movement. I find CMO to impart the most knowledge.

[Rayfer]

I have to say, this thread may well be one of the most interesting ones I have seen in a long time. At 73 years old I find myself slipping more and more into less complicated games even though I still long to master many of those you guys have posted here.

Is that because of lack of time or age causing attention span issues? Because the great thing I think a lot would look forward to is retiring and having the time to enjoy gaming. But that is slipping away as newer generations are forced to retire later and later.

Des...my mind/attention span is still ok and I certainly have the time. I blame it (I have to blame something other than myself... ) on the glut of cheap, sale priced games on Steam that keep me wandering off into something new by setting aside the more complicated game I wanted to get into.

[Gusington]

There are definitely more games available to us all now than ever.

I am selfishly so happy to see Old World popping up for others. I really thought it was just me.

[Old TImer]

I have to say, this thread may well be one of the most interesting ones I have seen in a long time. At 73 years old I find myself slipping more and more into less complicated games even though I still long to master many of those you guys have posted here.

Is that because of lack of time or age causing attention span issues? Because the great thing I think a lot would look forward to is retiring and having the time to enjoy gaming. But that is slipping away as newer generations are forced to retire later and later.

Well I'm 72 years old and I've had no problem getting into:

Command Modern Operations (smaller scenarios only though)
Grand Tactician (best CW game ever)
War in the Pacific AE (again, smaller scenarios only although I did edit the Saipan scenario to give me a couple more weeks)

I learned those games when I was younger and I have noticed that I've since then leaned toward simpler games (currently deep into Ageod's Wars of Napoleon while reading Roberts'"Napoleon-a life".

I do think age is a factor although having learned WITPAE years and years ago I have no problem going back to it and seemingly retaining the rules for the most part.  I would never do the campaign game cuz I would literally not live long enough to finish it, which is quite depressing.
So while I'll fire up the Grigsby games occasionally I can't imagine learning them from scratch at this point.

I do have way too many games in my Steam library.   For example I have all of the Assassin's Creed games which look amazing but I don't have the hand/eye like I used to and therefore really struggle with those games.


*learned Grand Tactician by watching You Tube videos