I bought The Drift 1879...and what an eye opener.
I can't believe I was sitting up until 1am with this game - the "just one more turn" came back to me for the first time in a long time.
There doesn't seem to be too much depth to it (it's not WitE - damn - it's not even UV) - and I'm unsure what replayability there is - but I read someone saying there's no tactical depth to it - and I simply cannot agree. Whilst it's not DEEP - it IS very tense and there are enough decisions you have to make to keep you guessing...moving troops, resupply, rallying - have I got enough troops at the wall...bugger - where did all those Zulus come from...then seeing reserves pop up - moving troops. On top of that moving troops, rallying and resupplying mean less firing (at least I think that's the case - not having read the manual all I know for sure is when a unit rallies, I can only shoot once - and sometimes I cannot shoot twice - so I'm kind of guessing they had to rally and resupply)
The tension was incredible. BUGGER - not enough troops on the left wall - cool - held back - what - ANOTHER attack from the south? Move troops from the north wall...it's quiet and there's troops in the hospital - oops - where did they come from - not enough troops on the north wall now and my hospital troops are low on ammo!!
It really was amazing and intense.
I played it for 3 hours solid last night. I haven't read the manual and was able to work out the interface fairly quickly. Of course not having read the manual, alot of the controls mean not alot at the minute - point is without reading the manual you can play this game and enjoy it for 3 hours solid...not bad at all.
A mousewheel zoom would be nice and moving the cursor to the left and right, up and down would be nice instead of the horrible tiny scroll bars. There's also a "little" bug where sometimes when you've scrolled the map the troops "seem" to have moved one hex in the wrong direction - so clicking on them selected nothing. I noticed it because all of a sudden my troops seemed to be over the south wall - not behind it!
Fantastic game though. TOTALLY worth the £16...totally!
Are there multiple scenarios, if so how many? Also, what is the game length possible(how many turns)? Thanks.
Only one scenario but with differing options allowing replayability. Also, regarding replayability, the Zulu attacks don't always come from the same place (notice the option at the bottom of the New Battle Options screen)
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Turns - no idea yet. But as an example the battle starts on the 22 Jan @16:30 and in my current game I'm 16 turns in and @17:35 on the 22 Jan. The battle only goes onto the following day from what I recall and I guess the attacks slow down at night - but in all honesty - and I don't know how to put the actual feelng into words - it's the tense fighting - worrying about your troops on the various walls - not knowing where the enemy will spring from next - Zulus are inside the walls - Zulus failed to set fire to the Hospital etc, etc...I just found it really quite tense.
It's nothing to look at - but has a beautiful charm. I don't play with the Miniatures - I play with the Boardgame units
This is boardgame units
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And this is with miniatures
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I'll do an AAR. It won't show "how" to play the game as I haven't read the manual yet - but it'll show gameplay and how I play it.
Thanks JD, does sound very interesting and something different to play. Does the game feel scripted? I know there are variables that you can change at the start, but once the game starts, does the AI seem to always follow the same path and such? maybe too early for you to tell yet, but just curious.
Well - I guess it does feel scripted and probably is - I mean - the Zulus want to get into the compound so they run towards the compound. They do try to get to the hospital and storehouse and try to set them on fire.
The random zulu attacks help. There are the standard horns and chest and reserves - showing up at different times and scarily showing up at the same time. Snipers fire at your men from a distance and I haven't seen any kills so far from these snipers but I have seen the men disrupted. I have fired a few times at the snipers - but to no avail so stopped wasting ammo on them.
When the Zulus get close enough they change to their attacks to spears - and they often result in disruption to your squads. I have noticed times when I couldn't fire at a zulu unit but could fire at others - so they were out of view.
Hmmm.
Sounds very interesting. I'm going to look at it now. Thanks JD.
I bought this last week, and am still trying to find time to play it! I've been waiting for a game like this for a long time.