I've been looking for a good, recently developed WWII Bomber Command sim for the PC but the only two I see are Defending the Reich from HPS and Bombing the Reich from Matrix. Defending the Reich looks a little too dated and only runs in 1024x768. Bombing the Reich is just a re-release of Talonsoft's old 12 O'Clock High game from the 90s yet they want $70 for it. Even with the discount that seems to be a pretty steep price for a 20 year old title. Anyone played it? Is it worth it?
Hi SDR
I would check the forum over at Matrix...There are a few disgruntled people who are angry at bugs which were never fixed and the state the game is in.
Regards
I have looked very carefully at this game, over a lengthy period. I have extreme interest in the genre..and wore out my Avalon Hill copy of Luftwaffe.
There is some good gameplay here...but there are some head scratching moments here as well..sufficient to put me off a purchase decision. The advise of reviewing the posts in their forum is pretty solid. I don't believe that there are likely to be additional improvements to the engine..and I also don't think the game is mod-friendly.
To be fair the Matrix version is actually a merger of TWO older Talonsoft games, namely Battle of Britain and 12 O'clock High. I bought it but have not had much time to play it so I can't speak of any unresolved bugs. I guess I need to head over to the forums....
I really like Defending the Reich. Much more accessible than BB/TOH. If you're going to hold the resolution against it there is nothing I can say. WWII Air War games like this are a niche within a niche. I just don't think you will find a wide selection.
I very much enjoyed the original version when it came out in late 90's. My main complaint is that playing the main campaign took nearly a day (a Saturday at that) to finish one day of game time. I couldn't find a way to turn off the night bombing campaign (not sure how hard I looked) and that prolonged the battle too much for me. Have hoped that the modern version would run much faster but the price is still too high (even at 30% off).
Bruce did a Game diary on Eagle Day (worth a read, a few parts)
http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2011/08/29/eagle-day-one-more-time-with-churchills-few/
At the other end of the scale you have The Few
http://thefew.pl/
I'd put this in the category of the other "monster games". Takes too long to play and is fairly detailed.
How about getting war in the the west ? It has a pretty extensive air ops portion now.
Thanks but I'm trying to narrow focus down to just Bomber Command night ops. Defending the Reich seems to be the closest to what I want in terms of topic matter but the reviews I've read indicate that it's a little too light in content.
Quote from: DoctorQuest on April 03, 2015, 04:06:01 PM
I really like Defending the Reich. Much more accessible than BB/TOH. If you're going to hold the resolution against it there is nothing I can say. WWII Air War games like this are a niche within a niche. I just don't think you will find a wide selection.
I read some people commenting the DtR is fast paced. Is it real/continuous time or turn based?
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on April 03, 2015, 08:43:35 PM
Quote from: DoctorQuest on April 03, 2015, 04:06:01 PM
I really like Defending the Reich. Much more accessible than BB/TOH. If you're going to hold the resolution against it there is nothing I can say. WWII Air War games like this are a niche within a niche. I just don't think you will find a wide selection.
I read some people commenting the DtR is fast paced. Is it real/continuous time or turn based?
Some of both. From the manual: "Each game turn represents a week of actual time and is divided into four phases: planning, combat, recovery, and victory point calculation. Each game pulse during the execution of the combat phase of the game represents ten minutes."
There is an option that allows the German player to pause the game during combat as defending is when it gets hectic. It is almost two different games depending on which side you play.
I like the game, and still play it now and then My review:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/eagle-day-to-bombing-the-reich-pc-game-review.htm
Quote from: ArizonaTank on April 03, 2015, 09:03:20 PM
I like the game, and still play it now and then My review:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/eagle-day-to-bombing-the-reich-pc-game-review.htm
Thanks. How in-depth does it get into the development of technology. Does it model stuff like OBOE, H2S, GEE, Naxos, Window, Tinsel, Flensburg, Monica, Himmelbelt, etc?
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on April 03, 2015, 08:43:35 PM
Quote from: DoctorQuest on April 03, 2015, 04:06:01 PM
I really like Defending the Reich. Much more accessible than BB/TOH. If you're going to hold the resolution against it there is nothing I can say. WWII Air War games like this are a niche within a niche. I just don't think you will find a wide selection.
I read some people commenting the DtR is fast paced. Is it real/continuous time or turn based?
Each day is played out real time. For attackers, plan the raids for the day, press next turn and watch it happen. For defenders, react to the raids as they happen. Do this for 300+ days. And I don't even usually see any progress in the strategic war. It takes too slow to have an effect. But I guess that's realistic.
It kinda takes a lot of time if you want to micromanage plotting the raids maybe a few hours or so.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on April 03, 2015, 09:25:02 PM
Quote from: ArizonaTank on April 03, 2015, 09:03:20 PM
I like the game, and still play it now and then My review:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/eagle-day-to-bombing-the-reich-pc-game-review.htm
Thanks. How in-depth does it get into the development of technology. Does it model stuff like OBOE, H2S, GEE, Naxos, Window, Tinsel, Flensburg, Monica, Himmelbelt, etc?
Radar, radar jamming and radar detection are all modeled. There are some night raid scenarios where you play as RAF or Luftwaffe where these become very important. There are electronic warfare air craft such as the "Wellington RCM" with ELINT and WINDOW, "Halifax RCM" with Mandrel and Airborne Grocer, and US RCM have Piperack. German nightfighters such as the Ju88 C-6 have FuG 2/2 AC detection radar, and Flensburg radar detectors. Also, there are jets.
There are two nightfighter scenarios (RAF vs. Luftwaffe) where the electronic war is prominent.
Having said that, one issue I have with the game is that even at 112 pages, the manual does not discuss many of the "advanced" topics of the game. One of them is how to conduct the electronic war. The scenario interface mentions that details of electronic warfare are in a readme file, but I haven't found it. Then there is the aircraft production sub game for the Germans; very complex (fortunately the AI can handle it without player intervention). The player really has to go to the forums for documentation on these topics.
Quote from: Asid on April 03, 2015, 03:39:34 PM
I would check the forum over at Matrix...There are a few disgruntled people who are angry at bugs which were never fixed and the state the game is in.
Sadly, can be said about most Matrix games.
I have Eagle Day to the Bombing of the Reich (BtR), War in the West (WitW) and Defending the Reich(DtR).
DtR is a completely different game to the other two.
BtR is a highly detailed game that can take an age to play. It has excellent attention to detail, but seeing results is slow as it has daily turns.
DtR is much faster paced, and is far, far easier to get into quickly. DtR deals specifically with the RAF night bombing campaign of 1943-45, rather than day ops as well. Both games play on 1024*768 screens - not great by today's standards, but they work fine.
Both are a challenge and both are fun in their own way, but offer quite different game experiences. Both play on a
I mention WitW as the air war is very streamlined, and has a number of similarities with BtR - plus you get the ground campaigns. It also supports modern screen resolutions.
They are all great games. For a tactical buzz, also consider Achtung Spitfire!, Over the Reich and Flight Commander2 all great air war games in desperate need of a new face lift to bring into the 21st century.
Thanks for the info guys. I contacted Chris at NWS (Wasn't sure if he was still in business) and went with DtR.
I thought NWS only sold on EBAY now?
Quote from: Boggit on April 04, 2015, 12:42:32 PM
I have Eagle Day to the Bombing of the Reich (BtR), War in the West (WitW) and Defending the Reich(DtR).
DtR is a completely different game to the other two.
BtR is a highly detailed game that can take an age to play. It has excellent attention to detail, but seeing results is slow as it has daily turns.
DtR is much faster paced, and is far, far easier to get into quickly. DtR deals specifically with the RAF night bombing campaign of 1943-45, rather than day ops as well. Both games play on 1024*768 screens - not great by today's standards, but they work fine.
Both are a challenge and both are fun in their own way, but offer quite different game experiences. Both play on a
I mention WitW as the air war is very streamlined, and has a number of similarities with BtR - plus you get the ground campaigns. It also supports modern screen resolutions.
They are all great games. For a tactical buzz, also consider Achtung Spitfire!, Over the Reich and Flight Commander2 all great air war games in desperate need of a new face lift to bring into the 21st century.
Thanks I just realized DtR is a different game from HPS.
It finally showed up today and I can't get it to work on any of my PCs.
I get a run time error: 429 ActiveX cannot create object error message.
I downloaded the .dll files from the HPS page but I cannot get Windows 7 or 8 to give me access to the system32 folder to copy them over. I'm running as admin and I've given myself full control over the folder. I've disabled my spyware/AV stuff.
I go through the command prompt as admin and try to copy the files over using old DOS commands and then registering the files with the regsvr32 command but nothing's working. Any tips?
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on April 22, 2015, 12:19:02 AM
It finally showed up today and I can't get it to work on any of my PCs.
I get a run time error: 429 ActiveX cannot create object error message.
I downloaded the .dll files from the HPS page but I cannot get Windows 7 or 8 to give me access to the system32 folder to copy them over. I'm running as admin and I've given myself full control over the folder. I've disabled my spyware/AV stuff.
I go through the command prompt as admin and try to copy the files over using old DOS commands and then registering the files with the regsvr32 command but nothing's working. Any tips?
By chance I saw at the HPS website that DtR has been updated since your post. You may want to check it out and give it another try. Says it's been updated for newer operating systems.
I'll check it out, thanks. After a few days of keyboard pounding rage, I was able to get the game running on Win 7. I got it running in Win 8.1 as well but couldn't get videos to play so hopefully this will fix that.
I ended up emailing back and forth to HPS and explaining my problems and solutions. They said they would get back to me on how to fix the videos but it looks as though they fixed it (I hope) without responding. Rude!
The patch doesn't fix the videos. It's very poorly implemented. It creates a new .exe startup program but this new .exe has a different name than the original. The patch install doesn't fix this so your desktop shortcut will start the old .exe program instead of the new now. This is probably for the best since the new one gives an error message and dumps the game to desktop.
Big thumbs up to HPS. It took some time and quite a few attempts on their part but they were able to get the game up and running for me on my Win 8.1 laptop.
What did the trick?
I don't know. They ended up emailing me several versions of the complete game installer and all would crash to desktop with an error message but the latest one works and the videos now play.
Quote from: DennisS on April 03, 2015, 03:51:55 PM
I have looked very carefully at this game, over a lengthy period. I have extreme interest in the genre..and wore out my Avalon Hill copy of Luftwaffe.
There is some good gameplay here...but there are some head scratching moments here as well..sufficient to put me off a purchase decision. The advise of reviewing the posts in their forum is pretty solid. I don't believe that there are likely to be additional improvements to the engine..and I also don't think the game is mod-friendly.
(my bold+underline)
...after all these years, seems like things are going to change someday...
www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3873362
Someone has started to mod game. 8)
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3873362&mpage=1&key=�
Thank God and/or Valve for Steam maybe? :-*