OK Gents I'm in a grog mood and I could go back and play one of my older titles, which I just might do but I'm also feeling the desire for a new wargaming mistress. I've been eyeballing a few titles and would like some recommendations and feedback from you all.
To End All Wars - I just wonder about the engine and WW1. I've been reading Catastrophe, by Max Hastings so I'm feeling the Great War vibe.
Civil War II
Maybe that new Scourge of War game even though apparently the uniforms are all jacked up.
Thoughts...
Quote from: Bison on June 16, 2015, 04:36:53 PM
OK Gents I'm in a grog mood and I could go back and play one of my older titles, which I just might do but I'm also feeling the desire for a new wargaming mistress. I've been eyeballing a few titles and would like some recommendations and feedback from you all.
To End All Wars - I just wonder about the engine and WW1. I've been reading Catastrophe, by Max Hastings so I'm feeling the Great War vibe.
Civil War II
Maybe that new Scourge of War game even though apparently the uniforms are all jacked up.
Thoughts...
As much as I do not like Norb, from Norb Soft, Take Command 2nd Manassas was excellent, and Scourge of War is apparently better in every way.
I didn't care for To End All Wars myself, but it has a following. Commander: The Great War is good, too.
If you really are in a groggy mood and want some serious WWI gaming, take a look at John Tiller's France '14, East Prussia '14, and Squad Battles WWI. All absolutely excellent, and the Designer's Notes alone are probably worth the price of the game.
If you're interested in naval warfare of that period, NWS's Steam and Iron and Russo-Japanese War are worth the very reasonable price.
You already have my take on SOWWL! :)
I really like Commander - The Great War even though I suck at it and can't win to save my life.
To End All Wars is excellent but a bear of a game. Depends how truly groggy you feel.
If you're in a WW I mood, you might want to take a look at Strategic Command:Breakthrough. The downside is that you have to buy Strategic Command:The Great War in order to get Breakthrough to work, though there's a slight silver lining in that there are a few scenarios in The Great War that weren't re-written for Breakthrough (my personal favorite is the 1917 scenario). The upside is that Breakthrough comes with several detailed scenarios covering early twentieth century battles that aren't seen very often (as well as the Franco-Prussian War).
One thing I don't care for much about Great War/Breakthrough is the way it handles naval warfare, but eventually you get used to it without too much of a suspension of groggy disbelief. If you find yourself moaning and groaning about it too much, you can always go play the Steam and Iron WW I naval campaign game by NWS. What I like about it is that it allows you to see how everything fits together, especially in the medium-scale scenarios. When I first saw the game I didn't want to go near it because it uses squares instead of hexes, Fury Software manages to make squares work almost as well as the Battle Academy engine (I've been playing a lot of Pike and Shot lately and am becoming increasingly fond of the Battle Academy engine).
And if you decide you want to get anal about the national flags that show up on the playing area, check the relevant section of the Battlefront Repository for Marsden Hartley historical flag mods.
In regards to SOW Waterloo...don't miss out on the best tactical Command simulator because someone feels that the 8th guards regiment shouldn't have blue feathers in their shako...everyone knows they got rid of those in 1814...that kind of thing
Took me a while to get in to but Strategic Command: WW1 is very good. I'd get the Breakthrough game (version/expansion?). A very good Russo-Japanese War of 1904 campaign has been designed for it.
JTSC France 14 and East Prussia '14 are excellent games for PBEM play.
I'll keep it short and +1 Doug.
Jim
I have To End All Wars and they seem to be having trouble getting it to resemble WWI warfare. You can't take Paris in early September. The March to the sound of the Guns feature seems to draw troops for adjacent front lines instead of rear area reserves. If you want groggy I'd suggest Decisive Campaigns Case Blue.
Quote from: bobarossa on June 16, 2015, 09:35:58 PM
I have To End All Wars and they seem to be having trouble getting it to resemble WWI warfare. You can't take Paris in early September. The March to the sound of the Guns feature seems to draw troops for adjacent front lines instead of rear area reserves. If you want groggy I'd suggest Decisive Campaigns Case Blue.
+1, another great one. And yes, those are pretty much my objections to "To End All Wars" in a nutshell. The engine works for Ancients and Early Modern. It starts to break down around the ACW, I think.
Quote from: panzerde on June 16, 2015, 05:01:22 PM
I didn't care for To End All Wars myself, but it has a following. Commander: The Great War is good, too.
If you really are in a groggy mood and want some serious WWI gaming, take a look at John Tiller's France '14, East Prussia '14, and Squad Battles WWI. All absolutely excellent, and the Designer's Notes alone are probably worth the price of the game.
If you're interested in naval warfare of that period, NWS's Steam and Iron and Russo-Japanese War are worth the very reasonable price.
You already have my take on SOWWL! :)
I agree. I would avoid the AGEOD stuff and look at France '14 and steam and iron.
I have the Tiller games and they are good, but I don't really do a lot of PBEM these days so therein lies the lack of interest for me to reengage those particular games. Both Decisive Campaign games are good with a really decent AI, I always do find it fun to invade Poland.
I really do like the Ageod wego system. I'm pretty sure Matrix is selling ROP gold for $10 this week. Maybe I should replace my non-gold copy I got at gamers gate. And you guys really do speak to my concerns about the age engine and how it would address the dynamics of the WW1 fronts. I'd think that the eastern front would be good to go since the age engine is really good with operational level maneuver. It's the post 1914 static lines in the west that give me pause.
I should be responsible and go back to the SOW civil war series. I know there are some battles I haven't fought yet. Unfortunately I have the urge for a new shiny as my self designated fathers day gift...
I forgot about Strategic Command WWI - I like that game too. The last scenario I played was the Siege of Al Hut - Turks vs. Brits in Mesopitamia - it was addicting.
Some great recommendations here.
Concerning Steam & Iron. I would consider getting the campaign expansion or the Russo-Jap War as the campaigns really bring SAI to life.
Their new title "Rule the Waves" is a lot deeper with ship design and much more is set for release before September this year (barring any problems)
Regards
Anybody still playing TOAW 3? The reason I'm asking is I played TOAW 1 but none since then. How's number 3? It certainly has a hell-of-a-lot of gameplay and timeline to choose from. Any other problems with this older game other than the old look?
Quote from: Sir Slash on June 17, 2015, 11:31:31 AM
Anybody still playing TOAW 3? The reason I'm asking is I played TOAW 1 but none since then. How's number 3? It certainly has a hell-of-a-lot of gameplay and timeline to choose from. Any other problems with this older game other than the old look?
I am, I think it's the best turn-based operational level game out there, especially in pbem. But I haven't played the previous version so I can't compare to them.
Quote from: Sir Slash on June 17, 2015, 11:31:31 AM
Anybody still playing TOAW 3? The reason I'm asking is I played TOAW 1 but none since then. How's number 3? It certainly has a hell-of-a-lot of gameplay and timeline to choose from. Any other problems with this older game other than the old look?
I have it and even have it installed, but it's at least six months since I played it. It's entirely playable and has some good scenarios. I never played it enough to get good at it, but it has always been very stable and reliable. Yes, it does look dated, but the gameplay is good. I find the UI a bit counterintuitive but that mostly a matter of using it enough, I suspect.
Bison, never mind about all this electronic stuff, get a copy of 'Der Weltkrieg - Eastern Front 1914-1917' Its absolutely bloody brilliant. ;)
I was going to say that if you're looking for a monster WW1 boardgame to play on the computer, Bison, you should try World War One Gold (or the Centennial version which was semi-illegally released a while back, and which occasionally still goes on sale at Gamersgate ;) ), but it's such a beast to play that you'd really be taking a risk at normal Matrix/Slitherine prices. But it's probably cheaper than To End All Wars.
The cheapest good WW1 strategy game right now is undoubtedly Darkest Hour, from the Steam sale; but it arguably isn't all that groggy since it only simulates the big scale maneuvers (division level and above) and gets into a bunch of nation management issues. Still, it's a full world map.
Or if you want to get into even more detailed economic micromanagement, and start building toward, into, and through WW1 as the end game, you could go with Victoria 2.
Either option necessarily requires that you at least kind-of like the Paradox continuous engine (either in a modified "Europa" form or a heavily modified "Clausewitz" form); so if you don't that would be a deal breaker. Also, by its nature, Vicky2 takes forever to get to WW1 (unless there are any good mods for a near-WW1 start) and by then it will definitely be a weird alternate universe version. DarkestH starts 1 month before kickoff, and even without a bridging mod you can play with tech through most of WW2 if you set the end-date in-game (or do a light text edit to take it into the 70s when the tech stops.) Alternately, the ambitious "AAR" mod expands a lot of the content, adds more plot triggers for both WW1 and WW2, and melds the two campaigns together, with tech going up to 2010!
Meanwhile, for Nappy grogness, I've heard that the Total War: Napolean game worked well (currently on heavy discount at Steam), though you'd have to deal with pausable real-time; or for a more miniatures oriented turn-based game, albeit on random maps, married to an interesting strategic engine, you could pick up Crown of Glory: Emperor's Edition from Matrix during the 30% sale.
Quote from: JasonPratt on June 18, 2015, 02:12:41 PM
Meanwhile, for Nappy grogness, I've heard that the Total War: Napolean game worked well (currently on heavy discount at Steam), though you'd have to deal with pausable real-time; or for a more miniatures oriented turn-based game, albeit on random maps, married to an interesting strategic engine, you could pick up Crown of Glory: Emperor's Edition from Matrix during the 30% sale.
Battle of Waterloo 'recreated' with Napoleon Total War http://www.wargamer.fr/tv/napoleon-total-war-battle-of-waterloo/
Quote from: Bison on June 16, 2015, 09:54:44 PM
I have the Tiller games and they are good, but I don't really do a lot of PBEM these days so therein lies the lack of interest for me to reengage those particular games. Both Decisive Campaign games are good with a really decent AI, I always do find it fun to invade Poland.
I really do like the Ageod wego system. I'm pretty sure Matrix is selling ROP gold for $10 this week. Maybe I should replace my non-gold copy I got at gamers gate. And you guys really do speak to my concerns about the age engine and how it would address the dynamics of the WW1 fronts. I'd think that the eastern front would be good to go since the age engine is really good with operational level maneuver. It's the post 1914 static lines in the west that give me pause.
I should be responsible and go back to the SOW civil war series. I know there are some battles I haven't fought yet. Unfortunately I have the urge for a new shiny as my self designated fathers day gift...
Why not just get the ROP Gold expansion from Matrix if you already have ROP vanilla? That's what I did with my GG version, and it just works fine, plus it is cheaper than buying the full gold version.
Quote from: panzerde on June 17, 2015, 01:12:45 PM
Quote from: Sir Slash on June 17, 2015, 11:31:31 AM
Anybody still playing TOAW 3? The reason I'm asking is I played TOAW 1 but none since then. How's number 3? It certainly has a hell-of-a-lot of gameplay and timeline to choose from. Any other problems with this older game other than the old look?
I have it and even have it installed, but it's at least six months since I played it. It's entirely playable and has some good scenarios. I never played it enough to get good at it, but it has always been very stable and reliable. Yes, it does look dated, but the gameplay is good. I find the UI a bit counterintuitive but that mostly a matter of using it enough, I suspect.
+1 (My answer is almost identical to Panzerde)
Quote from: JasonPratt on June 18, 2015, 02:12:41 PM
Meanwhile, for Nappy grogness, I've heard that the Total War: Napolean game worked well (currently on heavy discount at Steam), though you'd have to deal with pausable real-time; [...]
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p/napoleon_totalwar_storefront
for 2dollar/2pound/2euro!!
I say this once and softly, for I've said it angry far too much:
N:TW is rubbish...pure, unadulterated, rubbish.
Selah.
Nappy total war would be rubbish if your trying to recreate history. If your looking for the typical fun gameplay that is fiction set in history, then total war always delivers. It's definitely the best looking graphics of all the nappy games out there, just more Arcadish at times.
If you do get it, use the mods for it from twc. There's darth mod, historical units mods, and a hack editor that lets you force the ability to have 40 unit armies so the tactical battles atleas seem a little grander in scale.
I played the 40 unit mod for NTW and it was very impressive. With a much tougher AI and much larger tactical deployment areas for armies prior to battle. The problem was with 40 unit fights, and naval battles, the larger forces were almost unmanageable in battle as you had to constantly fly from point to point to control the fight. But it was beautiful to see.
For WW1 for me it's either WW1Gold\ Centennial (Prob my all time favourite Grand Strategy game) followed by Strategic Command Breakthrough. I found End all Wars struggled to recreate trench combat (which is major for a WW1 game) and Commander The Great War to simplified and abstract. Also with Commander the Hex scale is to large for my liking, making the West front just a few hexes long. Best WW1 game of any genre? Easy...Wings Over Flanders Field, infact it's the best single player flight sim experience I've ever had. Steam and iron with the campaign expansion is superb, but you really need the expansion to get the most from it.
Quote from: TacticalWargames on June 20, 2015, 03:14:55 PM
For WW1 for me it's either WW1Gold\ Centennial (Prob my all time favourite Grand Strategy game) followed by Strategic Command Breakthrough. I found End all Wars struggled to recreate trench combat (which is major for a WW1 game) and Commander The Great War to simplified and abstract. Also with Commander the Hex scale is to large for my liking, making the West front just a few hexes long.
I'd forgotten about Strategic Command Breakthrough until this thread. It isn't pretty, but it is a damn good WWI game. Grabbed the Russo-Japanese War scenario to give it a try.
I've been playing SoW Gettysburg and the other expansions. I think the one feature I've seen in the video aars from nappy I wish could be retroactively put back into SOWGB is the skirmisher feature.
If you're enjoying SoW make sure you check out those mods I posted in my SoW thread. The battlefield smoke mod is pretty damn cool.
Quote from: Toonces on June 21, 2015, 07:48:37 AM
If you're enjoying SoW make sure you check out those mods I posted in my SoW thread. The battlefield smoke mod is pretty damn cool.
The smoke mod also works with SOWWL. It doesn't seem to produce quite as dense smoke, but it works.