I was wondering if there is anything out there like those two games. I'd love to see something where you control your planes/squadron from a second or third person perspective. A career mode would be nice too. Any era is fine.
Never played it, but maybe Defending the Reich by HPS Sims?
Here's an old review of the game: http://www.gamespot.com/over-the-reich/reviews/over-the-reich-review-2543579/
I'm just looking for anything similar.
Steve, you might be thinking of Talonsoft's Battle of Britain and 12oclock High: Bombing the reich, since redone as one combined game by Matrix. A closer match would be Avalon Hill's Flight Commander 2 (http://www.mobygames.com/game/flight-commander-2), which was actually the first in the series that lead to Over the Reich.
I just read A Higher Call (http://www.amazon.com/Higher-Call-Incredible-Chivalry-War-Torn/dp/0425252868/ref=sr_il_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358819124&sr=1-1&keywords=a+higher+call) and am now itching to take control of a squadron. Those games are the only ones I can remember that'll let you do that but I'm sure you guys will know if anything similar exists.
Does it have to be turn based and or isometric? The Battle of Britain 2 (http://www.matrixgames.com/products/353/details/Battle.of.Britain.II.-.Wings.of.Victory) game for sale at Matrix, is a hybrid of a flight sim and a top down mission planning and execution map. You can just play the map, play the sim, or both. Be aware that it's only available to North Americans though. Some kind of licensing thing.
Quote from: Staggerwing on January 21, 2013, 08:40:55 PM
Steve, you might be thinking of Talonsoft's Battle of Britain and 12oclock High: Bombing the reich, since redone as one combined game by Matrix. A closer match would be Avalon Hill's Flight Commander 2 (http://www.mobygames.com/game/flight-commander-2), which was actually the first in the series that lead to Over the Reich.
FC2 won't run on 64-bit OSes these days. :-[
I've been on the lookout for something similar to these games for awhile, and there's not much in sight other than Amaris' work-in-progress:
http://amaris-games.com/amac/ I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. 8)
As for the some of the other games mentioned in this thread, most of those are strategic in scope - not the dogfighting tactical turn-based games resembling tabletop systems, that the OP mentioned.
Staggerwing & Nefaro: You guys have the right idea.
Quote from: Staggerwing on January 21, 2013, 08:40:55 PM
Steve, you might be thinking of Talonsoft's Battle of Britain and 12oclock High: Bombing the reich, since redone as one combined game by Matrix. A closer match would be Avalon Hill's Flight Commander 2 (http://www.mobygames.com/game/flight-commander-2), which was actually the first in the series that lead to Over the Reich.
SW -- doh, you're correct...my bad. :-[
I'm going to try and see if FC2 will run under DosBox on my Win7 64bit rig. Several web sources claim it can be done but I may not get a chance to update you here until tomorrow.
Nefaro, that AMAC project looks promising. I hope it moves along quickly.
Have fond memories of Flight Commander 2, back in the 3.5" floppy disk era.
Quote from: Staggerwing on January 21, 2013, 09:33:23 PM
Nefaro, that AMAC project looks promising. I hope it moves along quickly.
Amaris has frequented The Wargamer, but I dunno how things have been progressing lately as I've only seen him drop in at mention of games like these, lately.
Quote from: KyzBP on January 21, 2013, 08:17:05 PM
I was wondering if there is anything out there like those two games. I'd love to see something where you control your planes/squadron from a second or third person perspective. A career mode would be nice too. Any era is fine.
I think there is a world war one game that does something siilar - but the name completely escapes me for now.
Quote from: Zulu1966 on January 22, 2013, 02:55:26 PM
Quote from: KyzBP on January 21, 2013, 08:17:05 PM
I was wondering if there is anything out there like those two games. I'd love to see something where you control your planes/squadron from a second or third person perspective. A career mode would be nice too. Any era is fine.
I think there is a world war one game that does something siilar - but the name completely escapes me for now.
A WWI game would be super cool. I remember Richtoffens War, the board game, from Avalon Hill. That was a lot of fun back in the day.
Not sure fits the exact type of game your looking for but I was always curious about the down in flames game from battlefront. Might be outdated by now, but seems to offer some tactical air combat. I always wanted to try it but never did.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on January 22, 2013, 06:19:48 PM
Not sure fits the exact type of game your looking for but I was always curious about the down in flames game from battlefront. Might be outdated by now, but seems to offer some tactical air combat. I always wanted to try it but never did.
I played it a lot when it first came out and liked it. I downloaded the demo again over the weekend but it doesn't seem to work right. It won't let me maneuver for some reason. Thanks for the help.
Quote from: KyzBP on January 22, 2013, 06:59:27 PM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on January 22, 2013, 06:19:48 PM
Not sure fits the exact type of game your looking for but I was always curious about the down in flames game from battlefront. Might be outdated by now, but seems to offer some tactical air combat. I always wanted to try it but never did.
I played it a lot when it first came out and liked it. I downloaded the demo again over the weekend but it doesn't seem to work right. It won't let me maneuver for some reason. Thanks for the help.
DiF was a lot of fun but it's primary focus was multiplayer and the community was so small that once people started playing other stuff in between, the server population died away. It didn't help that they had to change server host address in the middle of it, which for some reason, required players to manually edit a settings file in order to keep playing on the server.
DiF was pretty much the tabletop card game with some nice persistent pilots you could spend upgrade points on as you progressed. It didn't have any 'board' for actually performing maneuvers like OtR/AS/FC2. I recall there were some issues with it when Vista came out, although I don't recall having much of a big problem with it myself, when I went back to try it again (had to change a setting or two IIRC?). I'd still enjoy playing it, but I'm not even sure the server is still up much less populated with any regular players these days so I haven't checked in a few years. Playing against the AI pilots was still quite a challenge, and you still got your XP points for kills, but after playing some team matches (that were a blast), it would get a bit stale after a time.
Quote from: KyzBP on January 22, 2013, 05:51:53 PM
Quote from: Zulu1966 on January 22, 2013, 02:55:26 PM
Quote from: KyzBP on January 21, 2013, 08:17:05 PM
I was wondering if there is anything out there like those two games. I'd love to see something where you control your planes/squadron from a second or third person perspective. A career mode would be nice too. Any era is fine.
I think there is a world war one game that does something siilar - but the name completely escapes me for now.
A WWI game would be super cool. I remember Richtoffens War, the board game, from Avalon Hill. That was a lot of fun back in the day.
Yes - sorry - I cant remember the name of it - am sure someone here must know of it.
Quote from: Nefaro on January 21, 2013, 09:06:36 PM
As for the some of the other games mentioned in this thread, most of those are strategic in scope - not the dogfighting tactical turn-based games resembling tabletop systems, that the OP mentioned.
Down In Flames from DVG Games kind of scratches that itch, although as a card game it can't be played solo, and the Battlefront adaptation was buggy as hell (and no longer supported. Worse, it required an online connection to their servers which no longer exist, so the game is totally dead weight.(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wargamer.com%2Fforums%2Fsmiley%2F00000003.gif&hash=9b89e7ef6b3581ae376b58e54116fc885dac3d3a))
...um, I just realized this wasn't overly helpful for you. Sorry. :P
(Also, never mind, I didn't read down far enough, Nefaro replied in more detail. :) )
Although not exactly similar, War Over Vietnam and the Middle East version are close. They are real time, they don't model tactical interactions like FC2, but, well if you want top down air combat these are games that do it.
Quote from: Toonces on January 23, 2013, 12:34:47 PM
Although not exactly similar, War Over Vietnam and the Middle East version are close. They are real time, they don't model tactical interactions like FC2, but, well if you want top down air combat these are games that do it.
Thank you, Toonces. Every time I read this thread I think of those games, but the names escape me. Then I get distracted and forget to look them up.
+1 They're not WWII, but I think you'll enjoy them.
Thanks fellas. I'll be checking these out this weekend.
Quote from: Toonces on January 23, 2013, 12:34:47 PM
Although not exactly similar, War Over Vietnam and the Middle East version are close. They are real time, they don't model tactical interactions like FC2, but, well if you want top down air combat these are games that do it.
I got the impression that you'd get a better all-around package just buying up the latest Harpoon set. For those strategic types, anyway.
I really wish FC2 would work on Win7. I haven't played that in a long time.
I wasn't able to get FC2 to run yet. the problem is the install. I may have to install it to an older machine and afterwards port over the whole thing via usb stick. Then I might get DosBox to run it.
I remembered roo, but not the name http://www.roogames.co.uk/ Wings Over France - April 1917
Quote from: Hentzau on January 23, 2013, 09:46:54 PM
I remembered roo, but not the name http://www.roogames.co.uk/ Wings Over France - April 1917
Great find. Unfortunately at the purchase screen it says "Not Vista/Win 7 compatible." :(
http://www.roogames.co.uk/productslist.htm
Quote from: Hentzau on January 23, 2013, 09:46:54 PM
I remembered roo, but not the name http://www.roogames.co.uk/ Wings Over France - April 1917
This is exactly what I'm looking for! Thanks Hentzau. I'll give it a go this weekend.
Quote from: KyzBP on January 23, 2013, 10:01:04 PM
Quote from: Hentzau on January 23, 2013, 09:46:54 PM
I remembered roo, but not the name http://www.roogames.co.uk/ Wings Over France - April 1917
This is exactly what I'm looking for! Thanks Hentzau. I'll give it a go this weekend.
I think Wodin has it, might be something about it in Matrix forums.
Quote from: Nefaro on January 23, 2013, 08:41:32 PM
Quote from: Toonces on January 23, 2013, 12:34:47 PM
Although not exactly similar, War Over Vietnam and the Middle East version are close. They are real time, they don't model tactical interactions like FC2, but, well if you want top down air combat these are games that do it.
I got the impression that you'd get a better all-around package just buying up the latest Harpoon set. For those strategic types, anyway.
I really wish FC2 would work on Win7. I haven't played that in a long time.
It's a little effort but I always install Virtual PC 2007 on all my machines and I have a Windows 98 image I can run for older games. Works like a charm. VPC2007 installs fine on Win 7 home. It barks about being installed on an unsupported OS but you just click "OK" and you're good to go.
I'm not sure DOSBOX will help with FC2. It is a Windows app.
FC2 was Win 3.1 and apparently there are ways to run Win 3.1 under Dosbox. The D-Fend frontend for Dosbox wizard even lets you toggle between Dos and Windows installs.
That WW1 game looks really neat!
Quote from: Staggerwing on January 23, 2013, 10:21:27 PM
FC2 was Win 3.1 and apparently there are ways to run Win 3.1 under Dosbox. The D-Fend frontend for Dosbox wizard even lets you toggle between Dos and Windows installs.
Interesting..... I'll have to give that a shot. Thanks!
Quote from: Hentzau on January 23, 2013, 09:46:54 PM
I remembered roo, but not the name http://www.roogames.co.uk/ Wings Over France - April 1917
Thanks for remembering - it was driving me crazy trying to remember the game I was talking about. I googled every combination of wings france 1914 - 18 and came up with nothing.
Quote from: Zulu1966 on January 24, 2013, 04:44:58 AM
Quote from: Hentzau on January 23, 2013, 09:46:54 PM
I remembered roo, but not the name http://www.roogames.co.uk/ Wings Over France - April 1917
Thanks for remembering - it was driving me crazy trying to remember the game I was talking about. I googled every combination of wings france 1914 - 18 and came up with nothing.
Looked interesting, despite desperately needing a good pixel artist. But...
QuoteWings Over France - April 1917 [Not Vista/Win 7 Compatible]
BOOOO! :-[
Was this created over a decade ago, or something?
Quote from: Nefaro on January 24, 2013, 12:30:12 PM
Quote from: Zulu1966 on January 24, 2013, 04:44:58 AM
Quote from: Hentzau on January 23, 2013, 09:46:54 PM
I remembered roo, but not the name http://www.roogames.co.uk/ Wings Over France - April 1917
Thanks for remembering - it was driving me crazy trying to remember the game I was talking about. I googled every combination of wings france 1914 - 18 and came up with nothing.
Looked interesting, despite desperately needing a good pixel artist. But...
QuoteWings Over France - April 1917 [Not Vista/Win 7 Compatible]
BOOOO! :-[
Was this created over a decade ago, or something?
Yes - I think it was a while ago. But I guess something in his code doesnt play with 7 and he doesnt make enough money to make it worth fixing.
Quote from: Hentzau on January 23, 2013, 09:46:54 PM
I remembered roo, but not the name http://www.roogames.co.uk/ Wings Over France - April 1917
Getting off of computer games a bit, GMT makes a great board game called "Bloody April," that covers the same subject matter, at the squadron level.
However, there is a Vassal module, that can be played remotely over the internet.
An interesting AAR shows the action:
http://gamesfromthefront.com/bloody-april-scenario-3-after-action-report-video/