WWI Strategic Games

[sandman2575]

Great write up, Tamas

WWI Gold is still the hardest strategy game I've ever tried to learn. Part of what makes it so hard is that every country has specific conditions / limitations unique to itself, in effect a separate rule set for each country.  And then, there's a *major* change in rules when you move from movement to trench warfare and then another change in 1917-18.  It's a helluva lot to keep track of.

The clunky interface doesn't help matters. The tutorial is indeed frustrating, as is the 'learner' Tannenburg scenario, which I played many, many times and only pulled off what Ludendorff did IRL a couple of times (although I guess that's why it's such a famous battle -- the game shows you it was hard to pull off what L. did.)

All that said -- I think this is a game that requires a huge investment of time learning, but once you get the gist of it, it's pretty amazing. It's very deep, very challenging grand strategy that requires a lot of advance planning -- about as far from casual beer & pretzels as you can get.

It's by far my favorite AGEOD title.  Tons and tons of atmosphere and character.  And I especially love the fact that the battles are interactive, unlike other AGEOD games.  The battle 'mini-game' is a lot of fun just in itself.

Also, I think nefaro did a sound mod that eliminates 'Charge!' And other annoying sounds.  worth getting for anyone who wants to play.

[bboyer66]

Great write up, Tamas

WWI Gold is still the hardest strategy game I've ever tried to learn. Part of what makes it so hard is that every country has specific conditions / limitations unique to itself, in effect a separate rule set for each country.  And then, there's a *major* change in rules when you move from movement to trench warfare and then another change in 1917-18.  It's a helluva lot to keep track of.

The clunky interface doesn't help matters. The tutorial is indeed frustrating, as is the 'learner' Tannenburg scenario, which I played many, many times and only pulled off what Ludendorff did IRL a couple of times (although I guess that's why it's such a famous battle -- the game shows you it was hard to pull off what L. did.)

All that said -- I think this is a game that requires a huge investment of time learning, but once you get the gist of it, it's pretty amazing. It's very deep, very challenging grand strategy that requires a lot of advance planning -- about as far from casual beer & pretzels as you can get.

It's by far my favorite AGEOD title.  Tons and tons of atmosphere and character.  And I especially love the fact that the battles are interactive, unlike other AGEOD games.  The battle 'mini-game' is a lot of fun just in itself.

Also, I think nefaro did a sound mod that eliminates 'Charge!' And other annoying sounds.  worth getting for anyone who wants to play.

I agree with everything Sandman said. Easily the most complex WWI game, but also the most rewarding. Found the easiest way to learn to play was to watch videos on YOUTUBE.

[W8taminute]

Posting so I can quickly find this later.  Need to digest Tamas' take on WW1G when I have more free time today. 

But I did like the old man yelling "Charge" as well as the train sound effects in the game. 

[airboy]

Strategic Command WW1 & Breakthrough are wonderful games - except for Naval warfare.  You can mod it pretty easily.  There are a huge number of strategic options that play out over the course of the game.  It also comes with an excellent WW2 simulation and a noteworthy simulation of the Russian Civil War.

The manual is excellent.  There are play guides for most of the major campaigns.  There are a lot of AARs out there (I did one for the Central Powers that ran on the Battlefront site & the wargamer site).  AI is pretty good.  The game comes with a very friendly PBEM - so you won't be dependent on some independent server that may, or may not exist in years to come.

I did not have the download issues since I bought the things on disk.  My installation and verification ran without any real difficulty.

I've not played the other games - but I invested a lot of time learning this one.  I highly recommend it.

[panzerde]

I'm finding I can take maybe about an hour of WWI Gold before the "sometimes you can drag a unit there, other times you can't" interface has me gritting my teeth in frustration and I have to go play something else for the rest of the evening.  Very atmospheric and seemingly very deep, but it's starting to feel to me like it isn't much more playable than Decisive Action. I really want to like this game and I can see the potential, but it feels like work.  Also, while the manual is huge, I can tell it's a translation.  I'm finding it heavy going.

SC:WWI is definitely easier to play and I'm generally having more fun with it.  Agreed that naval warfare isn't the strongest part of the game, and I find the HQ to Corps relationship too abstract, but overall very playable and immersive.

I started a scenario of France 14 last night.  Obviously a completely different scale of game, but I found it polished and engaging.  It's different enough from both the Tiller Napoleonics and Panzer Campaigns to present some novel game play.

[Nefaro]

The old man shouting "Charge"in WW1 gold drives me nuts.

I made a sound mod for WWI Gold that got rid of those bad voice-over ones, and a couple other annoying sound files too.  It also shortens some of the background sounds when you click on a hex, that would be up to like 20 seconds long in vanilla, and the abusingly loud telephone ring that would fire if you clicked on a few specific ones in the Turkish area.

It's in the AGEOD mod section for it.

[MengJiao]

I started a scenario of France 14 last night.  Obviously a completely different scale of game, but I found it polished and engaging.  It's different enough from both the Tiller Napoleonics and Panzer Campaigns to present some novel game play.

Yep.  France 14 is a gem.  I've played a lot of games in the TillerUniverse and France 14 is one of the best.

[Bill Runacre]

As promised, I've updated our guide for new players with an in-depth look at US mobilization, the use of unrestricted naval warfare against the UK, and the infamous Zimmermann Telegram:

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?p=1424547#post1424547

[JasonPratt]

Nothing to add, just registering so I'll know when the omnibus review from Bismarck is ready.

[panzerde]

I made a sound mod for WWI Gold that got rid of those bad voice-over ones, and a couple other annoying sound files too.  It also shortens some of the background sounds when you click on a hex, that would be up to like 20 seconds long in vanilla, and the abusingly loud telephone ring that would fire if you clicked on a few specific ones in the Turkish area.

It's in the AGEOD mod section for it.

Thank you for this.  I played about twenty minutes of the game after I bought it and immediately went looking for something like this.  I hadn't realized until this discussion that it was your mod.

[Al]

I started a scenario of France 14 last night.  Obviously a completely different scale of game, but I found it polished and engaging.  It's different enough from both the Tiller Napoleonics and Panzer Campaigns to present some novel game play.

Yep.  France 14 is a gem.  I've played a lot of games in the TillerUniverse and France 14 is one of the best.

+1.  The system is well suited to simulating WW1 at that scale.

[Nefaro]

I made a sound mod for WWI Gold that got rid of those bad voice-over ones, and a couple other annoying sound files too.  It also shortens some of the background sounds when you click on a hex, that would be up to like 20 seconds long in vanilla, and the abusingly loud telephone ring that would fire if you clicked on a few specific ones in the Turkish area.

It's in the AGEOD mod section for it.

Thank you for this.  I played about twenty minutes of the game after I bought it and immediately went looking for something like this.  I hadn't realized until this discussion that it was your mod.

Thanks.

I'm not sure if it will work as well in the latest update, but I also used JMass' map mod.  He had lightened all the map files, so they weren't so dark, and changed the file types to something other than the massive Bitmaps they were before.  Made it much easier to see (vanilla map was pretty dark) and may have increased the load speeds a bit.  I don't know if these adjustments were made official lately, but the patch notes say the performance was improved so something must've been changed with the map graphic situation.

[panzerde]

I'm not sure if it will work as well in the latest update, but I also used JMass' map mod.  He had lightened all the map files, so they weren't so dark, and changed the file types to something other than the massive Bitmaps they were before.  Made it much easier to see (vanilla map was pretty dark) and may have increased the load speeds a bit.  I don't know if these adjustments were made official lately, but the patch notes say the performance was improved so something must've been changed with the map graphic situation.

I've looked at that and may give it a try.  With the latest patch the game is running really well on my system so far, though I've yet to try the Grand Campaign.

Land combat "clicked" for me the other night, and I was able to win both Tannenberg and the Serbian scenarios .  I starting to see why people who like this game like it so much - there's a surprising amount of depth here and the mechanics, while complicated, allow you to play out WWI at a level no other strategic games do.  It's growing on me, to be sure.

[jomni]

Not strategic scale but John Tillers Squad Battles First World War is also a gem. Rarely do you get to play out WW1 at squad level. You get to see the evolution of infantry tactics from mass formations to smaller squads and fire teams. It's a nice history lesson.

[Boggit]

The old man shouting "Charge"in WW1 gold drives me nuts.

I made a sound mod for WWI Gold that got rid of those bad voice-over ones, and a couple other annoying sound files too.  It also shortens some of the background sounds when you click on a hex, that would be up to like 20 seconds long in vanilla, and the abusingly loud telephone ring that would fire if you clicked on a few specific ones in the Turkish area.

It's in the AGEOD mod section for it.

I've got the game, but haven't installed it. I'll look for your mod when I fire WW1G up. Thanks verymuch. :)