Steam and Iron Campaign released

[Sir Slash]

The good folks over at navalwarfare.net have finally released the Steam and Iron Campaign for Steam and Iron. $19.99 If your interested in WWI naval combat. I'll post some thoughts as soon as I get a break from the action. Otherwise, if anyone needs me, I'll be laying mines somewhere in the Baltic Sea.

[Nefaro]

I'd like to hear some info on it, as I've not even messed with the Baltic Campaign beta stuff much.

[Gusington]

Waiting for your impressions...

[Staggerwing]

Bundle?

[Grim.Reaper]

Add this to my list...geesh a lot of new games recently......can't keep up:)  Not a huge rush to get this one, but likely will at some point.

[jomni]

Watching this one as well.

[Sir Slash]

So far enjoying the hell outta it. They've ironed-out all the kinks from the buggy beta I remember and it plays like a gem. OP Points are earned by completing missions you choose and are used to "buy" additional forces for the next mission or repair/maintence/training of ships in need. Choose the force you think best from the total force pool that's available for the mission youv'e chosen, deploy subs and even add a mine-laying mission(s) of you're own and then begin the scenario. The weather, day/night time,visibility changes and you may encounter friends, neutrals, or foes. Complete the mission and then cruise around on the hunt for merchants or escort friendlies. Return to port and repeat. Use or save your OP's, see which ships tracked where during the scenario, friend or enemy. So far,(on my 4th mission) land bombardment missions are all I've been able to choose from and I hope there are more types but execution of the game is flawless and the possibility of almost anything happening is irrestible. Four campaigns, 3 North Sea and a Baltic Sea campaign, ship silouttes as well as overhead views, a massive data base of every ship in the game and as you complete missions, your forces develope their own operational histories. It's not a  perfect game, your ships will have to sail back & forth to spot land targets even when well within their visibility range, and to end a scenario, you actually have to hit the "End Game " button as well as alot of info is thrown at you at the campaign screen and can be a little confusing read the excellent manual pdf and just play it and it'll all come to you. Time compression is very well done so you can play a mission or an entire campaign without all the dull downtime/move-to-contact waiting. And yes the game's still ugly, but so's my butt but I still use it. If you buy the game and or campaign, make sure you save the registration code as you'll need it for patches and updates. No idea yet if mission success, or lack of, results in any effect on the war effort or if the war effects the campaigns at all in the way of changing territory. But so far, ME LIKES IT.

[Nefaro]

Definitely gonna pick it up before long, which is something I already knew.  :D

Thanks for the quickie, Slash.

[Sir Slash]

You're very welcome Nefaro. And sorry Gus, they didn't add ramming.

[Gusington]

Thanks for the impressions Slash. How is the atmosphere of the game? Is it clinical or is there more to it? It looks and sounds kind of sterile to me, thus my hesitation. With another bell and whistle or two I would have bought it months ago, even without the campaign.

[panzerde]

Definitely picking this up, despite it now being forever associated in my mind with the knowledge that Slash has an ugly butt.

[Grim.Reaper]

Thanks for the impressions Slash. How is the atmosphere of the game? Is it clinical or is there more to it? It looks and sounds kind of sterile to me, thus my hesitation. With another bell and whistle or two I would have bought it months ago, even without the campaign.

Have you tried the demo of the base game yet?  Probably the best way to see before you buy.

[Gusington]

I know, I know...haven't yet :/

[Herman Hum]

So far enjoying the hell outta it. They've ironed-out all the kinks from the buggy beta I remember and it plays like a gem.

Sadly, I disagree at this point as I am having one heckuva hard time with just my first scenario of my first campaign.  :(

I started the campaign and the orders were to reach a certain point with BC (battlecruisers).  The map generates and plops two of my destroyer flotillas smack in the middle of a permanent minefield.  They immediately start hitting mines and sinking.  Sail out of there, right?  Well, I would if I were allowed by the game to do so.  However, I cannot cross the minefield boundaries.  So, they just sit there hitting mines and sinking as my BC reach the objective and return to port.

End the scenario, right?  I would if I could.  I *think* because the DDs are trapped in the minefield, it does not allow the game to end (until they return to port).

Just run it at high speed so that the time runs out, right?  I would if I could.  However, the game constantly returns to 'Normal 1:1' time whenever I try to speed up.  I don't know how many days I'm expected to sit and stare at the screen just hoping that all my DDs sink just so I can stop.  I am not impressed.

Am I doing something wrongly?  Is there a way to escape the Minefield trap?  The Normal time trap?

[Sir Slash]

Officially the game's not as ugly as my butt which doesn't bother me as I never have to look at it. The game has no music and the only sounds are a rifle-sounding shot which you choose when to be played-on a hit or when firing begins or not at all-my choice. The only thing I really don't care for about the game is the water's just where the ships move around. There's no reefs, no shoals, no shallow water at all. Just blue space( or whatever color you choose to make it) where they sail and the land is where they can't. Pretty generic really. But the game can do so many things more things very well, it doesn't really matter that much to me. Jury's still out on whether the AI that's formidible tactically, can provide a strategic challenge.