What is your most satisfying purchase of the Summer Sales?

[DennisS]

Mad Games Tycoon. This is a deep and accessible strategy game. Very good choices here, and interesting decisions to make.

[Greybriar]

I was a fan of Ports of Call back in its day and hadn't played anything quite like it since. Until today when I purchased TransOcean - The Shipping Company on sale for $7.99 (60% off). It's been out awhile and there's a sequel in the works, but I believe I got my money's worth already.

YMMV but if you liked Ports of Call, I think you will love TransOcean - The Shipping Company.

[DennisS]

I was a fan of Ports of Call back in its day and hadn't played anything quite like it since. Until today when I purchased TransOcean - The Shipping Company on sale for $7.99 (60% off). It's been out awhile and there's a sequel in the works, but I believe I got my money's worth already.

YMMV but if you liked Ports of Call, I think you will love TransOcean - The Shipping Company.

Trans Ocean starts slow..but when you unlock the Panamax class ships, and are able to sail throughout the world, it gets a lot more fun.

[Greybriar]

Yep.  ::)

[GJK]

So were there any wargames on sale during the summer sale??

[Greybriar]

So were there any wargames on sale during the summer sale??

In a word, yes. But you'll have to hunt them down yourself--there are just too many games to wade through. The one I remember as having been the most recently mentioned was Verdun.

[Bison]

So were there any wargames on sale during the summer sale??

Matrix has several games on sale which will give you both the Matrix copy and Steam key.  I can assure you those are wargames.

[FlickJax]

I was a fan of Ports of Call back in its day and hadn't played anything quite like it since. Until today when I purchased TransOcean - The Shipping Company on sale for $7.99 (60% off). It's been out awhile and there's a sequel in the works, but I believe I got my money's worth already.

YMMV but if you liked Ports of Call, I think you will love TransOcean - The Shipping Company.

Back to 30% damn

[jomni]

My most satisfying purchase in not on Sale... SOW Waterloo.

[GJK]

My brother is recommending Aegod's "Civil War II" when I mentioned that I might start up a solo game of VG's "Civil War".  I've never particularly cared for Aegod games (too many menu's, sub-menu's and clicking for me) but I'm tempted.  I'll dig up the reviews here, I'm sure that there was a front page review of it at some point.  ;)

[Nefaro]

My brother is recommending Aegod's "Civil War II" when I mentioned that I might start up a solo game of VG's "Civil War".  I've never particularly cared for Aegod games (too many menu's, sub-menu's and clicking for me) but I'm tempted.  I'll dig up the reviews here, I'm sure that there was a front page review of it at some point.  ;)

Many of the extra windows are informational. 

For learning the basics of the AGEOD games, remind yourself that they operate a bit like a tabletop game in that you pick up and place pieces (aka Armies) where you want them to move.  Then, when you hit End Turn, the orders are resolved simultaneously. 


The depth of the Command & Control rules differ between some of them.  The Civil War series and Rise Of Prussia utilize a command structure that you must set up, and this is often the most difficult for people to learn despite decent in-game tutorial instructions on how to do so.  Others, such as the Birth of America and Alea Jacta Est series don't have such a strict command structure so the force limits are simply imposed by the generals' CPs available in a specific army (thus having fewer modifiers for a proper multi-tiered command structure filled with capable generals).

There are only a handful of other screens you need to occasionally do something in, the quantity of which varies with the title.  They all have a Replacements screen where you must spend your limited money & resources to train future replacements for your current units that take losses. 

There is a screen where you can also pay for training completely new units.  Another, in more recent AGE titles, where you can pay or gain money by issuing edicts/construction (think building walls/forts, forced resource collection, etc) in specific locales.  There is also one screen with occasional theater-wide decisions you can choose - usually with just a very few options (if at all) at any one moment.

The rest are generally informational and help in finding your objectives and armies on the huge maps, or the current victory status.

They're very much wargames, but they're quite unique and therefore take some extra brainsauce to learn over others digital wargames since it's so different. 

I always thought the specific Supply systems were the most difficult to envision, partly because each one seems to be a bit different.  But you can usually wing those with a general knowledge of how supply moves, without having to learn the deeper details, after seeing it in action.  For example.. if an army runs low on supplies, and it has empty supply wagons, just send the wagons back to a supply source to fill up and return some turns later (preferably with a guard detachment if there may be raiding cavalry or irregulars nearby).   Or pull the force back to resupply, if they're losing troops & cohesiveness too quickly, and replan.


Just remember the basics: 
Giving orders is Drag & Drop, along with toggling any special order/stance buttons.  Know when an army's supply situation needs to be addressed, and where your supply lines are strong (there is a map filter for this, among others).  Keep replacements in training (about 1/10th the total number is recommended IIRC, at least for the most numerous & less costly like infantry & cavalry).  If the specific AGE title features a command structure you must organize, play through the tutorial until you understand how to do it with the UI (still mostly drag & drop with a rare button press).  Read the tooltips - they're packed full of helpful info including many strength & status numbers for units and descriptions of UI buttons.