tactical or puzzle?

[ericw43]

Hi,

I read these forums daily but never have posted until now. I have been playing historical simulations on the pc and board games of this genre for many years. Actually the first board game my father and I played that was militaristic was Tactics 2....and we also played a chess like medieval game named "Feudal" which featured terrain and the capture of the castle or pieces that were of nobility in order to win.
But that was in the 1970s.

Now in 2013 many years have passed. My favorite time for computer wargames were my Apple II+. SSI was a favorite during the time and I remember my first Apple II + game was "Computer Ambush."

I have continued playing historical games for many years. Yesterday I purchased three games: "Decisive Campaigns, The Blitkrieg from Warsaw to Paris",  John Tillers "Midway" and John Tillers "World War One Squad Battles." I LOVE tactical games and one of my favorite pc games was "The 101st Airborne in Normandy."

But here is the problem I am having. Many wargames seem more like puzzles. You have to do maneuvering in a specific order/sequence in order to achieve victory. The Squad Battles Games from John Tiller are neat games that contain a huge amount of scenarios but they require you to move units on the map in a particular way to win. The same I have found to be true of the recently released "Allied Corps", "Panzer Corps" and Afrika Corps" games from the Lordz Studios. Yes, I like these games and please if you are a developer don't be upset at my comments. I

SO can you recommend a title that I have not played which gives the user the freedom to use tactics and maneuver to win as opposed to following a formula or path in order to achieve victory.

I appreciate your time and please have fun:)

Eric
                                                         

[bayonetbrant]

Flashpoint Germany?  We see all sorts of variations in those scenarios when we run the staff wargaming exercises at Origins.

[GJK]

Hi Eric and welcome to Grogheads.  We have similar backgrounds (as so many of us "old" wargamers do).  I even owned and played Feudal back in my teens (fun game!).

You bring up an interesting topic for discussion and it's one that I've had with a long time wargaming buddy of mine.  He's in your camp; he likes ad-hoc gaming situations that require the player to adjust their strategy "on the fly" as the situation or battle progresses.  There's some structure to the game turn, but within those game turns, much chaos arises and the player has to adapt and quickly.  Those are fun to play.

Myself, on the other hand, enjoy games with a very structured sequence and if you misplay a move within a turn, it can cost you dearly.  There's a definite sequence to how you should perform your actions (best utilization) and if you get out of your sequence, your little virtual soldiers are going to suffer.  Old boardgames like AH's "Third Reich" are like this. 

I don't have any recommendations for you but wanted to comment on your post.  I will add that I have Tiller's "Midway" game and rather enjoy it despite the usually very long lags between action.  A game that I compare this to is the classic boardgame "Carrier" by Victory Games.  Give me "Carrier" any day, but when I don't have the time or determination to set that one up, the Midway PC game is a good compromise.

Let me ask you- do you still play boardgames or have you gravitated away from them and now only play computer games?  I ask out of curiosity because I did the boardgame to PC gamer only back to boardgamer/occassional PC gamer dance over my wargaming career.  In boardgaming today, I find so much more availability in battles that I want to fight and with the advent of computer assited applications such as VASSAL, I can now play those games at any time with somebody live on the computer without having to physically set the game up.  But don't misunderstand me, I would take a face to face playing of a "manual" game any day over a computer assisted or computer only game.

Hoping that you find the answers to your question here, sorry that I wasn't much help though.

[SgtRock]

I'm still surprised at the lack of good WWII squad level games and that no one ever used the X-Com or Jagged Alliance engine to create a squad level WWII game.