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Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Pacific Command


Here is a google docs for finding MP opponents.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...LXExSG5ybHpEenc


Welcome, this is the much needed thread for wargaming and other extremely detailed games. We have to long hidden in the shadow of Generic Shooter 3 and RTS II - The RSI of Victory!, but now is time to stand proud, and use our tactical knowledge to take our rightful place in these forums!
As most of these games are niche games, this Megathread will help to bring us all together.

First, I have devised a little test to see if you have the correct mentality for this thread, to save people wasting their time on games they have little chance of enjoying. please answer the following questions truthfully.

Question 1: - What is the first thing you would think if you loaded up a game an saw this?

A) AAAARGGGH!My graphics card has broken!
B) That looks complex, I haven’t got much clue of what I‘m looking at.
C) Those five divisions are going to be cut off this turn, Then I can destroy them!

Question 2 : - What is this?

A) Its a tank!
B) Thats a Tiger Tank!
C) Actually, Its a Russian T34/85 made to look like a Tiger. Dam Hollywood!

Question 3 - How long does a good game last?
A) I get board after eight hours
B) Depends on the game.
C) I spent four hours on my last turn - god knows how long the game will last.

Question 4 - what is a Grognard?
A) An alien of Star trek?
B) I Don’t know, a term for a hardcore gamer?
C) A hardcore gamer, it comes from a term used by Napoleon to describe his grumbling veterans.

If you answered C to these questions, this is the tread for you, if you answered B, then welcome, you may be surprised by some of these games.
If you Answered A, here is a shiny bit of paper. have fun. for the rest of you, on with the thread.


What counts as a Grognard Game?
Well, a lot of people would say hexes, but the true definition is something more along the lines of a game that strives for historical accuracy and/or covers subject in detail. They are mainly historical in basis, but there are a few hypothetical and sci-fi games our there.
So, Total war will never be considered a Grognard game, in fact one of my friends refuses to play Napoleon because the uniforms are “all wrong”.

Were do I get these games?
Most of these games are made by small teams and studios- individual projects are not unheard of. I will follow this with a list of the main games and publishers that I think you should be looking at - although please tell me if I’ve missed something - I haven’t played everything, and may easily of missed something.

HOW MUCH!?!
Ah yeah, this is the main problem with being a grognard, you end up paying over the odds for your games. this is because the publishers think that as they have a small number of core players who will pay most prices to get the game they want, they should price their games in such a way that stops anyone from trying them out.
This also leads to some draconian DRM‘s, as the one man programing teams become paranoid about protecting their life's’ work. its something we have to put up with.

Grey Hunter fucked around with this message at Feb 13, 2013 around 13:35

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Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Pacific Command


Matrix games

Matrix games is really your first stop when looking for stratergy games, as they are the biggest publisher on the block at the moment, and they have everything from hexed based games to the updated games of the close combat series - you should be able to find something for your tastes here. Listing their games would make for a wall of text, so visit their site and have a look.

Of these, War In the Pacific is their big seller, and my personal favorite. It covers the titular war in turns of one to three days. alloing you to use any of the hips or planes in stunning and sometime brain breaking detail.

(Yes, I am stealing that image from my own thread. I’m using my own time to write this OP, so this is my payment - read my thread veiwcounts make me happy!)
Another game to note, although at an exorbitant price is Battles from the Bulge - a real time pauseable game with a great deal of tactics and planning required, and a dam good AI for both sides.

And for anyone wondering, the image from the first question is their upcoming Gary Grigsby's War in the East.

Ygolonac posted:

For cheap bastards (like me), Steel Panthers: World At War (Matrix) and SP: Main Battle Tank and SP: WW2 (original by The Camo Workshop, Windows version by Shrapnel Games) offer free, full versions. Smaller-scale tactical battles, where each unit is a vehicle/squad/fireteam/individual soldier, straight turn-based hex-grid warfare. SPWAW is World War 2, but scenarios and Orders of Battle have been created that extend the playable dates to WWI and Korea. (Might have been stretched even farther, I've not kept up on it.) SPWW2 is, duh, World War 2, and I've not played much with it, but SPMBT I've wasted *months* on - running for the close of WWII all the way to a "projected" view of 2020, the game allows you to discover the answer to the burning questions of the ages, like "If Finland mounted an amphibious landing at Brisbane, who would win?"

Both variants are based on the released code of Steel Panthers 3, and each has its own feature-set. However, either would be good to start with, to see if you (or someone you know) would actually be interested in cardboard-pushing.

Download links:

SPWAW: http://www.matrixgames.com/products...erals%20Edition
(The "v8.20 Full" links are the free version.)

winSPWW2: http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Demos/FV_WW2.html
winSPMBT: http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Demos/FV_MBT.html




HPS Simulations

These guys are the old school, nothing but hexes and detail. again a list would be to long, so visit their site. I’ve never played any of these, so this will be brief.
Their main products include the Squad battle series - covering large number of wars including the Vietnam war - a often overlooked war for gaming.



They also cover the large scale operations for most periods. here is their Kursk 43 game.



pesty13480 posted:

[timg]http://img.waffleimages.com/5127b17...the_reich_2.jpg[/timg]

I enjoyed Defending the Reich, also from the people at HPS. I apologize for the size of the screenshot, but it's pretty representative of what you'll find in the title. And by representative, I mean, pretty much one of two screens you have hope of seeing. The whole point of the game is to, depending on the nation, annihilate German cities as the head of Bomber Command or, conversely, try to stop Germany from getting quite so annihilated as it could be. It's a simpler version of Grigsby's Eagle Day to Bombing the Reich, and it's conceit is that you're running the "nightfighter" war. I think it's a good entry level game given that things are fairly simplified and you can run through turns with alacrity.

The downside is that there's not all that much variety. If you're playing as Bomber Command, you're setting up a series of sorties, scouting missions, spoof missions, and rotating crews to preserve morale and experience. After that, you pretty much hit the end of turn button and pray that you end up knocking out enough acreage to stay on par with historical levels.

As the Germans, you assign upgrades and replacements where you can, and try to keep as many of your planes and veterans as operational as possible. The catch is that you really don't have anywhere near enough resources to do what you need to do, so you're just playing catchup. Also, you're going to lose, no matter what you do, so it's basically a game of trying to minimize damage done to you. It's pretty depressing actually.

The game takes into account weather, moon light, fatigue and all that good stuff.

Worth a go I'd say.





Take command/Scourge of war

These games are semi sequels, the second being made by one of the programmers of the first after the company broke up and he used the source code. These real time games allow you to command either side during their set battle and feture a dammed good AI - you can command a whle army by giving your suborniates their orders and letting them pan the attack, or you can take command down to individual regiments and manage the battle one hot spot at a time.

Take Command: Second Manassas is the first game, set in the battle of 2nd Bull run 2nd Manassas. its a few years old now, but available on steam for a decent low price!


Scourge of War : Gettysburg
This is the new game, set around the ACW’s most famous battle. as well; as a graphics upgrade, it also features multiplayer!

Available via the devs webpage.


Jutland & Distant Guns

these games feature real time naval battles of the ironclad era - either WWI or he Russain-Japanese war. features include - Hundreds of ships, detailed damage models and the worst interface known to man.

Available via the devs webpage.

Histwar - Les Grognards

Best described as Total War for Grognards - look it even has it in the title! this game by a one man french team looks old but apparently has a great AI.

Available via the devs webpage.


AI Wars

I thought I’d throw in a more/less obvious one here, this real time game is you against a pair of AI’s, and can be scaled in difficulty to provide a challenge to any player. while it needs some reliance on speedy thought, planning is the name of of the game, as the AI gets more delay as you attack it, and needless acts of aggression are counter productive in the long term.

Oh yeah, and it allows tens of thousands of units, and is again available on steam.

Solium Infirmum.
Another odd pick some might say, but Solium Infirnum, a turn based PBEM (Play by Email) game is one that demands a lot of thought, as you compete to rule hell with a harshly limited amount of actions and resources per turn.


The images for the units are awesome as well, check out the RPS lets play here - Get it from the dev’s website and give it the love it deserves.
Seriously, this game needs its own MP LP.

Again, anything missing on here, let me know, write up something about it and I’ll add it to the list



Current Grognard LP's

Steel Panthers - Main Battle Tank - By ChaosSamusX
Combat Mission - Shock Force - British Module By Skillness666
Jutland - By Grey Hunter (LP Archive)
War in the East - Me again.....


Yes, 3/5th of them are mine, why do you think I did the OP?

Grey Hunter fucked around with this message at Oct 28, 2011 around 13:07

Pinkerton
Jan 21, 2002

Never sleeping...


These look similar to the old Avalon Hill boardgames I used to play as a kid. I'm interested. Are there any good `Let's Play' type videos that would give me a feel for how these games play?

TheDemon
Dec 11, 2006

...on the plus side I'm feeling much more angry now than I expected so this totally helps me get in character.


If you're including Solium Infernum and AI War, Dominions 3 probably counts. PBEM turn-based strategy fantasy game with 50+ nations, 600+ spells, and multiplayer games that can take months. As an example of why it totally counts as a grognard game, you design a pretender god pre-game and a badly planned design can gently caress you over 50 turns (literally 2 months in multiplayer) down the line. Also managing the battle scripting of 300 mages individually will take hours and make you go insane.



Tactical battle, where units act on your premade scripted orders and you get to watch the results



Strategic movement, I have no idea what's going on in this screenshot


We have a thread here, but I'll gladly answer any questions here too.

TheDemon fucked around with this message at Oct 22, 2010 around 13:19

Puukko naamassa
Mar 25, 2010

Oh No! Bruno!

Of all the wargames that I've played, the only ones that could be considered Grognard-y are probably the Steel Panthers- and Combat Mission- series, which have also remained my favorites throughout the years... the newest Combat Mission aside, since US-led coalition vs Syria is literally the least interesting "what-if"- modern conflict I can think of. Doesn't stop me from following the two Combat Mission: Shock Force LPs going on right now, though. Still hoping for a new addition to the series.

I have to confess the larger scale strategy games like War In the Pacific and Kursk 43 have always seemed a bit daunting to me, I did play a whole lot of Panzer General as a kid and that seemed complex enough for me.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

Some missions, you just can't get rid of a bomb

Is there a release date for War in the East? It feels like its been in development forever and War In Russia's interface is really really dated.

pixelbaron
Mar 18, 2009



I figured you'd be the one making a wargames thread, seeing as I've read a bit of your Let's Play of War In the Pacific. Lately I've played Steel Panthers, Conquest of the Aegean, and the WWII centered Combat Missions. I have the attention span of a common house fly though, so the games usually get nowhere!

Puukko naamassa
Mar 25, 2010

Oh No! Bruno!

pixelbaron posted:

I figured you'd be the one making a wargames thread, seeing as I've read a bit of your Let's Play of War In the Pacific. Lately I've played Steel Panthers, Conquest of the Aegean, and the WWII centered Combat Missions. I have the attention span of a common house fly though, so the games usually get nowhere!

My problem, especially with the Combat Mission games, is perfectionism. Thinking "Must not lose a single tank!" is a recipe for fustration when you're going up against T-34's with Panzer III's and early Panzer IV's.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

Some missions, you just can't get rid of a bomb

Puukko naamassa posted:

My problem, especially with the Combat Mission games, is perfectionism. Thinking "Must not lose a single tank!" is a recipe for fustration when you're going up against T-34's with Panzer III's and early Panzer IV's.
I think this is true for pretty much any grognard game.

Me playing Panzer General:
"Hey, that city is down to 2 entrenchment, there's NO WAY I can draw Rugged Defense this time, right?"

*Orders 15 STR Tiger to attack*

*Loses 10 STR and deals no damage*



*RELOADS SAVE*

old dog child
May 21, 2008

are perry'd jokes still funny or did I just waste 10 bucks?

You can tell you are playing a grognard game if losing certain units actually causes physical pain. On that note, Guadalcanal isn't going so well for me. The IJN just added Wasp and Hornet to the US Navy-sponsored Solomon Islands Coral Reef Paradise (tm).

Gynovore
Jun 17, 2009

Forget your RoboCoX or your StickyCoX or your EvilCoX, MY CoX has Blinking Bewbs!

WHY IS THIS GAME DEAD?!

It's not quite as deep as most of the other ones, but give Solium Infernum a try. Made by a one-man indy developer, it has a cool theme and atmosphere, and it's not too hard to learn. There's a demo, and it has no DRM. The only downside is that it's only really good as PBEM. It has a singleplayer mode, but the AI is so passive it's no challenge at all.

Notahippie
Feb 4, 2003

Kids, it's not cool to have Shane MacGowan teeth

Gynovore posted:

It's not quite as deep as most of the other ones, but give Solium Infernum a try. Made by a one-man indy developer, it has a cool theme and atmosphere, and it's not too hard to learn. There's a demo, and it has no DRM. The only downside is that it's only really good as PBEM. It has a singleplayer mode, but the AI is so passive it's no challenge at all.

I think you can make a serious argument for that game having the deepest multiplayer gameplay ever made. I can't think of another game where there's a perk you can pick at the beginning of the game that makes it so that if you correctly pick the winning player, you win the game instead of him/her. There's none of the endgame malaise that usually happens with strategy games, because there are so many different paths to victory that you never know which your opponent is going for and you literally may not know who won until the game is actually over. The developers managed to create a game that allows for incredibly machiavellian plans and creates paranoia in the players. It's a weird game because it's not strategy in the traditional sense, and I think it's popularity suffered because it doesn't fit into traditional genres, but for multiplayer it can't be beat.

Bolkovr
Apr 20, 2002

A chump and a hoagie going buck wild

War In The Pacific question: I'm trying to move planes by ship, but can't. A post on the Matrix forums says that only AKP and CVEs can load planes, but the chart in the manual says that pretty much any cargo ship can haul planes. Do I have to stand down the airgroup or something to prepare the planes?

Crackpipe
Jul 9, 2001



While Hearts of Iron 2 helped me get over my lengthy Operational Art of War withdrawal, I really wish the series had been continued, or updated at the very least. A Mac port would have been nice too.

While WW2 is really interesting to play and all, I want to try and invade South Korea again, or fight my way through the Fulda Gap and ponder a chemical / nuclear release.

lizurcainnon
May 5, 2008


Bolkovr posted:

War In The Pacific question: I'm trying to move planes by ship, but can't. A post on the Matrix forums says that only AKP and CVEs can load planes, but the chart in the manual says that pretty much any cargo ship can haul planes. Do I have to stand down the airgroup or something to prepare the planes?

You should be able to form a transport taskforce, and then under the Load Troops interface pick the air group you wish to load. I've not actually loaded planes this way yet, but every time I load troops I've seen the local air groups in the list as selectable.

Saros
Dec 29, 2009

Its almost like we're a Bureaucracy, in space!

I set sail for the Planet of Lab Requisitions!!

The trick is that AKV and CVE can load planes intact.
If you load them on a normal transport they are disassembled and arrive in pieces that need to be reassembled at their destination before use (this requires air support units).
This isnt a problem for say SF to Sydney runs but you cant use them to reinforce the frontlines as they will all get blown up on the ground before they can be rebuilt.
But yeah just make a transport/air transport TF and go to the load troops button in the TF orders screen.
The other problem is (this is probably your issue) that you cant load restricted units onto ships, which if you are getting them from the west coast they probably are. You need to move them to another (unrestricted) command group with political points before shipping them away.

Ygolonac
Nov 26, 2007

FURRED STREET,
BITCHES!




Yee-haw, *war* games!

For cheap bastards (like me), Steel Panthers: World At War (Matrix) and SP: Main Battle Tank and SP: WW2 (original by The Camo Workshop, Windows version by Shrapnel Games) offer free, full versions. Smaller-scale tactical battles, where each unit is a vehicle/squad/fireteam/individual soldier, straight turn-based hex-grid warfare. SPWAW is World War 2, but scenarios and Orders of Battle have been created that extend the playable dates to WWI and Korea. (Might have been stretched even farther, I've not kept up on it.) SPWW2 is, duh, World War 2, and I've not played much with it, but SPMBT I've wasted *months* on - running for the close of WWII all the way to a "projected" view of 2020, the game allows you to discover the answer to the burning questions of the ages, like "If Finland mounted an amphibious landing at Brisbane, who would win?"

Both variants are based on the released code of Steel Panthers 3, and each has its own feature-set. However, either would be good to start with, to see if you (or someone you know) would actually be interested in cardboard-pushing.

Download links:

SPWAW: http://www.matrixgames.com/products...erals%20Edition
(The "v8.20 Full" links are the free version.)

winSPWW2: http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Demos/FV_WW2.html
winSPMBT: http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Demos/FV_MBT.html

There are a number of demo versions of various games available, which are either time-limited or feature-limited, but the current LPs by Grey Hunter and Skillness622 mean I'm pointing out the Combat Mission: Shock Force and Jutland ones first.

As can be seen in the LPs (GH's: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3330562)(Skillness': http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3347020), CMSF differs from the SP games in a variety of ways, the most important being the free-camera 3D display, and the WEGO style play (as opposed to the traditional IGO/UGO strict turn-based method; giving your orders and then finding out how your opponents' actions screw them up is a wonderful way to broaden and enhance your cursing abilities).

The CMSF demo also shows off the optional USMC and British forces packs. (Skillness's LP is running the Brits, as well.)

CMSF: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3347020

Perhaps you're a boat guy, not that interested in slogging through the mud and bouncing shots off overarmoured enemies... luckily, as GH's LP shows (http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3346608), you can slog through heavy seas and bounce shots off overarmoured enemies in Jutland! (Not a boat guy here, so I'm interested, but still haven't tried the games out.)

Jutland: http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/pr...tland_setup.exe

Panzer Command: Operation Winter Storm (Matrix) is one I've played a bit, and is pretty close to being the Matrix version of Combat Mission.

PCOWS: http://www.matrixgames.com/products...0Winter%20Storm

Close Combat is *old*, and shows it, but it's still fun - realtime tactical (no resource-hunting or micromanaging production), top-down action - more of a "twitch" game than the turn-based ones. CC3: The Russian Front is both the demo that got me started playing computer wargames, and the reason my friends helped me build my first (non-Commodore) PC - they got tired of listening to the screams as I slaughtered Russians/Germans. A number of mods for the CC series have been made, adding Karelia (Finland vs Russians), Downfall (the planned invasion of the Japanese Home Islands), and (if I remember correctly) Korea.

Matrix has updated and rereleased some of the CC series, but since there's no demos available, this truly ancient one from 2002 might be the way to see how you like 'em.

CC3: http://www.gamershell.com/download_5214.shtml

There's all kinds of other games out there, but these are ones I've either had some experience with, or have been looking at to play for a while (Jutland/Distant Guns, for example.) I'm certain there'll be a bunch of linkage added by goongnards to the thread soon enough.

Oh, and if you're totally addicted to the counters, or a specific game that doesn't have an electronic equivalent, you can always get Aide de Camp 2 and use that to play by email!

ADC2: http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/produc.../ADC2%20Demo%20(CGW).zip

Bolkovr
Apr 20, 2002

A chump and a hoagie going buck wild

Saros posted:

The other problem is (this is probably your issue) that you cant load restricted units onto ships, which if you are getting them from the west coast they probably are. You need to move them to another (unrestricted) command group with political points before shipping them away.

OK, yeah, that looks like the issue. All my air commands are (R)estricted or haven't arrived yet. It is still Jan 5, 1942 in my game-world after all. But I want to start shooting down Bettys now!

ArchangeI
Jul 15, 2010


Bolkovr posted:

OK, yeah, that looks like the issue. All my air commands are (R)estricted or haven't arrived yet. It is still Jan 5, 1942 in my game-world after all. But I want to start shooting down Bettys now!

You don't have to assign them to an air HQ.

LogisticEarth
Mar 28, 2004

Yeah pal? Well, you don't have a tongue but that don't stop me having to SHUT YOU UP!

Ygolonac posted:

Yee-haw, *war* games!

For cheap bastards (like me), Steel Panthers: World At War (Matrix) ...

Both variants are based on the released code of Steel Panthers 3, and each has its own feature-set. However, either would be good to start with, to see if you (or someone you know) would actually be interested in cardboard-pushing.

Download links:

SPWAW: http://www.matrixgames.com/products...erals%20Edition
(The "v8.20 Full" links are the free version.)

I never really played old hex games, as I was a bit young when they were popular, but I'm hooked on SP:WAW, especially when played with it's Command & Control restrictions.

There's a fairly active (although understandably small) community over at The SPWAW Depot They have a series of tutorials and instructor-lead PBEM games that help new players get situated. There's enough people on there that you can pretty much always find an opponent.

Also, I HIGHLY recommend getting the SPWAW: Enhanced mod, Final Release version. It's what most people play PBEM with, and makes a huge number of adjustments to the OOBs to better reflect historical dates and unit composition.

If anyone here plays SPWAW, I'm registered under the same username at the Depot. It would be neat to get some goon PBEM games together.

Saros
Dec 29, 2009

Its almost like we're a Bureaucracy, in space!

I set sail for the Planet of Lab Requisitions!!

Interesting trick for WITP-AE newbies

When you are starting as allies there is an independant HQ unit on the west coast (San Fran I think) called "1'st amphibious corps"
Change the HQ of this unit to "West coast [R]"
You can now transfer units from the WC HQ's to this corps for 25% of their normal PP price. If you are really clever you will move this HQ to pearl harbor before transferring it.

Im not too sure if this is considered exploity so dont do it in PBEM games without clearing with your opponent first. I noticed this the other day and have yet to actually employ it but some trawling through the official forums seems to support it working.

Goetta
Mar 17, 2006

HELLO NICE TO MEET YOU


Does anyone still play the Harpoon series? I saw it on the website linked in the OP and I used to really like Harpoon II, but then I realized that I last played the series loving 15 years ago.

mllaneza
Apr 28, 2007

Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952

Ygolonac posted:

Close Combat is *old*, and shows it, but it's still fun - realtime tactical (no resource-hunting or micromanaging production), top-down action - more of a "twitch" game than the turn-based ones. CC3: The Russian Front is both the demo that got me started playing computer wargames, and the reason my friends helped me build my first (non-Commodore) PC - they got tired of listening to the screams as I slaughtered Russians/Germans. A number of mods for the CC series have been made, adding Karelia (Finland vs Russians), Downfall (the planned invasion of the Japanese Home Islands), and (if I remember correctly) Korea.

Matrix has updated and rereleased some of the CC series, but since there's no demos available, this truly ancient one from 2002 might be the way to see how you like 'em.

I really love the Close Combat series, but your friends were right, the screams. oh god the screams. The audio gets to me. Besides the disturbingly authentic audio, it's a great recreation of company-scale combat. I strongly recommend checking out an LP, some YouTube vids or one of the demos.

DatonKallandor
Aug 21, 2009


Gynovore posted:

It's not quite as deep as most of the other ones, but give Solium Infernum a try. Made by a one-man indy developer, it has a cool theme and atmosphere, and it's not too hard to learn. There's a demo, and it has no DRM. The only downside is that it's only really good as PBEM. It has a singleplayer mode, but the AI is so passive it's no challenge at all.

Solium Infernum probably has the single greatest picture of Hell ever. It's a mix of Dante and Milton with some extra genuis.

And if you want a singleplayer game with art as great check out the previous game from the same Developer "Armageddon Empires".

The setting is pretty much any sci-fi fans wet dream: Skynet vs Fallout's Mutants vs The Warhammer 40k Imperium vs Chtulhu on Post-apocalyptic Earth.

Panzeh
Nov 27, 2006


mllaneza posted:

I really love the Close Combat series, but your friends were right, the screams. oh god the screams. The audio gets to me. Besides the disturbingly authentic audio, it's a great recreation of company-scale combat. I strongly recommend checking out an LP, some YouTube vids or one of the demos.

There's nothing like running a multiplayer campaign of the first third of the game. The trouble is, once you get past that, you're going to fill up your slots and then it becomes nonstop tanks. But the hilarity of Early War soviet armor(including KV-1 crews bailing out of intact vehicles) brings all kinds of entertainment!

pesty13480
Nov 13, 2002

Ask me about peasant etymology!



I enjoyed Defending the Reich, also from the people at HPS. I apologize for the size of the screenshot, but it's pretty representative of what you'll find in the title. And by representative, I mean, pretty much one of two screens you have hope of seeing. The whole point of the game is to, depending on the nation, annihilate German cities as the head of Bomber Command or, conversely, try to stop Germany from getting quite so annihilated as it could be. It's a simpler version of Grigsby's Eagle Day to Bombing the Reich, and it's conceit is that you're running the "nightfighter" war. I think it's a good entry level game given that things are fairly simplified and you can run through turns with alacrity.

The downside is that there's not all that much variety. If you're playing as Bomber Command, you're setting up a series of sorties, scouting missions, spoof missions, and rotating crews to preserve morale and experience. After that, you pretty much hit the end of turn button and pray that you end up knocking out enough acreage to stay on par with historical levels.

As the Germans, you assign upgrades and replacements where you can, and try to keep as many of your planes and veterans as operational as possible. The catch is that you really don't have anywhere near enough resources to do what you need to do, so you're just playing catchup. Also, you're going to lose, no matter what you do, so it's basically a game of trying to minimize damage done to you. It's pretty depressing actually.

The game takes into account weather, moon light, fatigue and all that good stuff.

Worth a go I'd say.

Vincent Van Goatse
Nov 8, 2006

Veni, vidi, Lombardi.


Feh, all those games have unnecessary graphics. I still play Pacific War.

Bolkovr
Apr 20, 2002

A chump and a hoagie going buck wild

BTW, I figured out my inability to load planes on ships in WitP. I was foolishly clicking the Load Planes On Ship button, when I should have been clicking the Load Troops On Ship button. Because planes are people too?

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Pacific Command


gradenko_2000 posted:

Is there a release date for War in the East? It feels like its been in development forever and War In Russia's interface is really really dated.

They hope to go into Beta before the end of the year I think, so sometime next year, depending on how that goes.

Also, Matrix Games is running a fall classics sale


quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Three Hall of Fame Wargames Available at Discounts up to 50%!

Matrix Games (http://www.matrixgames.com) is thrilled to announce a limited time “Fall Classics” Sale on three Hall of Fame computer wargames! Starting at midnight October 24th and going until midnight on October 31st, John Tiller’s Campaign Series will be reduced from the regular price of $34.99 (Download Price) to $24.99 (Download Price) - a savings of $10 and a discount of close to 30%! Steel Panthers: World at War General’s Edition will be reduced from its regular price of $69.99 (Download Price) to $34.99 (Download Price) - a savings of $35 and a discount of 50%! Finally, Norm Koger’s The Operational Art of War III will be reduced from its regular price of $39.99 (Download Price) to $29.99 (Download Price) – a savings of $10 and a discount of 25%!

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said “Each of these three classic titles is not only a Hall of Fame contender, but packed with enough content to keep most wargamers content for months if not years! Each has been updated and overhauled with many significant improvements since the original releases, including compatibility with the latest operating systems. It’s hard to find a better ‘bang for the buck’ in computer wargaming than these three titles at these reduced prices!”

Steel Panthers: World at War General’s Edition

Steel Panthers: World At War General’s Edition includes all four Mega-Campaign games and a free v8.20 of SPWaW. What is a Mega Campaign you ask? Mega-Campaigns are specially designed and programmed campaign systems for Steel Panthers: World at War. Mega-Campaigns are non-linear; they branch into dozens of directions, depending on the victory level achieved by the player and also on his choices during play. In a Mega-Campaign, you not only face standard attack or defend types of battles, but many unusual missions and variants are also available for assignment.

John Tiller’s Campaign Series

John Tiller's Campaign Series exemplifies tactical war-gaming at its finest by bringing you the entire collection of TalonSoft's award-winning campaign series. Containing TalonSoft's West Front, East Front, and Rising Sun platoon-level combat series, as well as all of the official add-ons and expansion packs, the Matrix Edition allows players to dictate the events of World War II from the tumultuous beginning to its climatic conclusion.

Norm Koger’s The Operational Art of War III

Norm Koger’s The Operational Art of War is a legendary title among wargamers. A masterpiece of flexible design, it allows you to play and create any battle from the entire 20th Century of warfare and up to the modern day. Now, Matrix Games together with Norm Koger and a new design team bring you the definitive release of this unsurpassed operational wargame – The Operational Art of War III.

Get more information on Steel Panthers: World at War, John Tiller’s Campaign Series and Norm Koger’s The Operational Art of War III from their respective product pages.


TOAOW is the only one of these I've played and has some varied scenarios covering a number of 20th Century wars.

And the differences between the Generals Edition and the free one of Steel Panthers is uknown to me.

I am interested by John Tillers Campaign series though, anyone know much about it?

Grey Hunter fucked around with this message at Oct 25, 2010 around 07:54

Ygolonac
Nov 26, 2007

FURRED STREET,
BITCHES!




Grey Hunter posted:

Also, Matrix Games is running a fall classics sale

And the differences between the Generals Edition and the free one of Steel Panthers is uknown to me.

I am interested by John Tillers Campaign series though, anyone know much about it?

Woohoo, gonna get that General's Edition!

SPWAW:GE just adds the various MegaCampaigns that used to be seperate purchases - they tend to get pretty involved and detailed, from what I saw playing the Barbarossa one. Serious "keep the guys you know the names of alive" level stuff - I believe in the Screaming Eagles one you run your unit from the Normandy airdrops to the last battles in Germany.

The Campaign series, I mainly did Rising Sun - started off with a free demo, and ended up buying everything. It's been forever since I've played it, though, and what little I remember was the somewhat annoying isometric hexview (possibly optional?) and that it was more uhhh... stylised, I guess, instead of the 1:1 units of Close Combat.

There might still be a demo of Rising Sun out there, but I've not a clue where, or if it'll handle more modern hardware gracefully.

stawk Archer
Jun 19, 2004

Glorious Obsolete Armored Assault

Grey Hunter posted:

They hope to go into Beta before the end of the year I think, so sometime next year, depending on how that goes.

Also, Matrix Games is running a fall classics sale


TOAOW is the only one of these I've played and has some varied scenarios covering a number of 20th Century wars.

And the differences between the Generals Edition and the free one of Steel Panthers is uknown to me.

I am interested by John Tillers Campaign series though, anyone know much about it?

TOAOW is really good but it's hell trying to find new scenarios. Plus some of the very detailed ones take wayyyyy too fuckin long. This is coming from a guy who played Europa: Fire in the East/Scorched Earth (the hex and counter boardgame from the 70's/80's) from 1941-1944 over a period of several months, and I still think that a lot of the designers need to know how to streamline their scenarios (and not to use green for every country with only different colers in the unit type box!!!!
The best scenario in the whole game is the Korea 1950 scenario. Even against a computer opponent, it can be tense. The real war was very much an unsure thing, up to the final Chinese offensive in 1953 even. That particular scenario gets it just right for the first year of conflict.


John Tiller's Panzer Campaigns and Modern Campaigns series is potentially one of the best wargames available, if only the AI weren't retarded. You're going to need to join theblitz wargaming club, but I never did because it's too much trouble and because I can't make the time to. If you play solitaire, pick the side on offense OR pick the Arabs in the 1967 war. Every other option is going to make it way too easy. Google these two things: panzer campaigns mapmod, volcanomods. They both greatly improve the graphics. The games are very detailed but it is handled well. You won't be moving all kinds of chrome around and explicit supply (giving you control over the logistics instead of abstracting it) is done well.
I don't recommend any of his other games. Squad Battles covers some cool ground, and Soviet-Afghan war is actually pretty solid (and realistic). His others are monotonous and some of them were actually designed by the notorious Wild Bill Wilder, who made a bunch of overpriced and completely unplayable mods for the most popular hex and counter wargame in the world. Example: (gently caress it well, maybe later when the site is up again)

Ygolonac
Nov 26, 2007

FURRED STREET,
BITCHES!




For those interested, there's now a Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank LP going on. Goons in command, good lord...

http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3363150

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Pacific Command


Right, I've added the LP's I know of to the 2nd post, if I've missed any, let me know.

The "Buzz" on the Matrix forums is that War in the East may be out before the end of the year!

To Moscow/Berlin!

Ograbme
Jul 26, 2003

D--n it, how he nicks 'em

I want to like large-scale hex and counter games but I have nowhere near the attention span. If more games would cut up the main campaign into things like "Kursk, southern flank, 20 turns" instead of just "Entire eastern front from the Rhine to Alaska, 23874687 turns" they would be much more tolerable.

LogisticEarth posted:

Also, I HIGHLY recommend getting the SPWAW: Enhanced mod, Final Release version. It's what most people play PBEM with, and makes a huge number of adjustments to the OOBs to better reflect historical dates and unit composition.
I installed that mod and then played a non-enhanced scenario and every single German infantry squad was equipped with an 88 instead of grenades

President Ark
May 16, 2010

Looks like you got a good deal there!

TheDemon posted:


Strategic movement, I have no idea what's going on in this screenshot

Captain Beans
Aug 5, 2004

Whar be the beans?

Grey Hunter posted:


Take command/Scourge of war

These games are semi sequels, the second being made by one of the programmers of the first after the company broke up and he used the source code. These real time games allow you to command either side during their set battle and feture a dammed good AI - you can command a whle army by giving your suborniates their orders and letting them pan the attack, or you can take command down to individual regiments and manage the battle one hot spot at a time.

Take Command: Second Manassas is the first game, set in the battle of 2nd Bull run 2nd Manassas. its a few years old now, but available on steam for a decent low price!


Scourge of War : Gettysburg
This is the new game, set around the ACW’s most famous battle. as well; as a graphics upgrade, it also features multiplayer!

Available via the devs webpage.


Just wanted to say that these games loving own and they arn't too Grognard'y. HoI2 is about my limit of Grognard insanity, I really wanted to like War in the Pacific but I have resigned myself to simply following the LP.

Take Command/Scourge of War I really like because you can control whatever you feel like handling. From just a few units, to trying to manage the entire battle. The battles by the way are loving humongous, they put the Total War series to absolute shame. The AI is pretty good(also shocking coming from the Total War series) and the way orders flow to different commanders and information comes back is pretty cool. Obviously when battles take place over like 30 miles you can't control everything like an RTS and it's cool to see the overall battle develop around you with other commanders doing what they think is best regarding their own orders.

For a Grognard game, the UI is good and everything is pretty intuitive. There are good in game tutorials and a refreshing lack of pages of eye killing unit statistics and charts.

I highly recommend trying them out if you like the Total War battles and are willing to give up direct control of every single unit for the scope of the battle to be 30x larger.

HoldYourFire
Oct 16, 2006

What's the time? It's DEFCON 1!

I just tried the demo of AGEOD's World War One Gold. The interface and performance are diabolical, and Britain always DoWs Germany even if Germany doesn't declare on Russia or Belgium, which is bullshit

Although the game would probably be trivial for Germany otherwise.

wins32767
Mar 16, 2007



HoldYourFire posted:

I just tried the demo of AGEOD's World War One Gold. The interface and performance are diabolical, and Britain always DoWs Germany even if Germany doesn't declare on Russia or Belgium, which is bullshit

Although the game would probably be trivial for Germany otherwise.

I'm fairly sure the demo is from an older version of the codebase which apparently got some performance patches. I'm not sure though.


Grey, any interest in me doing a brief writeup about PBEM board wargame options?

Illegal Username
Jul 20, 2007

You think that's illegal? Heh, watch this.


So i'm downloading SPWAW and i wonder if there are any good campaigns or scenarios where you play as Finns. Or should i be looking into SPWW2 instead?

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Fray
Oct 22, 2010


I really enjoyed the first two Combat Mission games (Barbarossa and Overlord). Do the following titles add anything interesting to the series, or is it the same game with different units?

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