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Yooper
Apr 30, 2012


MonkeyLibFront posted:

Any thoughts on Armoured Brigade? I'm looking for something a little more detailed and realistic to dip my toe in to when it comes to grognardy games, I already own CM: Black Sea but feel a little burned by battlefront in the way they've basically dropped support for it and it's squeezes a lot of units in to a fairly tight map. Looking to be able to put more real life knowledge of armoured battle group tactics in to a game.

I like Armored Brigade, I think it does a lot of things really well. It lacks that cinematic vibe you get from CM, but can still be really engaging.

Did they really drop support for the game? I haven't touched anything Battlefront in a long time.

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MonkeyLibFront
Feb 26, 2003
Where's the cake?

Yooper posted:

I like Armored Brigade, I think it does a lot of things really well. It lacks that cinematic vibe you get from CM, but can still be really engaging.

Did they really drop support for the game? I haven't touched anything Battlefront in a long time.

Added a battle pack and that's about it, seemed more interested in re releasing Shock force and charging a poo poo load of money for it, had the chance to be a really interesting conflict, shoving a couple of tank troops into a grid square hurts me deeply.

Hav
Dec 11, 2009

Fun Shoe

Bold Robot posted:

Kind of a longshot but does anyone know if it is possible to play Aurora C# in Wine? I want to try it but would rather play it on my Mac laptop than my desktop PC. I've had success running other grog games in Wine, like WitP and RTW.

Couple of issues there; Catalina has made 32-bit impossible. Aurora C# appears to reference a 32-bit driver.

As for not-catalina, I'm not sure. Theoretically you should be able to use a much later box image and then apply mono/#net to it.

Edit: a word.

Hav fucked around with this message at 15:53 on May 18, 2020

Mr Luxury Yacht
Apr 16, 2012


MonkeyLibFront posted:

Any thoughts on Armoured Brigade? I'm looking for something a little more detailed and realistic to dip my toe in to when it comes to grognardy games, I already own CM: Black Sea but feel a little burned by battlefront in the way they've basically dropped support for it and it squeezes a lot of units in to a fairly tight map. Looking to be able to put more real life knowledge of armoured battle group tactics in to a game.

I'm a fan.

Pros:
- Larger maps. Max battles are 15kmx15km sections selected out of 64kmx64km theatre maps.
- Good variety of nations. Base game comes with 7 (US, USSR, UK, West Germany, East Germany, Poland, Finland). There's two DLC packs. Each comes with two nations and an extra map. First is Italy/Yugoslavia with a map of the area of Northeast Italy around Trieste. Second is France/Belgium with a map of the Ardennes centered around Bastogne. The game stretches from 1965-1991 so it covers everything from Conquerors vs. T-10Ms to M1A1s facing off against T-80Us with thermals everywhere.
- Unlike Combat Mission the base game doesn't cost $60. Plus it's available on Steam.
- It's real moddable so if something is missing (unit, formation, weapon, just don't like the values the dev has given something) you can change it yourself easily. There's a handful of decent mods up on the workshop already. Highlights are probably Factions Plus (adds Egypt, Israel, Iran, Argentina, South Korea, Australia, China, Vietnam) at levels of quality pretty close to the base game factions, the Chechen War mod, and a bunch of the maps.

Cons:
- It's fully 2D and it can be tricky to read heights on the map and establish LOS without using the included LOS tool. There's a pseudo 3D isometric map mode you can trigger but you can't assign orders from it.
- It's better now but there's still not a massive amount of scenarios and campaigns in the game. There's around 19 premade scenarios and 3 campaigns without any DLC. The meat of AB is the generated campaigns and scenarios. Select a battlefield (or battlefields if it's a campaign), two nations, a few parameters and a date and the game whips something up from there. If you're looking for a large number of carefully crafted scenarios, that's not here.

Mr Luxury Yacht fucked around with this message at 17:45 on May 18, 2020

Flavius Aetass
Mar 30, 2011

AARP LARPer posted:

There is a certain vibe around here that unless you’re playing a game that requires spreadsheets, you’re doing it wrong and can’t possibly be having fun because “fun” involves some strange correlation with perfection.

I think that's kind of a disingenuous read of "a game that gives you set units to solve a set map in X turns for an S rating is more of a puzzle game than a strategy game."

MonkeyLibFront
Feb 26, 2003
Where's the cake?

Mr Luxury Yacht posted:

I'm a fan.

Pros:
- Larger maps. Max battles are 15kmx15km sections selected out of 64kmx64km theatre maps.
- Good variety of nations. Base game comes with 7 (US, USSR, UK, West Germany, East Germany, Poland, Finland). There's two DLC packs. Each comes with two nations and an extra map. First is Italy/Yugoslavia with a map of the area of Northeast Italy around Trieste. Second is France/Belgium with a map of the Ardennes centered around Bastogne. The game stretches from 1965-1991 so it covers everything from Conquerors vs. T-10Ms to M1A1s facing off against T-80Us with thermals everywhere.
- Unlike Combat Mission the base game doesn't cost $60. Plus it's available on Steam.
- It's real moddable so if something is missing (unit, formation, weapon, just don't like the values the dev has given something) you can change it yourself easily. There's a handful of decent mods up on the workshop already. Highlights are probably Factions Plus (adds Egypt, Israel, Iran, Argentina, South Korea, Australia, China, Vietnam) at levels of quality pretty close to the base game factions, the Chechen War mod, and a bunch of the maps.

Cons:
- It's fully 2D and it can be tricky to read heights on the map and establish LOS without using the included LOS tool. There's a pseudo 3D isometric map mode you can trigger but you can't assign orders from it.
- It's better now but there's still not a massive amount of scenarios and campaigns in the game. There's around 19 premade scenarios and 3 campaigns without any DLC. The meat of AB is the generated campaigns and scenarios. Select a battlefield (or battlefields if it's a campaign), two nations, a few parameters and a date and the game whips something up from there. If you're looking for a large number of carefully crafted scenarios, that's not here.

Thank you a lot, kinda trying to intergrate my job as a tank commander into gaming wihout spending steel beasts level money, i don't mind generated scenarios as long as they are in an enviroment of the cold war, i really enjoyed the Wargame series for my coldwar fix but realise it's not on the same spectrum as games within this thread. I'll probably just buy the base game without the DLC (Unless i lose massive improvement of gameplay) just to see what it's like, current covid has my spending really low so games budget has increased.

Yooper
Apr 30, 2012


MonkeyLibFront posted:

kinda trying to intergrate my job as a tank commander into gaming wihout spending steel beasts level money

As in real life job?

I crewed an M1A2 with the 1st Cav. I'd kill for a modern remake of the Microprose M1 Tank Platoon game.

Armored Brigade should treat you well.

Mr Luxury Yacht
Apr 16, 2012


MonkeyLibFront posted:

Thank you a lot, kinda trying to intergrate my job as a tank commander into gaming wihout spending steel beasts level money, i don't mind generated scenarios as long as they are in an enviroment of the cold war, i really enjoyed the Wargame series for my coldwar fix but realise it's not on the same spectrum as games within this thread. I'll probably just buy the base game without the DLC (Unless i lose massive improvement of gameplay) just to see what it's like, current covid has my spending really low so games budget has increased.

Another good thing about the game is you don't lose any gameplay features without the DLC. It's literally just the factions and maps, and they do go on sale occasionally. At a decent discount I'd say they're worth it. Both have in my opinion one real fun faction (Yugoslavia in the first pack, France in the second) and one that's just "Whoops more Leopard 1s" (Italy/Belgium). The Ardennes map is pretty sweet also. Piles of heavy, hilly forest are a bitch and a half to get tanks through.

In terms of simulation details what did you want to know? It's definitely more detailed than Wargame but still isn't perfect.

MonkeyLibFront
Feb 26, 2003
Where's the cake?

Yooper posted:

As in real life job?

I crewed an M1A2 with the 1st Cav. I'd kill for a modern remake of the Microprose M1 Tank Platoon game.

Armored Brigade should treat you well.

Yeah completed my Tank Commanders for Challenger 2 last year, absolute nerd in my spare time whch i seem to have a lot of now, was supposed to be in Finland at the moment on a joint exercise. I'm firing up my old pc for things other than browsing to pass some of the down time, nice to see another Tankie from accross the pond.

Mr Luxury Yacht posted:

Another good thing about the game is you don't lose any gameplay features without the DLC. It's literally just the factions and maps, and they do go on sale occasionally. At a decent discount I'd say they're worth it. Both have in my opinion one real fun faction (Yugoslavia in the first pack, France in the second) and one that's just "Whoops more Leopard 1s" (Italy/Belgium). The Ardennes map is pretty sweet also. Piles of heavy, hilly forest are a bitch and a half to get tanks through.

In terms of simulation details what did you want to know? It's definitely more detailed than Wargame but still isn't perfect.

Thats great though, probably what i'm looking for to be honest with you, loved Close Combat back in the day and this just seems like a much more scaled up version, i also do like the idea of supporting small dev teams as well. Are you able to execute things such as forming FUP's in dead ground before an AI/Sqn attack on to positions, dismount warriors (APC's) with intimate and assualt tanks while you have FS tanks off to the side or is that too much to ask for and its more of units holding ground and assualting over broad fronts?

Yooper
Apr 30, 2012


MonkeyLibFront posted:

Thats great though, probably what i'm looking for to be honest with you, loved Close Combat back in the day and this just seems like a much more scaled up version, i also do like the idea of supporting small dev teams as well. Are you able to execute things such as forming FUP's in dead ground before an AI/Sqn attack on to positions, dismount warriors (APC's) with intimate and assualt tanks while you have FS tanks off to the side or is that too much to ask for and its more of units holding ground and assualting over broad fronts?

It can do small(er) unit tactics fairly well. Though I think you'd probably want to run it in real time mode and not WEGO mode. The order delay might get kind of annoying in that context. But yah, you can totally slide some tanks into a treeline and offer fire support while infantry goes into an urban environment.

Pharnakes
Aug 14, 2009
Isn't steel beast actually sanely priced these days? At least sane by how grogs measure such things.

Mr Luxury Yacht
Apr 16, 2012


Pharnakes posted:

Isn't steel beast actually sanely priced these days? At least sane by how grogs measure such things.

The personal edition is $125 USD and requires an always in USB dongle for the license.

Popete
Oct 6, 2009

This will make sure you don't suggest to the KDz
That he should grow greens instead of crushing on MCs

Grimey Drawer

Mr Luxury Yacht posted:

The personal edition is $125 USD and requires an always in USB dongle for the license.

:dogbutton:

PoontifexMacksimus
Feb 14, 2012

Alchenar posted:

I mean it's valid for you to have fun the way you want, but UoC is absolutely designed as a kind of chess puzzle game. There is a perfect score for each scenario and that perfect score requires you to do a very specific sequence of moves (and often get lucky on dice rolls).

You can not do that and still win, but you will never get the perfect solution that the game literally tells you is possible.

e: and again in different words, planning is a 'better' way to play because the game literally has scores and scores you higher for solving the puzzle in the best way.

Not to claim to be a wargame god (I'm still deeply mediocre at UoC2) but after 100 hours I had all UoC1 scenarios down to where I wouldn't just take all objectives on time, but destroy every single enemy unit and have spare movement enough to occupy every hex on the map, for every scenario across all the campaigns.

Again, not claiming any tactical genius, just that the game felt extremely solved and predictable after enough play, whatever that means for its classification.

I don't think I'll ever reach that level of ease with UoC2.

ZombieLenin posted:

From my perspective on each campaign mission, there are somewhere between 2 and 4 ways a mission must be played, with cards you must have selected, to complete all of the timed objectives.

To me, this is by definition, a puzzle game.

Which cards do you feel were necessary? What comes mind for me were the times the Polish Airborne Brigade grabbed a last turn objective after I got stuck on stragglers

Virtual Russian
Sep 15, 2008

Mr Luxury Yacht posted:

The personal edition is $125 USD and requires an always in USB dongle for the license.

That is some top tier grog

V for Vegas
Sep 1, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER
There's also this take on MBT warfare like Steel Beasts coming out which isn't as groggy - Gunner Heat PC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWUVYv0SZVw

cool new Metroid game
Oct 7, 2009

hail satan

Steel Beasts Pro also has some weird time limited version that doesn't require a dongle. 10bux for a month, 25 for 4 months and 40 for a year. So it's either a dongle or a subscription. Grogs eh?

HerpicleOmnicron5
May 31, 2013

How did this smug dummkopf ever make general?


40 for the year isn't the most unreasonable, to be fair.

cool new Metroid game
Oct 7, 2009

hail satan

I've been playing Armoured Command II which was recently released as a paid product on Steam, old beta version still free but no more updates. It's a WW2 tank commander roguelike not really a grog wargame but it's ugly as gently caress with a mostly keyboard only UI, it has hexes and I've learnt about weird Polish tankettes, anti-tank guns and artillery so it's kinda grog, groglike? Anyway it's pretty fun.

Panzeh
Nov 27, 2006

"..The high ground"

cool new Metroid game posted:

I've been playing Armoured Command II which was recently released as a paid product on Steam, old beta version still free but no more updates. It's a WW2 tank commander roguelike not really a grog wargame but it's ugly as gently caress with a mostly keyboard only UI, it has hexes and I've learnt about weird Polish tankettes, anti-tank guns and artillery so it's kinda grog, groglike? Anyway it's pretty fun.


It's fun playing the b1 bis because you're immune to almost everything- the handicap mechanism for taking worse tanks is that you get a bigger friendly platoon when you take weaker tanks. The b1 bis has a single somua as a friend while the H35 is part of a group of four.

Panzeh fucked around with this message at 22:36 on May 19, 2020

Phi230
Feb 2, 2016

by Fluffdaddy
How do I mark units' quality levels in Shadow Empire? I haven't played in like 2 months and the UI has changed.

Pharnakes
Aug 14, 2009
Humble brags are not cool :mad:

ElBrak
Aug 24, 2004

"Muerte, buen compinche. Muerte."
It's pretty simple, you just pm me your cd-key and a download link. Dead easy.

Saros
Dec 29, 2009

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

I set sail for the Planet of Lab Requisitions!!

Phi230 posted:

How do I mark units' quality levels in Shadow Empire? I haven't played in like 2 months and the UI has changed.

Model management tab I think.

Serpentis
May 31, 2011

Well, if I really HAVE to shoot you in the bollocks to shut you up, then I guess I'll need to, post-haste, for everyone else's sake.
So Armoured Command 2 is a blast, particularly when trying to get through the fall of France with an A13
I have never regretted the lack of HE rounds more than when a map is full of AT rifle squads that spawn in entrenched...

SlyFrog
May 16, 2007

What? One name? Who are you, Seal?
Did they retract the release date on Shadow Empire? I could have sworn I saw a date of June something at some point. Now, when I google Shadow Empire release date, I see nothing (except for some old game that released in 1996 or something).

Steam doesn't have an expected release date, nor does Matrix from what I can see. (EDIT: Oh, I see if I look in some recent news/blog entry poo poo on the Matrix page, it says June 4, 2020, while still saying "Coming Soon" in the actual release box.)

Also, is there any indication of what the price will be?

ZekeNY
Jun 13, 2013

Probably AFK

SlyFrog posted:

Did they retract the release date on Shadow Empire? I could have sworn I saw a date of June something at some point. Now, when I google Shadow Empire release date, I see nothing (except for some old game that released in 1996 or something).

Steam doesn't have an expected release date, nor does Matrix from what I can see. (EDIT: Oh, I see if I look in some recent news/blog entry poo poo on the Matrix page, it says June 4, 2020, while still saying "Coming Soon" in the actual release box.)

Also, is there any indication of what the price will be?

June 4th according to this thread;
https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3922608&pagenumber=1

Dunno about the price

V for Vegas
Sep 1, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER
It will be $40. That's the standard price they sell these types of games for.

Pharnakes
Aug 14, 2009
DC:B was $60 wasn't it?

Foo Diddley
Oct 29, 2011

cat

Pharnakes posted:

DC:B was $60 wasn't it?

I don't know, but it's $50 right now. The other Decisive Campaigns games are $40 and Advanced Tactics Gold is $30. So the price will probably be somewhere in there. Anyway we're grognards and will probably pay up to $80, but let's not give them any ideas

90s Cringe Rock
Nov 29, 2006
:gay:
Gunner, HEAT, PC! seems pretty cool from the very early demo. It doesn't require a dongle.

Mr Luxury Yacht
Apr 16, 2012


90s Cringe Rock posted:

Gunner, HEAT, PC! seems pretty cool from the very early demo. It doesn't require a dongle.

Pretty exciting. I do hope they eventually branch out earlier than the 80s since I have a particular soft spot for battles before everything had thermals but hopefully there's a few T-55s and Centurions thrown in.

I also like how the majority of his motivation seems to be the terrible grind needed to get to War Thunder's modern tanks

Phi230
Feb 2, 2016

by Fluffdaddy
SABOW continues to be the best tank sim.

Steel Beasts just isn't fun to play.

Bold Robot
Jan 6, 2009

Be brave.



Is there a separate Aurora thread or are people just fielding questions in here? I'd be curious if anyone has a set of tutorial videos they recommend.

Fray
Oct 22, 2010

Bold Robot posted:

Is there a separate Aurora thread or are people just fielding questions in here? I'd be curious if anyone has a set of tutorial videos they recommend.

There's no aurora thread, but this is the biggest collection of tutorials I'm aware of: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=11003.0

Tetraptous
Nov 11, 2004

Dynamic instability during transition.

cool new Metroid game posted:

I've been playing Armoured Command II which was recently released as a paid product on Steam, old beta version still free but no more updates. It's a WW2 tank commander roguelike not really a grog wargame but it's ugly as gently caress with a mostly keyboard only UI, it has hexes and I've learnt about weird Polish tankettes, anti-tank guns and artillery so it's kinda grog, groglike? Anyway it's pretty fun.


It's very fun! Somehow I bounced off it when I tried the original free version, but I am quite enjoying the paid version. It's like $8. Not super groggy for a PC game, but the mechanics feel like they're straight out of a very enjoyable solitaire beer and pretzels wargame.

Dramicus
Mar 26, 2010
Grimey Drawer

Tetraptous posted:

It's very fun! Somehow I bounced off it when I tried the original free version, but I am quite enjoying the paid version. It's like $8. Not super groggy for a PC game, but the mechanics feel like they're straight out of a very enjoyable solitaire beer and pretzels wargame.

I've been having fun with it too. The only complaint I've got, and maybe this is a result of the particular tank I selected, is that I find that the main cannon breaks too often. So far, I've had it break every single day of the campaign. Granted, I'm driving a Panzer 2 with a 20mm gun, which means I'm probably shooting way more often than other tanks. That might have something to do with it.

sum
Nov 15, 2010

MonkeyLibFront posted:

Thank you a lot, kinda trying to intergrate my job as a tank commander into gaming wihout spending steel beasts level money, i don't mind generated scenarios as long as they are in an enviroment of the cold war, i really enjoyed the Wargame series for my coldwar fix but realise it's not on the same spectrum as games within this thread. I'll probably just buy the base game without the DLC (Unless i lose massive improvement of gameplay) just to see what it's like, current covid has my spending really low so games budget has increased.

AFAIK the only other recent-ish tank sim besides Steel Beasts is Steel Armor. The UI is janky but it's got very fun Cold War settings (Angola, Soviet-era Afghanistan, Iran-Iraq war), although the only drivable tanks are the T-62 and the M60. It's only $30 and it's on Steam, might be worth checking out.

Wooper
Oct 16, 2006

Champion draGoon horse slayer. Making Lancers weep for their horsies since 2011. Viva Dickbutt.
Got DC:B for 17€ on a sale.

It was probably around 40$ at the time.

Wooper fucked around with this message at 03:51 on May 23, 2020

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Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

There's a difference between retro 8-bit styling and literally being 8-bit and I don't like the second so much.

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