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Aside from Paradox games and a bit of Wargame: European Escalation, I haven't done any grognardy wargames at all. Reading through Grey's WITP LP right now while on a business trip and I'm suddenly hooked by the idea of them. This may sound like a really stupid question, but does Matrix ever do some kind of yearly special event where their prices are suddenly slashed to somewhat sane levels? I really want to give WITP a try but I refuse to shell out like $85 for it. What's the opinion on the more current Close Combat games? I played the absolute poo poo out of the original Close Combat game when I was a kid and would love to go back to that series for pure nostalgia value. In the meantime I'll content myself with Darkest Hour, I guess. 
Drone fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Feb 4, 2014 |
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Feb 4, 2014 21:06
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Davin Valkri posted:Trust me, you do not want to go into War in the Pacific blind. Even the ones who love it say it takes forever to play. Look into Unity of Command instead to start out. That one's on Steam, too. I've only checked out the Unity of Command demo on Steam, but so far it seems very... board gamey? Is there maybe something a bit more complex that is still reasonably friendly to a newcomer? As far as strategy game experience goes, I've been a Paradox veteran since the heady days of Hearts of Iron 2 (pre-Doomsday)/Victoria (pre-Ricky). Edit: Close Combat - Cross of Iron and Close Combat - Die Wacht am Rhein are both 50% off this week... Drone fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Feb 4, 2014 |
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Feb 4, 2014 22:01
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gradenko_2000 posted:War in the Pacific has you managing individual pilots within a squadron, shipping supplies to every dinky little mudhut across the Pacific and does not stop at asking you to designate task force commanders: You also can (read: have to) select individual captains for individual ships. It's just an unbelievable amount of minutia. You say this like it's a bad thing, all of that sounds pretty awesome. uPen posted:Decisive Campaigns: The Blitzkrieg from Warsaw to Paris would be a good introductory game. It's relatively straighforward and it's a series of small campaigns so it's easier to get into. If you want to jump into the slightly deeper end Decisive Campaigns: Case Blue is just a huge 11 month campaign from Case Blue to Uranus. The engine is better (it's the sequel) and I like a lot of the improvements they made but CB only has a few kinda lovely scenarios that aren't as good for learning as Poland or the Netherlands are. This looks pretty okay, I may tag it for checking out later.
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Feb 5, 2014 18:58
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So I've been skimming the last few pages of the thread and keep eyeing poo poo I shouldn't want to buy, like WitP. Can anyone give like a bullet-pointed list of why this game is apparently so amazing (once you finally break through at least parts of the horrifically mind-boggling learning curve)? Pretty much every testimonial has been something along the lines of "yeah it's $80 but it's the most amazing thing" but there's not a whole lot of specific info on why it's the most amazing thing. Also gave the Unity of Command demo another try, since I think I judged it unfairly the first time. It's got the virtue of having quite a bit of polish and looking/feeling very nice to play, and running through the easy demo scenario was actually fairly fun. Still slightly puzzly/boardgamey, but definitely not bad, and I may think about picking it up if I ever see it on sale. Drone fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Feb 6, 2014 |
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Feb 6, 2014 22:33
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V for Vegas posted:Your investment is always repaid with interest. I'm really close to just buying it, since I've been reading Grey Hunter's LP for quite a bit (that's what drew me here). Weird question though before I bite the bullet: is WitP one of the Matrix games I've heard about that has some kind of really painful system where you can only install the software on one machine at a time? I'm going to be replacing my old computer soon with a nice new PC, and if such a system is in place with Matrix, I might just wait to buy until I get my new gaming rig.
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Feb 7, 2014 19:34
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Can someone give me a rundown on how transferring commands works in WitP, why/how/when you go about doing it, how you organize all your poo poo, etc.? Like I've got these stacks of fighter planes chilling in Seattle that I'd really like to transfer to Pearl, then onward to Java, but I can't seem to be able to (which I think is because they're in the West Coast command).
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Feb 14, 2014 18:57
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Is there an easy way of finding the HQ unit on the map and zooming to it for a requested command? Like, can I find the HQ unit for the 5th Fleet, or for whatever major or minor land-based command? Edit: and what exactly does "Quiet China" mean in the scenario selection? I started a December 8th (Quiet China) game and... China doesn't seem very quiet? Drone fucked around with this message at 09:50 on Feb 15, 2014 |
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Feb 15, 2014 09:14
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More WitP questions: -Why the gently caress can't I load troops onto APs? An example: I've got a small AP TF set up sitting in Wellington, and according to everything I'm reading in the info screen, it has more than enough troop cargo capacity to carry the one ARM unit present in the hex. But when I make the TF, give it the Transport mission, and then click "Load Troops", the list of available troops that can be loaded is empty. The troops in question are marked as reserved (with [R] as in my last question), but not [S], so they should be able to board the troop transports. Right? I need to get poo poo to Port Moresby ASAP.
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Feb 15, 2014 20:49
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Any good rundown on the different ship type acronyms in WitP? I've found some info in the manual but nothing as exhaustive as listing every civilian/transport ship model (xAP, AP, xAKL, AKM, CM, DCM, DCm, and the fifty-five others I haven't heard). I'm good with your normal CV/CVL/BB/BC/CA/CL/DD/SS stuff otherwise. I feel like I'm slowly getting a grasp on this game and peeling back the veneer a bit, but it probably doesn't help my learning that I keep restarting my scenarios because I understand things slightly better. Haven't managed to get to Christmas 1941 yet. Edit: VVVVVV Owns, thanks uPen! Drone fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Feb 15, 2014 |
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Feb 15, 2014 21:15
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uPen posted:If you're looking for something to defend Moresby with I'd recommend using the 8th Australian Division which you can form from units in Rabaul, Malaya and Darwin. It's unrestricted, is already mostly in the region and is one of the strongest units the allies get. You mean the I Australian Corps? That's the only non-restricted Australian command I'm seeing in Darwin/Malaya/Rabaul.
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Feb 15, 2014 21:23
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Much better, thanks! Is there something that makes the 8th Australian Div. special, besides its ease of deployment to Moresby? And if so, is there a convenient spreadsheet somewhere (I'm sure there are, grognards love spreadsheets) with rebuildable units and their benefits?
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Feb 15, 2014 21:52
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Not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if the AI in WitP is just loving with me. Sent a small convoy to Rabaul with the intent of picking up some troops there to bring back to relative safety in order to form some larger divisions (8th Australian, Port Moresby Brigade). Set the convoy destination for Rabaul, and a few days later it arrived - then immediately turned around and putzed around in the area around Rabaul. By the time I noticed and told them to get the gently caress back, the Japanese were already starting their assault on Rabaul and my convoy got annihilated. Is it because I had the Transport mission active and not one of the others, like Cargo or something?
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Feb 16, 2014 09:19
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When Matrix says that DC: Warsaw to Paris is on sale "this week", does that mean I've still got until like Sunday to buy it, or is it per business week? I ask because I'm going to be out of town until Saturday and want to wait until I get back (and get paid) before I bite the bullet and get it.
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Feb 19, 2014 22:22
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Caved and got DC: Warsaw to Paris. My grognard game fix should now be adequately sated for quite awhile between Unity of Command, WitP, and DC:BfWtP. Three games, three theaters. I've only had time to piddle around in Warsaw to Paris for about a half hour so far, but it already seems really fun, and surprisingly more intuitive than I figured it'd be. How awful is the AI, so I can cut my teeth on it before I move into PBEM games with goons?
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Feb 23, 2014 20:03
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Here's a dumb question already: what does the big "21" number on this counter denote? I can't really figure it out and the manual isn't exactly forthcoming with info on the counters themselves. The rest of it I've already figured out since it's fairly intuitive, but I can't for the life of me get this one. I know it's not that unit's stack value, or the stack value of all units in the hex (see red highlights).
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Feb 23, 2014 22:42
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gradenko_2000 posted:Thanks! I did also write some tutorials for WITE and WITP. I'd be really interested in reading anything you have for WITP, if you can link them. The game is clicking with me fine so far, but I'm just awfully bad at it (like I think everyone except Grey Hunter is).
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Feb 28, 2014 09:02
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gradenko_2000 posted:Thanks for the info and the write-up! I have to say I'm really tempted. Ran through this and it's really great, though I was good on most of it. I didn't know about the CS: <Basename> function though for managing convoys and that makes things astronomically easier. Ran through the Operation Buccaneer scenario too and managed to do alright. For some reason it never really even clicked with me to try the smaller scenarios first before diving right into the main campaign, no wonder I've never gotten past Christmas 1941.
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Feb 28, 2014 21:45
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Advanced Tactics Gold is basically the exact same thing as Decisive Campaigns, just with slightly fewer features and an ahistorical focus, right? I'm looking forward to Grey Hunter's LP of it, at least in lieu of a proper DC: Blitzkrieg or Case Blue LP.
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Mar 8, 2014 19:01
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uPen posted:It would be fairly easy to do one for our current game, download the saves and go through it turn by turn taking screenshots. Being fairly new to DC (and really, grognard games in general), I'd love to see something like this. Screenshots of neat stuff goons pull off when playing with/against each other, anyway.
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Mar 8, 2014 19:40
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uPen posted:The biggest Decisive Campaigns tragedy is that Case Blue only allows for 1v1 multiplayer when it is otherwise a much better game than WtP. The idea of goons controlling individual Armies/Army Groups in WtP just seems ridiculously fun to me. Different commanders, different styles, different personalities, all working together (or not) toward the same goal.
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Mar 8, 2014 19:57
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I think I may be trying to approach DC: Warsaw to Paris too tactically instead of strategically. I finally just finished my first full scenario (Fall Weiss), and I lost. By September 25th, I was only a few victory points short of barely winning as Germany. On the plus side, Poland took 50% casualties over the entire month, but I just never was able to perform anything really great, and most of it was a slow, orderly slog through western Poland. Not that I want an explicit how-to guide or anything, but what are some tips for not sucking quite so badly when it comes to strategic/operational planning?
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Mar 14, 2014 16:41
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Alchenar posted:I want to actually show off the PBEM we're playing now, because the last 4 turns I've done a pretty much textbook encirclement, followed by containment with infantry divisions and further exploitation by Panzers, with infantry divisions peeling off from the encirclement day after day in order to follow up on the Panzers rather than sit and watch Belgian troops that aren't going anywhere. Please do, I really want to see goon v. goon grognardery.
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Mar 14, 2014 18:11
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I'm not about to drop $75 on another grog game, but if I'm going to try the demo for one of the Combat Mission games, which should it be? Fortress Italy I assume, since it's the newest released game?
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Mar 22, 2014 11:42
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In my mind, grog games will forever require nothing more powerful than Windows 98 (because bearded middle-aged hamgrogs never update their poo poo).
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Apr 6, 2014 19:47
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I'm reading through uPen's Soviet WitE LP and thought of a question: is there any grog game (or a scenario pack for any of the big ones like WitE/P or DC) that deals with alternate history stuff, like what if the cold war went hot, or what if Patton got his way and the western Allies pushed back against the Soviets at the Elbe?
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Apr 7, 2014 08:16
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gradenko_2000 posted:Battlefront's Strategic Command series has a bunch of these: Western Allies vs Comintern right after WWII or by 1948, a German invasion of the continental United States, a combined German-Japanese Operation Barbarossa from both ends of the country, Germany and Russia joining forces to take on the rest of the world, and so on. That sounds like exactly what I was looking for. Is Strategic Command any good? Edit: looking at Strategic Command: Global War, I'm pretty sure I can get the same experience (but better) from Darkest Hour. Is that a fair assessment? Edit2: the game looks like Civ2. Drone fucked around with this message at 12:19 on Apr 7, 2014 |
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Apr 7, 2014 11:25
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So when you play WitP, does anyone else feel a need (not a spergy grognardy compulsion need, but an actual necessity in order to get through the game) to write the poo poo down that you're doing each turn/plan to do the next one, because there's just SO MUCH poo poo to do (at least at the beginning of a campaign)? I've probably played December of 1941 like a dozen times just because I can't remember the plans that I had started/the supplies and troops I had moved/the organization I created in the previous play session and instead say "gently caress it" and restart. I feel like opening a notebook and just taking turn notes on this, but I feel like that's a grognardy line that one should be wary of crossing. That's a step before printing out a dozen spreadsheets and plastering them around your desk.
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Apr 9, 2014 20:11
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Rapacity posted:I've been watching a let's play of Advanced Tactics Gold and really enjoying it and was wondering, does anyone here had any opinion of it? I downloaded a free strategy guide and, scanning over it, it seems very in-depth but for some reason the actual manual doesn't seem available anywhere. Wasn't Grey Hunter talking about doing an Advanced Tactics Gold LP?
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Apr 10, 2014 08:46
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Chump Farts posted:Holy gently caress they put War in the East down to 40 dollars. If you want a great game at an almost reasonable price, now is the time. Why does this have to happen the week I just dropped a thousand euro on a new PC 
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Apr 14, 2014 13:41
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Koesj posted:
Well, monitor + OS + accessories too. So a decent rig.
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Apr 14, 2014 14:21
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that should have gotten you a pretty fast rig.
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Are the expansions pretty much required for WitE (kinda like how buying the non-Admirals Edition of WitP is pretty dumb)?
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Apr 14, 2014 14:54
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ArchangeI posted:I think his new rig might be able to render the four year campaign in the East in real time Drone's War in the East: Day by Day (Things that will never happen. I'm not nearly crazy enough to LP a game every single day for several years, unlike some...)
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Apr 14, 2014 15:10
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So I'm transitioning to this new PC, and I go to the Matrix site to try to re-download my WitP and DC:Warsaw to Paris install files. But... I can't find them? Are they buried somewhere? The only thing I'm seeing under registered downloads for those two games are patches or planning maps.
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Apr 17, 2014 17:08
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gradenko_2000 posted:Downloads This works for DC:Warsaw to Paris, but looks like I'll have to email them about WitP.
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Apr 17, 2014 18:13
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gradenko_2000 posted:Matrix Games is running an Easter promo: 10 USD off of any game until April 21 using the promo code MX-HAPPYEASTER! Does this stack with WitE being 50% off?
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Apr 18, 2014 17:38
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Gave in and got WitE for the ridiculously low price while it lasted. Booted it up this morning and I just can't seem to penetrate the UI at all (and this coming from someone who took to WitP pretty quickly). Whoever it was that wrote that great little tutorial guide for one of the smaller scenarios in WitP (gradenko_2000?), did you happen to write one up for WitE as well?
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Apr 20, 2014 08:30
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Are there any good graphics mods for DC:WtP that get rid of the dumb cartoony aesthetic? I love that game, but that's the biggest thing I dislike.
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Apr 20, 2014 19:03
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Alchenar posted:DC:WtP has indeed ended in a glorious German victory (notwithstanding the fact that on the last turn half of AGA's panzers ran out of fuel because someone is bad at that) What kind of turnaround per turn in terms of real-life time do you guys run through on these? I'd love to get in on a game, though I'm still terribly green at DC:WtP and grog games in general. Chump Farts posted:It is fun. I'm doing the Husky scenario using Gradenko posts as a tutorial and it is a loving great system and game. I took a look at it when they still had the Easter coupon on Matrix, and I like the scenarios and what it looks like it has to offer, but I just can't get over how ugly the interface looks (more than most other grog games). Is it fairly easy to get used to?
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Apr 22, 2014 13:14
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Maybe I'll give it a go if it ever pops up on the Matrix weekly sale (which seems to be suspiciously lacking this week). I'm fairly interested in it now, and if the interface just proves to be too ugly for me, I could always try hand-modding it into something cleaner.  I am really interested in underrepresented theaters though, since it seems like everything is either France/Benelux or Eastern Front.
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Apr 22, 2014 15:12
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Finally got a few minutes free to sit down with WitE after picking it up last weekend and reading through Gradenko_2000's quickstart guide. Ran through the Valekie Luki tutorial scenario and won, but that's not really any great achievement. The AI only really launched one counterattack on the center of my line, but not until I was already 30-40 miles west of the city. "Soviet Major Victory" felt pretty hollow. I did manage a turn one encirclement of one of the German infantry divisions though, which promptly routed. That's something, I guess. Are the reinforcement divisions (the Estonians, etc.) that appear on the right edge of the map in that scenario supposed to show up in dire need of refit, or had I just moved my HQ's too far out of their supply range for too long? Edit: and what's the next step up from here in terms of learning the game, the Road to Minsk scenario? Drone fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Apr 26, 2014 |
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Apr 26, 2014 18:16
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