Wargamer's Corner

Yeah, thanks - I'm staying very busy, with the warm weather the weekends are very pleasantly filled with Getting the land around the house set up for the animals. Just finished clearing brush, next weekend will be the start of fencing.

Work- work blows. My boss and the regional boss are very happy with me, but the QM turds keep hammering me in my evals. The workload is impossible to keep up with, truly impossible. Having some difficulty with that as in my last career you did not have that type of pressure. The pressure in the private sector gig is less intense but always present, whereas my last job was sparotic and could really spike. But no job is perfect, and being Irish I am bred for unhapiness Everything else is going well, thanks for asking -

I'm playing one SPMBT scenario with Richy in which he has ATGMs dug into a West German held town and is tearing up my Armored infantry company assault as they cut across a farmer's field. No arty for smoke missions, nothing!

My Squad Battles Afghanistan game has stalled as my gaming buddy has fallen in love and has his girl moving in with him. Playing baseball on the 360 a lot lately, I still can't sit for much PC gaming due to being in front of the PC 30 hours a week and a wierd onset of sciatica (sp?) that is agrevated by it. Been a few months now, it just won't go away even thought I am getting a lot of excercise.

That's why the wargames work well for me. Not too long in front of the computer. New PBEM scenarios are out for Battlefront by the way, 4 of them, some quite large.

Robear wrote:

Oh, and few multiplayer tweaks as well.

Bonne Chance!

Interested in playing some multi later this month? I've never tried it in EU before. And maybe we could get Wandering to play with us.

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Are there any 1914-1918 wargames out there? I'm really into that period but haven't ever heard about any titles. I presume that there aren't any.

I've never tried EU3 multi, so I guess I'm game.

Swampy, I wish you all the luck with your adjustment. You gotta find the right level of engagement and figure out what's "do it now" and what's "this'll wait". Otherwise people will abuse you.

My work is really beating me up right now but hopefully that will change in July.

Robear wrote:

Swampy, I wish you all the luck with your adjustment. You gotta find the right level of engagement and figure out what's "do it now" and what's "this'll wait". Otherwise people will abuse you. :-)

Or he could just grow a pair.

UCRC wrote:

Are there any 1914-1918 wargames out there? I'm really into that period but haven't ever heard about any titles. I presume that there aren't any.

I heard about Guns of August, but never played it, so I cannot say whether it's worth it or not.

Or he could just grow a pair.

Depends on the management environment. About 10% of managers are, not to put too fine a point on it, sociopaths who delight in cutting them off.

For what it's worth, I read this thread any time there are new posts. I rarely weigh in because I don't really have anything to add. =)

trowan wrote:
Robear wrote:

Swampy, I wish you all the luck with your adjustment. You gotta find the right level of engagement and figure out what's "do it now" and what's "this'll wait". Otherwise people will abuse you. :-)

Or he could just grow a pair.

Cute.

My corporate overlords frown upon such talk. The cruise missles should be arriving soon.

necroyeti wrote:

For what it's worth, I read this thread any time there are new posts. I rarely weigh in because I don't really have anything to add. =)

Ditto. Maybe someday I'll branch out, but I lack space in the schedule for multiple, contemporaneous wargame sessions.

wanderingtaoist wrote:
UCRC wrote:

Are there any 1914-1918 wargames out there? I'm really into that period but haven't ever heard about any titles. I presume that there aren't any.

I heard about Guns of August, but never played it, so I cannot say whether it's worth it or not.

It seems that this might eat my whole summer, Wandering ;] Thanks for link.

Each of these scenarios will find the player going through deceptively named turns. Turns are deceptive in Guns of August because each turn is broken down into an almost overwhelming number of impulses in which a variety of decisions are to be made. Among the actions taken by the player, besides unit deployment, are research, diplomacy, naval orders, refitting, airpower, and unit production. The Guns of August player has an inordinate amount of influence over his nation, much more so than most men ever did in reality. But this portrayal is identical to gaming systems used by strategy titles as varied as the Hearts of Iron series, the Europa Universalis titles, and the Total War games. While not particularly realistic it makes for a really immersive and fun game, especially for historians who beg for historical detail.

Looks promising. I'll report as soon as I find it somewhere and got time to play. Let's just hope that whole Poland-under-occupation mechanics and events are there.

Missed that question completely.

I have looked at that title, but the thing is, WWI was such a static war after the first few chaotic months -from both a strategic and tactical sense. Not nearly as many options as WWII or more modern fare.

But that said, Guns of August is said to be pretty painstakingly true to the boardgame, which had quite a few devotees.

For me, I love tactical and operational level WWII and Modern. Turn based games, WeGo are best, but YouGo IGo are fine too, justr as long as I can play by email!

This is how I picture the end of Swampy's cubicle career.

I'd do more of an Office Space kind of thing.

That can't be real. People are so stupid they'd stand around and let this guy do that stuff? Just walk out of the room, people!

So, through my years spent gaming I've often heard people talk about ASL but I never tried to find it since I thought it was out of print or otherwise unavailable. Last Saturday I was visiting a gaming store and saw that they had the ASL 2nd Edition Rulebook and Starter kits.

This weekend I went back and bought one of the starter kits and, so far, have managed to play through one of the smaller scenarios, teaching myself the rules on the way. After thinking about the system a bit more last night I realized that 'Steel Panthers' seems to be the spiritual computer equivalent of ASL.

So far, I've only learned the basic infantry rules, which wasn't too bad; but it seems like that learning curve really steepens once you start using more advanced units and conditions. What I'm getting at: Is it worth it to keep investing time into learning ASL if games like SP provide a similar experience and handle all the fiddley rules? Does ASL get better the further down the rabbit hole you go?

Steel Panthers was a lot of fun.

Well, thanks Richy. I guess I'll stick with SP, which I re-downloaded this morning before work and can always pull out the ASL rules to scare away unwanted visitors. It's been years since I played CM though... maybe that one warrants a re-install too.

I saw the LockNLoad Band of Heroes at the store and almost bought it instead of ASL. I was thinking I'd wait for Heroes of Stalingrad though.

CM is really more the spiritual successor to ASL, being turn-based realtime as it is. SP is good, but it can get gamey in ways that CM avoids (although that also has it's gamey opportunities, running the edges being the main one.)

I'd also recommend the Panzer Command games as being ASL-ish. Perhaps more so than CM.

But for computers, CM is the real deal, and still absolutely worth it for all three games.

You are indeed correct Geo, SP is bascially the PC version of Squad Leader and Combat Mission even more so.

I've only played the original SL bookcase games by Avalon Hill, but from what I understand ASL does indeed get more complex the deeper you go. Its almost a hobby unto itself in its following. Check out Multiman Publishing's website for the full ASL run down if you haven't already.

If you want to try a lighter version of sqaud based combat with lots of crunchy bits check out Tide of Iron by Fantasy Flight games.

Swampy and I played and enjoyed World at War Eisenbach Gap from LockNLoad. The designer is also producing a WWII version White Star Rising based on the same impulse system.

Finally LockNLoad is doing a PC WWII game called Heroes of Stalingrad (which may have already been mentioned).

Gary Grigsby's War Between the States was just released by Matrix. It looks like an updated GG's World at War. WaW was fun but after a few games it became pretty predictable as to how things would unfold. Still on the fence with WBTS, but nice AAR's like this get me worked up to go and order it.

Anybody else looking at this one?

I am. I like Grigsby's stuff and generally support him. Not sure when I'll get this, though. Bunch of games to play these days.

Man, I'm just getting off the mat following a bout with the worst flu I've ever had. Haven't even had the energy to be on the boards! Just when the weather got real hot. Nothing like a head full of snot when it is 98 degrees and humid. Two days I spent in bed shivering despite the heat. That what happens I guess when you feel yourself getting sick so you decide to "sweat it out" and go out in said 98 degree heat and humidity and do yard work until you nearly faint. Ye gods, I am such a tool sometimes....Scratch that.....Often.

From the buzz on the forums at MATRIX, it appears as if HoS may be delayed from the rumored June '08 release to August '08.

Similarly, the console Brothers in Arms Hells Highway has been pushed back to August 12 but that looks firm. There is a trailer up on LIVE that left me rather luke warm. Definately have to wait for reviews & / or demo.

Sorry to hear you were sick, Swampy. I'm back on an Ageod ACW kick again, trying out the newest version. Have not grabbed the Grigsby one yet but it looks fun.

I really want HoS so I hope the rumors are wrong.

SwampYankee wrote:

Missed that question completely.

I have looked at that title, but the thing is, WWI was such a static war after the first few chaotic months -from both a strategic and tactical sense. Not nearly as many options as WWII or more modern fare.

But that said, Guns of August is said to be pretty painstakingly true to the boardgame, which had quite a few devotees.

For me, I love tactical and operational level WWII and Modern. Turn based games, WeGo are best, but YouGo IGo are fine too, justr as long as I can play by email!

I just got back from annual nationwide historical competition finals (for students) held in Poland capitol, Warsaw. It focuses on military and history of Polish army, and this edition it was 1887-1922 period. I managed to get into finals with 26 other participants out of 35 000 people (there isn't any other competition with scale comparable to this). And I came second in finals
Preparations and studies took nearly ten months of everyday work and - quite frankly - destroyed my personal life completely. It was probably the most exhausting workload I ever had, and will have in time to come. And it was done just for the sake of it because other than material rewards, it doesn't give me any benefits for later university studies, because I'm IT student (they didn't wanted to believe that ;]). I just did it because I love it. And, hey, I'm happy with that

So, yeah, I'm quite interested in seeing how Guns of August plays

That's pretty impressive, UC. I think I'll avoid email play with you.

Robear wrote:

That's pretty impressive, UC. I think I'll avoid email play with you. :-)

Right now I'm wondering how accurate/precise the game is on operational level. Reading through manual will take me few days and then I'll try to have game with just copying original First WW, to see whether it plays realistically or not.
btw: I've heard that some people play wargame that was originally used to train NCOs and army commanders in Europe during late 19th century. Anyone have more on this?

jakeleg wrote:

Gary Grigsby's War Between the States was just released by Matrix. It looks like an updated GG's World at War. WaW was fun but after a few games it became pretty predictable as to how things would unfold. Still on the fence with WBTS, but nice AAR's like this get me worked up to go and order it.

Anybody else looking at this one?

I hate to say this, but I'd rather pirate a Matrix game then give Matrix any more of my money. I've had nothing but bad luck with their products. They allow developers to put out horribly buggy games, won't provide demos and won't refund money under any circumstance.

For example, Maximum Football was "released" about 2 years ago in awful condition. Simply put, it didn't work. According to the developer, it's still in beta NOW and yet Matrix wouldn't do anything for those suckers who bought the game. Forge of Freedom had some serious performance bugs when released that made it unplayable for some (hell, I couldn't get it to even load for over a week) and awful game logic. It was half-baked...again, Matrix wouldn't do anything about it.

Not all of their products are bad - many of them are decent and some are good. But if a developer put a lump of sh*t in a box and sold it, Matrix wouldn't provide refunds while continuing to sell the lump of sh*t in a box. That's inexcusable. Stardock stands by their products - and it shows. Matrix doesn't. As such, they'll never see a dollar from me again. If I really, really wanted something (and I haven't), I'd either buy it on Ebay for a lesser price or just download it altogether.

btw: I've heard that some people play wargame that was originally used to train NCOs and army commanders in Europe during late 19th century. Anyone have more on this?

I believe this would be the 19th century game called "Kriegspiel", which covered an area of the France/Belgium border and was very popular in the Prussian military. It was created in 1824 and I think by the end of the century was pretty inaccurate, but it seems to have been the first modern board wargame. I don't have links to it, unfortunately, but I bet there are people who play it.

There are actual military training games adapted for hobbyists. "Armored Task Force" and it's brethren from Shrapnel Games fall into that category. You might enjoy one of them. Oh, and check out "Conquest of the Aegean", it's got much higher production quality and is more fun (in my opinion). WWII operational actions in the Med.

BTW, Supreme Ruler 2020 is out. Not enough time with it to give impressions (my system is hosed and my router suffered terribly for days until it finally died.) However, so far, so good.

Robear wrote:
btw: I've heard that some people play wargame that was originally used to train NCOs and army commanders in Europe during late 19th century. Anyone have more on this?

I believe this would be the 19th century game called "Kriegspiel", which covered an area of the France/Belgium border and was very popular in the Prussian military. It was created in 1824 and I think by the end of the century was pretty inaccurate, but it seems to have been the first modern board wargame.

Yeah, I've heard of it, they used even before 1870 war, if I recall correctly. But I think that later on they came with something else but I can't come up with any name.

Birth of America 2 is out! Here's the website.