On the playing map, zoom in a bit until you see the red and white circles on certain cities. Those are victory point locations. Click one of those hexes and the VP value will show up in the top bar over the map, a bit to the right of center.
Thanks, I can barely see it, it's so tiny! Thanks!
Lent, there's a fairly new (September 2020) game from Wargame Design Studio (formerly John Tiller Software) called Panzer Campaigns Scheldt '44. It covers the campaigns in and around the Scheldt estuary in Belgium and the Netherlands in 1944. So there are several campaigns for the Maas Salient, the advance to the Dutch border, and the capture of the Channel ports. It includes a large scenario that is a more accurate version of one they dedicated a previous game to (Market Garden, of course). The map is large enough that the entire campaign is modeled, all the way up to the Dutch border, with both the land and airborne elements going on at the same time.
Scheldt is very good and has some quite detailed systems to handle canal crossings, flooding, insurgencies and all sorts of other goodies that are not often seen in this system. Not many games have taken on these topics and this one is very good.
Lent, there's a fairly new (September 2020) game from Wargame Design Studio (formerly John Tiller Software) called Panzer Campaigns Scheldt '44.
Thanks !
Matrix is having a sale on Gary Grigsby games. Thinking about grabbing war in the pacific. Any opinions?
More streamlined than it used to be but still an old-school monster game. However, the regional scenarios, like the Coral Sea, are quite manageable and interesting. Again, though, Grand Strategy and Operations and even some tactical elements on a grand scale.
WitP is an aspirational/bucket list game for me (and has been for a long time since way back when it was DOS-based GG's Pacific War). I've never made it past April 42 in the grand campaign. As Robear rightly points out, the smaller scenarios are manageable, interesting and quite fun - which feeds into my desire to get back into the grand campaign 
.
I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes monster wargames, despite the old UI. I think it is the most monster monster wargame ever made.
Edit: I am eyeballing War Between the States. Anyone have anything to share about how that has aged?
If you buy one of the other GG games, I think you get WBtS for free. I did.
If you buy one of the other GG games, I think you get WBtS for free. I did.
Yeah but I have all the others except World at War (and I don't want to get that just to get a freebie unless someone can tell me it is amazing) so no free prize for me!
Honestly, I don't remember anything outstanding about it. I played AGEOD's Civil War 2 instead.
Honestly, I don't remember anything outstanding about it. I played AGEOD's Civil War 2 instead.
I vaguely remember years ago asking about CW strategic games in this very thread and you recommending CW2 over WBtS. Which was an excellent recommendation, CW2 is probably their best game IMO.
I'm old, yes.
I'm old, yes.
Ain't we all brother.
I have Civil War 2 in my Steam library and I never tried it. LOL, I think that I got it in some bundle and thought that it was like some sh*tty "alternate history" game where there was a 2nd Civil War. I'm an idiot...installing it now!
Once you get through the concept of assembling your Armies and/or Corps from Brigades, Regiments, and Divisions, the game falls into place. Troop levies are just points you allocate to train the type of unit you think you'll need a few months down the line. Those become either replacement points to add to existing units (building them back but reducing their experience) or they can be built out on the map, then trained somewhere in the rear areas if you have time. Then, you ship and march them around to somewhere they can join up with others and be assigned a Commander. Those units can be grouped together under a Division Commander, and Divisions fall under Corps (which can act independently as smaller Armies). Armies consist of Corps and Divisions. Oh, and leaders can be promoted or retired, both at political cost, and may be better at one level of command than another. Also, you have specialist units like Supply Wagon trains that can be attached for extended operations away from a supply depot or railhead.
Did I mention it models Supply? And Naval operations? 2 week turns, I think, with simultaneous resolution several times a day, so it's not tactical, it's operational and strategic. Oh, and politics and policy cards too.
Kind of awesome actually.
The AGEOD system works very well in the game. I don't think it does always (looking at you Pride of Nations, also their Roman Empire game, can't remember the name) but when it works it really works well.
Agreed. And Phillippe is active in the FB Computer Games group, too. He's hawking his new SGS games so you can talk to him if you want.
I broke down and grabbed DC:Ardennes before the Steam sale ended. I played the Arracourt scenario and got a major victory. I basically bum rushed the points in the first couple of turns and then dug in and held on. I enjoyed it!
I watched a couple of let's plays on Youtube and I definitely missed some things when I first jumped in. I am looking forward to playing another small scenario before moving on to a medium sized one and then a campaign.
I still don't have the supply system down (although it didn't really matter for Arracourt except that my ARTY chewed through supply which is by design according to the manual so you can only do 1 full barrage a day). I'm also a bit confused about the "Reinforcements" PP card. It gives you a bunch of troops at the highest level reachable HQ. I don't know if I'm supposed to micro them into a new unit or they flow down to subordinate units that need them.
Anyway, it's a load of fun. I'm wrapping my head around the system overall and I'll probably take this knowledge back to some of the other DC games.
4.1 Replacement Troops is your reference. They appear at an HQ, whether by schedule or by card. Next turn, they flow down to units that need them, giving priority to units with the "Replacements" order. Each turn, a unit can get up to 10% of it's losses back via these points.
So you only have to set the priority and make sure that there is a clear supply path to the unit that needs the troops. Out of the supply network means no replacements either...
4.1 Replacement Troops is your reference. They appear at an HQ, whether by schedule or by card. Next turn, they flow down to units that need them, giving priority to units with the "Replacements" order. Each turn, a unit can get up to 10% of it's losses back via these points.
So you only have to set the priority and make sure that there is a clear supply path to the unit that needs the troops. Out of the supply network means no replacements either...
Awesome, thanks Robear!!
Any thoughts about the next scenario I should play?
The author suggests working through them in order of size.
I just happened upon WEGO World War II: Stalingrad today while I was looking through the Matrix forums for some info about DC:Ardennes scenarios. It looks really interesting. Has anyone play it or the other game in the series WEGO World War II: Desert War?
I have both. Played some of the Desert one when it came out but got sidetracked. Thinking about picking it up again. Note that Stalingrad is an improved version of the system - more attack types and that sort of thing.
I found it interesting, at least, but did not play enough scenarios to really say (Desert one).
Just finished the West Wall scenario in DC:Ardennes. Really fun, small scenario. I think that 'Normal' difficulty is too easy, also, I think that the scenario is strongly balanced towards the allies. I'm no strategic genius and I managed to get the computer to surrender. I hadn't seen that it my first game. I took all of the victory points, the last of which was the Axis supply base.
I'm going to bump the difficulty level up a notch and see how that goes. I hate that it doesn't make the AI stronger, it just gives it bonuses. I know that's how most difficulty levels work in games but, it would be nice if wargame producers would spend more time building better AIs.
You mean the one guy who programs the series?
You mean the one guy who programs the series? :-)
Yeah, I know...it wasn't a knock on this particular series, just wargames strategy games in general, I guess.
That poses an interesting question for the group. Have you played any wargames where you said, "Wow! This AI (or script) is really good. It's reacting the way I would expect it to". Or maybe just, what is the best wargame AI experience that you can think of? (I'll accept general strategy games too :P)
I don't really know enough to tell.
Maybe only peripherally a wargame, but, Regiments is out today. I just grabbed it but haven't had a chance to fire it up yet,
Real Time Tactical. That's a wargame, similar to Combat Mission and Graviteam Tactics.
And from the tutorials, while it's a bit daunting to remember all the various keys and mode switches while actually coordinating units, it's fun and it does feel a bit less frantic than some other games of the type. I'm enjoying it so far.
The graphics are clear and informative while still retaining the look of miniatures banging away at each other. The maps are very attractive and provide ample opportunity to do more than just gather units and rush in (which is in fact a recipe for really quick defeate). Sounds are okay, my sound seems to be very low so I have to turn up system sound to around 50 for some reason. There are only a few commands for units, which is fine, and they include "Reverse now!" and "Bug out", the latter will pull the unit from the map and put it back on the ready rack waiting for a timer to expire before you can bring it back in. But that could save it from destruction, which can happen quite quickly if you put a foot wrong.
It's a bit weird to see units just sail through terrain and buildings, but then you realize the scale of the vehicles is such that little things like driving around a building are just abstracted. It's assumed they are making use of cover.
Artillery is fun, and the whole recon - maneuver - ready - assault version of the OODA loop seems to drive the game forward. Take too long on any of those steps and you'll become the victim of your opponent doing the same thing, only faster. Even if you plan a pincer and one side shows up late, the enemy can defeat you in detail, first one side, then the other. Timing is important. So someone's up on proper doctrine - get inside your opponents OODA loop to survive! - and that makes looking at the map first and coming up with a plan essential. Then, of course, reality wrecks it and you pivot to expediency lol.
And all this from the tutorial. Impressive, really.
Anyone catch how to chain unit movement objectives together?
It's a bit weird to see units just sail through terrain and buildings, but then you realize the scale of the vehicles is such that little things like driving around a building are just abstracted. It's assumed they are making use of cover.
This definitely threw me off in the tutorial. The units looked so pretty so I zoomed right in only to see a tank drive right through a building. I thought it was a bug but you make sense Robear.
Anyone catch how to chain unit movement objectives together?
Hold down shift while right clicking.
I had an issue in the tutorials where I couldn't get my mechanized units to move once they dismounted. I'm not sure what happened there.
I'm really hoping for a scenario editor. I haven't tried the campaign yet but, I think custom scenarios would add a lot of replayability beyond skirmishes.
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