It took a few attempts but I eventually fell deep into Twilight Struggle. It became my favorite two-player board game, I highly recommended it if you enjoy deep gameplay with relatively simple mechanics.
I've just recently purchased and played the digital version of Twilight Struggle: Red Sea - a smaller, quick-play (approx 30-45 min) version. That one's fun too, I've only played the AI so far but if anyone else picks it up and wants an async game, let me know.
It took a few attempts but I eventually fell deep into Twilight Struggle. It became my favorite two-player board game, I highly recommended it if you enjoy deep gameplay with relatively simple mechanics.
I've just recently purchased and played the digital version of Twilight Struggle: Red Sea - a smaller, quick-play (approx 30-45 min) version. That one's fun too, I've only played the AI so far but if anyone else picks it up and wants an async game, let me know.
I play TS daily and I'm waiting for Playdek to fix Red Sea before I buy. I don't understand their inability to design and swiftly patch games, since Red Sea is so much smaller in scope than TS. I've played the physical version. It's fine, but the jury is still out.
Decisive Campaigns: Ardennes Offensive has a major update with an entire new scenario, AI improvements, and lots of small QoL enhancements.
Okay, folks, Last Train Home is worth a look, and your time. You lead a group of Czech Legionnaires in Russia during the Civil War, and you have been given an armored train to travel from Western Russia to Vladivostok, where you and your company can take ship back to Europe via neutral companies.
You have resource management, mostly done via encounters as the train stops for various reasons, which allows you to collect stuff you need - ammo, food, cloth, etc. Then you have individual soldiers, each with up to four skills in addition to combat and non-combat roles based on their training and stats. This is the RPG side of the game, where you deal with people's natures, good and bad, and try to help them stay alive as you go along.
There are plenty of tactical encounters along the way, which are pauseable realtime, so they are pretty easy to handle but I suspect will get a bit challenging as you move along. You can rescue other Legionnaires, help civilians, fight or work with the Reds or the Whites or locals, make political decisions, discipline and reward your soldiers, negotiate with local authorities and other armies... It's a blast!
The game is based on a first-hand account of the actual trip, and has an Immersion Mode which uses the actual languages, with obvious native speakers and subtitles. It's also gorgeous. You make a lot of decisions with actual effects, and face unexpected situations and choices.
It's a blast! The controls are slightly wonky, you have to get used to them, but they work well. Explosions are a bit anemic but do the job. Characters are amazingly fleshed out and have complex and different natures and motivations, some of which along with innate abilities like intelligence will influence interactions with outsiders, but only if they have been brought along. 
Check it out!
Last Train Home looks intriguing.
It's very good.
Last Train Home looks intriguing.
I am enjoying it, but they should have picked a smarter leader.
I’ve never played any of the Wargame design studios games…so, I downloaded all of the free demos today. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have some time to mess around with them to see which scale I like. I’ll probably end up getting some of the WW2 ones.
Any favorites from the crew here?
Last Train Home looks intriguing.
Yeah, that looks.... wowza.
For me, the best ones are Panzer Battles, Panzer Campaigns, Civil War, Napoleonics, Squad Battles (recently completely overhauled and up until now highly underrated), and the first Strategic War game.
WDS has long-running DoD contracts and has been on a five or six year updating binge, so the games are far better than the excellent John Tiller Software games that preceded them. Really worth your time if you like igo-ugo wargames (and in the case of the naval and air ones, pausable real time).
The research that goes into each title is itself pretty ground-breaking. These games are strong competitors to Grigsby's games, and to the Decisive Campaigns series. Best of the best for board wargaming on computer.
Picked up Eagles Strike a few weeks ago and took two tries to beat the first tutorial. The Squad Battles series have been revamped over the last 18 months or so in every way - the command bar has been simplified, mechanics redone, visual status indicators greatly improved, counters have unique portraits instead of generic ones, equipment stats were revisited, rules refined, new units and gear added, scenarios redesigned, maps redesigned, map graphics redone including better 3D sprites and maps... This series used to be a bit... stodgy? Now it's fast-paced, dynamic, nailbiting to play, and easier to get into.
Highly recommended. This is the underrated gem of Wargame Design Studios (John Tiller's inheritor). As usual, there is a nice free demo to try out the system. 11 scenarios, some multi-, some single-player, six maps, unit component, order of battle and scenario editors included I think. It covers Operation Urgent Fury, the US invasion of Grenada.
Picked up Eagles Strike a few weeks ago and took two tries to beat the first tutorial. The Squad Battles series have been revamped over the last 18 months or so in every way - the command bar has been simplified, mechanics redone, visual status indicators greatly improved, counters have unique portraits instead of generic ones, equipment stats were revisited, rules refined, new units and gear added, scenarios redesigned, maps redesigned, map graphics redone including better 3D sprites and maps... This series used to be a bit... stodgy? Now it's fast-paced, dynamic, nailbiting to play, and easier to get into.
Highly recommended. This is the underrated gem of Wargame Design Studios (John Tiller's inheritor). As usual, there is a nice free demo to try out the system. 11 scenarios, some multi-, some single-player, six maps, unit component, order of battle and scenario editors included I think. It covers Operation Urgent Fury, the US invasion of Grenada.
Thanks for the tip!
The one thing to get used to - to forgive yourself for forgetting in the excitement - is to stand up troops that have gone to ground at the end of the last turn (or under fire). Without that, they basically can only crawl one hex. They will be safe but your planned move will not be possible lol.
I’m working through the tutorial mission in the Grenada game. I like what I’ve played so far!
Edit: finally finished the tutorial mission. I did terribly with a minor American defeat, most likely due to forgetting to get my men up off the ground before moving them as Robear noted! I’m ready to move on to the next mission though.
Question, is it possible to see a combat log or the results of combat other than as indicated by the graphics (tracers and casualty icons)? I’d like to see details of the rolls so I can learn the system.
I'm not sure about a combat log. Maybe check the WDS boards? Did you take a look at the manual? You could grep for "log" and see what comes up in the manual.
EDIT - Yeah nothing in the manual.
I will note that there is an entire chapter on combat type effects, with equations and graphs, such as:
Infantry protection
Where:
F = penetration value of the firing unit
T= final protection value of the target
V=Fire ValueIf F/T <1
Then: V = (F/T) * V
If F/T >1
Then there is no effect on the fire valueFor Example: If an Infantry target has a Protection value of 8 and the firing unit has a
Penetration value of 4, then the Fire Value is multiplied by 4/8 = 0.5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I came here to say that there's an interesting new little wargame on Steam. It's called "RBM Studios Gettysburg" and it's a digital conversion of a Mark Herman boardgame, made for C3I Magazine (one of those wargames magazines with a physical game in every issue). It's got a BGG rating of 7 with a weight of 2/5, meaning it's good, but not very complex. Seems like a great game for beginning turn-based hex gamers, I know we have a few here.
It's not gigantic, but it's only $5, and for a Mark Herman design, that's a steal. Folks in the reviews say it doesn't seem to be buggy, and they think it implements all the rules, although I didn't see a review for the multiplayer.
For those unfamiliar with Mark Herman, he started with SPI in 1976 and created dozens of games, with at least a dozen on most lists of best board wargames. He invented the system of using cards to influence and resolve battles ("We The People") which has greatly expanded into card-based strategy games in today's digital world. He also has taught and lectured at top American military universities. He's easily one of the top 5 wargame designers ever, so if you want an inexpensive taster of his capabilities, give this one a shot. I have a feeling it'll be worth it (C3I Magazine is no slouch at choosing games to publish.)
Apparently, the game has no AI. In solo mode, you play both sides. Well. Truly old school.
Picked up Eagles Strike after playing more of Granada. I’m reading The Guns at Last Light so they should marry up perfectly. I may try making a scenario.
If anyone wants to do some PBEM let me know. I can’t guarantee that I’m a good opponent, but maybe it will be fun?
It took me two tries to win the first tutorial in Eagles Strike - the "easy" one lol. Remember that Rangers have morale that will generally survive aggressive action more than the Germans, so make use of it.
I'm glad you like it!
Eagles Strike has a new update coming, 4.03, that will leapfrog older games and contains a large number of changes. In particular, it makes managing off-map arty much easier, highlighting the closest leaders who can direct it. Without that, apparently, it can look like you have none in the current version. Which might be why the tutorial is so hard lol.
The Proud and The Few is next up for the 4.03 upgrade, I think.
Wargame Design Studio is tearing it up these days!
It took me two tries to win the first tutorial in Eagles Strike - the "easy" one lol. Remember that Rangers have morale that will generally survive aggressive action more than the Germans, so make use of it.
I'm glad you like it!
I won it on my first try using your advice regarding assaults. They seem to be pretty OP at the moment but I think that the 4.03 update is going to nerf them.
Case in point, I had almost all of my force go for the lower victory point with a token unit rushing the top one.
After taking the top point, I started moving that unit south to help attack the lower point. Unbeknownst to me, the enemy spawned or moved units back into the top victory point. I ended up assaulting it a few times with 2 leaders and a 2 man bazooka squad. It took about 3 tries, but those magnificent bastards finally took it back.
Next, I started the Utah beach scenario. I did the first turn and had to put the down for the night. The next day, I saw that they were working on 4.03 which has some important changes to that particular scenario. So, I think I'm going to step away from it until 4.03 drops.
I've gone back to HOI4 in the mean time. I also used my Matrix anniversary coupon to pick up CM:Final Blitzkreig and Rule the Waves. I'll dig into those until 4.03 comes out.
I was just putting that down to the fact that they were highly motivated Rangers. But then, when I tried that point first, everyone got pinned down and I was unable to capture the big one.
Fanatical has Command Modern Operations on sale for $25 which is a straight up steal.
SQUAD BATTLES EAGLES STRIKE VERSION 4.03 RELEASED!
I can get back to Utah beach now.
Just came here to post that! Nota bene - You need to uninstall the old copy and download and install the updated version. Otherwise, cruft and weirdness prevail.
There's an interesting new patch for Gary Grigsby's War in the East 2. Among some other smaller changes, they added an option to decrease the loss of morale from retreating. What this means is that the you can't just keep chasing the enemy and expect them to fall apart. Instead, you have to rely on other morale effects to knock them over, if you want to take them out that way.
Like, encirclement.
That's right, they figured out a subtle way to encourage the player to complete encirclements, rather than just push enemies backwards repeatedly, which of course is very accurate for the theater and time period.
Nicely done, I say.
Any interest in Headquarters: WW2 ?
Any interest in Headquarters: WW2 ?
It’s on my wishlist but I’m waiting for reviews.
Goonch wrote:Any interest in Headquarters: WW2 ?
It’s on my wishlist but I’m waiting for reviews.
Same.
I bought it, I'll try it this evening. Should be right up my alley.
Yes looking forward to reviews as this looks very good. One downside so far though is why do German units have british accents?!? Takes an immersion hit.
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