Grognard Wargamer Thread!

[rezaf]

Like I mentioned in CSL's AAR thread:
For people where ordering from the UK is an option, Play.com has American Civil War in stock for £9.99, which is about $15 at the moment.
_____
rezaf

[XPav]

TOAW had a monster Vietnam war scenario that was pushing the engine to its limits as I recall. Given the politicalness of the war, using an operational engine was a stretch.

The real problem with TOAW's event engine is it's "nearly there" factor. It's so close to being able to do cool stuff, but the mechanics are so baroque. I don't know if anyone's ever looked at the event editor, but it's one of those things that would benefit from being a text file rather than the horrible clicky dialog boxes. I keep wondering why an operational level wargame doesn't just bolt in a off-the-shelf scripting engine like Lua or Python and be done with it.

[shang]

I keep wondering why an operational level wargame doesn't just bolt in a off-the-shelf scripting engine like Lua or Python and be done with it.

Yeah, this. I wouldn't even consider anything else if I was writing a wargame. On the whole, the programmers doing wargames are a weird bunch. Many of them are brilliant AI programmers, but the UIs are horribly clunky, bad support for different resolutions, scriptability and editors are a joke etc. I'm generalizing grossly of course, but I've seen lots of games where the game mechanics themselves are well done and thought out, but everything else in the technical implementation seems very amateurish.

[Alan Dunkin]

TOAW had a monster Vietnam war scenario that was pushing the engine to its limits as I recall. Given the politicalness of the war, using an operational engine was a stretch.

Eh, someone did the whole East Front. I specifically remember playing it. Was pretty nuts.

--- Alan

[tiohn]

War Plan Pacific multiplayer this weekend?

[Lum]

Eh, someone did the whole East Front. I specifically remember playing it. Was pretty nuts.

--- Alan

That's minor.

[Eduardo X]

For shits and giggles, I decided to try Gamespot's download service to see if it charged taxes. When I added AEGOD's American Civil War, it lists the price as $20 rather than the $40 it shows on the game's page!

[Cubit]

For shits and giggles, I decided to try Gamespot's download service to see if it charged taxes. When I added AEGOD's American Civil War, it lists the price as $20 rather than the $40 it shows on the game's page!

Good find! Thats what it showed for me too just now. Probably the cheapest price you can get. Do you have any idea what kind of DRM it has?

[Eduardo X]

I don't see any DRM, but it looks like you can only activate the game 3 times. That blows! I hope that means on 3 computers....

[Sarkus]

For shits and giggles, I decided to try Gamespot's download service to see if it charged taxes. When I added AEGOD's American Civil War, it lists the price as $20 rather than the $40 it shows on the game's page!

That's great and funny. GameStops whole handling of the game is weird. If you go looking for it directly on their website all that shows up is the download option. But if you go to the game's publishers page you can find a link that goes back to GameStops site and lets you do a normal search by store. However that was the only way I could find that particular information.

The pricing situation with this game makes no sense.

[Janster]

Broke down and got 2nd Mannassas...and boy was this game hit with ze ugly stick. However, its supposed to shine under..
I hope to get some time to explore that.

7.99euro..fairly cheapish on st€am.

[Eduardo X]

I only got in one scenario so far, a Far West scenario that tasks the Union with taking Ft. Smith and Little Rock.

I didn't look at the turn limits, and slowly built an offensive machine, finally swooping south about 5 regions before time ran out, meaning the South won. I was struggling with only 3 commanders. How was I to create a real army/division/corp out of that?

Anyway, I learned my lesson, and perhaps I'll try again with some fire under my butt. No more McClellen-like stalling and fearing a superior force. I have to take calculated risks, dammit!

[CSL]

I only got in one scenario so far, a Far West scenario that tasks the Union with taking Ft. Smith and Little Rock.

I didn't look at the turn limits, and slowly built an offensive machine, finally swooping south about 5 regions before time ran out, meaning the South won. I was struggling with only 3 commanders. How was I to create a real army/division/corp out of that?

Anyway, I learned my lesson, and perhaps I'll try again with some fire under my butt. No more McClellen-like stalling and fearing a superior force. I have to take calculated risks, dammit!

Ah I just played that one, you can't sit around at all. Move Lyon and Sigel immediately against Rolla and Sprinfield depots, Price will retreat back into Arkansas since you've got a superior force. You can just take Jefferson City later on with the forces that unlock at Lexington. Recruit all your forces in Missouri, probably four or so brigades over the first five turns and send them south with Fremont. You'll get Curtis about halfway through the scenario which gives you four leaders. Fremont will command the army and I think Lyon automatically gets available for promotion with about five turns left which will let you have him with two divisions in a Corps - more than enough for whatever forces you can have in this scenario. Just make sure to be overly aggressive. Price can't take you and the Confederates will only fight when they get into Arkansas - though McCulloch attacked me at Springfield depot and it was a big loss for them.

Really the difficult thing is getting to Fort Smith before winter kills your chances as winter will last until the end of the scenario when it starts. I tried a hail mary at the end to take Fort Smith with Lyon and two divisions and all it ended was with most of my forces getting disorganized and men dropping like flies from the bad weather without Van Dorn having to do anything.

[XPav]

Yeah, this. I wouldn't even consider anything else if I was writing a wargame. On the whole, the programmers doing wargames are a weird bunch. Many of them are brilliant AI programmers, but the UIs are horribly clunky, bad support for different resolutions, scriptability and editors are a joke etc. I'm generalizing grossly of course, but I've seen lots of games where the game mechanics themselves are well done and thought out, but everything else in the technical implementation seems very amateurish.

The Ageod engine seems to work pretty well -- hell, I'm running it under VMWare Fusion resulting in some utterly non-standard "screen" size". While the UI is fixed res, the rest of the map scales happily to whatever resolution you want. It's not perfect though -- I wish the fiddly button panel would expand depending on res.

[Janster]

well the games do cover the same era, 2nd Manassas was actually decent, even with the control shame needing desperate help imho.

I find myself duking it out trying to better my score now.

[Xemu]

Looks like the demo for WW2 General Commander is out now. Aside from the worst title ever, looks interesting. 1 GB though, so still puling it down myself...

http://www.stragames.com/gc/downloads.html

[Calistas]

So what are the hot games we are waiting for in 2009?

I want to keep an eye out for material interesting to people reading my site. I am hoping for CM2 and Battles from the Bulge. Any more of note?

[shang]

So what are the hot games we are waiting for in 2009?

I want to keep an eye out for material interesting to people reading my site. I am hoping for CM2 and Battles from the Bulge. Any more of note?

Battles from the Bulge is at the top of my list too. Another grognardy game I have high hopes for is Combined Arms: World War II (formerly known as Battlefields).

On the less-grognardy front I'm looking forward to seeing how Men of War (sequel to Faces of War) turns out.

[routlaw]

So what are the hot games we are waiting for in 2009?

I want to keep an eye out for material interesting to people reading my site. I am hoping for CM2 and Battles from the Bulge. Any more of note?

AGEOD's Vainglory of Nations should make it out this year. As a longtime on-and-off player of Paradox's Victoria, I'm really looking forward to that game, as much or more than Panther's next release (blasphemy!) or even the CM2: Now with Panzers edition.

[Cal]

If anyone is into PBEM games, i have a few games im always playing via email with friends and people online.

The Operational Art of War 3
Close Combat Wacht am Rhein
Forge of Freedom
Advance Tactics
Battles in normandy.

Im not very good, although i have a good grasp of them all!

[Lykurgos]

So what are the hot games we are waiting for in 2009?

Hearts of Iron 3, due for release in intravenous and subcutaneous injection formats in Q3 2009, possibly with pill and DVD formats to follow.

[salwon]

CM: Normandy won't be out this year. The British mod for Shock Force should be out soon, though, which should be interesting. But I'm one of 5 who like SF, so take that for what it's worth.

[the midnight theme]

Battles from the Bulge is at the top of my list too. Another grognardy game I have high hopes for is Combined Arms: World War II (formerly known as Battlefields).

On the less-grognardy front I'm looking forward to seeing how Men of War (sequel to Faces of War) turns out.

The beta I played was basically more of the same but it owned anyways.

[Calistas]

Thanks for the tips. Will add this list to the site later :)

[Calistas]

While we are here, anyone want to play COTA multiplayer? I am in NZ so timezone friendliness is important.

[shang]

While we are here, anyone want to play COTA multiplayer? I am in NZ so timezone friendliness is important.

I'd love to try that, since I've only ever played CotA against the AI. Unfortunately, I think there's +9 or +10 difference between our timezones. How does the multiplayer work in practice? Can both players pause and change game speed at any point or is it locked somehow?

[Calistas]

Slowest speed is set as the current one, which works for me. I'm usually in a rush, but don't mind people playing slower.

[Demorve]

I'm looking forward to World in Flames. It's supposed to be relatively faithful to it's board game roots. I think it's due to be released sometime in June or July.

[pyrhic]

Had an itch that needed to be scratched this weekend and picked up: Commander - europe at war.

I was wrestling between that and Road to Victory, but selected that one largely on the screenshots. It's not bad, though some of the decisions they made are highly questionable and the economics are a little off imo.

I wish more turn-based games would go with phased based turns(like dominions 3 has - all players plan their moves at the same time, and orders for a turn are executed at one time) - is there a proper shortform for that name(ie, igougo?)

[MMcGlumphy]

C:EaW is not too bad. I've yet to complete a full game, though. I wish they had included some smaller scenarios with more short-mid term victory conditions.

I think the term for simultaneous turns is WEGO.