chuft
Augur
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2008
- Messages
- 497
I usually stick to boardgames for my historical wargaming, because I have found the computer ones tend to be too detailed and slow paced to hold my interest. A big exception was Hubert Cater's Strategic Command, which played as fast as Panzer General but felt far more realistic to me.
Following games by this designer were published by Battlefront with a hideous DRM which kept me away from the series for a decade.
Well Strategic Command 3 finally came out (Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe) and it is being carried by Matrix, so finally the Strategic Command series is free of the obnoxious Battlefront DRM. I didn't get it right away because of some foolishness with the hardbound manuals costing $20 to ship, but being free from Amazon, but Amazon was out of stock, etc etc. I kind of put it aside for awhile and figured I'd wait till the manuals were back in stock, and maybe a patch came out, and forgot about it.
Well today two things happened.
First, I got an email Matrix is having a sale, 30% off everything. So I think it's time to get SC3. But it got me wondering if I should get anything else while I'm at it.
Second I saw this picture, which is of a boardgame covering WWII in the Dutch East Indies, Borneo, Malaya etc.
I have always wanted a game that covered this part of the war, especially the initial Japanese expansion. The problem is the area is so large, and the forces involved so small, that to do it justice you really need a scale which for boardgames is completely impractical. As you can see from the pic, this is not something you are going to set up and play on your table. It's cool yet totally impractical.
So I am wondering, are there any good Pacific computer games which would let me play this part of the war in detail? Unlike most of the Pacific war, this is one time where the forces were so small on both sides that micromanagement, combined with a gigantic map, might actually be appropriate.
Would War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition do a good job at covering this campaign (Dec 41 - May 42) ? Is it fun to play or just a behemoth that is more work than it is worth?
Are there any other Pacific games which are fun yet detailed enough to cover the early months of the Japanese expansion in a meaningful way? I always get the feeling the Allied forces got some bad luck and could have done a lot more damage if a few things had gone differently, since the Japanese were doing a lot of things on a shoestring.
Any opinions on Pacific war games appreciated. The only one I played was Carriers at War, ages ago, and it seemed kind of boring - you search for the enemy and if you find him, launch then watch the animation of the attack, which usually is not accurate and you get inflated reports of damage inflicted. Which is realistic, but kind of strange to watch planes inflicting hits that didn't really happen, so what is the point of watching the animation? Anyway, please let me know your thoughts on the playability and fun of any Pacific games that would cover the early period of the war, before the US forces got gigantic.
Thanks. I am trying to tell the difference between War in the Pacific, Pacific War, War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition (all 3 of which seem to be by the same designer), Storm over the Pacific, Order of Battle - Pacific, etc. There are games like Uncommon Valor which don't have the word "Pacific" in the title which are harder to find. Let me know your favorites.
Following games by this designer were published by Battlefront with a hideous DRM which kept me away from the series for a decade.
Well Strategic Command 3 finally came out (Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe) and it is being carried by Matrix, so finally the Strategic Command series is free of the obnoxious Battlefront DRM. I didn't get it right away because of some foolishness with the hardbound manuals costing $20 to ship, but being free from Amazon, but Amazon was out of stock, etc etc. I kind of put it aside for awhile and figured I'd wait till the manuals were back in stock, and maybe a patch came out, and forgot about it.
Well today two things happened.
First, I got an email Matrix is having a sale, 30% off everything. So I think it's time to get SC3. But it got me wondering if I should get anything else while I'm at it.
Second I saw this picture, which is of a boardgame covering WWII in the Dutch East Indies, Borneo, Malaya etc.
I have always wanted a game that covered this part of the war, especially the initial Japanese expansion. The problem is the area is so large, and the forces involved so small, that to do it justice you really need a scale which for boardgames is completely impractical. As you can see from the pic, this is not something you are going to set up and play on your table. It's cool yet totally impractical.
So I am wondering, are there any good Pacific computer games which would let me play this part of the war in detail? Unlike most of the Pacific war, this is one time where the forces were so small on both sides that micromanagement, combined with a gigantic map, might actually be appropriate.
Would War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition do a good job at covering this campaign (Dec 41 - May 42) ? Is it fun to play or just a behemoth that is more work than it is worth?
Are there any other Pacific games which are fun yet detailed enough to cover the early months of the Japanese expansion in a meaningful way? I always get the feeling the Allied forces got some bad luck and could have done a lot more damage if a few things had gone differently, since the Japanese were doing a lot of things on a shoestring.
Any opinions on Pacific war games appreciated. The only one I played was Carriers at War, ages ago, and it seemed kind of boring - you search for the enemy and if you find him, launch then watch the animation of the attack, which usually is not accurate and you get inflated reports of damage inflicted. Which is realistic, but kind of strange to watch planes inflicting hits that didn't really happen, so what is the point of watching the animation? Anyway, please let me know your thoughts on the playability and fun of any Pacific games that would cover the early period of the war, before the US forces got gigantic.
Thanks. I am trying to tell the difference between War in the Pacific, Pacific War, War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition (all 3 of which seem to be by the same designer), Storm over the Pacific, Order of Battle - Pacific, etc. There are games like Uncommon Valor which don't have the word "Pacific" in the title which are harder to find. Let me know your favorites.