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Last December after finishing Baldurs Gate 1 I decided to take a break from RPG's and focus on Wargaming. I purchased and played alot of Wargames this year and I am starting to face serious burnout. I started playing Baldurs Gate 2 recently and I am returning to my RPG backlog. I wanted to write up a list of everything I played this year with some thoughts.
Gary Grigsby's War in the West and Gary Grigsby's War in the East - I played both of these monsters this year. I found that WITE played out much much faster then WITW as the turns are more fluid and there is alot more action per turn then WITW. WITW has a much deeper Air war model then WITE air model which is more abstract. The Air model is deep but can be very tedious. You can have the computer run air operations but for a game as complex as WITW your better doing the micromanagment yourself. WITW has one of the best weather model's I have ever seen in a wargame. There are storm fronts It can snow in the mountains and rain in the lower elevations. WITW though plays very slow The Allied forces have to slog it out with the veteran Axis formations. Ultimately though it is very deep game but you need alot of time to play it and alot of patience. I think out of the two games WITE despite it's abstracted air model is just more fun to play.
John Tiller's Panzer Campaigns Series - I played alot of these titles this year. I found that I enjoyed the smaller scenario's in alot of titles. Every title has a massive campaign I played a large campaign in Budapest '45 and lost to my Soviet opponent at the very end. These games have a pretty archaic interface and are not as fluid as the Grigsby titles mentioned above. You have to make every unit fire on their opponents and it gets very tedious especially during massive campaigns when you have 1000's of pieces. The best title I played was France '14. France '14 is the first of the First World War series and it was quite refreshing to play something that is not WW2. The game shows you how deadly it was for Infantry and Cavalry to charge into machine guns and artillery. I had some scenario's with horrendous casulties. I would keep throwing reserves into breaches in the enemy lines only to see them get chewed up for little ground.
AGEOD Games - I own alot of AGEOD games and I never got around to playing them by email until this year. I usually play against the AI. I really enjoyed War in America I felt this was the best AGEOD title I played this year. I played the French and Indian war scenario and I like how you can't just send huge armies everywhere you want. If you send a massive force into the wilderness to chase the French raiders they will be destroyed by bad weather and lack of supply. You really need to pay attention to supply and the size of your forces. I also at times really felt like I was fighting an Indian insurgency as they were coming into my frontiers and torching settlements. I started torching Indian villages just to stop raids. I also played AGEOD's Thirty Years war which is a very bland title. It is missing alot of the stuff that made older AGEOD games great. The music is just generic battle music and the map looks like crap. It playes out a glacial pace. Also it just feels unfinished as it is the work of one man and I believe it was rushed out the door for the holidays.
SSG's Decisive Battles Korsun Pocket - I played this one after it was recommended by many podcasts as one of the best computer wargames ever made. Unfortunately I had alot of graphics glitches which made this one unplayable. This game has a really bizzare soundtrack it almost sounds like something from a sci-fi game. It has strange voice effects that sounded like megatron singing. Maybe some day I can get it working but I just didn't have the patience to tinker with it.
War Plan Orange - This game is based on Gary Grigsby's War in the Pacific engine. It's a hypothetical war between the US and Japan in the 1920's. The star of this game is the Battleship as it's your main offensive weapon. Airplanes are in the game but they have very short range. This game requires major patience. Sometimes you can play entire months with little to no action. You have to use naval forces for scouting which can be tedious. The land war model in this absolutely sucks. There are many factors involved in the combat such as HQ support and supply but ultimately it's the guy with the most forces that wins the battle. You have to handle all the supply in this game so that involves sending every individual tanker and ship everywhere to keep your fleet and armies supplied. A very slow game with little reward. I am playing it by Email and it will probably be another year real time before we are finished.
Flashpoint Campaigns Red Storm - This game is a hypothetical WWIII scenario in Germany NATO vs Warsaw Pact. I found this to be the freshest War game I played this year. Combat is fast and deadly. You don't move every single unit. You issue orders and hope that your units will follow your orders. I think the game is just fun to play. I usually play NATO and just pray that my forces can stop the Red Hordes from overrunning my units. The AI in this game is outstanding. I find that I keep coming back to this title as you can play a scenario in an evening and it is quite enjoyable.
Campaign Series Middle East - This really plays out like the Tiller games mentioned above but is much smaller in scope. It is actually based on the John Tiller Divided Ground game released by Talon Soft a long time ago. It covers alot of Different wars in the Middle East. There are some pretty obscure conflicts in this such as the Egyptian intervention in Yemen in the 60's. Also they have some scenario's from the French Algerian war. The bulk of the scenario's though cover the various Israeli Arab wars especially Six Day War '67 and the Yom Kippur War '73. I found this title to be very enjoyable. Action is fast and deadly in alot of the scenario's. One of the best titles I have played this year. Now this game is based on the Tiller engine but the programmers have added a bunch of things that make it play faster with less clicking then your typical Tiller Game. I can click on a hex and my unit will move there pretty straight and very quick. Where is in the Tiller PZC games if you try that the pathfinding is horrible and they won't take the ideal route.
John Tiller's Squad Battles - I played a few of these titles this year Tour of Duty, Dien Bien Phu, and Winter War. Squad battles plays out like Advanced Squad Leader. I felt like all the titles played out the same way. So basically you get some flavor from playing in different settings but that's about it. The gameplay is very clunky like the Tiller Games mentioned above and can be very tedious. I quickly grew bored with the Series.
Vietnam '65 - This game takes place on a small map in Vietnam that is randomly generated every time you play. The graphics are terrible IPAD game quality 3d units. So basically you play as the US Army hunting the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Regulars in the jungles of Vietnam. Despite the look of this game it's a good lesson in counter insurgency warfare. As you search the jungles for guerillas and ultimately attempt to destroy them with superior firepower. The Viet Cong will melt away into the Jungles before your slow moving US Army units can catch them alot of the time. You can get a feel for the frustrations faced by US commanders fighting in the terrible terrain of Vietnam. This game is fun for a few playthroughs but gets repetitive after that despite the random terrain generator.
So overall out of all the games Isuffered played through this year these are the ones I thought were the best:
1. Flashpoint Campaigns Red Storm
2. Campaign Series Middle East
3. AGEOD's Wars in America
Gary Grigsby's War in the West and Gary Grigsby's War in the East - I played both of these monsters this year. I found that WITE played out much much faster then WITW as the turns are more fluid and there is alot more action per turn then WITW. WITW has a much deeper Air war model then WITE air model which is more abstract. The Air model is deep but can be very tedious. You can have the computer run air operations but for a game as complex as WITW your better doing the micromanagment yourself. WITW has one of the best weather model's I have ever seen in a wargame. There are storm fronts It can snow in the mountains and rain in the lower elevations. WITW though plays very slow The Allied forces have to slog it out with the veteran Axis formations. Ultimately though it is very deep game but you need alot of time to play it and alot of patience. I think out of the two games WITE despite it's abstracted air model is just more fun to play.
John Tiller's Panzer Campaigns Series - I played alot of these titles this year. I found that I enjoyed the smaller scenario's in alot of titles. Every title has a massive campaign I played a large campaign in Budapest '45 and lost to my Soviet opponent at the very end. These games have a pretty archaic interface and are not as fluid as the Grigsby titles mentioned above. You have to make every unit fire on their opponents and it gets very tedious especially during massive campaigns when you have 1000's of pieces. The best title I played was France '14. France '14 is the first of the First World War series and it was quite refreshing to play something that is not WW2. The game shows you how deadly it was for Infantry and Cavalry to charge into machine guns and artillery. I had some scenario's with horrendous casulties. I would keep throwing reserves into breaches in the enemy lines only to see them get chewed up for little ground.
AGEOD Games - I own alot of AGEOD games and I never got around to playing them by email until this year. I usually play against the AI. I really enjoyed War in America I felt this was the best AGEOD title I played this year. I played the French and Indian war scenario and I like how you can't just send huge armies everywhere you want. If you send a massive force into the wilderness to chase the French raiders they will be destroyed by bad weather and lack of supply. You really need to pay attention to supply and the size of your forces. I also at times really felt like I was fighting an Indian insurgency as they were coming into my frontiers and torching settlements. I started torching Indian villages just to stop raids. I also played AGEOD's Thirty Years war which is a very bland title. It is missing alot of the stuff that made older AGEOD games great. The music is just generic battle music and the map looks like crap. It playes out a glacial pace. Also it just feels unfinished as it is the work of one man and I believe it was rushed out the door for the holidays.
SSG's Decisive Battles Korsun Pocket - I played this one after it was recommended by many podcasts as one of the best computer wargames ever made. Unfortunately I had alot of graphics glitches which made this one unplayable. This game has a really bizzare soundtrack it almost sounds like something from a sci-fi game. It has strange voice effects that sounded like megatron singing. Maybe some day I can get it working but I just didn't have the patience to tinker with it.
War Plan Orange - This game is based on Gary Grigsby's War in the Pacific engine. It's a hypothetical war between the US and Japan in the 1920's. The star of this game is the Battleship as it's your main offensive weapon. Airplanes are in the game but they have very short range. This game requires major patience. Sometimes you can play entire months with little to no action. You have to use naval forces for scouting which can be tedious. The land war model in this absolutely sucks. There are many factors involved in the combat such as HQ support and supply but ultimately it's the guy with the most forces that wins the battle. You have to handle all the supply in this game so that involves sending every individual tanker and ship everywhere to keep your fleet and armies supplied. A very slow game with little reward. I am playing it by Email and it will probably be another year real time before we are finished.
Flashpoint Campaigns Red Storm - This game is a hypothetical WWIII scenario in Germany NATO vs Warsaw Pact. I found this to be the freshest War game I played this year. Combat is fast and deadly. You don't move every single unit. You issue orders and hope that your units will follow your orders. I think the game is just fun to play. I usually play NATO and just pray that my forces can stop the Red Hordes from overrunning my units. The AI in this game is outstanding. I find that I keep coming back to this title as you can play a scenario in an evening and it is quite enjoyable.
Campaign Series Middle East - This really plays out like the Tiller games mentioned above but is much smaller in scope. It is actually based on the John Tiller Divided Ground game released by Talon Soft a long time ago. It covers alot of Different wars in the Middle East. There are some pretty obscure conflicts in this such as the Egyptian intervention in Yemen in the 60's. Also they have some scenario's from the French Algerian war. The bulk of the scenario's though cover the various Israeli Arab wars especially Six Day War '67 and the Yom Kippur War '73. I found this title to be very enjoyable. Action is fast and deadly in alot of the scenario's. One of the best titles I have played this year. Now this game is based on the Tiller engine but the programmers have added a bunch of things that make it play faster with less clicking then your typical Tiller Game. I can click on a hex and my unit will move there pretty straight and very quick. Where is in the Tiller PZC games if you try that the pathfinding is horrible and they won't take the ideal route.
John Tiller's Squad Battles - I played a few of these titles this year Tour of Duty, Dien Bien Phu, and Winter War. Squad battles plays out like Advanced Squad Leader. I felt like all the titles played out the same way. So basically you get some flavor from playing in different settings but that's about it. The gameplay is very clunky like the Tiller Games mentioned above and can be very tedious. I quickly grew bored with the Series.
Vietnam '65 - This game takes place on a small map in Vietnam that is randomly generated every time you play. The graphics are terrible IPAD game quality 3d units. So basically you play as the US Army hunting the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Regulars in the jungles of Vietnam. Despite the look of this game it's a good lesson in counter insurgency warfare. As you search the jungles for guerillas and ultimately attempt to destroy them with superior firepower. The Viet Cong will melt away into the Jungles before your slow moving US Army units can catch them alot of the time. You can get a feel for the frustrations faced by US commanders fighting in the terrible terrain of Vietnam. This game is fun for a few playthroughs but gets repetitive after that despite the random terrain generator.
So overall out of all the games I
1. Flashpoint Campaigns Red Storm
2. Campaign Series Middle East
3. AGEOD's Wars in America
