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Obfuscation
Jan 1, 2008
Good luck to you, I know you believe in hell

Yeah I just finished a full campaign playing as Soviets against the AI and I ended up killing literally every single German unit on the map. The campaign takes forever now since there's no sudden death victory anymore, but there are three different scenarios that start on a different date.

The multiplayer is better than ever though, because now there's a visible match making rating so you can get proof of how much smarter you are than everyone else.

Some general first impressions:
-Turns are shorter now, so you have to think really hard about what units you need to move the most
-The larger map gives the game a more strategic feeling. Also makes me wish that I had a newer iPad with the high resolution screens.
-Running the offensive as the Germans is stressful as hell compared to the steamroll that is the first days of Bulge. You have potential to make massive gains, but if you gently caress up and let the Soviets organize their defense you'll never get anywhere.
-Playing as the Soviets is very different from the Allies in Bulge since your losses don't count for VPs and you can use replacements to rebuild lost units. This means that you want to launch counterattacks whenever you can trade losses with the Germans.

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V for Vegas
Sep 1, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER
Yeah first game as Germany and I surrounded Moscow before the mud hit while the soviets dicked about in Kursk.

I can see what they were going for here - it's similar to WITE where your panzers rush out ahead of infantry and may have issues with supply. But the soviet AI would just sit in place and not cut off the tanks. I am very surprised at this because the AI in Bulge would be guaranteed to try isolate your units.

cool new Metroid game
Oct 7, 2009

hail satan

"a pro grog posted:

I understand....... that people wanted this game to be a comfortable purchase. A nice computer game purchase like all the rest. Where they could sit and complain, oooooh come on, 70 bucks is asking too much, get with the program, this is 2013, I should be able to get a digital download for slightly less, 60 bucks eh. And then there would be those waiting for the seasonal sale in 2 years and wanting it for 50 bucks. And then the person expecting it in 5 years to be massively discounted, because it's an old game.

I suppose some simply can't wrap their head around the idea, that World in Flames is a BOARD GAME, and through a generous arrangement, ADG has made it ok to put it into computer form, make it possible to display it on a computer, and have it as a means to defeat the need for a room killing map monster.

But it's till a board game. ADG COULD have said, no, and not allowed anyone to make it into the computer version it is.

Yeah they COULD have made it a digital download, no damned books. But that likely was never the objective.
If it had been me, I would not have made the pdf files. It would have solved the problem. I guess Slitherine Group has learned a valuable lesson here.

As for the cost, hmm I could start listing all the other notable, and famous wargames, all board games, that generally speaking don't cost 10s of dollars, but hundreds of dollars. I know of plenty that cost 200 and 300 bucks. I know that ASL has single modules that cost as much as computer World in Flames. And the shipping isn't free, they are not sold by Amazon.

It is unfortunate that Slitherine Group has made an error in the case of this game, in assessing the reaction by some, of being told the manuals were part of the purchase. It's unfortunate some parts of the planet suck.

The game is sold WITH manuals, in the same way board games are sold WITH counters. It's part of the product.

I do wish people would stop crying about their pockets. Yes you can't afford it, yes life is hard, yes you still want it.
I wish I could afford 32nd scale aircraft kits. But they tend to range in the 150 dollar zone. So I stick to the more affordable 72nd scale range.
It's called accepting your limitations. Not complaining about the price.
I tend to buy kits by order in person at the store. I tend to pay 30% more this way. I might get them online cheaper. But they also demand I use plastic. And I don't like that. I like being able to order something and pay a local business person cash.
You only get what you pay for in life.
And sometimes you have to pay more than you might like.
Your alternative is as always, you can always go without.

Enjoy the books. They are awesome. Or not, your choice. Stop crying about them though eh.
Some of us are out here facepalming thinking that some of you are making the hobby look like it is rife with spoiled entitled brats disguised as old men.
:chord:

eh link hosed up, here's the thread the post is in though http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3469225

V for Vegas
Sep 1, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER

quote:

Just got my parcel in the mail.

Shared a chuckle with the chap, was mentioning some are lamenting shipping circumstances, the ambush at the door wanting more cash. He seemed to realize immediately it was a moment to disparage FedEx.

Enough of that, let's talk about the actual books, not the CONTENTS of the books, but the books themselves.

If like me, all you have seen is shiny covers, and colourful images on screens. You know how thick the tomes are. You might know page counts.

But a book is not always created equal when it comes to the physicality of the item.

So I take substantial pleasure in letting everyone know, it doesn't really get any better.

I have been buying books for a looooong time. I have bought expensive first edition fiction aplenty. I know what a good book looks and feels like. I will likely spend as much to buy a Terry Brooks Shanara trilogy as I did these books (well before shipping and all that).

I recall the 2nd edition D&D books as hard covers, and they were the last word in the worst made gaming books I have ever had dumped on me. So it is not like good is written in stone.

On opening the volumes, I am pleased to note that they are sturdy, superior, high quality bindings (as I see it). The pages are nice superior quality. You can insist that ADG might have a different slant on the game rules, and they likely will soon enough, but, I dare say, you will not regret playing your game with these manuals, and I don't mind saying, routine, simple stapled wargame rules will lack the thrill of using these books.

Oh if I only had a nice volume like this for my A3R rules. And if ASL was not so prone to revising the page order and just for the sake of typos, I might dive in and get them properly bound too. I might anyway, I have lost the drive and obsession with keeping up on ASL too. I don't really know if I care if I never add another page to my ASL manual set.

These books are awesome. You paid top dollar for a set of books, and you most assuredly have gotten books that will be around a long time regardless of how often you thumb through them.

I feel sad for people who have taken the slant the purchase was the program, and some books added on. I bought the books as well. The books are every bit the reason I was ok with the price. Minus the books, the program is worth at most to me, about 50 bucks like any other piece of software.

No I wanted those books. And they arrived rather promptly I might add.

If I seem to have wandered off after today, I might have just realized, I have said all I can't think of to say. Ideally, I'd also hope I am simply too busy playing the game :)
Going to be reading a while though. There's a lot of book here.


:chord: :chord:

uPen
Jan 25, 2010

Zu Rodina!
I like that he says that a piece of software is worth at most $50.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

Ok gently caress it time for a new game of Warsaw to Berlin. France map, Free Setup and maybe some over modifiers I don't know.

Sides:

Germany A:
Germany B:

France:
Britain:
Belgium:
Holland:

steinrokkan
Apr 2, 2011



Soiled Meat
Nice to see people get to be smug about buying not only overpriced games, but also overpriced "luxury" edition books, mostly likely printed on the shittiest okay-looking paper. Books are incredibly cheap to print. Even with seemingly luxurious and voluminous books you don't really pay for the paper and "physicality" of the thing. Also, in a world in which antique bookstore keepers practically give away stacks of custom leather-bound books just to save on storage, his loving argument doesn't make any sense.

:spergin:

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

Alchenar posted:

Ok gently caress it time for a new game of Warsaw to Berlin. France map, Free Setup and maybe some over modifiers I don't know.

Sides:

Germany A:
Germany B:

France:
Britain:
Belgium:
Holland: gradenko_2000

Yup, let's do this.

Chump Farts
May 9, 2009

There is no Coordinator but Narduzzi, and Shilique is his Prophet.

Alchenar posted:

Ok gently caress it time for a new game of Warsaw to Berlin. France map, Free Setup and maybe some over modifiers I don't know.

Sides:

Germany A:
Germany B:

France:
Britain:
Belgium:
Holland:

Wherever you need me.

GenericRX
Jun 29, 2013

Alchenar posted:

Ok gently caress it time for a new game of Warsaw to Berlin. France map, Free Setup and maybe some over modifiers I don't know.

Sides:

Germany A:
Germany B:

France:
Britain:
Belgium: GenericRX
Holland:

I have no clue what happened to the old game, but for Mother Belgium it is!

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

Of the three of you, only Gradenko did this properly.

Chump Farts
May 9, 2009

There is no Coordinator but Narduzzi, and Shilique is his Prophet.

Alchenar posted:

Ok gently caress it time for a new game of Warsaw to Berlin. France map, Free Setup and maybe some over modifiers I don't know.

Sides:

Germany A: Jakse
Germany B:

France:
Britain:
Belgium: GenericRX
Holland: gradenko_2000

Fine.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

Having successfully bogged down the German invasion of Poland in the last game, I will pick last.

In other news, Tim Stone's latest The Flare Path could alternatively be titled: Matrix Games: why do you hate your customers so much?

Neruz
Jul 23, 2012

A paragon of manliness
Matrix are an extremely depressing example of grognards refusing to change anything because change is scary.

Myoclonic Jerk
Nov 10, 2008

Cool it a minute, babe, let me finish playing with my fake gun.
I should drink while playing grognard games more often. I was screaming at my computer and cheering during the first major carrier battle of the war.

The Japanese sent their carriers to Batavia - literally, the adjacent hex - and I brought my Allied combined fleet to bear - Yorktown, Lexington, Saratoga, Enterprise, Indomitable, and Hermes. We traded heavy blows in the morning - Lady Lex took three torpedoes and none of my carriers were unscathed, but we pounded the poo poo out of all three enemy carriers. By the afternoon, only Kaga had a working flight deck against three of mine (plus Hermes).
The afternoon was a slaughter. The Japanese couldn't break through my CAP and their burning carriers and one battleship got dogpiled by my dive bombers. Even Batavia's obsolete bombers scored a few low caliber hits. The computer won't confirm my kills, but Shokaku, for example, took over ten bomb hits and the others didn't fare much better. The next day, my strikes found nothing in the area but a couple of luckless destroyers.

As a bonus, all my orphaned planes were able to divert to other carriers or to Java and Borneo. I doubt any of their carrier groups survived.

Saratoga rolled over in the night and sank. Lexington and Indomitable might not make it back to Surabaya for repairs, but drat, I'll make that trade for Kaga, Akagi, and Shokaku any day. Now if they want Java, they'll have to stop raiding my supply lines and bring the other half of Kido Butai to bear.

This is high drama and fun as hell. If only this game had a friendlier interface and better price point, I could see a lot more people enjoying this sort of stuff.

Saros
Dec 29, 2009

Its almost like we're a Bureaucracy, in space!

I set sail for the Planet of Lab Requisitions!!

Yes but you are playing the AI. (which is terrible). Try that against another human player and you will find yourself rolling the dice against the entire KB.

1stGear
Jan 16, 2010

Here's to the new us.

Alchenar posted:

Having successfully bogged down the German invasion of Poland in the last game, I will pick last.

In other news, Tim Stone's latest The Flare Path could alternatively be titled: Matrix Games: why do you hate your customers so much?

I remember Tom Francis making a blog post just after he released Gunpoint (which had a demo) where he talked to some of his friends in the games industry about releasing a demo for the game a week or so before the full launch. Some of his friends panicked and said "You can't do that! Some people might not like your game and you'll lose sales." Francis pointed out that if a person didn't like his game, he didn't really feel comfortable selling it to them sight unseen. His friends' response was "You don't understand! You'll lose sales!"

Gonna assume those friends were the people in charge of Matrix and Slitherine now.

Incidentally, after the demo was released Gunpoint received enough preorders that Francis figured he could safely quit his job and the game in total made enough money that Francis says he can pretty much quit having a day job for the foreseeable future.

1stGear fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Nov 22, 2013

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

Myoclonic Jerk posted:

I should drink while playing grognard games more often. I was screaming at my computer and cheering during the first major carrier battle of the war.

The Japanese sent their carriers to Batavia - literally, the adjacent hex - and I brought my Allied combined fleet to bear - Yorktown, Lexington, Saratoga, Enterprise, Indomitable, and Hermes. We traded heavy blows in the morning - Lady Lex took three torpedoes and none of my carriers were unscathed, but we pounded the poo poo out of all three enemy carriers. By the afternoon, only Kaga had a working flight deck against three of mine (plus Hermes).
The afternoon was a slaughter. The Japanese couldn't break through my CAP and their burning carriers and one battleship got dogpiled by my dive bombers. Even Batavia's obsolete bombers scored a few low caliber hits. The computer won't confirm my kills, but Shokaku, for example, took over ten bomb hits and the others didn't fare much better. The next day, my strikes found nothing in the area but a couple of luckless destroyers.

As a bonus, all my orphaned planes were able to divert to other carriers or to Java and Borneo. I doubt any of their carrier groups survived.

Saratoga rolled over in the night and sank. Lexington and Indomitable might not make it back to Surabaya for repairs, but drat, I'll make that trade for Kaga, Akagi, and Shokaku any day. Now if they want Java, they'll have to stop raiding my supply lines and bring the other half of Kido Butai to bear.

This is high drama and fun as hell. If only this game had a friendlier interface and better price point, I could see a lot more people enjoying this sort of stuff.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > Grognard Games Megathread - if only this game had a friendlier interface and a better price point

Seriously though, for all the flak received by grognard games in general and WITP in particular, that sort of game experience is pretty unique. You're not just cheering (or weeping) because you won a battle, it's also because of the effect on the rest of the war.

For confirming carrier kills, you can watch the aircraft losses on the intel window - lots of Ops losses means a bunch of planes never made it back because they didn't have a deck to land on.

ArchangeI
Jul 15, 2010

Saros posted:

Yes but you are playing the AI. (which is terrible). Try that against another human player and you will find yourself rolling the dice against the entire KB.

With 4 US carriers plus the two British ones, you are even in aircraft capacity to the KB. Protip - send your devastators to landbases at your earliest opportunity, take on Marine fighter squadrons for added CAP. Or take over FAA squadrons - the Swordfish is actually a superior torpedo bomber to the Devastator, not least because its torpedo is not poo poo.

Poor British pilots, deprived of their daily rum rations. Truely, war makes monsters of us all.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

ArchangeI posted:

With 4 US carriers plus the two British ones, you are even in aircraft capacity to the KB. Protip - send your devastators to landbases at your earliest opportunity, take on Marine fighter squadrons for added CAP. Or take over FAA squadrons - the Swordfish is actually a superior torpedo bomber to the Devastator, not least because its torpedo is not poo poo.

Poor British pilots, deprived of their daily rum rations. Truely, war makes monsters of us all.

Except early war US carrier planes are rubbish apart from the dive bombers and you take massive penalties to raid co-ordination which means that your squadrons will all arrive piecemeal or not at all.

1stGear
Jan 16, 2010

Here's to the new us.

gradenko_2000 posted:

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > Grognard Games Megathread - if only this game had a friendlier interface and a better price point

The weird thing is that I've been playing Distant Worlds lately and was pleasantly surprised by how hella friendly the UI and game mechanics are. There's actual tutorials and a comprehensive in-game encyclopedia as well. So its clearly possible to make deep, complex games with really accessible UIs and mechanics but :grogdevs:

ArchangeI
Jul 15, 2010

Alchenar posted:

Except early war US carrier planes are rubbish apart from the dive bombers and you take massive penalties to raid co-ordination which means that your squadrons will all arrive piecemeal or not at all.

The Wildcat is a perfectly fine fighter plane. And if I remember right, the coordination penalty only hits you if you put all those carriers in the same TF. Instead you should put them in separate TFs and use the follow feature to keep them in the same hex. CAP is pooled per hex anyway, so it isn't a problem. And I have found no worse strike coordination penalties than launching bombers and escorts from the same land base.Yes, it happens, but not so often as to make it unviable. Worst case scenario one strike package gets butchered and the others break through the diminished CAP.

You shouldn't take any carrier fights to about February 42 if you can at all avoid it, but once Lexington has upgraded her fighters to Wildcats, try and get one of his smaller carrier groups and crush them. If he runs all his carriers around in a huge pack, so much for the better, because that means he can only be in one place at a time.

dtkozl
Dec 17, 2001

ultima ratio regum

Alchenar posted:

Ok gently caress it time for a new game of Warsaw to Berlin. France map, Free Setup and maybe some over modifiers I don't know.

Sides:

Germany A:Jakse
Germany B:

France: dtkozl
Britain:
Belgium: GenericRX
Holland: gradenko_2000

I'll do france again. This time if I see the game not moving I'll speak up sooner so hopefully it won't just get stuck without a word this time.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

dtkozl posted:

I'll do france again. This time if I see the game not moving I'll speak up sooner so hopefully it won't just get stuck without a word this time.

It might also be wise to have passwords shared between teammates just in case someone dies on us again.

Rudi Starnberg
Jul 8, 2012
So what happened to these sales that were suposedly starting yesterday?

blackmongoose
Mar 31, 2011

DARK INFERNO ROOK!
What happened to the last game? I remember Allied turns were taking a while and then eventually one of them never came back

Myoclonic Jerk
Nov 10, 2008

Cool it a minute, babe, let me finish playing with my fake gun.

Saros posted:

Yes but you are playing the AI. (which is terrible). Try that against another human player and you will find yourself rolling the dice against the entire KB.

Stop pissing on my lawn, man. This is my first Grand Campaign, let me enjoy my victory.

ArchangeI posted:

And if I remember right, the coordination penalty only hits you if you put all those carriers in the same TF. Instead you should put them in separate TFs and use the follow feature to keep them in the same hex. CAP is pooled per hex anyway, so it isn't a problem.

That's what I was doing - one TF was three American fleet carriers, led by Halsey, the second was one American and the two Brits. It worked out pretty darn well for everyone except for the unlucky Lady Lex. Now, if only I can get those two cripples to Surabaya above water, we'll be sitting pretty.

Oh, and a few in-game days before I sunk two CVLs - you're right, the Japanese love taking unnecessary risks with their carriers.

uPen
Jan 25, 2010

Zu Rodina!

Alchenar posted:

Ok gently caress it time for a new game of Warsaw to Berlin. France map, Free Setup and maybe some over modifiers I don't know.

Sides:

Germany A:Jakse
Germany B:

France: dtkozl
Britain: uPen
Belgium: GenericRX
Holland: gradenko_2000

I'll take Britain which I guess means you're Germany Alchenar, god help us all.

dtkozl
Dec 17, 2001

ultima ratio regum

blackmongoose posted:

What happened to the last game? I remember Allied turns were taking a while and then eventually one of them never came back
One of the allies moved then forgot or something, we finally got it sorted out then supposedly someone sent it to the axis and it died somewhere therein.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

Myoclonic Jerk posted:

That's what I was doing - one TF was three American fleet carriers, led by Halsey, the second was one American and the two Brits. It worked out pretty darn well for everyone except for the unlucky Lady Lex. Now, if only I can get those two cripples to Surabaya above water, we'll be sitting pretty.

Oh, and a few in-game days before I sunk two CVLs - you're right, the Japanese love taking unnecessary risks with their carriers.

3 American CVs in a single TF together can still run into the coordination penalty in 1943, and almost definitely in 1942. You should be splitting them up into 1 or 2 CV TFs until 1944, if you have enough CA/CL and DDs available as escorts.

uPen posted:

I'll take Britain which I guess means you're Germany Alchenar, god help us all.

:stonklol:

EDIT: In a thread about a hypothetical War in the Pacific 2

quote:

Not trying to start yet another b-fest, but as I look at their recent mega-offerings I see one modern $100 game with a huge number of fixes in motion, another decade-in-development monster that shipped with no AI and a score of optional features greyed out on the load screen and a statement many would never be finished, and a 4X game shipped in alpha state with a "help us fund this unfinished product" pitch to real-life retail buyers. AE2 has a built in, massive buyer base and could sustain a $150 price point and not break a sweat. They're pretty bad at game publishing if they're not always, every month, talking about doing this project.

Screw these guys right in the rear end. I hope Paradox or Tomislav Uzelac or Jake Solomon or whoever makes a challenger and sells it for 15 bucks.

gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Nov 22, 2013

Ghost of Mussolini
Jun 26, 2011

gradenko_2000 posted:

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > Grognard Games Megathread - if only this game had a friendlier interface and a better price point

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > Grognard Games Megathread - if only this game had a friendlier interface and a better price point and maybe even demos

Chump Farts
May 9, 2009

There is no Coordinator but Narduzzi, and Shilique is his Prophet.

Alchenar posted:

It might also be wise to have passwords shared between teammates just in case someone dies on us again.

I'm actually not sure if Happy Hedonist died or not.

steinrokkan
Apr 2, 2011



Soiled Meat

Ghost of Mussolini posted:

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > Grognard Games Megathread - if only this game had a friendlier interface and a better price point and maybe even demos

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > Grognard Games Megathread - if only this game had a friendlier interface and maybe even demos it could sustain a $150 price point

Dark_Swordmaster
Oct 31, 2011

steinrokkan posted:

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > Grognard Games Megathread - if only this game had a friendlier interface and maybe even demos it could sustain a $150 price point

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > Grognard Games Megathread - Why do you need two kidneys?

V for Vegas
Sep 1, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER
Meanwhile, back in 1995, Matrix can't start the sale because they have to

matrix posted:

manually specify the price on every game on every format in multiple places. There are literally thousands of numbers to change manually which is a recipe for disaster

Riso
Oct 11, 2008

by merry exmarx
Typical, try to charge us for 100$ a game, but when it comes to their IT the cheapest is good enough.

Davin Valkri
Apr 8, 2011

Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

V for Vegas posted:

Meanwhile, back in 1995, Matrix can't start the sale because they have to "manually specify the price on every game on every format in multiple places. There are literally thousands of numbers to change manually which is a recipe for disaster"

I wonder how Steam does it :v: Or GOG, or a bunch of other online retailers.

steinrokkan
Apr 2, 2011



Soiled Meat

V for Vegas posted:

Meanwhile, back in 1995, Matrix can't start the sale because they have to

How can you even create a website without knowing what a database is? :psyduck:

Next week on Comedy Channel's The Matrix: Andy loses the Geocities password and Tracy can't figure out how to upload the new x_flames_radical_x.gif header.

ArchangeI
Jul 15, 2010

steinrokkan posted:

How can you even create a website without knowing what a database is? :psyduck:

Next week on Comedy Channel's The Matrix: Andy loses the Geocities password and Tracy can't figure out how to upload the new x_flames_radical_x.gif header.

Good news, they are hiring a

quote:

Web Developer with ASP.NET/C#, Classic ASP/VBasic, SQL, PHP, " experience

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Chump Farts
May 9, 2009

There is no Coordinator but Narduzzi, and Shilique is his Prophet.
I thought the sale was supposed to start today or yesterday?

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