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I think Reds! is probably easier to play than Triumph of Chaos, but it has less chrome.
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Jun 14, 2014 13:04
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Oh I wasn't trying to justify Triumph of Chaos as approachable, but moreso that it-a Russian Civil War simulation-was there. That's the great part of war games. The devotion people have in this style of stuff results in some of the most edge-case historical scenarios you don't hear about otherwise.
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Jun 14, 2014 13:58
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Off the top of my head, I know Avalon Hill had a game literally called "The Russian Campaign" which was pretty easy to get into by 80s wargame standards, but it's a little dated by now and probably hard to get.
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Jun 14, 2014 16:17
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If you want operational level, No Retreat is pretty good but it has a lot of chrome.
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Jun 14, 2014 20:44
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A Victory Lost might be good for you. I mean, it's a bit simplistic and gamey for a seasoned grognard, but it's a rather neat gateway game that'll get you up to speed with most hex'n'counter mainstays. And as usual, I recommend Red Winter which will give you a taste of both tactical and operational games. Both of these have soviets feel soviet in gameplay.
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Jun 14, 2014 23:38
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I want to play the heck out of Red Winter.
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Jun 15, 2014 00:39
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For WWIII tactical Lock n' Load has the World at War series. I haven't played it but it's one of the only WWIII themed games currently being published.
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Jun 15, 2014 01:31
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Wrote Some Words about a wargame.
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Jun 17, 2014 16:32
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Tekopo posted:Wrote Some Words about a wargame. Finally!
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Jun 17, 2014 16:56
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Tekopo posted:Wrote Some Words about a wargame. You made me want to play Totaler Krieg
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Jun 18, 2014 00:20
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Final board for Fire in the Lake: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/1959464/fire-in-the-lake?size=original Prototype for Comancheria, the follow-up to Navajo Wars http://boardgamegeek.com/image/2012815/navajo-wars?size=original So hype for both of these.
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Jun 18, 2014 21:07
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Dre2Dee2 posted:Final board for Fire in the Lake:
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Jun 18, 2014 21:15
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I'd really like to pick up A Distant Plain, but Fire in the Lake is looking drat nice, so I might just pick it up rather then waiting for a reprint of ADP. Is there an ETA for when FitL will be done?
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Jun 18, 2014 23:51
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Sounds like July/August is when it'll hit stores from what I've read.
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Jun 19, 2014 00:25
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Dre2Dee2 posted:Final board for Fire in the Lake: Both of those games are now on my wish list. Comancheria really sounds like a game I would play.
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Jun 19, 2014 01:36
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Tekopo posted:Fire in the Lake looks all kind of cool, but man, it feels like it is going to be a truly epic-sized game if you go for the full campaign. I can't see that happening very often. There are a lot of people interested in it, though, I think I find it easier to get ADP to the table than CL or AA since people are more interested in that conflict. Oddly enough among my group of friends (some of whom are not ardent war gamers) there was more hype for Fire in the Lake than A Distant Plain, since a lot of people were uncomfortable playing in a war that is still going on since since had friends that are deployed in Afghanistan, but they were excited for Fire In The Lake, with so much time passed since the end of the conflict I think it's more palatable to people. So excited for this game it's crazy. I didn't want to wait for store release so I jumped on the still open preorders/p500, i'm hoping it comes out soon. Gonna have to que up a bunch of Vietnam War movie soundtracks to play in the background while played.
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Jun 19, 2014 06:32
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I finally got around to playing through the tutorial of Navajo Wars and immediately found myself without an idea of what to do next (in terms of strategy and ideas, not so much rules) and also messing up or forgetting rules/cards (Pueblo Revolt for example) immediately
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Jun 21, 2014 15:11
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I tried to play Unconditional Surrender and all I have to say is that the game is extremely interesting and really quite playable. The combat system works remarkably well: it's very easy to just grab the list of DRMs and work on them one by one and it's easy to avoid missing anything. The mobile/assault system works very well, with panzers usually wanting to make mobile attacks on enemy units units (although they are still useful in assaults). Panzers are properly good in this game and can be used in very inventive ways. The fact that you have to use Production Points in order to move stuff means that you really have to work out what is worth moving and what isn't, and the production point system overall works pretty well. I liked the sortie system as well: it makes you want to strike enemy airplanes before making strikes on the frontline. Overall the naval/air system is pretty goddamn easy to use, with some of the naval stuff being a bit weird to get your head around at first but still working pretty well. The diplomacy system is a bit weird, since it is pretty random. It seems that Political Successes usually remain outside the cup once pulled, because everyone is reluctant to place them back in because you can't immediately draw them if you do. It does encourage, however, the Axis player to invade minor countries, since it helps with getting your diplomacy going since every country you conquer gives you a Pro-Axis marker in the cup. I wasn't completely sold on the diplomacy system but it worked well enough. The weather system is okay: it can lead to weird scenarios where an area is severe or poor while its two adjacent areas are mild, but overall it works alright. It becomes a bit difficult to see the places where one weather zone turns into another, however. Overall I don't have any real criticism of the game: diplomacy for the Allies seem difficult and pointless though, since as soon as the Axis conquer any country, no matter how small, they get to remove a Pro-[Faction] counter on the map. This alone makes it almost impossible to ally Italy onto the Allies side, although it is possible. Me and my friend managed to go from September 1939 to January 1941 in about six hours: the game has been VERY historical so far, partly because of my decisions as Germany and partly due to how the luck of the diplomacy draws turned out. So, we decided to go for West-First and so we activated Poland on the western side. My attack into Poland lasted until November due to an unlucky roll in October meaning that I didn't take Warsaw, but the weather held out so I was able to take out Warsaw no problem. My panzers were especially useful in this. Once Poland was gone, I moved back west and this is where the Phony War began: the Wallies couldn't attack me because they can't attack out of the Maginot Line, and they couldn't declare war on Belgium/Netherlands, so they had to wait for me to set the tempo. In the meanwhile, I decided to declare war on Denmark in January and by February I was in Copenhagen. In March, with my surprise token ready, I declared war and Invaded Norway, which proved to be relatively easy since I had a surface action spare. Once this was done, I moved everything for the attack in France. I had to wait until June since the weather was awful before then, but I finally attacked, declaring war on the Netherlands and Belgium. I was able to take out Belgium and the Netherlands in the first turn and push slightly into France in June. By July, I had managed to smash through Lille and was setting up the attack on the outskirts of Paris. August saw the biggest losses for the French troops, with my panzers having set up to assault Paris and finally taking it: the air war was heating up by then and most of our air units had a lot of sorties on them by now. In September, the Italians finally joined me and pretty much helped put the coffin on France: the BEF was completely annihilated as well and finally France collapsed altogether, which was good since bad weather was fast approaching. With Italy in the fight, I started moving stuff back to Eastern front and in December declared war on Yugoslavia (by this time, Romania was already on my side). It didn't take long to smash Yugoslavia and soon I was able to convince Hungary to join my side. By the end, I had managed to land a german unit in north africa (after a lot of fighting between italian ships and the Royal Navy) and preparing for the attack into Egypt. Bulgaria had a pro-axis marker on it by the end, and Russia had all ceded lands except Basarabia (since Romania joined me before they could get the marker). Overall, extremely historical. Next on the plans is to invade Greece and then invade Russia when the weather clears up. I found it weird, however, that all the Vichy countries are neutral: I guess you still want to invade them as the Allies, however, to make it easier to get to Italy/France.
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Jun 21, 2014 21:00
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Some Pictures from my game of Napoleon's Triumph some time ago: These are end of turns pictures I took of most turns that took place in the game. End of Deployment: I did a pretty even deployment, wanted to cover all avenues of attack:  End of the first turn. I got cavalry screen outs, he's tentatively trying to send a corps out but I already have cavalry screens out threatening him:  This is end of the second turn. My cavalry screens harassed him: next turn they will strike: He's going to have nasty surprise.  This is the end of the fourth turn. My cavalry caused his corps to retreat and he's being very tentative about approaching any more corps, since he doesn't have any screens out:  This is the end of the fifth turn. He's got screens out but hasn't approached yet. I'm happy to solidify my position for the time being:  End of the sixth turn. He's pushing for my right flank now but still hasn't cleared my cavalry away. Everywhere else stays well away. I incite him to pick up the tempo because time is running out on him.  End of seventh: he's both attempting to flank me on the left and pushing me hard on the right. Still hasn't made an appreciable effort to contact me in the front.  End of eighth: his troops smashed through on my right but he doesn't have any reserves to support and exploit the attack. I've managed to sneak a 3-strength cavalry just in time to support there as well, so he'll be hard pressed to make use of his gains.  End of ninth: He's still flanking me on the left but I have a whole corps of 3-strength cavalry to contain him. I decide to push his lines of communications and attack straight up the left. He attempts some contact in the front, but not enough. The right is cleared after his attacking corps is surrounded and picked apart.  My left and right flank contained, I keep up the assault on his lines of communication: he's pretty much lost by this point and his morale is very low and eventually collapses. This was the situation at the end of the game:  Overall he liked the game, but NT is really a game you need to learn well. Now onto USE, situation after initial setup (the Polish had not been set up yet):  Invasion of Poland finally complete in November 1939:  France getting attacked, end of July 1940:  Situation when we stopped playing at January 1941. Yugoslavia conquered, Hungary just joined and getting ready for the summer campaign/invasion of Greece. 
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Jun 21, 2014 21:27
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Love the two AARs! USE does seem like a very interesting game.
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Jun 21, 2014 22:16
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Both of those games look fantastic, I really need to find someone who is interested in War games.
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Jun 22, 2014 00:58
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I really want to give USE another go. As I said, the only thing I wasn't 100% on-board with was the diplomacy system but the combat in the system is really stellar. Will have to wait until the rest of the game shape ups before I can make a full decision.
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Jun 22, 2014 10:13
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I wrote words about wargames
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Jun 26, 2014 07:51
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Tekopo posted:I wrote words about wargames He really did. And mentioned NT! Woo! I might have been trawling old BGG reviews and sessions for NT while the SA forums were down. Perhaps.
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Jun 26, 2014 10:39
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What do people think about the OCS games? I already own Blitzkrieg Legend and Reluctant Enemies, and should be playing RE with Tekopo in the coming weekends. Have watched a couple of videos on them and they seem quite managable and surprisngly logical (unlike some of the newer wargames). I'm actualy really interested by Burma, and the rumours about an OCS Beyond the Rhine or OCS Italy.
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Jun 26, 2014 11:08
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If I got tired of Memoir '44 would I like Commands and Colors: Ancients or BattleLore? I'm looking for a wargame to play with my partner. If anyone has suggestions for wargames for a couple who mainly plays heavy euros and TCGs that would be nice too.
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Jun 26, 2014 14:19
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inferis posted:If I got tired of Memoir '44 would I like Commands and Colors: Ancients or BattleLore? I'm looking for a wargame to play with my partner. If anyone has suggestions for wargames for a couple who mainly plays heavy euros and TCGs that would be nice too. As for OCS, I think it's one of the better systems out there that does logistics in an extremely good way, but man, does it require you to think in order to play it. I don't like thinking 
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Jun 27, 2014 08:24
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Right, I finally found somewhere that claims to stock Guns of Gettysburg, so I've put my order in for my first wargame. Well, first boardgame wargame, as you may know I play groggy computer games all the time, and I'm getting back into Miniature war-games. Next step convince someone to play me.
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Jun 27, 2014 09:28
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Guns of Gettysburg is a good game but like all Simmons games, it can be kind of difficult to get your head around at first (especially when it comes to multi-hour turns). Just be forewarned that you won't be be fighting THE battle of Gettysburg, but A battle of Gettysburg.
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Jun 27, 2014 09:52
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Tekopo posted:How heavy of a euro is heavy? I'd almost recommend Napoleon's Triumph but that's a really heavy step into the genre. C&C: Ancients and C&C: Napoleonics are different an I personally feel they work better than Memoir '44 but it is the same mechanism in the end. What made you tired of Memoir? Some of our favorite games are Agricola, Eclipse, and Power Grid. We are going to play Die Macher when we can rope in 3 friends. Today we just started playing crayon rails and she really loved it so if she has no problems with 4 hour economic games I think she could potentially get into wargames. I was looking at Napoleon's Triumph because of your posts about it but it's expensive and out of print. How much was it retail? I've seen used copies for around $150 or so or new copies around $200. My problem with Memoir '44 was that because of the cards I was sometimes forced to just bash my head against the wall for a turn and despite being so "light" it moved really slow. The only 'real' wargame I own is Ran which is really cool looking and I like the theme but I get sleepy every time I try to open the rule book and I don't know anyone nerdy enough to play it with me at the moment.
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Jun 27, 2014 10:43
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Tekopo posted:Guns of Gettysburg is a good game but like all Simmons games, it can be kind of difficult to get your head around at first (especially when it comes to multi-hour turns). Just be forewarned that you won't be be fighting THE battle of Gettysburg, but A battle of Gettysburg. Yeah, I've done my homework (and read your reports from early in the thread.) and I think I know what I'm getting myself into. And I prefer games that are more historical settings than actual history - there are only so many ways you can re-fight a historical battle when you know when the reinforcements are coming. In truth, you can never refight a historical battle. You know when this or that division is coming, while the historical general doesn't - you know where they went wrong, so really your playing towards an end. GoG's random reinforcements bring that uncertainty back, which is why I'm looking forward to playing.
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Jun 27, 2014 10:46
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Yeah, at some point it's like the first 30 turns of Chess where you just play your rote perfect turns.
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Jun 27, 2014 10:51
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inferis posted:Some of our favorite games are Agricola, Eclipse, and Power Grid. We are going to play Die Macher when we can rope in 3 friends. Today we just started playing crayon rails and she really loved it so if she has no problems with 4 hour economic games I think she could potentially get into wargames. I remember getting NT for around 50 quid, which is about 80-90 dollars. Apart from that, the rulebook for NT is kind of difficult to parse (although relatively short). I might almost suggest 1812: The Invasion of Canada. It has euro-ish elements within it, but it is kind of random due to the dicerolls involved.
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Jun 27, 2014 11:29
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NT was $70 at retail MSRP, though I got it for cheaper on CSI. I think I won't bother recommending because Tekopo already has.
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Jun 27, 2014 11:58
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I could pay that much for such a beautiful game with amazing components I'm just scared of a rerelease announced the day after I buy it.
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Jun 27, 2014 13:04
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inferis posted:I could pay that much for such a beautiful game with amazing components I'm just scared of a rerelease announced the day after I buy it. Yeah, it's rough. Rachel Simmons has not announced any sort of reprint or store-reopening at all, and there's no real expectation of such in the near future. On the other hand, no information is not really "nothing's coming", and STAVKA is more likely than more NT? I dunno. I'd suggest asking around in your area to find someone who owns the game, and play it with them, and as a bonus you'll have someone to play with if you end up getting it.
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Jun 27, 2014 14:34
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Charging for P500s on Fire in the Lake is 1st of July! Man, can't wait to get that beauty in my hands. Edit: Also US Civil War, a new strategic-level ACW game, it looks pretty good!
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Jun 28, 2014 00:32
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Is there an active group for doing Vassal gaming? I'm interested in playing some OGRE/GEV, No Retreat!, etc... Also I'm screwing around with Multiplayer OGRE scenario's  4 Player Ogre, Balance might need some work or I might need to be a better player... Game ended with 4 Weaponless ogres ramming each other over and over.
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Jun 28, 2014 23:32
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Probably a dumb question but... In Apache Thunderbolt leader - every loiter turn I draw PopUp counters, get attacked / attack / move, correct?
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Jun 29, 2014 00:57
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Numlock posted:Game ended with 4 Weaponless ogres ramming each other over and over. Haha, I just picture Ogres dry-humping each other on some majestic dusty plain of futuristic warfare. Man. I don't know, Vassal won't really do justice to those sweet papercraft ogri.
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Jun 29, 2014 01:19
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