Board Wargames Thread - Armchair General HQ - The Something Awful Forums

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Tekopo: Oct 24, 2008; When you see it, you'll shit yourself.

Dadbod Apocalypse posted:

ASL seems like an absolutely perfect game to port over to PC. I can't understand why this hasn't happened, but then again, I'm a dumb, naive baby.

I�m pretty sure it has, even discounting VASSAL. Tigers in the Midt iirc

# ? Feb 8, 2019 23:24

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# ? May 21, 2024 00:32

Jobbo_Fett: Mar 7, 2014; Slava Ukrayini; Clapping Larry

Tekopo posted:

I�m pretty sure it has, even discounting VASSAL. Tigers in the Midt iirc

TitM looks like a very poor implementation, and horribly overpriced for what little game you get out of it.

# ? Feb 8, 2019 23:26

Tekopo: Oct 24, 2008; When you see it, you'll shit yourself.

Hmmm maybe I was wrong on the name but I�m pretty sure there�s a 1 to 1 conversion of ASL

# ? Feb 8, 2019 23:26

AARP LARPer: Feb 19, 2005; THE DARK SIDE OF SCIENCE BREEDS A WEAPON OF WAR; Buglord

Jobbo_Fett posted:

Because you won't make as much money making a boardgame like ASL for PC. You know people will make an editor and immediately start producing unofficial map-packs.

That and they don't know what kind of goldmine they are sitting on by making it for PC.

It just doesn't seem like you can make any money when this stuff is more or less permanently out of print. But more importantly, I'm thinking the PC could handle the rules insanity and make the series more accessible to people. But then again, I'm dumb, etc. etc.

# ? Feb 8, 2019 23:28

Cessna: Feb 20, 2013; KHABAHBLOOOM

Dadbod Apocalypse posted:

ASL seems like an absolutely perfect game to port over to PC. I can't understand why this hasn't happened, but then again, I'm a dumb, naive baby.

The old Combat Mission series initially started off as an attempt to do this.

# ? Feb 8, 2019 23:28

Erghh: Sep 24, 2007; "Let him speak!"

There was a Squad Leader computer game back in the day but it was mostly a "name only" thing afaik.

f/e: here https://www.old-games.com/download/9003/avalon-hill-s-squad-leader

# ? Feb 8, 2019 23:30

Jobbo_Fett: Mar 7, 2014; Slava Ukrayini; Clapping Larry

Erghh posted:

There was a Squad Leader computer game back in the day but it was mostly a "name only" thing afaik.

f/e: here https://www.old-games.com/download/9003/avalon-hill-s-squad-leader

I have the CD; plan on LP'ing it someday.

Its bad, and not Squad Leader at all, but somehow still fun.

# ? Feb 8, 2019 23:34

Mr_Roke: Jan 1, 2014

Dadbod Apocalypse posted:

ASL seems like an absolutely perfect game to port over to PC. I can't understand why this hasn't happened, but then again, I'm a dumb, naive baby.

I thought that was kind of what Close Combat was supposed to be (though not a straight up port), or at least that's the impression I got from listening to the 3MA episode on it.

# ? Feb 8, 2019 23:35

Jobbo_Fett: Mar 7, 2014; Slava Ukrayini; Clapping Larry

Dadbod Apocalypse posted:

It just doesn't seem like you can make any money when this stuff is more or less permanently out of print. But more importantly, I'm thinking the PC could handle the rules insanity and make the series more accessible to people. But then again, I'm dumb, etc. etc.

Oh, dude, you have no idea how streamlined you could make a PC adaptation of ASL. If you can make a complex game like Crusader Kings using mostly text files, you can easily have something that automatically worries about everything by itself and let the player enjoy the game.

Tekopo posted:

Hmmm maybe I was wrong on the name but I’m pretty sure there’s a 1 to 1 conversion of ASL

http://www.matrixgames.com/store/product.asp?gid=732

Tigers on the Hunt, and its a bad copy.

# ? Feb 8, 2019 23:37

Jobbo_Fett: Mar 7, 2014; Slava Ukrayini; Clapping Larry

Mr_Roke posted:

I thought that was kind of what Close Combat was supposed to be (though not a straight up port), or at least that's the impression I got from listening to the 3MA episode on it.

Combat Mission is pretty close to a 3d version of what ASL is, but sadly the devs are poo poo

# ? Feb 8, 2019 23:38

Erghh: Sep 24, 2007; "Let him speak!"

Jobbo_Fett posted:

I have the CD; plan on LP'ing it someday.

Its bad, and not Squad Leader at all, but somehow still fun.

Cool. I remember hitting up just about every historically themed RTS type game but missed it.

I do remember thinking "I have the real squad leader game, why would I need that." Which might be the sort of thing that dinged enthusiasim for making a decent PC game by the powers that be. Time/people/markets change though.

# ? Feb 8, 2019 23:56

SoftNum: Mar 31, 2011

Dadbod Apocalypse posted:

It just doesn't seem like you can make any money when this stuff is more or less permanently out of print. But more importantly, I'm thinking the PC could handle the rules insanity and make the series more accessible to people. But then again, I'm dumb, etc. etc.

Part of the issue for a very long time is that people who made chit-based PC war games priced them at like $100 a pop; then shrugged and was like "we have a niche audience nothing can be done." A quick glance over matrixgames reveals that this doesn't seem to be the case anymore, but still the computer port of World in Flames is $99.

# ? Feb 9, 2019 01:39

Jobbo_Fett: Mar 7, 2014; Slava Ukrayini; Clapping Larry

SoftNum posted:

Part of the issue for a very long time is that people who made chit-based PC war games priced them at like $100 a pop; then shrugged and was like "we have a niche audience nothing can be done." A quick glance over matrixgames reveals that this doesn't seem to be the case anymore, but still the computer port of World in Flames is $99.

WiF for PC doesn't have AI, either. Hasn't since release.

# ? Feb 9, 2019 01:42

Phi230: Feb 2, 2016; by Fluffdaddy

Would an LP of a naval wargame where goons take the helm of ships in a double-blind game pique anyone's interest

# ? Feb 9, 2019 01:50

mllaneza: Apr 28, 2007; Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952

Phi230 posted:

Would an LP of a naval wargame where goons take the helm of ships in a double-blind game pique anyone's interest

# ? Feb 9, 2019 02:59

SoftNum: Mar 31, 2011

Phi230 posted:

Would an LP of a naval wargame where goons take the helm of ships in a double-blind game pique anyone's interest

I think we talked on the discord; but like I said there; avoid a setup that is contingent on any one goon needing to do something to progress... even if it's like you decide for them randomly or another person takes over. Goons are flakier than Dr. Kellogg's cereal.

# ? Feb 9, 2019 03:07

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

Tigers on the Hunt is the PC port of ASL:

gradenko_2000 posted:

I finally managed to score a Major Victory on the Guards Counterattack remake of Tigers on the Hunt.

As the Russians, this is the start of the scenario:

I applied stuff I learned from ASL, which was to shoot as individually as possible, and spread out over as many hexes as possible, even if it meant going out into the open.

Turn 1 was just prep firing everyone who had a shot, and then moving everyone one hex during the Advance phase, breaking up all of the double and triple-stacked Assault Engineers into single hexes, even if it meant going into the German turn with a bunch of them just sitting out in the street

The German AI seemed to "break" in that I barely got any return fire - it just didn't seem to know how to six to eight different single squads sitting out in the open.

Turn 2 was more Prep Firing, which probably triggered a few natural 2's in the rolling because I broke a couple of German squads, and then again Advancing just one hex into close combat.

As the game wound down, I applied the other thing I learned from ASL, which is that you go into Close Combat not intending to win outright, but just to "lock up" the enemy in the same hex so that everyone else can pass through.

Another lesson I applied was that once you have clear lanes to move through, you can "trap" a Broken unit by moving into opposite hexsides and triggering a Failure to Rout as a surefire way of eliminating them.

And yet another lesson I applied was constant use of Double Time to move as far as possible, triggering Defensive Fire from as far as possible, and then moving through areas that don't have any Residual Fire so that you can close in with the enemy having spent all their shots.

This is what it looked like at the end:

and the score breakdown:

If there's any interest, I can do a replay and document a more detailed breakdown of what I do turn by turn.

gradenko_2000 posted:

I just played the Tractor Works scenario on Tigers on the Hunt, playing as the Germans against the AI Russians:

At scenario start:

At scenario end:

And the victory breakdown:

Anyone who knows this scenario from ASL also knows that there's supposed to be a major counter-attack from the Russians coming from the bottom of the map, which I didn't get to capture, but they never really went farther than the first row of buildings up the left-hand side, which I then later repulsed.

Some observations:

* One of the Assault Engineer squads carrying one of the two Flamethrowers got killed by turn 2, and all of the other squads were already carrying something, and I couldn't figure out how to get a squad to drop whatever it already was carrying, so I just made do with the one FT.

* I got extremely lucky with that one FT, since it didn't break until literally the last turn of this scenario.

* The game does include battle-hardening and quality reductions from ELR failures ...

* but as far as I could tell it didn't include the SSR that all of the troops inside the factory are Fanatic, since I got a lot of Broken results from 12 FP FT attacks from across the street

* The tactics I used last time still worked: Prep Fire everyone that has a minimally-useful shot, advance and spread out during the Advance phase, generate kills from FTRs as you create enough suppression and broken units to allow for clear(er) lines of advance.

Probably the best thing about TOTH is that it does most of the book-keeping for you - I was able to play this 8-turn scenario in about an hour, which is really blazing fast compared to playing ASL either IRL or through VASSAL.

It's definitely not anywhere near the fidelity of ASL, but I'd say I still got my 50 bucks out of it because I rarely have more than an hour to sit down by myself and play something, and in this case it did allow me to "practice" the implementation of tactics quickly and immediately without having to worry so much about rules.

At the risk of opening a can of worms, I will say that I personally consider the game to be much more playable than, say, Combat Mission, Close Combat, or Graviteam Tactics. Although that's true of ASL as well.

My biggest issue with it is the claustrophobically small map view and the lack of transparency with regards to the actual rules. I suspect that it's using the IFT whole-hog, but it's impossible to know.

# ? Feb 9, 2019 03:10

CaptainRightful: Jan 11, 2005

SoftNum posted:

Part of the issue for a very long time is that people who made chit-based PC war games priced them at like $100 a pop; then shrugged and was like "we have a niche audience nothing can be done." A quick glance over matrixgames reveals that this doesn't seem to be the case anymore, but still the computer port of World in Flames is $99.

I remember when Korsun Pocket came out, like 15 years ago, at the same price as AAA games, and was pretty much universally declared the greatest hex and counter PC game ever. The only way to play against another person was via email!

# ? Feb 9, 2019 17:05

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

I was suckered into buying Korsun pocket, only to realize the review I read was like 10 years old.

:saddowns:

# ? Feb 10, 2019 00:48

Commissar Canuck: Aug 5, 2008; They made fun of us! And it's Stanley Cup season!

Well, it begins. Thanks to this thread I snagged Fire in the Lake. Now to build a :krad:

playlist for both sides

# ? Feb 10, 2019 03:02

StashAugustine: Mar 24, 2013; Do not trust in hope- it will betray you! Only faith and hatred sustain.

Commissar Canuck posted:

Well, it begins. Thanks to this thread I snagged Fire in the Lake. Now to build a playlist for both sides

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhMO9azmKNU

# ? Feb 10, 2019 03:30

SoftNum: Mar 31, 2011

StashAugustine posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhMO9azmKNU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjzjhl-QztE

# ? Feb 10, 2019 04:29

dishwasherlove: Nov 26, 2007; The ultimate fusion of man and machine.

Get on my level https://youtu.be/fRZUoaJR5ns

# ? Feb 10, 2019 12:24

long-ass nips Diane: Dec 13, 2010; Breathe.

Has there been any discussion of Storming the Gap, the new KS from Lock n Load?

It looks pretty cool but I haven�t played any of their other games so I don�t know if it�s something that�s worth backing or not. It�s also a shitload of components for not a lot of money which has me a bit wary.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lnlp/storming-the-gap-world-at-war-85/description

# ? Feb 11, 2019 02:20

tomdidiot: Apr 23, 2014; Stupid Grognard

So I wasn't massively impressed by the world at war series that this is basically a rehash of. It's got pretty graphics, but gameplay is very bucket o'dicey and it takes the Soviet hordes vs American ubermensch thing to a bit of an extreme.

# ? Feb 11, 2019 04:18

Panzeh: Nov 27, 2006; "..The high ground"

There's definitely some rule changes and improvements beyond Eisenbach Gap, but if you're not up for the system, you're probably not going to enjoy it- it does have a lot of newish stuff, from skirmish generators to linked campaigns and a lot of geomorphic maps.

I enjoy the asymmetry of the bigger Soviet units vs more NATO activations and the system is dead simple(a lot of cruft got simplified in the new rules).

Combat's got a lot of RNG but it plays out pretty quickly.

# ? Feb 11, 2019 11:52

Huskalator: Mar 17, 2009; Proud ~~fascist~~
anti-anti-fascist

Two friends and I have a Blitzkrieg Legend game going at the moment. I've got a few of the smaller OCS games under my belt and my buddy Matt has less experience so we split the Germans with him taking the Netherlands theater and I took the rest. My other friend took all the allies to himself as he has a couple of the larger OCS games under his belt. Pics are from the 2nd turn I think. We didn't get the double turn on turn 2 which supposedly makes things much harder for the Germans.

The victory conditions are pretty weird in that the historical result is a draw and they supposedly made getting the historical result pretty difficult. We definitely aren't doing well but I didn't expect to. I'm just having fun with the narrative. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to get across the Meuse and Matt is finding things difficult in the Netherlands.

Huskalator fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Feb 11, 2019

# ? Feb 11, 2019 21:05

Jobbo_Fett: Mar 7, 2014; Slava Ukrayini; Clapping Larry

Go on...

# ? Feb 11, 2019 21:12

MikeCrotch: Nov 5, 2011; I AM UNJUSTIFIABLY PROUD OF MY SPAGHETTI BOLOGNESE RECIPE

YES, IT IS AN INCREDIBLY SIMPLE DISH

NO, IT IS NOT NORMAL TO USE A PEPPERAMI INSTEAD OF MINCED MEAT

YES, THERE IS TOO MUCH SALT IN MY RECIPE

NO, I WON'T STOP SHARING IT

more like BOLLOCKnese

Got a hankering for double blind WWII carrier battles - seems like Solomon Sea is the best option but harder to find than unicorn farts. Any other options? Looking for less complexity than Flat Top or Carrier Battles.

# ? Feb 11, 2019 21:56

Phi230: Feb 2, 2016; by Fluffdaddy

MikeCrotch posted:

Looking for less complexity than Flat Top or Carrier Battles.

I would still reccomend Flat Top

# ? Feb 11, 2019 22:04

Huskalator: Mar 17, 2009; Proud ~~fascist~~
anti-anti-fascist

Also, completely forgot to put anything in reserve or use strat movement for my inf corps so my turn 1 spearhead was weaker than it should have been and now all my leg inf units are a turn behind from the get go.

# ? Feb 12, 2019 16:25

tomdidiot: Apr 23, 2014; Stupid Grognard

Huskalator posted:

Two friends and I have a Blitzkrieg Legend game going at the moment. I've got a few of the smaller OCS games under my belt and my buddy Matt has less experience so we split the Germans with him taking the Netherlands theater and I took the rest. My other friend took all the allies to himself as he has a couple of the larger OCS games under his belt. Pics are from the 2nd turn I think. We didn't get the double turn on turn 2 which supposedly makes things much harder for the Germans.

The victory conditions are pretty weird in that the historical result is a draw and they supposedly made getting the historical result pretty difficult. We definitely aren't doing well but I didn't expect to. I'm just having fun with the narrative. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to get across the Meuse and Matt is finding things difficult in the Netherlands.

Me and Tek did a 2 player OCS game of The Bltizkrieg LEgend, and I think in the end we both found it a bit too much for just two people to manage. The huge push through the Ardennes is logsitically incredibly complex and you have a huge amount of moving aprts to shift arotund and optimise

We got 4 turns in before clling it quits and vowing not to do it again with only 2 people. It's fun - but it's definitely a bit much and the downtime with hour-long turns can be pretty extreme! I had managed to breach the Meuse and was about to breakt through Tek's cobbled together defensive line send my Panzers racing across to the Channel doing the Schnisslesnit - so I guess we endd it just as things were getting exciting.

I do think that it's not necesarily bad that the historical result is pretty difficult ,as that this the thesis of the game and the book it's named after - that the historical result was only possible because of complete bumbling on the Allied side.

I also do think that having the historical result as a "draw" as a victory condition for games is a good thing, especially with lopsided battles (which, ironically enough, this one probably isn't, despite the historical result) - the Germans had no real chance of winning in Normandy, say, so they should be rewarded for doing better than they did historically, even if they don't manage to fulfill Hitler's wet dream and drive the allies into the Atlantic.

# ? Feb 12, 2019 19:31

Huskalator: Mar 17, 2009; Proud ~~fascist~~
anti-anti-fascist

Yeah, it's a lot. We're on apx a turn and a half in a 6.5 hr session. Slow going! Lots to think about and every decision feels like it will effect a lot of the decisions in later turns. This being my first monster OCS I didn't know what to expect or if I would like it but I like it quite a bit. There's an epic feel to the massive movement of men and materiel across the map.

I don't think the victory conditions are a bad thing at all. I appreciate the way they did things and that it fits within a certain idea of why things happened and how it could have turned out.

# ? Feb 13, 2019 19:45

tomdidiot: Apr 23, 2014; Stupid Grognard

Huskalator posted:

Yeah, it's a lot. We're on apx a turn and a half in a 6.5 hr session. Slow going! Lots to think about and every decision feels like it will effect a lot of the decisions in later turns. This being my first monster OCS I didn't know what to expect or if I would like it but I like it quite a bit. There's an epic feel to the massive movement of men and materiel across the map.

I don't think the victory conditions are a bad thing at all. I appreciate the way they did things and that it fits within a certain idea of why things happened and how it could have turned out.

It's probably the most playable of the OCS Monsters, mostly because despite everything, it's quite a small map. GBII, Case Blue, Beyond the Rhine (And the upcoming Third Winter)are all massive and probaly unplayable in any sort of reasonable time frame, while games like Tunisia, Baltic Gap and Korea are too small to be properly called monsters. DAK... is a monster because of its length; game-wise it should theoreticlaly be super managable.

# ? Feb 18, 2019 04:10

AARP LARPer: Feb 19, 2005; THE DARK SIDE OF SCIENCE BREEDS A WEAPON OF WAR; Buglord

I just P-500'd Next War: Vietnam, which means of course that we therefore won't be seeing it released in our lifetime. Sorry everyone!

# ? Feb 20, 2019 23:34

tomdidiot: Apr 23, 2014; Stupid Grognard

New GMT Update
three new games
Mark Herman's new Civil war design, similar to his Gettysburg seen in C3i
Clash of Sovereigns, the sequel to everyon'es favourite overcomplciated CDG Clash of Monarchs
A scramble for Africa game.

# ? Feb 21, 2019 03:15

First Time Caller: Nov 1, 2004

Felt like hopping into the thread to mention that tigers on the hunt is an infuriating, horrible piece of poo poo; don't bother.

You could play one of those click simulator games and make more progress on an ASL scenario than playing tigers on the hunt.

The UI is terrible, even for a grog game.

# ? Feb 25, 2019 21:48

Jobbo_Fett: Mar 7, 2014; Slava Ukrayini; Clapping Larry

First Time Caller posted:

Felt like hopping into the thread to mention that tigers on the hunt is an infuriating, horrible piece of poo poo; don't bother.

You could play one of those click simulator games and make more progress on an ASL scenario than playing tigers on the hunt.

The UI is terrible, even for a grog game.

Or you could just play VASL on VASSAL

# ? Feb 25, 2019 21:51

Tekopo: Oct 24, 2008; When you see it, you'll shit yourself.

Or just not play ASL :v:

Also U-Boot is unfortunately kind of bad. Glad I didn�t back it. Can elaborate if necessary

# ? Feb 25, 2019 21:55

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# ? May 21, 2024 00:32

Jobbo_Fett: Mar 7, 2014; Slava Ukrayini; Clapping Larry

Tekopo posted:

Or just not play ASL

Also U-Boot is unfortunately kind of bad. Glad I didn�t back it. Can elaborate if necessary

Its out now?

# ? Feb 25, 2019 21:59

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