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VoodooXT posted:Let's face it: we're gigantic history nerds. Maybe that's true for some, but I play these games because their rich both in theme and play (at least, I play the ones that are rich in theme and play, which is a lot of them). I love the asymmetry of Andean Abyss and Virgin Queen, the competitive nature of Twilight Struggle, and the what-the-gently caress-itude of Advanced Squad Leader. I don't have particular interest in the Colombian drug war, Elizabethan times, the Cold War, or WWII. I can appreciate the history, but it's secondary to how I appreciate the game. I mean, where the gently caress are you going to find another game like Napoleon's Triumph or Guns of Gettysburg? Those Euros ain't got jack poo poo on that.
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Aug 12, 2013 00:34
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Gencon had copies of Maria and Guns of Gettysburg in the vendors hall for decent price. Now I have Maria and Guns of Gettysburg  Hopefully I can get these to the table soon. Two-player games have been a problem for me recently due to my main gaming buddy being busy with work; and three players is a very oddball count.
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Aug 19, 2013 22:21
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PROTOSTORM!!! posted:So I want to own a Hex rear end war game, but I don't have many people to play with. Outside of playing online options nothing beats just seating down and hashing it out, ya know? Combat Commander is amazing, but no modular maps. Advanced Squad Leader is amazing and has modular maps, but is, well, complicated (and a large buy-in*). Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit 1 is ASL in an 11-page rulebook, and is amazing (and the cheapest of these options); but is somewhat out of print. I'd probably start with Combat Commander. If you end up liking that system but are left wanting even crazier depth and more tactics, look into Advanced Squad Leader. *A note, ASL may have a large buy in with its $60 rulebook and its $100 core game, but the payout is there. With that core game and rulebook; playing a scenario a week would get you half a year of play, and there are years worth of online scenarios to boot. Honestly I'd say the strongest suit ASL has going for it is the sheer amount of content in the game system. Speaking of Advanced Squad Leader, Rising Sun (a new ASL module that covers all the Pacific Theater) is supposedly coming out "soon."
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Sep 1, 2013 07:55
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Tekopo posted:Yeah, it's one of the reasons why I'm not buying A Distant Plains. Well, that and I don't have a particular interest in a game representation of that particular conflict. I want to see the scenario booklet though, since I'm interested to see if they have different scenarios (pre-invasion, bush years, obama years etc). Pacific is the highest rated of the Combat Commanders on BGG (saying nothing), and I can't see it being any worse than Europe; which I have played. CC is a pretty drat good game. It has a lot of luck of the cards in addition to luck of the "dice," but it does a great job of compartmentalizing a lot of situational rules by keeping them tied to the cards. It's a solid hex-and-counter tactical wargame.
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Sep 10, 2013 18:27
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You two are making me really want to get my copy of Pacific played so I can argue the merits of it 
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Sep 11, 2013 21:13
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Cuba Libre, A Distant Plain and Fire on the Lake are all stuff I'm looking forward to. I also preordered Sekigahara reprint and No Retreat!: The Russian Front reprint. Rising Sun, an ASL module that will cover the Pacific Theater, is coming out soonish. Eventually I want to get Crucible of Steel and Blood and Jungle by Bounding Fire Productions (more ASL), but that's further down the pipeline. I think that'll do me for war games for a while 
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Sep 16, 2013 00:44
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Sekigahara, A Distant Plain, and Cuba Libre all came in the mail today! Sekigahara has 87 stickers and pieces to sticker on them  At least it's not like how Guns of Gettysburg has tiny pieces, and the game looks really pretty when things are stuck on.
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Sep 17, 2013 20:57
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Tekopo posted:I think Guns of Gettysburg was more effort, but Napoleon's Triumph was more annoying. Stickers do not stick well to metal pieces, I ended up having to use glue to make them keep on and it was a god-drat mess. I've never had the pleasure of having to stick C&C/Other block games though. Have fun! Ugh, Napoleon's Triumph's metal was so bad for those stickers. Sekigahara got stickered thankfully; the wooden blocks are big enough that it really was pretty quick to do everything, even though I think it had more pieces than GoG perhaps.
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Sep 18, 2013 17:25
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Rising Sun: ASL Module 13 came in the mail Monday, so it (and Tekopo's prodding) have gotten me thinking about discussing Advanced Squad Leader: Advanced Squad Leader is a heavyweight. It's kind of absurd, really. The full rulebook is hundreds of pages and filled to the brim with legalese, exception cases, and military jargon. Really though? If that was it, that this was a game with a big rulebook, that wouldn't be the strange part about ASL. The strange part about Advanced Squad Leader is how good it is. Even for me, who is more likely to enjoy euros than war games; I think this game is fantastic. There are other weird things about Advanced Squad Leader. That huge rulebook and giant core module are preceded by a tiny starter kit that shows you about 75% (maybe more) of what ASL is all about. The loving starter kit rulebook condenses ASL into eleven pages. The point here is that Advanced Squad Leader, at its core, is not as complicated as its sprawling text makes it out to be. Hell, I'll even explain the system in brief in the next paragraph: The game is played in turns, each turn divided into one turn for both players (game and player turns respectively). The player turns are divided into eight phases (heal troops, attacker's first fire, movement, defender's fire, attacker's second fire, retreat, slow move, close combat). The most important phases involve moving and defensive firing, for ASL is about positioning. The game works in such a way that the active player will have weaker firing opportunities than the non-active player, so the game can boil down to advancing troops to the objectives you need to get to in such a way that you always have a strong shooting opportunity outside your turn. The system works, and works well. It doesn't have the flash of card-play like Combat Commander, but playing ASL has made me realize how enjoyable it is to have very basic components turn into a sprawl of mechanics. You don't enclose your chance to fire at a moving target in the luck of a card draw, you don't count cubes on an initiative track; it's just two dice, some boards, and a small selection of counters from an obscene pool of chits. I don't think I'm alone in this sentiment. Advanced Squad Leader is older than I am yet still has products being released for it to this day. The only major rules-overhaul came from the move from Squad Leader to Advanced; that the system has yet to be restructured is somewhat telling of how solid the play is. Yes, the rulebook is daunting, perhaps even unreadable as anything but a reference. If you're interested in ASL, the starter kit is much better at explaining the game than the full rules, and there are tons of videos online with people ready to teach the game. I'm buttering up my 2-player wargame friend to this system, while learning from a more experienced ASL gamer in the area. Hopefully I can report to you my thoughts on the games as I play them more.
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Sep 26, 2013 00:18
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Paper Mac posted:I get the impression that ASL's girth is from optional chrome modelling of every tiny nuance of period weapons, but I'm not sure if that's true. What kind of play times are you clocking? Yes and no? ASL doesn't go into super-nuance of each weapon (necessarily), but what it will do is try to cover pretty much everything that could happen in a WWII skirmish. Wind spreading fires? Got rules for that. Buildings collapsing from said fire? Got rules for that. Oh wait, were there men in the sewers under the collapsing building? Welp, we've got a rule for that (they die). It's still mostly chrome, but it's chrome in a way that's not trying to go super deep as much as super wide. And reading the rulebook you get a sense that every interaction with another rule in the game has been cross-referenced and clarified (thus making all the edge cases). As far as playtimes, it depends on what scenario is being played and who you're playing with. Playing with the guy who is experienced with the game, a medium-length ASL map takes three hours or less. Playing a starter kit intro scenario with someone completely new to the game? Six hours or more. Then there are monster scenarios that are weekend killers (the historical modules especially have maps like this).
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Sep 26, 2013 18:52
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RationalTangle posted:Hope I'm not annoying you guys too much with stupid newbie questions: Are there any well-loved online retailers for these sorts of games, as well as any good brick-and-mortar stores in the western Wisconsin/Eastern Minnesota area? For online, CoolStuffInc sells a decent amount of war games. Aside from that, publisher's websites are your best bet (GMT has a great pre-order system). Other than that, there's not one singular "WAR GAME STORE" to my knowledge (although you could probably find a lot of trades for obscure stuff at ConsimWorld
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Sep 29, 2013 23:45
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There's a slight but definite chance I may get a face-to-face game of Maria going this weekend! I've never played before, and have been reading through the rules. Is this a game that I should plunge into the advanced game and skip the tutorial mode; or is it one of those things where the advanced game just adds on poo poo I don't need?
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Nov 13, 2013 17:03
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So I finished reading the rules for Maria, and I'm definitely going to play full game. It seems like the "intro" rules only teaches the basic system of play, while the full rules is the actual game overlaid on it. Maybe not as bad as the jumps in Through the Ages rulesets, but it's still enough to know to add on the full set of content.
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Nov 14, 2013 11:37
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Tekopo posted:Nice, I look forward to your next post! You are doing slightly better than me: having full families is really nice. I managed to get to the Mexican era but constant Ute raids absolutely killed me. I had two 2-value ceremenies which I used to help me in battles but I rolled 1 in both of them, very annoying. Just lost too many families, I think I had 4-5 Ute raids by the time I lost. I have no preference and will take whatever spot is left if Dre2Dee2 wants a specific role. I'd also love to try something Saturday as well.
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Nov 22, 2013 18:39
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Hey guess who ordered Guderian Blitzkrieg II and Next War: Korea on a whim? Some idiot who is in way over is head, that's who. (it's me) Then again, I'm learning ASL, so maybe I'm not completely doomed. Right? right...?
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Dec 6, 2013 14:31
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Tekopo posted:What have you done trynant I just have a strong love for the super-complicated, what can I say?
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Dec 8, 2013 13:38
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Fat Samurai posted:I think I can get a copy of Ambush! on Ebay relatively cheap (compared to the 90 euros it would cost me to import it from the UK or USA, at least), fist chance I've had of purchasing it in my country during the year or so I've been tracking it. BoardgameGeek gives good reviews, but there are a couple of mentions about the scenarios becoming kinda repetitive after a while. Get it. It's a good solitaire wargame that's out of print and you're getting a decent deal. That's enough for a buy.
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Dec 10, 2013 22:44
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Wow, I'm investigating one of the monster games I purchased recently, Next War: Korea, and it really intrigues me. The only wargames I've dealt with anywhere near a modern time period are the COIN games, Andean Abyss and A Distant Plain; so I'm excited at the prospect of a heavy game on a strategy level using actually deployment and movement of military troops in a modern setting. And you know what? The rules aren't much heavier than those of Virgin Queen; so hey, here's to looking forward to a future attempt at a mini-monster game. Guderian's Blitzkrieg II still scares the poo poo out of me though. I love that feeling. Wargaming...what's wrong with us? EDIT: Speaking of COIN, I got to play A Distant Plain last weekend, but I hosed up the rule for Coalition victory points in their favor (I thought it was just pieces not in casualty track instead of pieces in their Available boxes). This more or less broke the game, but even so it's a very exciting title. I'm getting it played the beginning of January, properly this time! Trynant fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Dec 16, 2013 |
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Dec 16, 2013 01:17
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Tekopo posted:the only issue in the game seems to be that you need to read every card out loud every time, which slows things down. Well, all the COIN games more or less suffer from that though. It's just a pain to squint over from across the table to see the tiny event text. I still haven't figured out an ideal solution to this. It was definitely a point of contention at my table.
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Dec 17, 2013 18:12
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I did a VASSAL game of Cuba Libre with Tekopo and it was pretty fantastic (and very close). He's doing an LP of the game (starring me as some Mafia-type corrupt Syndicate fucker) that's been going pretty wonderfully. The COIN games are a wonderful bit of stuff. It's pretty nuts and wonderful to get a whole series of variations of this mechanic. As redudant as it may be, I ordered the three currently out and the upcoming fourth  .
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Dec 24, 2013 22:09
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I think it would be entirely possible for a group familiar with the COIN games and not prone to AP to play Cuba Libre in 3 ~ 4 hours, and Andean Abyss/A Distant Plain in 4~5. That being said, getting a group that familiar with those games is an uphill battle of its own. I'm starting a solitaire game of Next War: Korea, using the advanced rules (it seems that the  ).EDIT: I have a picture of my initial setup. The scenario is Strategic Surprise, which is the first of the Advanced Scenarios where the "US/ROK's worst nightmare" of DPRK invading ROK without warning [ Here's the pic. I'm also working through more of the Advanced Squad Leader ruleset. I've mostly grasped the Basic Game/Infantry ruleset; now I'm working through the Ordnance/Artillery stuff. The rules still surprise me in just how much detail they've abstracted into a couple of dice and some cardboard. Trynant fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Dec 28, 2013 |
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Dec 28, 2013 14:11
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Are there any good, in-depth war games that focus on individual-level scale of combat? I think I'm basically asking for a minis game with war gaming's rules/lack of suck. The two closest candidates I know of so far are Sergeants and an almost-war-game Earth Reborn. Any thoughts?
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Jan 7, 2014 17:26
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I...I may have gone a little overboard with collecting Advanced Squad Leader stuff. I'm just thankful I don't have the urge to clip the counters...yet
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Jan 10, 2014 12:29
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I...I just ordered from coolstuff The Dark Valley and World at War. Why...what have you done to me Wargame thread?!
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Feb 2, 2014 21:30
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If I get TDV played, I'll definitely go for some sort of AAR. Hasn't arrived just yet.
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Feb 3, 2014 02:46
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World at War and The Dark Valley came in the mail recently. The Dark Valley looks really cool in that it doesn't have that heavy a ruleset (at first glance) but advertises a monstrous playtime. On the flipside, World at War looks really cool because it's the first board game I've gotten with an honest-to-loving-god bound (200+ page) rulebook. poo poo, I thought only minis games did that stuff. I'm probably going to tryout some solitaire Dark Valley in the near future, and do some kind of AAR when that happens.
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Feb 7, 2014 10:43
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SpaceLion posted:As a relative newb to wargaming, I've been combing my way through this thread and it's gotten me excited for some games, especially the COIN series. Combat Commander is fairly approachable. The designer, Chad Jensen, is a really good rulebook writer, and if your buddy can explain a game then you'll be fine. There's a lot of fun to be had with CC, so fingers crossed!
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Mar 15, 2014 17:30
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SpaceLion posted:Sudden death was set to turn 7 and we didn't even make it there. He eliminated enough of my guys to trigger surrender on turn 6. We were definitely moving the time step when either of us went through our deck or if there was a "Time" trigger. There isn't anything about reducing your deck size is there? To be fair; I've played games that should of gone on for 2 hours, maybe 3 at most, that went to six hours. Yes, you really can reduce that time by a lot, especially if this is one of your first games of this kind. If you have your pieces sorted well enough and know the rules, the game will probably cut down to half that time next play I'd wager. And be sure not to be too analysis-paralysis with your play 
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Mar 16, 2014 22:04
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Depends on your group of course, but Dominant Species is my favorite on that list. Andean Abyss would be second.
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May 6, 2014 01:49
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CNN Sports Ticker posted:What I'm really in the mood for is a game about the Roman invasion/occupation of Britain Britannia starts with that period but goes beyond it to later struggles in early medieval times.
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May 22, 2014 17:18
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Smoking Crow posted:Really? That surprises me because most Americans don't care about the Eastern Front. I'd expect you all to have stormed Normandy a thousand times and only surrounded the Germans at Stalingrad a few times. Oh hey fancy that Triumph of Chaos covers this topic. There's tons of coverage involving the Eastern Front. Hell, Advanced Squad Leader pretty much opens its catalog with a module dedicated to Germans vs Russians (Beyond Valor).
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Jun 14, 2014 11:09
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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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Tekopo posted:Let's arrange a game folks. Also, upcoming posts and thought about OCS and Reluctant Enemies. I hope you have a few positives for Reluctant Enemies Horror story time: I've been stickering/sorting Command & Colors: Ancients over several days, and at some point during the process I lost one of the countersheets. While I can still sticker all the pieces needed, some of them will only have stickers on one side. Truly a day of woe.
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Jul 12, 2014 02:54
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Ropes4u posted:Write the publisher and ask for another sheet... The real twist ending was that the sheet I thought was missing was never there; C&C had duplicate sheets for the first two pages and only the third sheet by its lonesome--it took me a glance in the rulebook to discover that. Long story short? I'm a moron. At least the game is stickered now.
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Jul 12, 2014 10:52
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I noticed that Coolstuffinc has ASL Starter Kit 1: 10th Anniversary Edition in stock for a little over $20 (and the game is MSRP of $25 anyways). This is quite simply the best way to get introduced to Advanced Squad Leader. Considering Multiman Publishing take years to reprint these drat things I'd jump on it if you're interested at all.
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Jul 14, 2014 10:21
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gently caress. I finished "sorting" Guderian's Blitzkrieg II and there seems to be recurring theme in war games to make one of the most challenging parts to play a game sorting the drat poo poo. It's fortuitous to have a wargame have all its stuff fit in its box, let alone have anything close to proper storage in box.
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Jul 15, 2014 08:38
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It's happened. I'm officially that wargamer that buys more games than they'll play any time soon. This was probably the case before, but I got both Axis Empires games (Totaler Krieg and Dai Senso) and Reluctant Enemies in the mail yesterday. I don't really think I need more than a couple of near-monster to full-out monster war games; I think I'm nearing a dozen. Let's not forget the dozens of scenarios of other games waiting. This...is a problem. Of course, what if I do get to play these games and they go out of print!? And hey, why not a list the way-too-many content-heavy, barely touched wargames?:
Welp, that's it; gonna go play through this stuff. See you all in a few years.
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Jul 16, 2014 16:42
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Tekopo posted:Let me tell you about Totaler Krieg, the 150 dollars retail price game... Bullshit. They're listed at $120 Let's...let's not talk about spending too much money on war games. It makes me remember the pain. Of my wallet. EDIT: And besides, MSRP of A World at War is $195.
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Jul 25, 2014 00:09
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Tekopo posted:Corner cutting is addictive in a really strange way, I approve. I've actually been forfeiting other fun activities to clip counters, and when I'm not clipping them I keep wishing I was. You monster, Tekopo.
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Jul 25, 2014 22:16
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Zombie #246 posted:What's everyone's thoughts on how World At War has aged? I'm thinking about pulling the trigger and getting some grand strategic games soon, most likely TK, but keeping that option open for later. I'll let you know when I'm done reading the 200+ pages of rules and organizing the players and game space needed for the days of game play. EDIT: Although I did look up some comments on the game and there seems to be a resounding "this game is a monster." Trynant fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Jul 26, 2014 |
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Jul 26, 2014 01:15
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