|
Paper Mac posted:Anyone played Empire of the Sun? I think if I go for another CDG I'd like to try something different, the CDG-driving-hex-and-counter concept seems really interesting. It's a good game, but extremely complex. Keeping track of all the air zones of influence, the ranges of all your opponents ships, the reaction possibilities for each attack, and so forth adds a lot of mental work to each turn. If you don't mind that, there's a good solid game in there, but both players need to be on top of the rules and focused for it to work well. I definitely think it's a multi-session game, as it can get quite mentally exhausting.
|
#
¿
Aug 12, 2013 08:28
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 01:39 |
|
|
The Blitzkrieg Legend is a great book! No idea if it's a good game at all though
|
|
#
¿
Aug 13, 2013 00:31
|
|
|
silvergoose posted:If you look on BGG, someone is posting their session reports of Rise and Decline of the Third Reich: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1563/rise-and-decline-of-the-third-reich#forums This is a really well done AAR, thanks for linking it! It actually is getting me interested in learning the system sometime if/when I have several weeks free. Lichtenstein posted:I'd like to take this occasion to remind/enlighten everyone about this... thing on BGG. This on the other hand is an abomination unto mankind and I barely even made it to the second bold quote before reflexively closing the browser tab to save my brain.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2013 00:11
|
|
|
Honestly, speaking as someone who's been playing board wargames for a long time, I don't think they will really prepare you for HOI3 because it's a very different paradigm. If you're just interested in learning them for their own sake (hopefully this is true because they're amazing), then my go to intro recommendation is Battle For Moscow: http://victorypointgames.com/details.php?prodId=103. It's a very simple game that still has a good amount of space for strategy and introduces a lot of basic wargame concepts that will come up in other games. There's also a partial LP of it here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3540762 (requires archives).
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2013 04:29
|
|
|
Paper Mac posted:I think I like the positioning and movement in GoG better than NT. NT gets confusing as hell in small locales, particularly if a corps gets shattered and you have a couple of units in the approaches. Why would you ever need a hex map of North America in a WWII game? Just for the Japanese west coast raids? Will those hexes in the great plains ever be touched by a counter? Don't even get me started on South America; not a single country there would have joined a war in that time period on the opposite side of the US. It's especially strange because it looks like they don't even bother with East Africa, which at least saw some actual fighting and could be especially useful if you're starting pre-1939 for the Italian invasion of Ethiopia (also solves Tekopo's problem of having nothing to do as Italy!) Edit: Also, no Murmansk extension. If you're going to make the players use brain power on irrelevant areas of the map, at least that area had opposing troops in it historically blackmongoose fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Aug 17, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Aug 17, 2013 05:35
|
|
|
I have Alexander, and my thoughts are similar to Lichtenstein's. Also, there's a great deal of randomness, which is probably necessary to some degree to keep it interesting, but if you don't like that sort of thing it could get frustrating. I do have to admit that the battles in Napoleon look pretty interesting - certainly more so than Alexander (roll dice to kill dudes, repeat)
|
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2013 15:56
|
|
|
Pre-war took us about 3 hours, including setup and getting everyone together. Based on that, I'd guess the full thing will end up being around 15-ish hours total. I've only played PBEM before, so I'm not 100% sure how long a live game is going to take us.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 26, 2013 23:12
|
|
|
AV:T is basically the only working, playable, 3D movement starship combat simulator which makes it quite the unique experience. For the guy looking for ship games: Wooden Ships and Iron Men will remind you a lot of Battletech; it's got record sheets for each ship, hex movement, and crossing off boxes as you take damage. It also includes scenarios ranging from ship-to-ship duels to Trafalgar, meaning you can choose the length of game you want. The only problem is that I'm not sure if it's readily available anywhere since it was an old Avalon Hill game.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 27, 2013 19:49
|
|
|
I'm still mad at myself for putting my blitz on Belgium-Holland instead of Budapest. That mistake means I'll be at Tide 0 for the whole summer, losing out on the delay roll modifier, and that I have to keep all those units in Hungary for another turn instead of being able to send them down to Greece. Axis Tide 3 is looking pretty unlikely right now, but I think my strategic position will allow me to set up better defenses at least. It definitely looks like a game that will be in doubt for most of the war.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 7, 2013 19:07
|
|
|
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? Google searching the game can often find it on some of the more obscure online stores. I can give you the run-down on Twin Cities stores if you want, it could be helpful depending on where exactly in WI/MN you are
|
|
#
¿
Sep 30, 2013 00:35
|
|
|
BrainGlitch posted:Looking for someone to play wargames with online. Was thinking something like Avalon Hill's Blitzkrieg played in real time on cyberboard or vassal over several sessions. I am willing to teach the rules and start off with the basic game and stuff. Or if you have a wargame you want to play in real time let me know. My email is 20eyes@gmail.com or just hit me up in here. PLAY WITH MEEEEE Do you go on the IRC channel #boardgoons? There's usually a couple people on who play wargames, and it's usually easier to get a game going on there than through forums or email.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2013 19:45
|
|
|
will_colorado posted:Matrix Games is releasing the computer version of World in Flames today You can look at the Grognard Games thread in the main games forum for reactions, but the initial reports are that it has no AI and non functional multiplayer, making it basically a $100 VASSAL module. Very disappointing if Matrix screws up the potential for more computerized versions of board wargames
|
|
#
¿
Nov 8, 2013 01:40
|
|
|
Apparently, even CSW was too modern for the A World at War people, so they have most of their discussion on a mailing list. That's right, for some people CSW represents the bleeding edge of discussion technology. I'm pretty sure this is a significant portion of what's wrong with the wargaming community.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 16, 2013 07:37
|
|
|
Oldstench posted:
Couple rules comments on your otherwise outstanding playthrough: 1) That's actually an elder icon on the ops card (you can tell by the blue border) so you should have added an elder to passage of time, not a man. 2) There's a couple of bits of errata on the GMT page and this is one of the things that got changed - my understanding is that the increase isn't limited (and I'm pretty sure it would be impossible to pass that limit anyway since enemy morale can't be above your military at that point in the VP check procedure from my reading) I'm looking forward to your next post!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 19, 2013 15:48
|
|
|
6-6 Military to Morale isn't that bad, since you can get it to 8 with elder actions. The real problem is the outposts: since the next event adds 2 automatically, you need to have 3 more Mil than Morale to win the scenario (One of the reasons I think this scenario is actually really hard. Another one is that with only a few standard cards, deck luck plays a much bigger role than when you do a full era.) You need to kill off the outposts, do enough planning to get morale up, and maybe hope you fully escape a raid to knock off a morale that way. It's going to be tough to fit all that into however many ops you have left.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 22, 2013 21:45
|
|
|
Oldstench posted:I only have 8 Culture, so I can only get Mil to 7. Oh right, you bought horsemanship. You might have to fit in a passage of time too then to boost culture.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 22, 2013 22:46
|
|
|
Part of that is probably because it's taking place over only 9 months, so the whole fighting on the western front is about the same period of time of one of the major Eastern Front operations. I'm not sure how well a full game would work either - you're not going to see any kind of Bulge offensive, and most of it is probably going to be primarily attrition combat around the German border until the Germans run out of troops
|
|
#
¿
Jan 28, 2014 19:31
|
|
|
Trynant posted:I...I just ordered from coolstuff The Dark Valley and World at War. Why...what have you done to me Wargame thread?! I'll play TDV with you on VASSAL since my physical copy will likely never see any non-solo play (but yet I still felt compelled to order it), but you're on your own with World at War and it's multiple hundred page rulebook unless I become unemployed for a significant period of time
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2014 23:08
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:Looking forward to it. Does anyone here know anything about The Supreme Commander? How does it rank with other ETO games (e.g. Totaler Krieg, World in Flames)? The only thing I know about Supreme Commander is that they had to release a massive update kit immediately upon publishing due to something going horribly wrong. I felt it wasn't the strongest recommendation, so I've pretty much avoided it after that. I'd post an AAR of my first solitaire attempt of Dark Valley, but so far I've only finished the setup...
|
|
#
¿
Feb 7, 2014 16:31
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:What actually happened with the P500s? Print error or actual gameplay issues? I think it was mostly printing errors, but there might have been some rules stuff in there too? I didn't really follow it too closely. Panzeh posted:It's kinda weird because the Soviet setup is fairly restrictive to the point where it might as well not be free, while the Axis setup is totally free. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of free setup in general because you're asking someone just starting the game to make huge decisions when they're at their least knowledgeable. Even the couple free Soviet units are challenging though, because you have to decide which holes to fill and which to leave, which isn't easy if you're not sure what a typical German attack will look like.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 7, 2014 17:04
|
|
|
Panzeh posted:I have the playtest kit for Illusions of Glory and it's looking interesting. I'll probably try getting in some games on vassal. Nice. Looking for anyone to help you playtest?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2014 21:59
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:Might be interested in Unconditional Surrender but can't really afford to get 3 games + shipping + customs. You don't have to order 3, you can order only 1 or 2 and still get the discount
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2014 05:31
|
|
|
Yeah, it's the standard block combat system of roll your pips in dice and numbers below your quality are hits
|
|
#
¿
Jun 11, 2014 20:38
|
|
|
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. Wargamers are pretty distinct from the general American public because there's generally a base level of historical interest/knowledge among anyone who wants to play them in the first place. You can see some indication of American bias in the inordinate number of games on the Bulge, but if you want to see the Germans fight at the top of their game against a relatively equal opponent, you pretty much have to do the Eastern Front. On the topic of recommendations, what scale are you looking for? There's dozens or hundreds of games for nearly every level of scale, from the whole war all the way down to individual guys shooting at each other. There's also a wide range of complexity (though even at the low end you're looking at 30-page rulebooks). As for other Soviet conflicts, there's a couple games on the Russian Civil War, though it's hard to simulate well from my understanding. The two I've heard positive things about are Reds! and Triumph of Chaos, though I haven't played either so I can only recommend investigating them to see if they sound good. There's a tactical game on one of the battles in the Winter War with Finland that some people were talking up not too long ago in this thread as well. Of course, there's always Twilight Struggle for the Cold War, though it doesn't sound like that's quite what you're looking for as that's not really about fighting so much as political control and influence.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2014 08:44
|
|
|
Lichtenstein posted:I'm intrigued that in addition to the legions, Romans have auxilia troops that look exactly like the gaellic "insurgents". And apparently NPC Germani. And two different shapes of "base" tokens. And those big dong tokens, for chieftains or whatever. Every game has tended to do pretty unique things with the formula I think - CL had the cash pieces, ADP had the Coalition player spending Government resources, FitL has cube-on-cube action and government guerillas. It's one of the strengths of the series that the system is flexible enough to handle playing with the rules like that - its honestly getting pretty close to being a genre; I'd argue that the "CDG" genre that tends to be defined by ops/event cards and point to point maps (I know they don't all fit that but it's a nice short baseline definition) has a similar definitional scope to what we would call the "COIN" genre of face up cards with ordered actions and cylinder/cube troop system.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 29, 2014 01:19
|
|
|
Morholt posted:Well VP is only one of three ways to win. In fact, when I played last week I got a (minor) victory at the end of the game in 1945, by slowing down the Soviet advance enough. It was a pretty intense game, I encircled Moscow in 1942 but kept getting events that refortified it. I never too the city. In '43 the initative dropped to Contested but I managed to capture Archangelsk and stop the Lend Lease, which meant I was able to keep the initiative until '44 when the Soviets finally started pushing back in earnest, finally breaking the two-year siege on Moscow. I can finally do my effort post on my problems with TBC now that I'm back from GenCon (keeping in mind that I basically really like everything about the game except for what's in this post): Actually, other than taking Leningrad/Moscow/Stalingrad (the "you got extremely lucky victory"), all the victory conditions depend on VP (there's an auto-win for 5 VP, otherwise at Summer '45 you check VP with adjustments for the initiative level to determine victory). The problem is that the only way to get VP is for the initiative to be 6+, and much of the initiative is random (combat markers with shifts, city draws, etc.). The game that really soured me on the system was one in which I had slightly more than the historical front line (basically +Moscow), but due to bad luck with initiative chit draws ended multiple turns on 5 and never got 6+. By around the end of 1942 therefore, victory was literally impossible (the best I could do was running out the clock with a +1 for positive initiative, which would still be a draw). Of course, since having positive initiative at endgame is basically impossible (and should be), I was pretty much guaranteed the -1 adjustment and a Marginal Defeat. I played it out for some reason and finished with the front line still slightly into the Soviet Union and received said Marginal Defeat, which felt really dumb. I like the system, and the initiative track works well for nearly everything, except tying it to VP. I think victory needs to have it's own system separated from the initiative system because otherwise it's too swingy when each VP is critical (1 VP is a huge amount, the historical performance is something like the Axis receiving 2 or 3 VP total the entire game). If VPs were earned at around 30ish over a game, then random swing affecting 1 or 2 wouldn't be as big of a deal; if they were predictable, then only giving out 1 or 2 wouldn't matter. Ironically, the scenario victory conditions work a little better since you can also get points for taking additional hexes or ending with a higher initiative, but as it stands, the victory system basically ruins the full campaign game for me. I'm very hopeful that the 2nd edition will have a solution for this, which would make it for me the best WWII solitaire game out there.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 18, 2014 16:21
|
|
|
Trynant posted:I guess my avatar is there to answer my own dumb questions. This is my goal; once I move into a house where I can leave some of these set up for a long period of time, I think I have a friend who I can convince to play at least a couple hours a week. Alternatively, I
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2014 03:36
|
|
|
COOL CORN posted:I did! I looks good. If you're on IRC tomorrow evening or possibly Sunday I can run you through a learning game if you'd like.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 14, 2014 16:30
|
|
|
Lichtenstein posted:Hey, Flying Colors-havers, is there a sane storage solution for this game? From the sounds of it, this is similar to Wooden Ships & Iron Men, so I'll give you my storage solution for that: Sort ships by nation/class/guns(last one optional, but it helps a lot if the scenarios tell you that info), then put each set into a tray slot. Then when you see a British 80-gun ship of the line on the scenario list, you have a small pile to look through to find the right one. Hopefully the games are similar enough that this will work for yours too!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2014 00:21
|
|
|
Use these instead, they're more up-to-date: Rules: http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?233@@.ee6d6c9!enclosure=.1dda7d49 Scenarios: http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?233@@.ee6d6c9!enclosure=.1dda7d4a If those links don't work, they're accessible from the top of the Consimworld topic at http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?50@23.Wm1XaglIxNt.179@.ee6d6c9
|
|
#
¿
Dec 12, 2014 04:57
|
|
|
COOL CORN posted:Wow, I was really intimidated to get into TK, but the rules are written so well. I have a soft spot in my heart for wargames rules that lay out "okay read this, then this, then here's an intro scenario to get you going" (e.g. most GMT games). Each of the Europe and Pacific maps is composed of two different sheets, and the hexes are labeled according to which one they're on (so there's a Europe e0001 and w0001 and a Pacific e0001 and w0001). The split between the sheets is around Berlin on the Europe map and I think around Truk on the Pacific map. If you're on VASSAL, the mapsheets are combined already, so you don't need to worry about that - I think the only thing it affects is the "One-map" scenarios (ie. just east front or just west front) and VASSAL is missing the aid card for those anyway.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 12, 2014 16:36
|
|
|
COOL CORN posted:
Except for those in EZOCs (because units can never enter or leave an EZOC in Reserve Movement no matter what). Troops that participated in combat will usually be in an EZOC, but if you blew a giant hole in the enemy's lines, they'll be able to use it. Also good for moving HQs around after combat.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 12, 2014 18:32
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:Only ground units project ZOCs. Friendly units negate EZOCs, so the 8th is actually in supply. The German 2/3 step infantry, the German 2/3 step HQ's, and the Soviet 2/3 step HQ's aren't listed, they're all just any two single infantry steps of the appropriate nationality. I think you're correct that everything else is either a 1/2 stepper or has a listing
|
|
#
¿
Dec 16, 2014 03:30
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:I'm actually hankering to play some Vassal USE/TK. I'd need to re-read the TK because the USE rules have poisoned my mind recently. TK at least has something for the allies/soviets to do while the other is having all the fun though. COOL CORN posted:My brain isn't comprehending what USE is. I'd do a non-live game of TK anytime, and I'll have a week off at the beginning of January where I can be available for live play of anything. Unfortunately, I'll probably be too busy with the holidays to live play anything before that.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 18, 2014 18:32
|
|
|
Taran_Wanderer posted:Yeah, I was thinking of something like that, but I don't know that many people would want to do that, considering most of the minor nations have only a handful of units. I would be all over an AE PBP,. I don't think there would be too many people up for playing it, so you could limit it to the big interesting ones like Italy/France/Turkey/Poland/Chinese countries (actually, that would be pretty good for simulating a lot of the issues in coordinating the nationalist army...)
|
|
#
¿
Dec 18, 2014 22:44
|
|
|
Lichtenstein posted:I think I just saw a used FAB: The Bulge for 35 bucks. Please somebody tell me to calm down and stick to playing cool games I already own and don't play enough, why do I keep throwing money at this stupid hobby. FAB: Bulge is a pretty good game actually, it's playable in a long evening and even casual wargamers can get into it pretty easily. Despite that, it has a decent amount of depth, and the asset system is pretty excellent design. Sorry for being an enabler...
|
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2014 01:49
|
|
|
Lichtenstein posted:I won't talk about general misrepresentation at length (well, I'd love to, but it'd be a long semi-masturbatory That's pretty much what this thread is here for, so... 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2014 01:14
|
|
post).
|
I've played it before, but I could offer support if there's something that would help you run it.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 27, 2015 18:06
|
|
|
T-Bone posted:Is the complexity on BGG accurate (3.2)? What about the playtime (120 min)? Why are you obsessed with it? No Retreat is Eastern Front only, but is playable in a (long) day. If you need the whole European Theater, maybe Europe Engulfed, but even that would take at least a few sessions to finish a game usually. If you want the whole world, then no.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2015 00:38
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 01:39 |
|
|
bunnielab posted:I dont even like WWII poo poo very much, I just cant find a scifi or fantasy hex&chit game. Wooden Ships and Iron Men is an old Avalon Hill game that despite its age is still the best game I've ever played on this topic. Not sure of its availability though. Now you've got me wanting to see if I can find my old copy because it would probably make an excellent Let's Play. Sails of Glory probably counts as a minis game, but it's very boardgame like - it's probably most comparable to X-wing but with more detailed gunnery and damage resolution systems. Depending on what aspect of minis games turns you off, it may or may not be suitable for your needs.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2015 04:50
|
|