Strategy & Wargames - middlebrow autodidact "history buffs" who yearn to pull levers

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > Strategy & Wargames - middlebrow autodidact "history buffs" who yearn to pull levers

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

Mister Bates posted:

So I had no interest in playing NATO, but WARNO is making me want to try, just to see how much of these lopsided results can be chalked up to the AI making bad decisions.

This is the casualty situation after 8 turns in my latest attempt. It is even more lopsided than it looks, because the majority of my losses were during the very first battle, where a couple of my tank companies got badly mauled advancing towards dug-in Bradleys with ATGMs. Most of the rest are recon units that I lost due to sloppy play and could have probably saved if I'd micromanaged them better.

I was able to turn down the Soviet offer of additional CAS you get after taking Alsfeld (getting bonus VP for doing so) because I honestly did not need it, and I have not had to use my attack helicopters at all yet, keeping them in reserve for a rainy day.

Part of it is that I have been able to stack the deck in my favor in every battle. I have very good anti-air and make sure to only advance as far as it can reach every turn, and it has intercepted the NATO air threat before they even reach the battle every time so far. I have a lot of artillery that has been seeing heavy use. I have a dedicated recon battalion that has been invaluable. I have unchallenged air superiority and a lot of CAS. I have also so far been able to achieve local numerical superiority in every battle, outnumbering the enemy at least 2:1 in every engagement.

Even with such advantages, though, I expected these fights to be much bloodier affairs, especially since I am on the attack. The NATO OOB is kind of rear end - as the Pact I have artillery at the battalion, brigade, and division-level, while the West Germans only seem to have divisional artillery to call on, for example, so even the one time they did try to use arty I was still able to out-shoot them (peep those dead M109 howitzers) - but that doesn't really feel like it would explain it either. Maybe the Hard AI would do a better job?

The complete mulching of NATO air has been particularly funny - they start the campaign with a squadron of F-111s and a squadron of F-4s, and the F-111 squadron has been annihilated, completely wiped out, no airframes remaining, without even seeing the battlefield. As a human player controlling NATO I would probably not throw my planes into the teeth of the Pact air defenses without attempting to figure out some counter to them, and I would definitely not do it five times in a row.

Strategically the NATO AI has actually not been terrible - from previous attempts I know that they are very good at singling out and focusing on isolated or exposed units and focusing strength there, for example. Additionally, because the Pact's objectives require them to drive deep into NATO lines very quickly, you will inevitably bypass some units in order to get there, and the AI will definitely use these units to try to hit your relatively undefended flanks and rear and cut you off, requiring you to put at least some effort into defending those flanks.

I still have four turns of defending my gains remaining, and the casualty numbers might even out a bit as fatigue and attrition catch up to me, especially with the West Germans still having two tank battalions unblooded. We'll see.

Don�t worry, I will show you how to do it.

EDIT: They cheated with human waves. My poor NATO air force.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2024 22:52

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 02:34

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

What if XCOM, but against Nazis and via baguette country?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2085370/Classified_France_44/

# ¿ Feb 19, 2024 23:30

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

ModernMajorGeneral posted:

This looks cool but lol

https://www.pcgamer.com/wage-psychological-warfare-behind-enemy-lines-in-this-xcom-like-world-war-2-turn-based-strategy-game/

This is from a year ago so maybe it changed, but a ww2 game without any death is really something. I will probably still play this though as something I've learned about myself is my reptile brain is activated by turn based squad games where you control individual soldiers and level them up and will shovel any gaming slop that fits this description down my gullet

Gonna have it on my to watch list then when it comes out. I only stumbled across it as I was redownloading Worms: Armageddon and the Team 17 page had a pre-order up.

Permadeath exists in Worms. Brutal warfare.

As for B-17 action, I used to have the original Microprose game on the Amiga 500 and got the PC remake that came out in the late �90s too. I did see they remastered the latter because of Masters Of The Air, though apparently it hasn�t addressed some old bugs and has introduced new ones. Will check back in on that, else it was a day one purchase (literally got an e-Mail on it after finishing episode one).

# ¿ Feb 20, 2024 10:16

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

Wait, does Nebulous have some campaign now with economy poo poo?

# ¿ Feb 24, 2024 21:12

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

Regarde Aduck posted:

i was once worried that this game was gonna just fall back on pvp multiplayer to avoid having to have some depth, thank god the dev is a true dork and is going to make this my dream game

Whilst waiting for more content (not touched it in a few months), I got really into Children Of A Dead Earth which does scratch an itch that may involve Newtonian mechanics and railguns.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2024 01:07

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

Just gonna put the Amiga 500 version I also had on my Steam Deck and be done with it.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2024 16:08

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

DJJIB-DJDCT posted:

Real heads are playing Target For Today

What system�s that on?

# ¿ Feb 26, 2024 16:46

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

I really should get into tabletop stuff, but all the people I know in meatspace are either not into such gaming, or only do the odd DnD campaign and nothing where I get to call fire missions or use political intrigue.

Basically, you guys come over here and entertain me, pls. I got Twilight Struggle on Steam and pondered playing the original board game with my old man. Though he�s more a chess and Scrabble guy�

# ¿ Feb 26, 2024 16:56

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

Didn�t realise it was a solo game Target For Today. May have to grab that then. Now I just need a decent table to sit at which isn�t cluttered with books and controllers.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2024 17:18

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

gradenko_2000 posted:

for what it's worth I'm doing this all from a computer:

it looks like Target for Today has a VASSAL module and the rules in PDF, so you could do something similar with it

That rocks.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2024 17:38

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

ModernMajorGeneral posted:

I have now bought this and played a few hours. It's not terrible and I have enjoyed myself but it is also not a great game. The biggest problem is that I'm not sure who the target audience is.
The tactical gameplay is ok, and I like the suppression system (where every shot impacts enemy morale even if missed), but there are too many parts missing to make it a challenging game for strategy nerds, many of which are standard now (no unit permadeath, no cover destruction, no weapon customisation). However it is still too complex to be a casual game with low barriers to entry (the skill trees are huge and there are a lot of different potential team setups)

It has a lot of WW2 detail for nerds who like guns and uniforms (there are a billion different types of shirt and pants) but none of the equipment is moored in reality - everything has seemingly randomly assigned stats like +8% to dodge or +1 accuracy, so you have stuff like the standard metal helmet providing no bonus but a cool beret gives you +1 armour. This would not be a problem in a fantasy game but is obviously more of an issue in something with realistic grounding.

There are also attempts to strike a serious tone (with commentary about Nazi atrocities and deportations of Jews) but the Nazis have been made into arcade game enemies (where they have decided that the Feld gendarmerie are some elite force with +1 stats over regular army soldiers, and the "Gestapo soldiers" with +1 stats over them, and the "elite SS super soldiers" +1 over them, etc.)

also some of the politics is kind of funny

I was literally catching up to this thread now and was going to ask if anyone had checked in on it.

Because muggins here has found the C&C Ultimate Collection got released this Friday and is now spending the evening trying to fix the loving menus on Tiberian Sun. Only a 25-year-old bug, EA. No worries. Guess it's GENerals for the time being then.

But also, sad the Worms developer WWII XCOM isn't as refined. Maybe a few patches are needed.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2024 01:02

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

DJJIB-DJDCT posted:

When cartridges started being made by machine and not rolled by hand, was a big part of it.

Actually producing metal cartridges was incredibly difficult for a long time. Particularly ones that would extract reliably and not break apart.

Iirc one of the civil war carbines used a rubber case for that reason,

I thought most rounds during the American Civil War were in paper cartridges?

Source: badly remembering parts of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2024 02:56

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

BearsBearsBears posted:

It's NEBULOUS: Fleet Command. The screenshots are from the dev build for the strategic layer that's currently not available to players (right?). It's currently 'only' a tactical spaceships game. In terms of realism it's below Children of a Dead Earth but above almost any other spaceship combat game.

Really wish they added Newtonian mechanics to it. It just bugs me seeing ships under steam in space and not constantly accelerating.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2024 14:06

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

gradenko_2000 posted:

I know it's science fiction and all but Helldivers 2 conveys this feeling of firepower really well where a lot of your kills comes from "crew-served weapons" and supporting/indirect fires. The assault rifle isn't actually all that great because you need to keep reloading all the time and its main advantage is retaining mobility.

At the minimun you want an MG to really lay down a base of fire, and ideally you'd be killing bugs with artillery or air support.

Really should grab that since I hear it rips off the MGSV control scheme from the Fox Engine and the Dunkey video I saw made it look a hoot. The squad support weapons and calling in ortillery is also pretty dope.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2024 18:31

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

Been rewatching Band of Brothers again after finishing Masters of the Air. Then noticed Valkyria Chronicles for �4 on Steam and rebought it (had it on PS4 and never finished it). Weeb BoB with magic FTW.

As an aside, just watched part five �Crossroads� where a bunch of SS got roundly demolished by Easy Company with the help of artillery. FF would be proud.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2024 18:23

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

KomradeX posted:

Valkyria Chronicles 4 is also really good even if its stempunk fantasy invasion of Russia that is also Nazi Germany

Actually got it on Switch when it came out, and again, never finished it (and now I remember also having Fire Emblem: Three Houses to complete now I got the Joy-Cons upgraded to Hall effect sticks). I can�t remember if the squad was as interesting as the original game�s. Think there was also another class added to the gameplay or some other tweak that was divisive.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2024 21:22

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

KomradeX posted:

Even the first one is much more a puzzle than fighting it out because you can finish some missions very quickly by putting yourself in very precarious tactical situations but the mission ends as soon as you complete the objective so it doesn't matter, and my major problem in wargames is I can be overly cautious

Busy trying to shore up my front to take on more enemies instead, of sending one scout to the machine house for the Vasel Bridge mission.

Orange Devil posted:

It�s just loving incredible that they either didn�t notice or didn�t care that this was the outcome of the game systems they were building during testing.

Just simulating the dynamics of the period completely rear end-backwards and then being really proud of it.

I still remember the idiot goons in this thread defending the simulation or trying to claim it was just because I had a skill issue when I pointed all this poo poo out right after release.

Soooo� I should get the communism simulator?

# ¿ Mar 30, 2024 17:35

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

Orange Devil posted:

Imperialism, both I and II were both better games and better simulations. Which is loving hilarious.

Developers and gamers really need to learn that a lot of the time, less is more. But no lets make Terra Invicta instead lmao

Aw man, but the Netflix Three Body Problem show made me wanna go back to Terra Invicta and see if it was better.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2024 17:38

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 02:34

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

If you're entering into trade with a lesser power to gobble up their resources, even if it's under the guise of free trade agreement, that's a colonialism. I think of British Isles denuding itself and grabbing any lumber outside the islands to manufacture its navy.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2024 19:14

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