I desire a good Vietnam War game. Is there such a beast?
John Tiller has put out a few Vietnam era wargames. If you aren't familiar with his Squad Battles series, it's a lot like the table top game Advanced Squad Leader. I haven't played the Vietnam iterations, but I have Winter War, it's very detailed and the interface is a bit clunky yet it's accessible.
If you do decide to make a purchase, google around a bit. You'll be able to find them for a good bit cheaper than what HPS sells them for in their online store.
edit: And Les Grognards looks absolutely amazing. I'll have to get that when it comes out. I've never really been in to Napoleanics but if they can deliver on their design, it's the kind of experience that I can't pass up.
On the Histwar: Les Grognards front, it looks like this game is finally going to see the light of day. They had intended a christmas release, but obviously they missed that. Regardless, their website at http://www.histwar.com/actu/news.html has spots where you can now order the game, as well as download a demo.
I've also been playing the balls off of Europa Universalis 3 lately. I'm sad I missed the paradox games for so long, they're fantastic. I've managed to unite Ireland and get some vassals. I like having vassals instead of conquering territory myself, but it's looking more and more like that's not a viable strategy. Other countries keep growing, so they can support bigger armies, while I just hide on my island and watch inflation spiral out of control. Good times.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
edited December 2009
Heh, in regards to EU3 and vassals. I am not sure if it was a patch or a mod that fixed it, but in the early days the vassal system was easily abused. I had one game in which I played as Lorraine(sp? a tiny nation just east of France). They had three provinces. By exploiting the vassal system I was able to bring the entirety of Europe under my rule, followed by the Middle East, and I even went far in to India.
Whenever I declared war on someone the game would lag for a good solid minute as it gave orders to hundreds and hundreds of individual armies :P.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
I was going to bump this thread the other day - steam had HoI3 on sale for $5 for a day. It's on sale for $15 now. I still haven't played a full game of it though. I need to get something paradox in my gaming rotation soon.
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
All the talk about Steel Panthers reminds me of that grognard of grognard's games: Pacific War! It's also free like Steel Panthers (was Steel Panthers from Grigsby, too?) It's really an operational level game (leaning towards the strategic), but it's actually lots of fun once you understand the interface. I've still yet to get anything other than a minimal US victory, but still..
Looks like some old school wargaming at it's best. It seems to run under windows (XP at least) but with some glitchy fonts and maybe other issues. Running it under DOSbox is the way to go. So, it's free, it looks to be amazing and it's under a meg download. Go get it!
Now that I'm back from work, I can give a bit more info. PacWar was originally released in '92 by SSI. Matrix Games released it in 2000 for free. Gary Grigsby, the original designer, did some extra coding for the 2000 version (the one linked) as well as various online hackers.
If you play the full campaign, you'll start with the week of Pearl Harbor, and continue until the Japanese surrender (assuming you play the Allies) or until late '46 when Japan is scripted to sue for peace which the allies accept. The map stretches from Australia to Alaska (if you go too far North, there's extra rules for Arctic weather...) and from Pearl to Colombo. The western US is there, but the Japanese will probably never attack it (the AI will sometimes decide to try for mainland AK, tho.) Each turn is a week. The US eventually get 16 big carriers (Bonne Homme Richard arrives Dec 44), and most of the rest of the US/British Naval OB is there (DD and smaller don't get to be controlled individually). There are 60 Allied aircraft types, etc. It's a very in-depth game. If you want to play the full campaign, be prepared to play for several months.
The real part of the manual is 60 pages, then there's another 40 of design notes/historical overview/research. If you've not played before I recommend you read the manual, as the interface is opaque. Then play for a few hours and at least skim the manual again. Keep the manual open for at least the first few days of playing
There are NO GRAPHICS! All that said, I try and boot it up every year or so and try to actually win as the allies, but I've yet to be successful.
One piece of advice (keeping the fact I haven't won in mind ):
Try and consolidate your aircraft production early. You really don't need six different ground based fighters, two naval fighters, two torpedo bombers, and three medium bombers (yes it's gamey to have the brits fly Corsairs, but their naval fighters suck until the late spitfires!). Pick like one for each role and go with it (at some points in the timeline, I don't bother building land-only fighters as the naval ones are better!)
Posts
John Tiller has put out a few Vietnam era wargames. If you aren't familiar with his Squad Battles series, it's a lot like the table top game Advanced Squad Leader. I haven't played the Vietnam iterations, but I have Winter War, it's very detailed and the interface is a bit clunky yet it's accessible.
Here's some linkages. Squad Battles: Vietnam and Squad Battles: Tour of Duty.
If you do decide to make a purchase, google around a bit. You'll be able to find them for a good bit cheaper than what HPS sells them for in their online store.
edit: And Les Grognards looks absolutely amazing. I'll have to get that when it comes out. I've never really been in to Napoleanics but if they can deliver on their design, it's the kind of experience that I can't pass up.
On the Histwar: Les Grognards front, it looks like this game is finally going to see the light of day. They had intended a christmas release, but obviously they missed that. Regardless, their website at http://www.histwar.com/actu/news.html has spots where you can now order the game, as well as download a demo.
I've also been playing the balls off of Europa Universalis 3 lately. I'm sad I missed the paradox games for so long, they're fantastic. I've managed to unite Ireland and get some vassals. I like having vassals instead of conquering territory myself, but it's looking more and more like that's not a viable strategy. Other countries keep growing, so they can support bigger armies, while I just hide on my island and watch inflation spiral out of control. Good times.
Whenever I declared war on someone the game would lag for a good solid minute as it gave orders to hundreds and hundreds of individual armies :P.
Looks like some old school wargaming at it's best. It seems to run under windows (XP at least) but with some glitchy fonts and maybe other issues. Running it under DOSbox is the way to go. So, it's free, it looks to be amazing and it's under a meg download. Go get it!
Thanks for the heads up on this one quarthinos.
If you play the full campaign, you'll start with the week of Pearl Harbor, and continue until the Japanese surrender (assuming you play the Allies) or until late '46 when Japan is scripted to sue for peace which the allies accept. The map stretches from Australia to Alaska (if you go too far North, there's extra rules for Arctic weather...) and from Pearl to Colombo. The western US is there, but the Japanese will probably never attack it (the AI will sometimes decide to try for mainland AK, tho.) Each turn is a week. The US eventually get 16 big carriers (Bonne Homme Richard arrives Dec 44), and most of the rest of the US/British Naval OB is there (DD and smaller don't get to be controlled individually). There are 60 Allied aircraft types, etc. It's a very in-depth game. If you want to play the full campaign, be prepared to play for several months.
The real part of the manual is 60 pages, then there's another 40 of design notes/historical overview/research. If you've not played before I recommend you read the manual, as the interface is opaque. Then play for a few hours and at least skim the manual again. Keep the manual open for at least the first few days of playing
There are NO GRAPHICS! All that said, I try and boot it up every year or so and try to actually win as the allies, but I've yet to be successful.
One piece of advice (keeping the fact I haven't won in mind
Try and consolidate your aircraft production early. You really don't need six different ground based fighters, two naval fighters, two torpedo bombers, and three medium bombers (yes it's gamey to have the brits fly Corsairs, but their naval fighters suck until the late spitfires!). Pick like one for each role and go with it (at some points in the timeline, I don't bother building land-only fighters as the naval ones are better!)