Zaffod Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 I was wondering what other war games everyone out there enjoys playing.. I have been playing all unit level games since the days of steel panthers and havent really gone to any larger scale-type games. Ive tried panzer general a few times but couldnt stand it... its simplicity and arcade dynamics just didnt seem 'real' enough to me. I have heard some good things about Talonsoft's 'front' series. Im afraid i wouldnt have the attention span for some of those hard core grognard war games w/ plain colors and hexes everywhere. Im curious to see what everyone thinks of games like East front 1 and 2 and westfront? I must admit i like a little nice looking eye candy in a game.. I have had my eye on those for several months and for some reason have yet to pick them up... Since I got CM, everything has gone to the wayside of course. Any reccomendations??? I really enjoy the Eastern TO and prefer to pick up a game pertaining to this first. All suggestions welcome.. thanks Zaff' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgdpzr Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 I must admit I loathed the first version of East Front. I just didn't like the look, tempo, or even the game system. I have heard the second version as well as West Front were much better, so I can't comment there. Have you looked at the Operational Art of War? Although not without its flaws (don't get me started on the jeeps vs. tigers thing) it is a generally well regarded game system. BTW, would your last name be Beeblebrox? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Heidman Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 I heard bad things about EF, so I stayed away. I bought WF when it came out, and was greatly dissapointed. The WaW series is till (IMO) far and away the best operational level wargames. TOAW is nice, but I cannot see how anyone could make what they claim is an operational wargame and yet give so little attention to the supply model. Jeff Heidman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolfLord Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 Four words: A Century of Warfare. This compilation from Talonsoft has it all...East Front, West Front, N. Africa, Pacific, and tons of modern battles/scenarios...hell, it even has a Cuba 1962 scenario depicting a hypothetical US invasion. I'm currently working on a very far-fetched "Red Dawn" (based on the movie) scenario in which the old Warsaw Pact has invaded the US from Mexico and Canada, splitting the country with one front located in the Rockies and one around the Mississippi River...good stuff. Anyway, ACOW is a great, expansive operational level wargame. My recommendation before this gets the 'ol padlock [This message has been edited by WolfLord (edited 02-16-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panzer Leader Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 ((Not including my youth spent arounf huge boards of Squad Leader and NATO)) I cut my teeth computer wargaming on Panzer General. I came into my love of the game with Panzer General 2. Its beauty and ease of play made a great and addictive game for me. Sadly, their next release, People's General seemed a little less fun, though the premise was excellent (World vs. China in 2010 or so) I played the buggy East Front for nearly a year straight, through all of its patches (about a dozen) and by the time I got West Front, with its new "Dynamic Campaign" feaure, I was getting tired of the game. It was very fun, and very accurate, but some computer turns would take upwards of 15 - 20 minutes to complete. Also, in the campaign, reinforcements were so rare that half-way into a really great war (I'm talking about the random campaign generator) your forces would be down to ones all across the board, and you had to hoard them while you fought your battles totally wih the cannon fodder they gave you to accent your "core" force. Steel Panthers: WAW was my next game and I am just coming down off that high while I await my CM:BO to arrive in the mail. I always wanted to play TOAW but never bought it, and I've also heard that Tac-Ops is a great game. I played a few demos from the Close Combat series, and liked them but never really got into the whole "real-time" thing. To me, planning and strategy is everything, and I think the games I listed above are the real cream of the crop for computer wargames over the past five or six years. ------------------ And King Xerxes looked to King Leonidas and spoke. "Our Archers will rain arrows down upon you to blot out the sun." And King Leonidas replied: "Then we will fight in the shade." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Mayer Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 Try HPS Simulations and their Panzer Campaigns series. They're done by John Tiller, the guy who basically did the Battleground and Campaign series for TalonSoft. There are three battles so far: Smolensk '41, Normandy '44, and Kharkov '42, all at the battalion level mostly. Yeah, it's 2D stuff with counters, but the maps and units are very attractive, and they've just upgraded the 3D view mode to include counter information, so it's actually usable. East Front II and the fully-upgraded West Front stuff, as well as the fully upgraded Rising Sun (Pacific) games of the Campaign series are actually pretty fun, if you don't let the granularity of the scale and some weird design decisions scare you off. [This message has been edited by Robert Mayer (edited 02-16-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Williams Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 I have East Front II and thought it was well done, and quite fun. If I can ever stop playing CM, I plan on buying West Front. I also wasted way too much time on Panzer General II. How about HPS's Panzer Campaigns series? I have read very good reviews of these games. ------------------ expert \'ek-,spert'\ n : someone who knows more and more about less and less until eventually they know everything about nothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD_Rob Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 If your looking for East Front or West Front cheap, check out "Europe in Flames". It contains both games plus all the expansion packs for the games. I saw it at BestBuy.com for 19.99 Rob W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutPL Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 ACOW is great for breaking your teeth on but it is fraught with game mechanic problems that any grognard could go on about for days. Mainly the spotting and Opportunity fire rules are horrendous and result in the really sucessful players doing alot of jumping back and forth across LOS lines, just totally ruining the whole experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mr. Johnson-<THC>- Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 the whole Front series make very good coasters for your adult bevreges but not much else. The Century of Warfare is a great Operation lvl game. With some tweaking you can model just about anything. Might take you a year to get it just right but at least it is possible. SP:WAW is very tight. They have done a great job with it. It really puts SSI to shame. There is a review of Karkov 42 over at Wargamer.com. Yeah Panzer General is just light fluff really, sometimes is a nice change of pace. Force 21 is not really a division lvl game, more of a firebrigade, sort of the same lvl as CMBO, but fell short in 2 areas. For one there is no infantry. Second, Red Storm Ent. catered to low lvl computers, so that your line of sight was super short range. So you've got furture weapon systems with an attack range shorter then CMBO!! Every engagment was point blank! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
109 Gustav Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 Combat Mission is the first wargame I've ever played, unless you count Myth, Myth II, and Warcraft II. Oh, and the CC1, CC2, Over the Reich, and Achtung Spitfire demos. ------------------ Well my skiff's a twenty dollar boat, And I hope to God she stays afloat. But if somehow my skiff goes down, I'll freeze to death before I drown. And pray my body will be found, Alaska salmon fishing, boys, Alaska salmon fishing. -Commercial fishing in Kodiak, Alaska Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Michael emrys Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 I got Allied General a few years back and played with it for a little while. Some of the scenarios are kind of fun as a pure strategy game, but don't have much to do with history. TacOps is definitely worth a look. Probably the best game of its type around. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spook Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 A game "The Ardennes Offensive", version 2.4, is available as a free download. (The sponsoring group is SSG.) You might like to give that a whirl if you like operational-level games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biff Posted February 16, 2001 Share Posted February 16, 2001 Originally posted by Spook: A game "The Ardennes Offensive", version 2.4, is available as a free download. (The sponsoring group is SSG.) You might like to give that a whirl if you like operational-level games. Have to agree with this. The game is well done with the author still making improvements to the game. I think someone also created a scenario designer for it. It's the CMBO of operational wargames. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoffel Posted February 17, 2001 Share Posted February 17, 2001 No one here played Across the Rhine from Microphose? Its not as good as Combat mission but far more better than PanzerGeneral,or eastfront I played it many times,the operations were very fun to do. Only disadvantage was that German tanks were a bit to overrated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby33 Posted February 17, 2001 Share Posted February 17, 2001 You all might laugh, but when I read this question, the first game that popped into my head was "Second Front" by Gary Grigsby. This was an early SSI game published around 1990. I know it's totally outdated and archaic by today's standards, but I still remember how much I enjoyed playing it! Maybe it's because it was one of the first true computer wargames...and the novelty factor "hooked" me. Whatever. Anyway, fast-forward to the present... I really enjoy East Front II and West Front by Talonsoft, although I think these are really considered "tactical" level games. I know that the mechanics are perhaps oversimplified, but for me, the scale, the historical "feel" and the miniatures-ish look of the units is perfect. The Operational Art of War (Wargame of the Year Edition) is a great operational-divisional scale game. Again, I know the game mechanics may not be as hardcore as some "grognards" would like (where the hell did that term come from?), but I think it has the perfect mix of playability, realism and scope. Sorry for the verbose response...blame it on the Shipyards that I've had (Mainers will know what that is). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Commissar Posted February 17, 2001 Share Posted February 17, 2001 CM started me on the road to other wargames. I am not greatly interested in the Battleground series from Talonsoft and enjoying "Napoleon in Russia" as I write this. On a related note, does anyone have any of the Napoleonic Battlefront games? I have them all (Battlefront Collection #1) and was looking for a PBEM opponent. Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pvt. Ryan Posted February 17, 2001 Share Posted February 17, 2001 I have all the Talonsoft Battleground games except for the first one (Bulge?) and Napolean in Russia. My favorite was Gettysburg and I could play the big scenario for hours (days) on end. I never did a PBEM though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rommel22 Posted February 17, 2001 Share Posted February 17, 2001 My Favorite operational game is: Operational Art of War (century of warfare). I think that game is the best Operational game, ever!!!! ------------------ Rommel22's War Diarys site. http://rommel22diarys.homestead.com/MyPage1.html "I saw 5 Germans walking down the side of the road, so I followed them for a few yard to get closer. Then I shot them! Later that day I found out the war has been over for a few weeks." - someone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts