Best Wargames of the 90s!

[Los]

I agree with everything mentioned here but would add the Great battles Series:

1. Alexander

2. Hannibal

3. Ceaser

Los

[Col Deadmarsh]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Deadmarsh,

Forgive my ignorance, but what is SWOTL?

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Secret Weapons of The Luftwaffe. It's a WWII air combat game that was done by Lucas Arts which came out in the early 90's.

You could fly missions in Allied or German fighter planes or fly a bomber mission for the Allies. In fact, I believe it was the first game of it's kind to offer the player the chance to take control over any of the gunner positions in one of those crates.

Man, was that fun. Hard as hell to hit those Germans but fun nonetheless to switch around like that as you hoped to get back to base without getting ripped apart by a 190.

Another great thing about that game was that you could fly the 262's which were the only mass produced jet engine planes in the war.

And if that wasn't enough, you could also take control of the Komet, a plane which was about as unstable as any could be because it ran off cheap rocket fuel that would cause the plane to explode at any given time. There were reports of Komets sitting on runways, only to go up in flames without any reason. Super fast in the air though but only a short amount of fuel. Just enough to get above the enemy and come swooping down on them for 1 or 2 passes.

Unfortunately, Lucas Arts can't break themselves away from doing more Star Wars games and word is there will be no sequel to SWOTL even though there is a fan base that remembers it and would love to see another one.

And so, I lament...

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Youth is wasted on the young.

[Mudfrost]

How about Perfect General? That was another early one that stayed on the hard drive for quite some time.

Speaking of which, what ever happened to the guys at QQP?

Mudfrost

[Andy_R]

#1...Combat Mission

#2...Sid Meyer's Gettysburg/Antietam

#3...Close Combat II & III-with free mods to

maps from internet game sites

#4...Steel Panthers II

#5...Battleground - Prelude to Waterloo/

Nappy in Russia

#6...Steel Panthers

#7...Battleground - Bull Run / Antietam

#8...West Front

#9...T.O.A.W. - Wargame of the Year Edition

#10..Civil War General II

#11..Panzer General II - with free internet

mods

[Guest wwb_99]

First off, my wargames of the 90s:

Tactical:

CM. Eons ahead of the rest.

Honorable metion: Steel Panthers 2. How the hell did they cover everything from 1950 to beyond 2000 and make it all work?

Operational:

The Operational Art of War. Flexibility galore. Want the Boer War? Or a hypothetical NATO-Pact conflict? Or anything in between.

Honorable Mention: V for Victory Series. While they did not do too many battles, the three they did do they did damn good.

Simulator:

Panzer Elite: Goddamn its realistic. So realistic I realized that I should never, ever be put in charge of a tank, much less a platoon.

Flanker 2.0: Does anyone else find pre-dawn strikes on U.S. carrier task forces enjoyable after work activities.

Other Honorable mention:

Wargames Constructions Sets II & III (Tanks! and Age of Rifles); Panzer General (O.K., not really a wargame but it did make a whole lot of new wargamers); Battle of Britain; SWOTL; & others I am now blanking on.

Regarding SWOTL: It is really a pumped up version of Battle of Britain which was a pumped up version of Battlehawks: 1942. Interestingly enough, there are certain similarities between that series and X-Wing/ TIE Fighter. But SWOTL was damn fun. Only game with flyable Go-229s and Komets. Even if it could only handle 10 or so planes in the air without crashing.

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Before battle, my digital soldiers turn to me and say,

Ave, Caesar! Morituri te salutamus.

[Hastur_swe]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mudfrost:

Remember QQP? Conquered Kingdoms? They had a good thing going for a while.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes I remember!

I was very fond of the Conquered Kingdoms game. Actually I have the manual in front of me, but I lost the game some where.

As a side note, one of the things that made that game so addictive was that you was ranked (like a ladder), and the game also tracked statistics from all your games against all opponents. Played a lot of hot seat games with my dad. For you who have not heard of it, it is a fastasy based strategy game released 1992

You also mentioned X-Com, also a VERY good game, It was one of the few games that kept you so glued to the screen that suddenly you realized that the strange sound you heard was birds singing outside the window, and that it was light outside again...

Jesper

[Guest wwb_99]

I knew I forgot a few. Like X-Com it is still on my HDD. Now if the sequels weren't so crappy. . .

WWB

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Before battle, my digital soldiers turn to me and say,

Ave, Caesar! Morituri te salutamus.

[Grisha]

Best wargames?<UL TYPE=SQUARE>

<LI> East Front Series (GMT)

<LI> EastFront (Columbia Games)

<LI> Great Battles of History (GMT)

<LI> Down in Flames Series (GMT)

<LI> Ukraine '43 (GMT)

<LI> Combat Mission (BTS)

<LI> EastFrontII (Talonsoft)

<LI> SPWAW (Matrix)

<LI> Pacific War (Columbia Games)

<LI> TOAW (Talonsoft)

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Best regards,

Greg Leon Guerrero

[This message has been edited by Grisha (edited 01-08-2001).]

[Jeff Pattison]

My favorite computer wargames of the last ten years are:

1. Combat Mission

2. Star Fleet Command II(although its really more for the twitch chrowd)

3. XCOM:Apocalypse(Yes, I know most people think that all the XCOM sequels suck, but I had really think this ones the best. I had lots of fun testing out tactics I borrowed from the SAS in the realtime mode.)

4. Achtung Spitfire

5. Kingmaker(The first multiplayer AI that actually holds a grudge.)

6. Operation Market Garden

7. Panzers in the Shadows

8. Wooden Ships and Iron Men(The 90's version not the 80's one that sucked.)

9. Steel Panthers III

10. Chessmaster 5k,5.5k,6k,7k, and 8k.

My favorite wargames that were released in the last 10 years.

1. Hannibal: Rome versus Carthage

2. Phase Line Smash(Great Game, poorly written rules)

3. The Great Campaigns of the Civil War Series.

[This message has been edited by Jeff Pattison (edited 01-09-2001).]

[420]

I'm not sure if this game was mentioned yet:

101st Airborne: Invasion of Normandy

A squad level turn based strategy game much like X-COM. You command a stick of 18 paras on various missions prior to the invasion on D-Day.

While not as good as X-COM (who can really beat the best?), it has a good selection of weapons for grognards and better graphics (higher resolution than the torturous 330x300).

[Slapdragon]

I though Wavefront Tank Battle was pretty cool. It shipped only with Wavefront Alias machines, but it was the first real 3D tank shooter you could play in 1991. Not historic of course, everyone had modernish looking wireframe tanks and you fired shells with no drop, but the game was a blast.

[Boru]

Remember QQP? Conquered Kingdoms? They had a good thing going for a while.

Yes! Have every game they ever made stored in a "do not lose" box. May never play them again. Just can't bear to get rid of them.

[Fan]

Mine have to be:

CM

Close Combat

Air Warrior

Harpoon

[Joe Shaw]

To my mind, such as it is, the test of any game is the time spent playing it. Using that as a yardstick, there are only three wargames that stand out:

1. Combat Mission

2. Sid Meiers Gettysburg

3. Steel Panthers I & II

I don't think it's a coincidence that all three offered some form of online play, either PBEM or TCP/IP. In addition, of course, all three provided a very clean interface, a good degree of historical accuracy and good solid game play.

Joe