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War in the East


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I notice that some of you guys have been playing 'War in the East'. I'm curious to know what people think of it. Does it have a half-decent AI or is it meant to be played against human opponents only? I've always loved WW2 East Front campaign games, from AH's Stalingrad/Russian Campaign/ Russian Front to the massive Drang Nach Osten (?) and I'm impressed by the sheer size of the thing. I would be quite happy to spend hours and hours playing my way through the 1941 blitzkreig.

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I was seriously looking into buying it myself, but decided not to mainly because CMBN is about to come out and I don't think I'll have time for both. My "research" on whether it was worthwhile consisted of reading the WitE forum at Matrix Games. Opinions over there seem generally positive.

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I have been keeping an eye on WITE, reading reviews and AARs. It looks good, but massive. It requires a lot of micro-management which is what holds me back from a purchase.

I have WITP:AE which is excellent, but I never really played it because of the micro-management required.

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i think the number 1 problem is the scale. it's hard to keep the game realistic AND keep the results open. you can see this quite well in AARs of this game -- it's as if no matter what you, the end state of the game is still going to be the same.

while it's great that these games are still being made, and i myself do buy most of them, in the end it doesn't matter if you play East Front in Apple II (created almost three decades ago) or the game in question in this thread. if you consider the amount of work it takes to play the game, especially in games like the HOI series, i am not so sure if it's more wise to paly East Front in Apple II emulator or some modern game of the same subject.

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I have WITP:AE which is excellent, but I never really played it because of the micro-management required.

The funny thing about WiTP is that although there is a huge amount of micro-management involved a lot of it quickly becomes second nature, and the rest of it - like the really boring pilot training stuff - soon becomes relegated to semi-regular housekeeping turns.

I've been playing it quite heavily for about a year now and it still amazes me how a game at this sort of scale and depth can become fairly easy to follow and manage once you get some time with it under your belt.

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Thanks for the replies guys. I followed Spinoza's link and read some of the diary - it's quite a read - and it looks like it's exactly what I've been looking for. I have obviously played some earlier incarnation of this game a long time ago as I recognise some of the systems, Political rating for leaders for example, and have very good memories of playing it. If a game of this scale is worth playing then the more detail, the better as far as I'm concerned. It looks like I'll be buying this very soon after CMBN is released.

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i think the number 1 problem is the scale. it's hard to keep the game realistic AND keep the results open. you can see this quite well in AARs of this game -- it's as if no matter what you, the end state of the game is still going to be the same.

That's definitely a problem with any large scale strategic games - either you go open-ended enough that grogs will object ("WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT COUNTRY XYZ DOESN'T JOIN AXIS ON 1 APRIL 1940???") or you will get a pipe wargame where things happen and you just spectate.

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Think of playing (comprehending/mastering) it as your hobby and not as a game you turn to now and again, and the investment of your time and energy will make more sense and probably be more rewarding. My impression from a few hours of play is that it returns what you put into it.

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it's horribly tempting, but all the AARs i have seen suffer from the historical setting in the end. in the ParaBellum's AAR the silly hardcoded winter penalty is one example of the historical settings. the only reason Germans got that penalty historically was because of their really bad logistical situation, which gave priority to fuel, ammo etc supplies over the planned winter clothing. not allowing the player the option to prepare for winter, to give winter related supplies and preparations a priority, is absurd. only some of the winter penalties should be unavoidable, e.g. train engine fails (though even that is borderline).

in the end he is going to hope for shorter line and all the advances are moot.

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Well, I got it and have been playing it solidly for about a week and I have to confess that it's the best operational wargame I've EVER played. The depth is incredible and after a couple of hours of fiddling about, I was able to start playing some of the smaller 'Road to...' missions.

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Well, I got it and have been playing it solidly for about a week and I have to confess that it's the best operational wargame I've EVER played. The depth is incredible and after a couple of hours of fiddling about, I was able to start playing some of the smaller 'Road to...' missions.

I agree with that. It's far from perfect but IMO it's the best wargame of this scale.

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  • 4 weeks later...

i gave in to the temptation. after playing some of the small scenarios i decided to give the full 1941-45 a go, thinking it couldn't be so different. :P

argh, what a sick game! :eek: i can feel it sucking the life away from my body. the "just one more turn" element has never felt so masochistic before in any game i have played. it's almost suicidal. can't help thinking that guys who go past 1942 must be making "sanity rolls" of Call of Cthulhu RPG for every turn they make.

what kind of crazy evil person makes games like these? :eek:

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