Wargaming for newbies

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Leonidas

I know the feeling of playing board wargames alone

The sheer folly of trying to cleverly move your counters when playing as the British in an attempt to fool yourself when it came time to switch and play as the Germans. . .

Now this I can relate to!
Its even worse when you have a wargame with special triggers/flags and have to decide when/how to play them - knowing that your opponent, ie: yourself. is both at their/your most vulnerable and has/hasn't the counter to what you're about to do.

[Grumbold]

I like the solo wargames that were produced, like Ambush! but of course the replayability of the missions is limited once you know where key hot spots are in certain scenarios.

[PCRefugee]

IMHO the best solo wargame was Avalon Hill's Raid On St. Nazaire....One of the few boardgames I still play now and then. Another good one was the solitaire module for Advanced Squad Leader but hampered by too many counters.

[Urban Ranger]

There is also Morsby's Raiders (sp?) published by Victory Games.

[PCRefugee]

Morsby's Raiders was one that I never got round to buying. It makes you wonder why developers haven't tried to convert a few more of these for the PC. I got 5th Fleet and 3rd Reich quite a while back and thought they were pretty faithful conversions. They didn't have all the bells and whistles we've come to expect but they were good solid wargames. I'd love to see a developer do Squad Leader properly but the chances are probably slim to nil. Oh well, I can dream.

[Grumbold]

I'd certainly buy a PC version of Ambush! It should be relatively cheap to produce if you had permission to copy the boardgame scenarios exacltly. To gain mass market appeal there would need to be big changes in the graphics and probably the gameplay which is where the danger of ruining it would come (or turning it into something barely distinguishable from Close Combat.) I'm not familar with Raid on St Nazaire but I will keep an eye out at game conventions for a 2nd hand copy.

[Urban Ranger]

I suppose the biggest obstable would be the AI. The one for Scorched Earth, for example, is dumb.

They can always enable Internet play, so people can play online against one another.

[PCRefugee]

I agree Ambush would make a great PC game(as long as it had decent AI). Personally, I like a board game port to look like the board game but I've no doubt that I'm in the minority and graphics would have to be upgraded. As for Raid On St. Nazaire- it has a beautiful map with counters very similar to Squad Leader. It's certainly worth getting...especially if you pick it up for next to nothing. Highly recommended!

[Urban Ranger]

Long long time ago there was a company named Simulations Canada that used to make hybrids. The games are board games but they also come with programs to run on a PC.

[Leonidas]

Just thought I'd mention that you can download both Allied General and Panzer General FREE from the following site:

http://panzergeneral.net/downloads.html

Have fun!

[Leonidas]

There are now 276 scenarios and campaigns available for Panzer General II - and many more are being planned. You can find them here:

http://www.wargamer.com/archive/

And of course don't forget to visit JP's Panzers (currently with 944 ACTIVE members). Play and discuss your favourite wargame, including Panzer General II, Panzer General, People's General, etc. . . :

http://pub131.ezboard.com/bjpspanzers

[Ubergeek]

I originally had a gigantic, very descriptive and enthusiastic endorsement of Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord typed out in this space, but when I read it over I realized it made me sound like a shill for the company, so I erased it. :-)

All I will say is that it puts to shame every other wargame I have played, tabeltop or PC. Check it out at www.battlefront.com. There's a downloadable demo. Seriously, it's the best danged wargame I've ever laid eyes on.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Hmm...thanks...but the Strategic Command game looks more like my style. Again thanks for the link.

[Standup]

I keep hoping for a better version of Third Reich but i'm not sure demand is there anymore as board wargames seem very much a minority pursuit now.
Third Reich was a reasonable solo game in parts. I use to spend time trying towork out how to capture Ppoland and Denmark in one turn with a 2-1 on Warsaw.
Another favorite solo was Atlantic Wall, especially the beach scenarios.

[Ubergeek]

Strategic WW2

Standup, have you ever played ETO? It's an out of print game on the same scale as 3R, but less abstract in some ways (individual, named capital ships, different aircraft types, etc.) Decision Games has recently published Advanced ETO -- it looks a lot more complicated than I feel like dealing with, but it also looks like it could be a lot of fun if you could ever figure out the rules.

Here's a link: http://www.decisiongames.com/html/advanced_eto.html