News:

And we're back!

Main Menu

War in the East

Started by Berkut, March 06, 2011, 01:25:18 AM

Previous topic - Next topic
Print
Go Down Pages1 2 3 4 5 ... 13
User actions

Berkut

March 06, 2011, 01:25:18 AM
Well, I went ahead and got this about a week ago after reading over some of the manual.

Some first impressions, in no particular order, after playing several turns of the Fall Blau scenario, and 1 full turn of the campaign game:

1. The game is not as big as it first seems. Don't get me wrong - it is fucking big, but it is not nearly as ponderous as, say, War in the Pacific. Not even close. Took me maybe a couple hours to do my first German turn of Barbarossa.

2. It could be smaller, imo, without detracting from what it is setting out to do. There seems to be a lot of shit in there that I am not sure adds anything to to gameplay or *interesting* decisions, but does add to a lot of the sense of "wtf am I supposed to do with that, anyway?" A good example is the attachments. You have all these attachment units that do not appear on the map, but can be attached to units to augment them. But they can be attached at all different levels. So - do you attach your heavy AT battalion to a Army HQ? Corps? Directly to a division? Who fucking knows? And why do I care? I am sure there is some optimal answer to this question though...

3. The game, for being as big as it is, plays very, very cleanly. The system itself, while almost ridiculously detailed, actual plays pretty simply. Units have MPs, but there is no combat phase - combat is simply a part of movement. You have two different types of combat, hasty and prepared, hasty uses few MPs, but attacker CV is halved and you cannot make multi-hex attacks. Think overruns basically. Prepared you can attack hexes with multiple hexes, but of course it takes a lot more MPs. There is also a greater chance with prepared attacks to get support.

4. The command and control system is fucking awesome. A little unweildy, but fucking awesome. The basic unit is the division (but can be broken down). On the German side, divisions are under Corps, Corps are under armies, armies are under Army Groups, and the Army Groups are under O.K.H. The nice touch here is that various HQs have limited capability to handle units. This I suspect is going to be a big reason why the Soviets are so brittle - their HQs simply do not have the admin capability to manage their units, especially their armor. I am looking forward to playing Barby as the Soviets, if only to take a look at their force structure.

Overall the game is at least as impressive as I hoped it would be, and like considerably mores so. Some design decisions I don't like, but they are livable.
"If you think this has a happy ending, then you haven't been paying attention."

select * from users where clue > 0
0 rows returned

sbr

#1
March 06, 2011, 02:59:26 AM
I've been intrigued by the game since it came out.  There is no way I can afford to pay for an $80 PC game now, so I will just continue to follow the discussion, and likely never get it.

PDH

#2
March 06, 2011, 04:03:47 PM
I have had loads of fun with this.  I played the first month and a half or so exclusively against the AI to learn as much as I wanted (and I still don't do all the battalion crap), then I played a couple of hot-seat games against a friend, now I am in my first PBEM and having a ball.

I think this game is well worth the money, given that I now have 3 months of straight gaming, almost exclusively, the dollars are well spent.
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
-Umberto Eco

-------
"I'm pretty sure my level of depression has nothing to do with how much of a fucking asshole you are."

-CdM

Ideologue

#3
March 07, 2011, 03:15:37 PM
I have gotta pick this up and while away my spring break with horrible atrocities on the Ostfront.
Kinemalogue
Current reviews: The 'Burbs (9/10); Gremlins 2: The New Batch (9/10); John Wick: Chapter 2 (9/10); A Cure For Wellness (4/10)

Ancient Demon

#4
March 07, 2011, 06:12:04 PM
Looks good. Let me know when there's a deep price cut.  :)
Ancient Demon, formerly known as Zagys.

Habbaku

#5
March 07, 2011, 06:12:27 PM
May 2016.  :)
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

szmik

#6
March 08, 2011, 11:43:17 AM
Quote from: Neil on September 23, 2011, 08:41:24 AM
That's why Martinus, for all his spending on the trappings of wealth and taste, will never really have class.  He's just trying too hard to be something he isn't (an intelligent, tasteful gentleman), trying desperately to hide what he is (Polish trash with money and a severe behavioral disorder), and it shows in everything he says and does.  He's not our equal, not by a mile.

Ed Anger

#7
March 08, 2011, 07:38:58 PM
Or Matrix's usual Christmas sale at 30% off.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

sbr

#8
March 08, 2011, 09:21:50 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on March 08, 2011, 07:38:58 PM
Or Matrix's usual Christmas sale at 30% off.

But not until Xmas 2012 probably, and then you won't have enough time to learn to play before the end of the world.  :cry:

Berkut

#9
March 09, 2011, 08:51:01 AM
Getting ready to start a PBEM game with sbr. I shall be the Lebensraum seeking liberators of Kiev.

I've been practicing my opening move airstrikes. The Red Air Force is in some serious trouble. Shooting for 5000 destroyed aircraft on turn 1!
"If you think this has a happy ending, then you haven't been paying attention."

select * from users where clue > 0
0 rows returned

Syt

#10
March 09, 2011, 11:09:43 AM
Quote from: Berkut on March 09, 2011, 08:51:01 AM
Getting ready to start a PBEM game with sbr.

:unsure:
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Berkut

#11
March 09, 2011, 11:12:39 AM
Quote from: Syt on March 09, 2011, 11:09:43 AM
Quote from: Berkut on March 09, 2011, 08:51:01 AM
Getting ready to start a PBEM game with sbr.

:unsure:


Errh, yeah. I mean you. Probably. All you commies are pretty much the same.

I think I just saw his name on the post above so just typed sbr. hehe.
"If you think this has a happy ending, then you haven't been paying attention."

select * from users where clue > 0
0 rows returned

Syt

#12
March 09, 2011, 11:24:37 AM
 :lol:

Anyways, I put up a private challenge in that MP thingy.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Habbaku

#13
March 09, 2011, 01:25:57 PM
Private challenge?  Hitler dueling Stalin?  :hmm:
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

The Brain

#14
March 09, 2011, 01:29:43 PM
Hitler in 8th.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.
Print
Go Up Pages1 2 3 4 5 ... 13
User actions