The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Syt]

John Tiller's passing made me go back and install all the Panzer Campaigns games on my computer again.

I've finally managed a major victory in one of the Modern Campaigns games. Leading the Soviet advance on Kassel I managed to force a crossing of the Fulda river and push out the German defenders.

Final situation:



The scenario drips in your units. It starts you off with T-62 companies and infantry, then adds T-64s and T-72s over time from the map edges. It's also pretty generous with air assets and artillery.

Main issue is that you only have two intact river crossings: B1 and B2. There's not many enemies at B2, but you also only get a handful of units in that sector. B1 is quite well fortified and the approach is mined. You do get 2 bridge engineer units, but they take several turns to create a crossing, and obviously you have to make sure there's not (much) enemy fire on them while they work. I created one crossing (and frankly forgot about the second unit ).

During the first day of battle, there were Leo 2A4 in the area marked such, supported by a unit of Panzergrenadiere. It took my units forever to dislodge them and drive them off so we could maneuver unhindered on our side of the river. Otherwise the Germans had tank destroyers (Jagdpanzer Kanone), Leo 1s, and lots of Panzergrenadiere. At the end of the scenario they had about 100 Leo 1 heading my way to engage my T-64 and T-72 in Kassel, but they didn't make it in time.

We didn't take the city center (or gain points for exiting units in the South West), but with the achieved objectives and enemy vs our casualties it was still a major win.



Things I failed at:

Using my air mobile unit effectively. I sent them across the river early on, without prior recon, and had to evacuate them because they ended up in a hornet's nest.
Using my attack helo effectively.
Using my recon units effectively.
Using AT assets properly when on the attack: AT guns have a range of one, so you have to bring them up close and personal with enemies, who can (and will) return fire when you move into their zone of control, and they trigger more enemy fire when they deploy (which they have to do to fire at all). You get a BRDM-2 with AT missiles which has a range of 2 ... but so have most NATO tanks against vehicles, so ... best to either go after disrupted or broken enemy formations or try to get in, fire, and back out (which requires very careful action points management).

One of the most frustrating aspects of these games remains the automated return fire. It's annoying when you move your unit adjacent to an enemy and they shoot two or three times at you while you can do nothing, and you want to make sure you minimize your risks (don't move into zone of control of multiple units, try to disrupt enemy units via artillery first etc.).

Obviuously, this cuts both ways. You can set it up that if the enemy moves, changes formations, etc. as many units as possible can deliver reaction fire.

Anyways, this was fun.

[Scipio]

Hellish Quart, a sort of Eastern Europe meets HRE version of Bushido Blade. Really fun.

[Syt]

2001 PS2 title Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance is getting a PC port: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/baldurs-gate-dark-alliance-is-getting-a-pc-port-20-years-later

[celedhring]

I played the hell out of that game when it came out, but it's certainly outdated by now. It's a very simplistic action RPG.

[Syt]

Galactic Civilizations IV trailer: https://youtu.be/6cP9sfHt4BU

[Syt]

Master of Magic remake: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1623070/Master_of_Magic/

[Habbaku]

If either one of those turns out to be even a B+ level game, I will be ecstatic. I won't hold my breath.

[Tamas]

Master of Magic just needs to up the graphics (and as I have read improve the AI maybe - when I was a kid I didn't mind the AI and was happy to win on Hard). The gameplay and as I recall mostly the UI as well will live up to current standards. Might be rose tinted glasses, though.

Which reminds me the above is true for Age of Rifles as well. I consider by far my biggest failure during my time in the gaming industry that I could not convince anyone to pick that game up for a remake. Hod knows I tried. 

[Syt]

Ooooh - system similar to Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock, but in the Battle of Britain? Yes, please!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1530450/Scramble_Battle_of_Britain/

Scramble: Battle of Britain

Scramble: Battle of Britain is a simultaneous turn-based dogfighting game. Set in a 3D airspace, the game features fast-paced, tactical combat with dynamic flight physics.
Luftwaffe and RAF fighter squadrons go head to head over The English Channel. Competing players simultaneously issue control inputs for multiple aircraft while time is paused.
The planned orders are then played out simultaneously: shots are fired, loops are looped, colliding planes collide.

Each turn is divided into three phases: planning phase, action phase, and review phase.
Survey the aerial battlefield, plan your flight paths, execute spectacular manoeuvres, scrub through time to assess battle damage, and defeat your enemies through masterful tactics and captivating aerobatics.

PLAN YOUR FLIGHT PATH
The two squadrons simultaneously set input controls for each of their Aircraft, adjusting their flight path and attempting to bring them into attacking positions. Setting the flightpaths works like flying planes in a real-time combat game: you're not choosing from set manoeuvres or levels of altitude, you're adjusting pitch, roll, yaw and throttle to create your path.

The Planning Phase is time-limited: you need to think fast and act quickly.

EXECUTE YOUR ACTIONS
Time is unpaused and your planned actions are played out. All aircraft move and shoot according to the inputs from the Planning Phase.

REVIEW THE TURN AND PREPARE FOR THE NEXT ONE
Time is paused once again. You can move back and forth through the timeline, reviewing the events of the Action Phase to plan for the next turn.

Once both squadrons are ready, the turn is over and you jump to the next one.

MANAGE YOUR SQUADRON
Scramble: Battle of Britain allows you to manage your Royal Air Force and Luftwaffe squadrons and to fly with your favourite planes. All the key aircraft that took part in the Battle of Britain are represented.

Featured Royal Air Force Aircraft:
Supermarine Spitfire
Hawker Hurricane
Boulton Paul Defiant
Gloster Gladiator
Bristol Blenheim

Featured Luftwaffe Aircraft:
Messerschmitt Bf 109
Junkers JU87 "Stuka"
Messerschmitt BF110
Heinkel He111
Dornier Do17
Junkers JU88

GAME MODES AND SCENARIO BUILDER
You can play Scramble: Battle of Britain with your friends or against the AI. The game features single-player and co-op missions, as well as quick skirmishes and competitive scenarios. Do battle in pure fighter-versus-fighter dogfights or engage bomber formations in objective-based missions. Up for something different? Use the scenario builder to create custom single-player missions or multiplayer matches for endless fun.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR SQUADRONS
Make the squadrons your own: the game features in-game tools to customize your fighters with unique camo patterns and decals.

[Syt]

Master of Magic just needs to up the graphics (and as I have read improve the AI maybe - when I was a kid I didn't mind the AI and was happy to win on Hard). The gameplay and as I recall mostly the UI as well will live up to current standards. Might be rose tinted glasses, though.

Which reminds me the above is true for Age of Rifles as well. I consider by far my biggest failure during my time in the gaming industry that I could not convince anyone to pick that game up for a remake. Hod knows I tried. 

The remake is made by the studio who made the Thea games, so they have some pedigree in the genre.

[Solmyr]

Master of Magic just needs to up the graphics (and as I have read improve the AI maybe - when I was a kid I didn't mind the AI and was happy to win on Hard). The gameplay and as I recall mostly the UI as well will live up to current standards. Might be rose tinted glasses, though.

You could break the game with some spells. Like specialize in Death magic to start the game with wraiths, who then annihilate anything you find in the game with infinite healing and raising defeated units as undead.

[bogh]

Yeah, I actually played it a number of years back using an emulator. Still very cool, but clearly quite broken and old fashioned in some respects. Will be interesting to see if they can manage the balance of updating and streamlining, while retaining the charm and wide variety of choice.

[Syt]

Has anyone played Matrix Games' Desert War? I haven't, because I have not much interest in that theater of WW2. However, the devs are making a game about the Stalingrad campaign now, which looks interesting.

[Josquius]

This is old, but its in the news lately. Peace Maker is a great little free game on the Israel/Palestine conflict.

http://www.peacemakergame.com/

[The Minsky Moment]

I keep telling myself that I will eventually work myself through the dozens of tutorials of Command: Modern Operations, but then I see upcoming update notes like this and feel waaay out of my depth (emphasis theirs).

https://www.warfaresims.com/?p=5188

I'm in the same boat (har!).  I went through a few tutorials - it didn't seem too bad but there are a couple dozen more to do.