What are you playing? (Redux)

[Syt]

Not much there beyond the John Tiller games. Scourge of War: Waterloo, maybe.

Wargamer's list:

https://www.wargamer.com/articles/napoleonic-war-games/

What are the best Napoleonic War Games?

Scourge of War: Waterloo
Holdfast: Nations at War
Napoleon: Total War
JTS Napoleonic Battles Series
Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Battle
Austerlitz: Napoleon's Greatest Victory
L'Empereur
March of the Eagles
Victory and Glory Napoleon
Campaigns on The Danube
Wars of Napoleon

Some of these are grand strategy/operational games, and Holdfast is a multiplayer FPS.

[Syt]

A few turns later; I think sending a detachment to the Rebels' Northern flank was not such a great idea ... 

There's about 4000-5000 Rebel infantry to my 2500.

[Tamas]

What's your impression of the AI, Syt?

[Syt]

I wouldn't call it brilliant. The previous, much smaller scenario in the campaign had the Confederates supposed to take some victory hexes along a rail line, mean to represent a raid on the connection. They took one hex and I took it back. The result was a draw because I didn't really send out any troops to cause them losses.

In defense, as usual, they're a bit better. They're not completely terrible, and on the Southern flank I have a significant superiority.

In the North I was surprised that they sent up several regiments from their main force and reinforced the defense of the victory hex there. I'm pulling back my force, and while half their troops remain near the objective, the other half are kinda shadowing me; not really engaging, but also trying to show no opening. That said, I might be able to pull that force far enough away to fight it separately while waiting for my main force from the South to arrive.

[Tamas]

Thanks.

You are making me want to buy a Panzer Campaigns Gold game before the sale runs out.

Big question is: France '40 or Budapest '45?

Now, in a lot of ways I am more drawn to France 40. Early war stuff, French equipment that you basically never see in wargames, and much more interesting "what ifs" than "will a totally pointless German counterattack manage to do little or perhaps no damage before it peters out?"

But of course, i have seen a significant portion of the Budapest 45 map with my own eyes, and have heard countless stories on the fighting it depicts. I mean, I could fight over my home village FFS.

[Syt]

I think the Panzer Campaigns games are JTS at its best. Mostly because if you play scenarios as the intended side you often have the odds strongly stacked against you.

Keep in mind that the PzC series is not built around urban combat. From the Budapest Siege scenario description:

Budapest, 3 Jan 1945: The city of Budapest was encircled on 26 Dec 1944.  Like Stalingrad, Hitler ordered the city to hold at all cost as several relief attempts were hastily thrown together. But for the defenders, the noose tightened. The siege of Budapest was a long a bloody affiar where the ground was measured in metres, not Kilometers.[Size, medium] Designer Note: This scenario is a historical setup which shows a desperate slugfest for Budapest. The fighting could have continued weeks longer and eventually result in the same outcome. The scale of the Panzer Campaign series was never designed to model street-fighting such as this, yet we feel it is necessary to include this scenario to illustrate the full story of the fighting in Hungary in the early part of the last year of the war. [Size, medium]

[Tamas]

Yeah I'd be more interested in the "countryside" missions there.

[Tamas]

BTW they have recently replaced default graphics on their Squad Battles titles to improve them. Well, I am not sure.

First World War went from this:



to this:

[Syt]

Ok, I'm kinda done for now with Campaign Corinth. I pushed the Rebs across the bridges. I managed to cut off 5 or 6 regiments or so on "my" side and wipe them out. There's just artillery and a small handful of infantry left in Ripley. Some of my units suffered 30% casualties. The regiments that followed my Northern force now hook South and work their way through the forest to get in my rear. It's not really a threat, but more, like, tedious to take a brigade or two to repell them. I guess the laborious shuffling of units is somewhat realistic, but damn.


I played a bit with the Scourge of War tutorials. It feels realistic, despite its aged graphics, but man ... even just commanding a brigade of 5 regimnets is a lot of work in making sure everyone is where they're supposed to.

I think the best option for a fix of Civil War battles at the moment that is still somewhat playable is Universal General: Civil War.

[Syt]

BTW they have recently replaced default graphics on their Squad Battles titles to improve them. Well, I am not sure.

Not a fan of the changes. The terrain looks better in places, but the unit graphics look IMHO worse than the previous art. It's especially annoying that you can't easily tell commander units apart because every single unit is represented by 3 figures on the counter, even if it's a 2 man team, or a single commander.

There should be a backup of the unit graphics in the install folder, so you can restore them.

[Tamas]

There's Age of Rifles, too.

[Syt]

Now that's a game that deserves a proper remake. I tried playing it again a few years ago, but I can't play with such a tiny view anymore.

[Tamas]

Now that's a game that deserves a proper remake. I tried playing it again a few years ago, but I can't play with such a tiny view anymore.

Not sure what you mean, it's full screen for me.

[Syt]

I mean it shows only a small part of the map.

[Tamas]

I mean it shows only a small part of the map.

Ah right, yeah that's not great.