What's been improved in these games?

[milkweg]

I have quite a few of these games from when they were published by Talonsoft so don't want to buy the same games twice for no good reason. What's a good reason to buy these games again? Have there been improvements to the AI or is the only benefit that they have been updated to run on modern OS? I don't need them just for OS update because John Tiller has mods to make them all 32bit exe on his website and I already have them updated to 32bit, which also changes the UI a bit too.

[rhondabrwn]

You pretty much nailed it... you get the total package with all of the 32 bit patches incorporated and other tweaks to insure compatibility with Vista / Windows 7 etc.

You do gain the advantage of the games no longer requiring a disk in the drive and you get everything all nicely packaged together on one big install file.

I think it's worth the cost. I had the old patches like you are using and when I upgraded computers it was a tremendous hassle to find everything again to reinstall. That is something to consider. The other alternative is to switch to the HPS Campaign series and apply graphics mods to improve things a bit in the appearance. To be honest, I usually play the newer HPS games as I prefer the campaign mode to just playing smaller scenarios.

[milkweg]

HPS games are only available via snail mail so that is why I don't own any. Well, I do own SB:Vietnam but got that via a trade with another gamer. HPS said they are going digital download but see no news on their website about it.

[milkweg]

OK, took your advice and just purchased both Civil War and Napoleonic series. I no longer have a copy of Age of Sail anyway so will be fun to play that game once again.