Who thinks........

[wodin]

CoTA is the No1 wargame they've ever played.

It is my favourite game yet and to be honest if I wre to create a list the No2 would still be nowhere nera CoTA in terms of fun\excitement\gameplay and overall satisfaction.

Just wondered who agrees with me.

If you dont what games would you put above it?

[Banquet]

The 4 wargames I've always considered my all time favourites are Highway to the Reich, Hearts of Iron II, Steel Panthers and War in the Pacific.

I would now replace Highway to the Reich with Conquest of the Aegean on that list.. however, whereas before I couldn't really separate those 4, now I do rank CotA as top.

I will still continue to enjoy playing the other games a LOT.. but CotA shines through for me. It's just so polished, so easy to pick up and play - there is so much detail, but I can choose to ignore most of it if I feel like it, or get into every little detail if I want. It looks great, the AI is I think the best in any wargame. It gives me more surprises than any other wargame I've played. It doesn't have moments where it annoys me, which a lot of other games do at times.

I could go on and on but, basically, I feel the same as you wodin, Conquest of the Aegean is numero uno for me.

[captskillet]

It would be a close race with COTA & WITP neck and neck and HTTR a close third at the momment.... Still love to play Close Combat, CM (unfort. my comp wont quite handle PZ Command) and CivWarGen2!

[Crimguy]

Boy, tough one.  All time favorites?

1) WitP - my life just doesn't have enough hours to see what happens in 1944, much less 1945.
2) Operation Crusader (Atomic/360) - doesn't stand the test of time compared to todays titles, but I still think it was incredible for its time.
3) Steel Beasts - do study/sim games count?  If so, I'm going to have to throw a lot of 'em in here, including EAW and Jane's F18.
4) COTA might just fit here.
5) Take Command:  2nd Manassas - I fired it up last night, and I continue to love this game.  Can't wait for multiplayer etc.

[HansBolter]

Hmm,

As far as computer wargames go I have to say it ranks right up there.

Since Matirx is showing a proclivity for obtaining the rights to old games and revamping them, I need to find a way to get them to resurrect some old DOS based wargames that were killer games...
The V for Victory series and Great Naval Battles 1942 Guadalcanal are tops on my "must get revamped" list.

As for all time wargames in general, you are dealing with a serious grognard here with 32+ years of wargaming experience.

My all time favorite wargame is still Avalon Hill's Third Reich. I was a playtester for the final (Advanced) edition and have the distinct honor of having my name published in the design credits. I have played almost every board wargame ever published on WWII (slight exaggeration) and still own well over 200+ board wargames. The Longest Day (AH's only megagame) was another of my favorites.

[wodin]

Here are my wargaming personal gems. CotA is number one the rest are sort of in an order but some are really to close to call. The Close Combat series I thought was fantastic and is a game Ive spent many hours playing.

1. CotA
2. Close Combat 2 onwards.
3. Squad Battles.
4. WinSPWW2.
5. Combat Mission BB and CMAK.
6. HTTR.
7. Panzer Campaigns.
8. BiI.

[steed]

#1 is not out yet but will be > http://www.matrixgames.com/news.asp?nid=328 <
#2 the mighty Steel Panthers

#3 RDOA/HTTR/COTA awesome engine , never enough scenarios though, they should sell extras between releases. Also minimal effort to facilitate online play.

#4 Close Combat series

#5 Decisive Battles any

[mbtanker]

Hurts my head to think back too many years. But I certainly put CotA and HttR near the top of my list of best wargames I still have installed. Combat Mission series, Strategic Command 2, Battles in Normandy/series, and Uncommon Valor would be up there as well. CotA may be the best operational wargame yet.

[JeF]

Back in 2002, I bought AA:RDoA. It was the first PC wargame I bought since the original Steel Panther and BG:Waterloo (was it in 96 ?). From this are a serie of first time : first time I posted in a public Internet forum, first time I designed a fan website, first time I wrote in a paper magazine.
I guess it tells how much I love the games of this serie. So yes, COTA is #1.

Cheers,

JeF.

[Crimguy]

I forgot to mention CM.&nbsp; Totallly gets my Number 2 slot.

I liked CC, but thought the AI was a joke.

[Greup]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

As far as computer wargames go I have to say it ranks right up there.

Agreed - it's made the way an operational computer wargame should be.

As for all time wargames in general, you are dealing with a serious grognard here with 32+ years of wargaming experience.

Hm... beats even me. Remember reading about AH's (?) Afrika Korps + Napoleonic miniature gaming in some miniature modelling mag (Airfix Magazine?) in the early 70'ies but never got my hands on a real game with until about 78-79.

My all time favorite wargame is still Avalon Hill's Third Reich.

Well. they said the rules were fixed by revision 5 but by then I had lost all interest in digesting it + I always gravitated towards the oerational or tactical end of things (SL/COI/COD) I don't know if that was why I wouldn't get along with the Axis logistics guy in Campaign for North Africa. My italian Cr42s never got enough fuel.

For computer wargames my list basically is:

COTA
CM-series
CC-series
TacOps
HOI-series (including EU 1& 2)
Have played some hex-based computer stuff as well, but most felt like bland board-games with a sub-standard opponent (AI) and little replay/staying value.

[HansBolter]

Always good to hear from another old grog.

Afrika Corps was an awesoemly fun and playable game. Unfortunately the game usually was deceided by a 2 to 1 attack on Tobruk. However, it was so fast and playable that my wargame buddy and I once pulled an all nighter where we played out 4 complete games of AK! So, even if you lost on teh 2-1 attack on Tobruk, you could just start a new game and go at it again.

Campaign in North Afrika and I believe another SPI mega game of company level paratroop action (I think on Market garden) were just about the ONLY mega games I never played.

I'm a veteran of many sessions of the Europa Series starting with DNO which became Fire in the East with it's sequal Scorched Earth and all the other Europa series games (which are currently collecting dust on my shelves). Whact Am Rhien is an all time favorite along with The Longest Day (aka The Longest Game).

I was a big fan of the origonal Squad Leader and collected and played all the expansions and Advanced SQ, but it got so complex and overly detailed I lost interest in it eventually. I think my old buddy Jim Moir (one of the designers of ATR) who definitely had a preference for operational and strategic games over tactical ones put it best with this line: "I'm not interested in rolling dice to see if my soldier stooped to tie his boot lace and the bullet missed him"

[Grotius]

For me, "War in the Pacific" still holds the top slot. I'm still playing it after two years. But "CoTA" is now #2.

[mbtanker]

Sorry to go off topic but how is WitP different from Uncommon Valor? Is it just the scope or is the engine improved in some way? I love UV but always hear people talk about WitP.

ORIGINAL: Grotius

For me, "War in the Pacific" still holds the top slot. I'm still playing it after two years. But "CoTA" is now #2.

[Banquet]

There are refinements in WitP but the basic difference is that WitP covers the whole pacific over the whole war. The scale was reduced from 30 miles a hex to 60 miles a hex to accomodate that massive map.

[Grotius]

I haven't played UV in a while, but from what I can recall, WITP's refinements are pretty significant. For example, WITP features new Task Force types (Escort missions, ASW missions, etc.); I don't know if UV has implemented those.

But yeah, the massive scope of WITP is what really makes it. The map stretches from Karachi to San Francisco. The game models every significant ship, plane, and pilot in the theater. The ground combat model makes one long for CoTA, and there are lots of oddities and imperfections in the game, but WiTP is still an amazing achievement.

CoTA, though, is easily the king of land-warfare games. Another amazing achievement.