Originally posted by David boutwell "...and suddenly he realizes that there have been others within ear shot, and they are watching!"
That's absolutely right, I'm flushing too!
"...sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. How old are you anyway, and where do you live?"
Thanks to you, it's really comforting.
I'm 41 and I live in a really small town (96 inhabitants) between Paris to the east (140km) and Le Mans to the west (70km). I'm about 150km south of Caen and 110km north of Orleans. I'm also near the Saumur Tank museum... . The persons who lived in the house I'm actually resident, have seen the Panzer-Lher divizion marching to the battlefront in 1944 then the Leclerc 2ème DB racing to Paris, a few days later (then later on, the Red Ball trucks roaring!)! I precisely thought about something that could be a good serie of scenarii: the defense of the town of Chateaudun and it's surroundings, against the lead elements of the 3rd Patton army. Maybe one day... .
"If my high school students wrote in English as well as you do, I'd be a happy man!
Humm, you shouldn't say that... for I could believe it
But wait a minute, how old are your students? I'm an old man compared to them... ! I hope they'll improve by time
Anyway, you don't have to worry for we face the same problem here in France, foreigners often speak a better french than most of us actually do! In a way it's flattering but on the other hand, it's a bit worrying too... .
"...we would remember that the reason why SP was so attractive to us in the first place was the fact that it resembled Squad Leader more than any other previous game."
You're probably right and I'm a fan of ASL too (have you tried VASL?). It's funny that you speak about Avalon Hill SL because I was thinking about the things that haven't been correctly adapted in SP (even if SP isn't actually intended to be an exact ASL video game clone). The main issue regarding how the game engine uses the map caracteristics is the inability for an hex to render more than one terrain distinctive feature. To be more specific, I try to say that in ASL you can be in an open zone and still have to cross an hedge to go in the adjacent open hex; that's impossible in SP and imho, it's a big gap. But which video wargame is able to render such an aspect? There can be one but I don't know about it (maybe the recent Squad Leader?). I was also thinking about a way to make things more realistic with SP maps. What do you think about lowering the game scale?! Right now an hex represents roughly 50m of terrain but wouldn't it be a huge step forward if that scale was about 5m? A road or house hex would be closer to reality. It wouldn't be a big problem to modify an OoB to fit that new scale (particularly for the infantry troops) but the main snag would be for the most recent tanks! We could end up facing the same problem that's been encountered in Close Combat 3, where Tigers and Panthers are unable to show their gun ranging superiority over russian tanks. That's THE problem! Of course, the Matrix SP wizards have been able to enhance the maps size so they could push it a bit further... ? Anyway, I remember of a man who planned to create a SP2 mod with a 1m:hex scale. His website's down now and I don't know if his project has been completed or carried on by someone else? It could be interesting to ear from him and his expertise on that subject. Well, I have many ideas for that game but spend too much time talking about it, where I should try to put it to the test and achieve something concrete!
"...I found the demo the night before a vacation trip to New Zealand. Ruined the whole trip for me, because all I could think about was getting back home so that I could play that stupid game!
I couldn't say more to describe what many of us have experienced with that game! I can remember so many mornings where I went to work after a full night of combat, my ears still buzzing with the sound of those gunfights. It was the first time I had the feeling of being back to childhood, playing with my plastic soldiers. And as you said, there was that historical aspect that gave the game something more addictive (and also a good strong argument pretending not to be that childish in the eyes of others, so called mature people
). By the way, did you go back to NZ? Never went there personaly but everything I've ever seen about that country was wonderful. Moreover, Hobbitown stands there now, somewhere!
"...I can't really get into real-time games. And also, because I didn't really have the time, or didn't want to take the time..."
I see. I've never been a RTS fan either but there are some really good games that took my attention and Close Combat 2 is one of those. It's really easy to "master" it! You'll find it's far less complex thant WaW! If you play at the slowest game speed it's really close to SP pace (I use to play fairly fast in SP solo games, don't you?) and you'll add the thrill and stress of taking quick (and hopefuly wise
) decisions to your gaming experience. Historicaly the CC series are great games. Both maps and equipments are pretty accurate and give a great feeling of "real" wargaming. Moreover, it's well designed to play quick and furious battles online without as much time consuming than PBEM does. You really should give it a second try for it's truly a great game... even for the alternate turns games addicts we seem to be
I recently discovered another great pseudo realtime wargame (you issue all your orders -waypoints, formations and stances- then let the things go) that might be of interest for a Market Garden junky
It's called Airborn Assault and it's distributed by Battlefront (
http://www.airborneassault.com/). Visualy it looks like a boardgame with a sort of topographical map (no hexagons). It's more an operational game than a tactical level one but the engine is very accurate and take into account many specifications and particularities, for units and leaders. I only played the demo but it's very well designed and addictive, plus the AI is by far the best I've ever seen in a PC wargame! Give it a try and you might be surprised how the AI can handle your units and the opfor. Really impressive.
"And if you want to talk about difficult maps to edit!!!! I'll have to say, though, that many of the maps that I've seen for that game are, literally, a work of art! I just don't know how they do it."
I agree with your opinion, it's probably the top of the art in PC wargames map design. To learn how it's done you can find now a collection of tools that allow to create such beauties
These tools have been used to design mods like Vietnam or France 1940. I never tried it myself though so I can't say if it's easy to use.
"Didn't we speak of it in a preceding post (maybe on another thread though)? You're right, it's certainly the best website dedicated to french military equipment. An incredible sum of research and work packed in a free access website. Everyone interested by the subject must bookmark that url.
"The book that I'd really love to see is titled "L’AUTOMOBILE SOUS L’UNIFORME 1939-1940". Have you seen that one?"
Of course! I don't own it but it can be ordered easily. There is also a magazine called "Automobilia" that is exclusively dedicated to cars and trucks used in France throughout the years. Unfortunately it's not translated in english but if you're looking for great photographs... . Skimming through foreign magazines is a good way to slowly understand a lot of words and begin to comprehend the language, anyway!
Best regards.
