Russo-German War '41-'44

Kung Karl · Post by **Kung Karl** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 6:06 pm

Opinions on Russo-German War '41-'44 from Schwerpunkt? A whole new world has been opened to me since I read about duchet. So now I try to read reviews and also ask about user opinons on various games.

A little quote from The Wargamer:

"Russo-German War '41 - '44 ideally simulates this conflict. Fans of yesterday's operational-level war boardgames will find much to love about it."

Les_the_Sarge_9_1 · Post by **Les_the_Sarge_9_1** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 7:58 pm

"Its a big game"

I think that sums it up nicely. I have it, have not dived into it yet though. There is also a forum at Wargamer that is a source of input for the game as well.

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 10:18 pm

I dont like it at all

They had the oppurtunity to make a computer game....but they simply shoved a board game onto a cd and board games on the PC simply do not work

Its a confusing mess and I cant ever tell whats going on

WIR which is going on 10 years old is by far a superior game covering the east front

Les_the_Sarge_9_1 · Post by **Les_the_Sarge_9_1** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 10:23 pm

That's not entirely true Fallschirmjager.

Indeed some board games should just be left alone.

But some can be transported literally to computer reasonably well.

My biggest problem with East Front (the one from Columbia Games that uses blocks), is that it is basically a game that can't be played solo.
But the computer form of the game came out kinda nice.

I tried the demo, and was surprised at how well they had taken a board game and made it into a computer game, and not lost any of the quality that makes it a great board game in the process.

Paratrooper · Post by **Paratrooper** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 10:28 pm

Originally posted by Fallschirmjager
they simply shoved a board game onto a cd

That was the designer's intention as he, John Tiller, and a lot of other PC wargame designers are long time board wargamers.

IMO, RGW is THE definitive PC East Front game. It covers the entire front from Barbarossa to the Destruction of Army Group Center (the Soviet drive into Poland.) You can play the entire campaign or one of fifty scenarios.

Kung Karl · Post by **Kung Karl** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 10:46 pm

Is it "easy to play" and fun or do you have to be extremly harcore and boardgame entusiast to play the game?

Les_the_Sarge_9_1 · Post by **Les_the_Sarge_9_1** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 10:51 pm

Last time I looked at mine Karl, I think "enthusiastic" was a requirement all the way hehe.

As a computer game it comes off just like some of my traditional board games. Or in computer speak "tedious and boring" hehe.

It is not a "lite" game to play.

Paratrooper · Post by **Paratrooper** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 11:53 pm

Originally posted by Kung Karl
Is it "easy to play" and fun or do you have to be extremly harcore and boardgame entusiast to play the game?

It ain't Strategic Command - thats for sure! Much more complex, not a game that can be learned quickly by clicking the mouse. You'll have to read the manual for this one. It takes a lot of time just to play one game turn also. Depending on how long one spends thinking about strategy, one game turn on the grand campaign can easily take HOURS to play. MONTHS to complete the entire campaign.

Brigz · Post by **Brigz** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 4:15 am

Originally posted by Fallschirmjager
I dont like it at all

They had the oppurtunity to make a computer game....but they simply shoved a board game onto a cd and board games on the PC simply do not work

Its a confusing mess and I cant ever tell whats going on

WIR which is going on 10 years old is by far a superior game covering the east front

It took me a little while of actually pushing things around and experimenting. But once you get the hang of it, you'll find it is a very easy game to play but has a lot under the surface that you will only appreciate after learning how to "drive" the thing. Like the others, I like it because it is very close to a board game on the computer and that's something I want to see more of. If you don't like playing board games then you probably won't like RGW. My advice...stick with it and play the smaller scenarios to death. You may not win all the time but you will begin to appreciate the game. And the campaign game is a MONSTER. By that I mean big and time consuming, but not Frankenstein. I really like it, but I can understand why some would not.

Fred98 · Post by **Fred98** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 5:58 am

When I was a teenager I was a board gamer.

If home computers were expensive, I would still be a board gamer.

I found that board games took forever to play but PCs had not been invented so that’s all there was.

With all games, on top of the dice roll, there are Combat Results Tables and Dice Roll Modifiers.

For one game I made up 3 cards, which together could be called a combination between a spread sheet and a slide rule.

After a dice roll, the calculation of the final result is very fast.

However the slowest part of the game is always “What can I move where” and “against a given hex, which units are in range to give the best odds”

Now that all 3 items are automated – see Korsun Pocket – I am in wargaming heaven

Les_the_Sarge_9_1 · Post by **Les_the_Sarge_9_1** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 6:01 pm

Computers are indeed very helpful tools in wargaming.

My beef is the trend to making eye candy for only eye candy's sake last few years.

I only have a computer because in 1990 I had myself convinced I needed to use professional writing as a source of income.

As it turned out, I zigged into attempting a woodworking business, then life zagged and I ended up disabled with this dumb fybromyalgia condition.

Today my computer is basically just a way to communicate with like minded individuals.
I don't have an income worth squat, and you can bet buying video cards just to play the latest silly too graphically dependent game is not only not on the list, but would not matter if it was. I don't have the cash nor am I likely ever to have the cash.

When there are obviously plenty of very well made games out there that don't require the need to constantly belly up to the ole video card bar, I see no reason to support graphically demanding games.

Let MY style of games be the standard, and let those graphics dependent games be the minor niche, I won't care eh.

Jim1954 · Post by **Jim1954** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 6:55 pm

KK, here is a link to an AAR of one of the opening scenarios. It will give you some idea of the feel for the game.

http://www.wargamer.com/articles/aarrus_ger_main.asp

Kung Karl · Post by **Kung Karl** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 7:21 pm

Thanks!

This one will be a later game. FOr now I will try out TOAW and then on to Korsun Pocket. But please, keep the info and opions comming sice it makes it easier to decide.

Charles2222 · Post by **Charles2222** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 9:45 pm

I bought this thing when it first came out, as I like big things like that, but unfortunately a little probing of the movement sequence and indeed on trying to learn what phase follows what, left me quite discouraged. Now that I find, should I ever play SP again, that CIV3 has sort of harmed my sense of how you move a unit the wargamer way, perhaps I'm a bit more open, with a few patches later no doubt, of giving this monster more time.

So, before I even give such a notion further consideration a very now important thiNG I must know, and it is: Does anybody actually have that thing working on an XP? Thanks.

Strat · Post by **Strat** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 12:55 am

I bought RGW when it first came out up to patch 1.4, and really really enjoyed it. just got annoyed with the continued updates ducking up my games. (spelling) But on the plus side at least they are fixing the problems.
Put it aside about 3 months ago and forgot about it until this thread.

So, before I even give such a notion further consideration a very now important thiNG I must know, and it is: Does anybody actually have that thing working on an XP? Thanks.

I've just dug it out and am about to attempt installation on XP pro, I'll let you know in a bit.

I see we are up to patch/update 1.6 now.

well here goes.

Strat..

Strat · Post by **Strat** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 1:51 am

Well it seemed to install just fine, but the patches did not install.

I have emailed Schwerpunkt and told them my problem and invited then to reply here, or to me directly.

I'm really quite gutted that it did'nt install as I had started to really look forward to playing it again.

Ohh BTW. does anybody know if Les the sarge lives here;) cause when ever I log on he is at the forums.
Nice one bud.
3000+ posts:eek:

Cheer's

Strat..

Jim1954 · Post by **Jim1954** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 2:16 am

When you buy this thing now, all of the current patches are already on, through v1.6. v1.7 is in development now.

benpark · Post by **benpark** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 3:34 am

RGW is a terrific game, one of my all time favorites.

Definately not for those that have little interest in that scale (divisional) or are used to fancy graphics and twitching their index fingers.

Note to those playing on XP-you have to set your screen res to 16 bit for the game to show properly.

Brigz · Post by **Brigz** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 4:11 am

Originally posted by Strat
Well it seemed to install just fine, but the patches did not install.

I have emailed Schwerpunkt and told them my problem and invited then to reply here, or to me directly.

I'm really quite gutted that it did'nt install as I had started to really look forward to playing it again.

Ohh BTW. does anybody know if Les the sarge lives here;) cause when ever I log on he is at the forums.
Nice one bud.
3000+ posts:eek:

Cheer's

Strat..

Strat, When you install the patches you have to download and install all the scenarios too. Whenever they make a new patch they update the scenarios. Don't know if you did that but just in case I thought I'd point that out.

I'll let Les explain the details but because of a Catch 22 he has lots of time on his hands.

Schwerpt · Post by **Schwerpt** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 6:53 am

We have customers running RGW on Win 95/98/2k/ME/NT/XP. One wargamer got it to run under Linux using a Windows emulator. As was mentioned, you may have to set the display resolution to 16 bit so that Windows will give RGW enough virtual memory to load all of its maps and graphics.

For you programmers, RGW was written in C using the standard Win 32 API's, so it runs under all Winodws operating systems very well.

Strat, send me your postal address, and I will send you a v1.6 CDROM to get past the patch problem you mentioned.

We are working on a new patch (v1.7) for RGW with some improvements and fixes. We plan to release it in a couple of months, depending on Anglo-German War 39-45 (AGW) development schedule. We are also discussing RGW v2.0, which would be a significant update with all new map graphics and based on the AGW engine.

Ron

Ron Dockal
Schwerpunkt