What will be the next game?

[gekkoguy35]

I've longed for a modernized and reimagined version of Frank Hunter's hex-based ACW game from the late 90s/very early '00s. If the SCW and the entire Pacific theater can be simulated in such a way, then surely the ACW can too, and I'll be waiting with my wallet in hand when it does.

[marek1978]

Napoleonic wars, with all naval aspect, with air comand tools for cavalery scouting. and RSV units as supply wagons and rivers as main supply lines

[vinnie71]

Another area it could cover would be WWII Italian campaign. However, I think one would need to find a way to entrench units even in non-urban hexes to simulate the ability of the Axis to dig in and slow allied advances to a crawl.

Another alternative would be to have a WWII Scandinavian campaign. Have a map that stretches from Norway to Karelia and include Finland and basically play out the whole campaign including the continuation war and so forth. Admittedly, it would be quite complex especially if allied efforts at resupplying the Soviet Union are included.

[Tanaka]

I've longed for a modernized and reimagined version of Frank Hunter's hex-based ACW game from the late 90s/very early '00s. If the SCW and the entire Pacific theater can be simulated in such a way, then surely the ACW can too, and I'll be waiting with my wallet in hand when it does.

Agreed! Ageod's Civil War 2 and Frank Hunter's game were the closest thing we had to grand strategic but they are now very aged. Forge of Freedom was another really good one I wish they would remake that combined strategic and tactical. Before that was Civil War Generals 2 for tactical and then the grand operational SCACW we have now. I've tried to make things even grander in my mod for SCACW:

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=413785

[gamer78]

Napoleonic wars, with all naval aspect, with air comand tools for cavalery scouting. and RSV units as supply wagons and rivers as main supply lines

I agree even I haven't played the game yet. Naval and Air war mechanics seems a bit much about a mob war sometimes happened in SCW. Napoleonic period seems fine and ACW fine too. Mechanics can be changed to be more suitable for the period.

Strategic Command games are champions with different periods jumping from Marco Polo to WW'1 to Balkan Wars then to return WW'1 Ypres. They are lucky to make gameplay simple and that simple design goes on and on...

[adarbrauner]

Mediterranean

War in the Pacific 2 (or another title to circumvent the rights, why not?!)

[Q-Ball]

IMO, I think a Med Game, while it would be tricky to make and there are alot of design challenges, would bring over alot of WITP AE players....probably more than WiS has. I think it would bring over pretty much everyone.

Again, there are lots of design challenges with a War in the Med.....when does it end? What about the French? Will the Desert War model well with this engine, or no? Is Greece in the game? How would Operation Marita work? How do you handle the Vichy French? What about Yugoslavia?

I could go on and on....it's in many ways more complicated than the Pacific, where at least there the war has a clear beginning, set of objectives, and end, and also the entire map is belligerent

[marek1978]

I know it might sound crazy but Punic Wars could be great fun. Naval bases, patroling, supply, amhibious operations. And loads of interesting land manouvers...


Still - War of Spanish Succesion or Napoleonic Wars would be my number one on wishlist.


ps - i know it wont happen, still fun to imagine.

[Gunner98]

A short one to test the waters with a few of the issues mentioned by Q-Ball might be the British intervention in Abyssinia, 1940-41. Or perhaps a stand-alone campaign in Greece & Crete. Then perhaps the North African campaign up to the fall of Tunisia. Work it in building blocks to eventually get to the full Med campaign.

[Q-Ball]

A short one to test the waters with a few of the issues mentioned by Q-Ball might be the British intervention in Abyssinia, 1940-41. Or perhaps a stand-alone campaign in Greece & Crete. Then perhaps the North African campaign up to the fall of Tunisia. Work it in building blocks to eventually get to the full Med campaign.

Abyssinia would be easily digestible and an easy leap to model from WiS; the downside is that the naval component is going to be very limited. The Italians lacked fuel, and basically died on suicide missions, while the British player will mostly be just hauling in troops and supplies.

Greece/Crete is an interesting theater for sure......I think the hardest question there is when does it start? Logic would say start with the Italian invasion, but if you do that it should be 4 months of static turns on the Greek/Albanian border, with some sea fights sprinkled in. The real action covers only about 2 months

[CSSS]

I know it might sound crazy but Punic Wars could be great fun. Naval bases, patroling, supply, amhibious operations. And loads of interesting land manouvers...


Still - War of Spanish Succesion or Napoleonic Wars would be my number one on wishlist.


ps - i know it wont happen, still fun to imagine.

There is currently a massive Roman grand strategic game being developed by the same author Hannibal Rome VS Carthage. It may come out this year.

[Gunner98]

A short one to test the waters with a few of the issues mentioned by Q-Ball might be the British intervention in Abyssinia, 1940-41. Or perhaps a stand-alone campaign in Greece & Crete. Then perhaps the North African campaign up to the fall of Tunisia. Work it in building blocks to eventually get to the full Med campaign.

Abyssinia would be easily digestible and an easy leap to model from WiS; the downside is that the naval component is going to be very limited. The Italians lacked fuel, and basically died on suicide missions, while the British player will mostly be just hauling in troops and supplies.

Greece/Crete is an interesting theater for sure......I think the hardest question there is when does it start? Logic would say start with the Italian invasion, but if you do that it should be 4 months of static turns on the Greek/Albanian border, with some sea fights sprinkled in. The real action covers only about 2 months

True, the naval action would be one-sided, but that is not significantly different than WiS. The air campaign would be an interesting quantity vs quality study and there is a lot of cut and thrust on the land side. An underrepresented campaign that could use a little love.

Greece/Crete would be interesting and may make a great tutorial for the eventual full Med game. I fear that most allied players in a full theater war will try to avoid commitment to Greece unless heavy handed special rules are in place - so a stand alone scenario will be a way of examining the campaign outside of the full theater war.

There are plenty of options but I feel that these two would make nice building blocks to a War in the Med version of WiS.

B

[ham17]

There is currently a massive Roman grand strategic game being developed by the same author Hannibal Rome VS Carthage. It may come out this year.

Is there anywhere I can find more detailed information about that game?

[marek1978]

Russo Japanese War would be great with this engine.

[jatzi]

Use War In Spain as the starting point and use it to "add DLC" by opening up fronts that cover different nations and places around the world.

1936 hits the sweet spot of action and history for the start of world war 2 without indulging in a more in-depth logistical/industrial/political focus that 1935 or earlier would generate.

You could also make the "DLC" standalone so that people who didnt want to "invest" in WiS and everything else could play, say, the Norwegian campaign only.

Ethiopia vs Italy, China vs Japan, etc... and the ultimate goal being a full world war 2 simulation.

I had this thought as well. Either use War in Spain with DLC or make a new game and use that as a base for everything else. You don't necessarily need the entire war all at once but various theaters and like WW1 stuff and ACW stuff and a whole bunch else in the form of different scenarios, all in one game would be pretty great. I don't know what they used to make the game but I think it should be possible to change the size of the map (in terms of hex size) for different scenarios if needed. or keep it at 5nm and just break things up for the different scenarios? Either way this would be cool, with different scenarios released in DLCs as they get finished.

I would prefer this tbh over tons of separate games and I don't think it would be too crazy to make vs just making separate games. I mean once you work out the base mechanics and engine and whatnot it should mostly just be different scenario/map data. And WIS is a decent start to the former bit. Take the lessons from WIS to make a good base engine and then just create tons of different scenarios for all the various wars and theaters and whatnot.

About the hex size for larger scenarios. Could you do 5nm hexes for land and 40nm for the ocean? Or is the issue that all the land at 5nm is just an insanely large map? Because if it's the latter I'm not sure that would really bother me lol.

[Dali101]

Excuse me, but do you have any idea how long it takes to create a complete OOb and TOE for one such game??
(or just SCN as you write...)
Many years...

[Q-Ball]

Excuse me, but do you have any idea how long it takes to create a complete OOb and TOE for one such game??
(or just SCN as you write...)
Many years...

Company-level OOB for all of World War 2 shouldn't take too long, plus every ship and base on the planet, and including complex political rules as countries enter and exit the war

What could possibly go wrong?

[Dali101]

[CSSS]

There is currently a massive Roman grand strategic game being developed by the same author Hannibal Rome VS Carthage. It may come out this year.

Is there anywhere I can find more detailed information about that game?

Yes Hannibal VS Rome forums New Game title in the forums.

[gamer78]

I know it might sound crazy but Punic Wars could be great fun. Naval bases, patroling, supply, amhibious operations. And loads of interesting land manouvers...


Still - War of Spanish Succesion or Napoleonic Wars would be my number one on wishlist.


ps - i know it wont happen, still fun to imagine.

No, Norman invasion at most. As Field of Glory Kingdoms shows. For War of Spanish Succesion -good game- I hope other Phillippe also involved -Chinese Tapping War- and FOG kingdoms.