Considering the game..

[MarkShot]

Well, I have been playing this evening (CCAW).

One thing about this game is that reversal of fortunes are very possible at any moment and gradual degradation one's position is not that likely to happen.

In many ground combat games (if one is not playing on a tactical battlefield pivoting on a few key pieces of armor), then infantry will be fairly robust. It is hard to have the battle turn on one single mistake. Infantry will soak up your mistake and all will not be lost. However, in this game, you can be winning fairly handily and just get caught for 10 minutes with your pants down and everything can turn around.

Of course, such turn arounds do have a significant element of luck, but I suppose the whole point of good play is to follow a set of rules of thumb such that they should diminish the window by which luck can break in the enemy's favor.

[decaro]

... One thing about this game is that reversal of fortunes are very possible at any moment ...

Well, at least that's realistic; consider the IJN's sudden reversal of fortunes @ Midway, although it could be argued that is was actually a series of deadly miscalculations that led to the destruction of their carriers.

One indicator is that the forum activity simply dried up one day. We all reached the dead end at the same time.

Sadly true; despite all the self-inflicted hype, CaW was a flash in the pan.

Well, my search planes are still out, hoping for at least an alpha sighting of a patch.

[Rocko911]

I too was looking forward to this title for a long time. I am disappointed by the lack of scenarios or an editor to create our own. This would even allow us as a community to create and swap them. I have moved beyond this game and luckily in this day and age of mega gigabyte HD it will stay till a scenario editor comes out. Also this game and its price has really made me be more carefull on what I buy from Matrix anymore. I currently have over 8 of their games and only 2 of them get consistent play. By the way I have a copy of Forge of Freedom for sale cheap (god that game drove me nuts and to boredom).

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: LRRP

Also this game and its price has really made me be more carefull on what I buy from Matrix anymore. I currently have over 8 of their games and only 2 of them get consistent play. By the way I have a copy of Forge of Freedom for sale cheap (God that game drove me nuts and to boredom).

I have over 22 of their games. I also bought FoF download and the hardcopy. A nice box, CD, and a thick colorful manual that much of is useless since the major updates and patching. Since they are not going to update the manual, but instead someday release a PDF addendum, I would also sell my copy for cheap. I have been playing AACW and they have a manual update download for each of the 6 patches the game has had. No waiting. Nice concept huh? [;)]

[Erik2]

ORIGINAL: LRRP

I too was looking forward to this title for a long time. I am disappointed by the lack of scenarios or an editor to create our own. This would even allow us as a community to create and swap them. I have moved beyond this game and luckily in this day and age of mega gigabyte HD it will stay till a scenario editor comes out. Also this game and its price has really made me be more carefull on what I buy from Matrix anymore. I currently have over 8 of their games and only 2 of them get consistent play. By the way I have a copy of Forge of Freedom for sale cheap (god that game drove me nuts and to boredom).

There is a full editor editor with the game.
SSG used the same editor when creating the boxed scenarios.
I would wait for the first patch before attempting to do any serious work in the editor since there are a couple of known bugs wich are promised to be fixed.
There are a lot of scenarios in the previous CCAW-version wich should be fairly easy to convert.

[Scott_WAR]

ORIGINAL: Erik Nygaard

There are a lot of scenarios in the previous CCAW-version wich should be fairly easy to convert.

Really, then you must wonder why they werent converted and included in this release........... especially considering ANYBODY could tell this release was far too short on scenarios. I always thought subsequent releases of a title should try to improve on content, not revert back to day 1. With all the scenarios out there its almost criminal how few this game shipped with.

[Venator]

Really, then you must wonder why they werent converted and included in this release

 
 Good point.

[JSS]

ORIGINAL: Venator

Really, then you must wonder why they werent converted and included in this release

Good point.

Not really IMHO. Here's my unofficial HO of how things went:

There were lots of requests for getting the game released (i.e why is this taking so long?). Completing the game engine was priority one... this occured with seven scenarios at the fully developed level.

Since the game comes with a full up scenario editor, the relevant question here is "when will additional scenarios be released?" Same question applies for folks who want scenarios tweaked for MP.

JSS

[TheHellPatrol]

ORIGINAL: JSS


Not really IMHO. Here's my unofficial HO of how things went:

There were lots of requests for getting the game released (i.e why is this taking so long?).

JSS

[X(]Oh, come on! A bunch of whining made you guys rush ahead of yourselves? Sheesh, that is a lame answer...you'd have been better off saying nothing IMHO[;)].

[Scott_WAR]

If people complaining influenced the release of this game in any way, then that was the first big mistake.

[Blond_Knight]

Well if thats the case....
 
<wine> I want a patch and I want it now!</wine>

[JSS]

ORIGINAL: TheHellPatrol

[X(]Oh, come on! A bunch of whining made you guys rush ahead of yourselves? Sheesh, that is a lame answer...you'd have been better off saying nothing IMHO[;)].

Again I have no info on release decisions; the point I'm making here is that the scenarios shipped were listed in advance and the fact that the editor would be included was also known.... Very little comment was made along the lines of the CCAW point above... lots of comments were directed at where's the game. Nothing about rushing known nor implied!

[Erik2]

What I really would like is an answer from SSG wether they plan to released a Battlepack with the 'missing' scenarios themselves.
No point in us players with access to CCAW starting to convert scenarios if they're already in the works.

Here's the list (including those already in CAW:
Arctic Convoy Dec 28th 1942 - Jan 5th 1943
Altantic 15-25th Oct 1943
Action off Calabria 6-13th Jul 1940
Convoy Raiders 17-21st Apr 1942
Coral Sea 3-12th May 1942
Coral Sea variant 6-13th Apr 1946
Port Darwin 18-20th Feb 1942
Eastern Solomons 22-27 Aug 1942
Guadalcanal 6-12 Aug 1942
Invasion Hawaii 30th Aug - 3rd Sep 1942
Leyte Gulf 22-26th Oct 1944
Operation Ironclad 3-6th May 1942
Java Sea 26th Feb - 1 Mar 1942
Cape Matapan 27-30th Mar 1941
Midway 3-8th Jun 1942
North Cape 26-29 Dec 1943
Norway 8-17th Apr 1940
Okinawa 5-9th April 1945
Operation Olympic 4-8th Mar 1946
Plan Orange 20-24th Aug 1936
Pearl Harbor 6-8th Dec 1941
Operation Pedestal 9-14th Aug 1942
Philippine Sea 16-21st Jun 1944
Convoy PQ.17 1-10th Jul 1942
Rabaul 1-10th Nov 1943
Rainbow 5 2-9th Feb 1942
Santa Cruz 24-29th Oct 1942
Cape Spartivento 24-29th Nov 1940
Tarawa 19-26th Nov 1943
Task Force Z 7-10th Dec 1941
Trincomalee 3-8th Apr
Wake Island 20-24th Dec 1941

And from old Run5 magazines:
Relief of Wake Island 19-25th Dec 1941
Japan Sweeps South 9a 7-11th Dec 1941
JSS 9b 20-24th Jan 1942
JSS 9c 27th Feb - 4th Mar 1942
Gilbert's Strike 19-26th Nov 1943

[Toby42]

I don't feel that for 50 Dollars, we should have to build a game that we should have received!!!

[Scott_WAR]

Exactly. For $50 we should have recieved the original game plus all scenarios released for it up to date. We should not have had to pay full price for what is technically a two decade old game. and NO, a new interface does not make it worth the price of a premium full price game. Considering that CCAW can be bought for MUCH less and comes with MUCH more, I wouyld have to say,&nbsp;&nbsp;yeah,... SSG screwed us pretty good.

[Toby42]

Buying games is just like life. You pay your money and take your chances!!!

[Scott_WAR]

Matrix is usually better than that. Before the last few games, I have never regretted a&nbsp; Matrix purchase. My last 3 purchases from Matrix have been Maximum football, UFO, and CAW. 0 for 3. This needs to stop now before Matrix starts getting a bad rep.

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: Scott_WAR

Matrix is usually better than that. Before the last few games, I have never regretted a Matrix purchase. My last 3 purchases from Matrix have been Maximum football, UFO, and CAW. 0 for 3. This needs to stop now before Matrix starts getting a bad rep.

I bought all the above except Maximum Football. What do you consider your BEST Matrix purchase? Out of the over 22 games I bought from Matrix, I am not sure which I consider the best... [&:] Have to think on that one.

[Venator]

Best Matrix game I've bought was Highway to the Reich. to be honest i wish I'd bought its sequel, Conquest of the Agean rather than CAW now. Ironically it was the lack of scenarios that put me off CotA...
&nbsp;
I got For Liberty from Battlefront but counting it as a Matrix game it'd be a close second.
&nbsp;
I actually quite like Tin Soldiers: Julius Caesar too but mainly for its old fashioned table minatures approach. Strangely pleasing. Must be the nostalgia.
&nbsp;
The other one I really felt was worth the money was Chariots of War. But mainly because it was cheap and the rather odd combat system actually seemed&nbsp;quite in keeping with the setting.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;I'll refrain from mentioning the worst but I've bought about eight or nine Matrix titles and have been disappointed in some way with half (disappointed to the extent of having mild regrets about purchase). I don't consider any of them to have been rubbish but I do feel that the disappointing ones (including CAW, sadly) have failed to deliver long term appeal in the way that the others have. still an approximately 50% success rate's not too bad.

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: Venator

Best Matrix game I've bought was Highway to the Reich. to be honest i wish I'd bought its sequel, Conquest of the Agean rather than CAW now. Ironically it was the lack of scenarios that put me off CotA...

I got For Liberty from Battlefront but counting it as a Matrix game it'd be a close second.

I actually quite like Tin Soldiers: Julius Caesar too but mainly for its old fashioned table minatures approach. Strangely pleasing. Must be the nostalgia.

The other one I really felt was worth the money was Chariots of War. But mainly because it was cheap and the rather odd combat system actually seemed quite in keeping with the setting.

I'll refrain from mentioning the worst but I've bought about eight or nine Matrix titles and have been disappointed in some way with half (disappointed to the extent of having mild regrets about purchase). I don't consider any of them to have been rubbish but I do feel that the disappointing ones (including CAW, sadly) have failed to deliver long term appeal in the way that the others have. still an approximately 50% success rate's not too bad.

I also have HTTR and I like that better than COTA. I played COTA again a few days ago and it is a good game with a ton of docs that come with it. A lot of work went into that title.

I don't have Chariots Of War. I have one that's similar to it called Gates Of Troy. No comment.

I also bought For Liberty from Battlefront in June of 2006.

I played the demo of Tin Soldiers and I almost bought it, but I wondered how long it would capture my interest. I liked the demo though.

I still don't know what my favorite would be. I'm still thinking on that... [:)]