Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Dave Briggs

For computer games I'd have to agree that UMS I and UMS II were pretty bad. And I have to also agree that PATRIOT by Atomic Games was very bad. At least I could fool around with UMS II but PATRIOT was just a big waste of money.

As far as board games go, the worst in my opinion is RICHTOFFEN'S WAR by AH. The most boring, lame game every made.

Oh god, I forgot about Richtoffen's war. One of my buddies loved it but I could never stand it.

Why do you say Axis and Allies Iron Blitz?

It wasn't that bad. The AI is easy to beat but me and my Dad had a lot of good hotseat games. It did crash a few times, but for the most part it works fine. Some things to be fixed but I'd say the game was 99% doing its job.

Anyway, worst game ever? [:-] If that the worst game that ever happened to you, you must lead a very privledged gaming life [8D]

It wasn't that bad. The AI is easy to beat but me and my Dad had a lot of good hotseat games. It did crash a few times, but for the most part it works fine. Some things to be fixed but I'd say the game was 99% doing its job.

Got to be kidding, 99%? The add-on did not even fix any of the original A&A issues, it just added more bugs on top of them so how can this be 99% completed? As for hot-seat play, consider yourself very, very lucky. Try online game play, it is virtualy impossible, this is why after years, there is still 0 users in the Iron Blitz zone rooms, and everyone is hanging out in the old bug ridden original A&A room.

Im not sure what fun there is when half your air units disapear randomly each turn for no explanation, but most users do not like to play this way.

I'm catchin up here...

Les - Yeah Tank Leader, with the 3 small blue dice and the cards. I know of what you speak. West End never did make anything exceptional, but they made some weird sh*t for wargaming didn't they? I still have Soldiers sitting around somewhere, I'm pretty sure I saw it not long ago. Talk about F'd up screwy strange system. It had it's faults, but I liked the fact that it broke the mold. Strange and certainly not perfect. It was kinda fun playin' against a friend years ago, though still hard to figure out the mechanics. It concentrated on morale and orders more than anything. Really weird, and that was the impression I got from a couple WE games.

Herts - I loved Ghost Recon also. The multiplayer was an F'in blast. I thought it was about time they took the Rainbow Six stuff outdoors. Maybe I should fire it up again sometime.

Chix/Pippin - I still play head to head original A&A on rare occasions over IP. It's a nice easy-going game against a human opponent which anyone who'd been born before 1980 knew how to play in a heartbeat. I never tried Iron Blitz.. I already had most of it, so why pay for some half-a$$ed, money grubbin version when I already have the first one? Anyway....

If ya got the original Axis & Allies, I have 2 players ready to go sometime if ya wanna start one up. Classic settings of course.

ORIGINAL: Didz

Should have been brilliant, could have been brilliant but was actually a load of rubbish due to the fact that a few of the designers didn't understand what a wargame was and a couple of the programmers couldn't program a pacman clone.

This game desperately needs to be redone by a team that knows what they are doing.

That's more than a little unfair.

The whole development team was disbanded by the publisher at alpha stage - they only had a few weeks given to them to "complete" it at that point before collecting their final pay cheques.

Perhaps, but from what I saw of the game they had failed already to grasp the important design issues for a successful wargame. A mere look at the ratio between ground, figure and terrian scale in the tactical battles confirms that these people had never designed a wargame before.

My own view was that the plug was pulled on this project because the supplier realised the design team didn't know what they were doing and that continuing to invest money in the project would not increase the quality of the finished product. The only real issue was why knowing this they still launched the product unless it was a cynical attempt to recoup some of their lost investment.

Got to be kidding, 99%? The add-on did not even fix any of the original A&A issues, it just added more bugs on top of them so how can this be 99% completed? As for hot-seat play, consider yourself very, very lucky. Try online game play, it is virtualy impossible, this is why after years, there is still 0 users in the Iron Blitz zone rooms, and everyone is hanging out in the old bug ridden original A&A room.

Its not that bad. 99% of the time the game works.

Try online game play

I have. Try playing any game online w/ 5 ppl. Somebody always drops. Head to head tcp/ip it works ok.

Ever tried the old fashioned way using text and a gameboard? [8D] fun fun fun
:+: chicken rolls 35 6 sided dice :+:

Im not sure what fun there is when half your air units disapear randomly each turn for no explanation, but most users do not like to play this way.

I've played it years and lost maybe 10 planes total.


It has some problems but is far from being one of the worst games ever. I still play it sometimes. you're blowing the bugs way out of proportion imo. The game is very playable.

Worst Wargame Ever

PATRIOT by Three/Sixty - an idea for a wargame, but they forget the game, I bought it, it was from the same people who did Harpoon, It couldn't be that bad right, yeah right![8|]

UMS II - The problem with this game was, I not sure there was a next turn. I remember buying this, I loaded it, started the game, made my first move, then hit next turn, waited, waited, when out to eat came back, still waiting, went to bed, next day still waiting, still waiting.[>:]


Super Power - turn-based strategy of a modern-day superpower, Mexico could invade China - yeah right. This is a wargame by a French software team, Warning don't every buy software or a wargame made by the French, it's like buying steak from PETA, I don't know what it is. but it's not going to taste good![:@]

War Commander (I think thats what it was called) Came out about a year or more ago. Very Bad.[>:]

For computer games, it has to be Avalon Hills Civil War and Third Reich. For boardgames -Liddel Harts Second World War, Victory Games Gulf Strike and GMT's For the People.

Interestingly enough though, didn't the US miltary employ Gulf Strike to examine options prior to Gulf War 1?

Third Reich PC was not at all good on first release, but is said to be acceptable if you use the later version and the last patch.

Of course I use acceptable loosely. I have it, but the sounds are all messed up in XP and I never really pursued it much as frankly I think playing A3R is preferrable, and thus playing it as TR PC is to much like a step backwards even if the game runs adequately or not.

What's wrong with Gulf Strike? I used to solo that and Aegean Strike quite a bit.

Would love someone to translate it to the PC!