Tiller Games Purchased

[rma901]

I would like to see one extra zoom level in these games plus some unit details on the counters in the 2 most zoomed in levels.

I agree with timmyab on this.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Rhetor

I do sincerely hope that somewhere in the pipeline there are titles simulating the great European conflicts of 1859, 1866, and 1870-71.
I know but a single title that covered this period, which - compared to the scale of the battles and their importance to the history of the continent, - makes this arguably the most neglected period in computer wargaming.

yes, several million times. The degree of innovation and technological change over this sequence was immense. I'd add in battles from the Russo-Turkish war (1878) too as Gat makes the point that the Russians tried to use the tactics that had worked for the Prussians only a few years back but failed due to improvements in rifle technology.

Chuck in the war of 1864 after which Denmark decided to basically opt out of European wars and the few set piece battles in the 1848-49 sequence of events?

[Franciscus]

Winter sale of WDS (JTS) games starts on December 15th [:D]

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/winter ... ack-survey

[gamer78]

If Volcanoman(ED) still interested in WW'1 he will continue his work on WW'1 I believe. Dardanelles and Battle of Sarikamish can be interesting. Bit like an Napoleonic campaign to Russia with few strategy and no winter uniforms.

[Hexagon]

In the survey i coment about cover the "gaps" between series.

For example in XIX century we can have a serie between Nap and WWI but divided in "European wars" with an evolution of Nap engine (in the line of FWWI or PzB engines over PzC engine) and "Colonial wars" (with an improved EAW engine).

In XX century a serie to cover wars between WWI and WWII, here in the Pacific i find interesting something to cover the Chinese-Japanese war.

And for FWWI i allways wanted see a Meggido18 title, its a WWI campaign BUT closer to WWII mobile combat style, space to move and options to made interesting what ifs (for example a stronger presence of German-AH presence).

There are a lot of options and not only expanding the actual series.

PD: as very freak new serie... a naval serie covering XVIII and XIX centuries, or using the naval engine but very improved OR using ACW engine for a turn based model.

[ncc1701e]

How is handle the naval warfare in the Strategic Series? Is it abstracted?

Thanks

[Michael T]

There is no naval warfare to date. Each side has a shipping capacity for each sea area. It is scenario dependent. Generally the allies have a much greater capacity.

[Rosseau]

I have all the PzC series, but the two "Total War" games from John Tiller were my least favorite, by far.

Unfortunately, it's been so long that I can't contribute anything meaningful to the discussion, except (back then) they were not as feature-rich as the other games. This is probably going to change!

Best wishes to all.

[altipueri]

I'm with Loki - we need to be able to answer the Schleswig-Holstein Question.


Palmerston's quip is not good enough:

“Only three people have ever really understood the Schleswig-Holstein business: the Prince Consort, who is dead; a German professor, who has gone mad; and I, who have forgotten all about it.”

[EwaldvonKleist]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

Thanks Michael, I'm working hard here - south of the border in Sydney]

David, for years I have been advocating the potential of this series. Oh please bring it to the East Front, I long for a serious, playable and fun game on the East. I have badgered Rich for years about this series. It has so much potential. Lord knows we need a sensible game on the East that does not involve counting every chicken coop and rusty jerry can east of Berlin.

Michael,

What can I say?




We have inherited a range of projects that are unfinished, still-born or otherwise. As you can see some substantial work was done in this series using the current scale. You can also see we have a full map of Europe (which looks much better with the recent graphical update).

There is no commitment to pick this up and complete it currently, but a lot of the building blocks are there already. I am with you, I had hardly touched this series previously, but it is a great little game system and much more playable with the lower counter density. We are even discussing doing a higher level series (probably corps level/monthly turns) using the same engine to allow a whole war in the East in an evening game (like AH's Third Reich).

More to come, but take this as we have stuff, just not a plan... yet!

David

Are there news regarding an Eastern Front strategic war campaign?

[ncc1701e]

Is there some air units in the Strategic Series? Is it also abstracted?

[Franciscus]

The air units are not on-map, but at the beginning of each turn you assign the available squadrons to superiority, transfer them between theatres, or air-ground combat and then during the turn you can do recce and bombing missions with the remaining and adequate squadrons. It is a good system for the scale of the games

Cheers

[altipueri]

Hey Franciscus - I think I remember your contributions to Ageod and AJE.

Feliz Noel.


Saudades de Rio / Lisbon

[Franciscus]

Hey Franciscus - I think I remember your contributions to Ageod and AJE.

Feliz Noel.


Saudades de Rio / Lisbon

Yep, still around

Happy Holidays !

[Strelaoz]

Are there news regarding an Eastern Front strategic war campaign?

Work has started on additional titles for the Strategic War series. That said we do have competing projects currently, both new and revamps of existing titles.

With the release of the Panzer Campaigns 4.01 patches we have now prioritised getting Squad Battles upgraded and that is absorbing resources currently.

We posted some Squad Battles work in progress shots recently, that I will share here. Everything is still evolving here so don't assume anything will finish like this.

These example screenshots are from different periods of development (see the toolbar changes?). Most are using the new zoom level so you can get down and dirty with the men. Vehicles and guns now have in-game facing representation and we have ditched the top-down figures for men and back to portrait. All graphics are work in progress and the last couple with snow don't have all features enabled yet. Expect snowy trees, houses, roads etc something we have now implemented in Panzer Battles Moscow. The last screen shot is a comparison of what we published in the 4.00 release so you can compare to what will be in the 4.01 upgrade. The snow will also probably go back to a 'whiter' look.

All these screenshots are at 1920 x 1080 and can be right clicked and opened in a new tab for full-size.


















So there is a lot being worked on and a lot coming. Happy Holidays to all!

[EwaldvonKleist]

Good to hear strategic war is being worked on, thanks for the update!

[TheGrayMouser]

That is quite a facelift of the Squad Battles Strela! And it looks like vehicle graphics display actual facing?! Very excited for the updates, cheers!

[ncc1701e]

There is no commitment to pick this up and complete it currently, but a lot of the building blocks are there already. I am with you, I had hardly touched this series previously, but it is a great little game system and much more playable with the lower counter density. We are even discussing doing a higher level series (probably corps level/monthly turns) using the same engine to allow a whole war in the East in an evening game (like AH's Third Reich).

More to come, but take this as we have stuff, just not a plan... yet!

David

I must say the Barbarossa screen is appealing. One question if you are doing a higher level series (corps level/monthly turns), what would be the scale per hexes?

Best wishes

[ncc1701e]

Interesting news on the enhancements coming to the Strategic War series here:
https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/news-shorts

Strategic War is a great game engine and one of the few that allows a reasonably large scenario to be played in an evening. The problem has been that it has been more of a ‘battle’ rather than a ‘campaign’ engine and essentially not being very strategic in nature. In line with some work on new titles, we have started implementing a first round of improvements to the game engine. Here are a few examples:

Many of the game’s values were hard-coded. For example, the unit effectiveness recovery rate was fixed in the game exe and this prevented scaling values based upon turn length. This has now been moved into the PDT and is able to be changed based upon the scenario. There are a range of other values that will be ‘unfixed’ and made editable.

Zones of control are now dependent on the number of defend points a unit/hex has. Currently all units exert a zone of control. This allows many small units to block significant movement, or at a minimum require the unit to be attacked, hindering the attacker. There is now a PDT value for ‘No ZOC Threshold’ i.e., the defend value that a ZOC does not exist. Currently, in-game we plan to set this to one, implying that units that are one or zero defend points do not exert a ZOC. In games terms, one defend point equates to a regiment and that gels with a division (three regiments) having a ZOC.

Port suppression now impacts both embarking and disembarking forces. Previously it was only embarking forces.

Replacements. There is a very comprehensive (and fiddly) replacement system currently in Strategic War. It has only been used in one scenario (Norway in the First Blitzkrieg) but allows players to replenish or rebuild units. We have reviewed the current system and added a ‘Simplified Replacement’ system. This allows replacements by country in four major categories: infantry, armor, artillery, and air. Each unit type falls into one of these categories and can accept the applicable replacements.

Headquarters. Currently headquarters are optional in game. Essentially, they determine whether a unit is in command or detached. Detached units have halved movement and attack values as well as half the effectiveness recovery and cannot take replacements. This is a good series of rules, but we have decided to enhance them further. We have created two types of headquarters (normal and mechanized) to reflect the differences between for example, armor and infantry HQs. These can have different movement and command radius.

More can be read in the below link:
https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/news-shorts