Matrix Games Forums

Would like to see simplified land/amphib action, elimination of headquarters and the minutiae of non-combat units, some way to get rid of a turn spending 10 minutes on stuff like the Dutch launching a 3-plane raid that hits nothing, etc... And make "quiet China" really quiet, by roping off that section of the map, altogether. Have stuff like "send points to China or suffer VP point penalty", etc..., stuff like that.

The carrier and naval/air ops are good, keep that. But an in-between sort of game, something that could run faster yet keep the naval/air realism would be good. Need a game that's a step down from WITP.

You don't want this game then. Maybe Carrier Battles or something. AE isn't for everyone. And that's OK. Try small scenarios from babes or the vanilla small ones....GP

Um, No.

You should try Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots. It's very historically accurate. They have a PBEM version now. Knock his block off! Referencing another thread, I've created a mod where the robots wear lingerie.

The game you have described Texican is called "Pacific Theatre of Operations" (PTO for short) there is 4 of them but IMHO only the first 2 are worth playing. If you can get past the graphical limits the game's have, then they are perfect for you.

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

You should try Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots. It's very historically accurate. They have a PBEM version now. Knock his block off! Referencing another thread, I've created a mod where the robots wear lingerie.

What was the name of that show were it was in the old west or something and the people were robots. Came out in the 70's I think....GP

WestWorld or something

West World is correct. Yul Brynner was a robot. It was part of a series, I think one was "Future World".

It was by Michael Chrichton, who also did "Terminal Man" and "The Andromeda Strain" (which was an excellent book and movie). He also did "Jurassic Park".

As well ~ not for me

Each to his own.

--

The other game you describe is "Pacific General" ~ the old SSI game ~ at least in my opinion.

Battles >> Campaign >> A little bit of troop upgrade and unit info >> Prestige = Victory points >> Core units >> etc

The General Series 1st edition.

I costs something like "the price of a pint of beer" at Good Old Games.com.

I still have it on my hard drive but have not opened it for years.

In fact I am not sure it works on windows 10 albeit it did work just fine on windows 7 ~

I bought back up retrofitted versions of all may favorite old games at GOG and all the ones I did test still work fine.

I imagine the graphics are somewhat impaired but then AE is not exactly video card intensive either.

I particularly like the depth of WITP:AE, and share MacClan5's sentiments. However, if you want something that demands a smaller time investment, there's a game called "War Plan Pacific" that may fit the bill. The focus is all on carrier and surface combat, land related actions are ignored... and there's no China action to speak of. You definitely lose some realism but that's the trade-off.

ORIGINAL: Texican

Would like to see simplified land/amphib action, elimination of headquarters and the minutiae of non-combat units, some way to get rid of a turn spending 10 minutes on stuff like the Dutch launching a 3-plane raid that hits nothing, etc... And make "quiet China" really quiet, by roping off that section of the map, altogether. Have stuff like "send points to China or suffer VP point penalty", etc..., stuff like that.

The carrier and naval/air ops are good, keep that. But an in-between sort of game, something that could run faster yet keep the naval/air realism would be good. Need a game that's a step down from WITP.

Advice:

1. Turn off combat animations (you can also turn off combat reports and just check them in the ops log next turn), this will cut down on time per turn.
2. Play quiet China
3. Play War in the Pacific (not Admiral's edition)

Actually, what Texican is kinda describing can be found in the original Pacific War, which although a bit dated in graphics, is still a heck of a game. Still available from Matrix, although whether current machines can play it is another story.

ORIGINAL: Texican

Would like to see simplified land/amphib action, elimination of headquarters and the minutiae of non-combat units, some way to get rid of a turn spending 10 minutes on stuff like the Dutch launching a 3-plane raid that hits nothing, etc... And make "quiet China" really quiet, by roping off that section of the map, altogether. Have stuff like "send points to China or suffer VP point penalty", etc..., stuff like that.

The carrier and naval/air ops are good, keep that. But an in-between sort of game, something that could run faster yet keep the naval/air realism would be good. Need a game that's a step down from WITP.

Whimp! [:D][:D][:D] Seriously , you check into the early versions.

ORIGINAL: IdahoNYer

Actually, what Texican is kinda describing can be found in the original Pacific War, which although a bit dated in graphics, is still a heck of a game. Still available from Matrix, although whether current machines can play it is another story.

IF Texican has minimal computer skills, PacWar will run under DOSBox. He just needs to be able to "mount" the drive properly, for which there are instructions.

Personally I think Texican's idea has great merit. WITPAE is a total grognard experience, that's for sure, and it reminds me in many respects of S&T's old War in the Pacific which had many of the same problems i.e. it's just too damn fiddly.

I have always believed that the minutiae of staff problems like e.g. making sure support units get loaded with combat units is not worth modelling at the grand strategic level. What I'd like is something between AE and pacwar, and towards the AE end of the spectrum. Anyone have any serious suggestions?

What would be even better is a staff module in AE that takes care of all this stuff for the player, without having to hand over a whole theatre to the AI (you might as well let the computer play with itself and walk away), but that won't happen I guess.

The old games mentioned so far are primitive to say the least.

The original WITP plays fine on Windows 7. I actually installed it a few months ago so I could copy it's icon to use on my AE tools shortcut folder. Before I uninstalled it, I ran a few turns to refresh my memory of the differences. It was a good game, but I wouldn't want to go back to it.

I value the detail in the game and think in particular, though it might seem outrageous, the ability to watch over, direct the training of, and assign individual pilots to particular squadrons relevant. The cliché is that the IJN was not prepared to replace crew losses and never caught up may be cliché but it is also true. The ability to do something about that (as the Japanese player) is, to me, central to the value of this game. I am not interested in what if mods in general, but I respect the game for giving you the option, beginning on 12/8/41 to not make the same mistakes but/and be faced with the same conditions as historical. I think the game also, legitimately, teaches us about the dominance of air power that expressed itself in this war despite so many strategists ignoring it.

+1

Uncommon Valor is on a smaller scale and plays well if Texican likes this genre. However it lacks a lot of the later game features of WITP-AE.

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/216/details/Uncommon.Valor

There are a number of smaller scenarios for AE. Some are included with the game as well as some player created scenarios.

Bill