Wargaming rewind (if you could go back)

[MrsWargamer]

Ok, if you are like me, you have been wargaming for an OMG span of time.

And you might be like me and have bought a lot of wargames, that you don't play much, maybe barely at all.

The question is this.

If you could rewind to the year 1995 (I'm picking 95, because computers were really becoming seriously useful for a lot of things, wargaming included). Windows was on OS worth mention, it's before the www. It's before many of our great computer wargames. I'm more or less focusing on digital wargaming here.

What do you wish you could have focused on (a title), over all the others, instead of being constantly distracted by the lastest shiniest offering

I already focused a lot on Steel Panthers.
I played a lot of Strategic Command.

But I'm a board game wargamer. RTS does nothing for me.
I prefer operational mostly.
As much as I have played tactical, and I sure like the level being a veteran ASLer, I'm mainly a operational gamer. Aside from a lot of A3R, I don't routinely play grand strategy as much.

I wish I could have fixated on TOAW to the exclusion of all others.
It delivers the most for the buck.
It's only competition, for me, is Panzer Campaigns.

I don't hate my collection. But, it's a distraction (along with being good at making me broke ).

I'd like to go back in time, and say Bunny, this is the one game. Forget the others.

[zakblood]

v 4 victory market garden, or any of the same battle tbh as i love it and still do

Arnhen all the way, brings back such happy memories

kind of like what dungeon master did for me in it's day
[8|]

[demyansk]

I loved Clash of Steel

[Neilster]

I was too poor to have a computer in 1995. By 1997 I had a (then) fire-breathing PC and bought heaps of games, most of which I never got around to learning. Flight sims and M1A2 Tank Platoon II come to mind but I did stick with TOAW.

As for board games, I tinkered with World in Flames for years but am finally getting into Matrix WiF as it's so much easier to play with the computer doing all the rule checking and bookwork.

If you're into strategic WW2 stuff, keep an eye on its forum. Steve, the developer, says he's planning on spending serious time on the AI in the New Year. Much work has been put into it so far by expert players (of which Steve is one), so there's a solid basis for it. Online play (against one opponent) basically works and it's eminently suitable for solitaire as well.

I'm currently playing Global War 39-45 solitaire and it's very interesting. After conquering Poland and Denmark, Germany took advantage of ahistorically good early Nov/Dec weather to launch an Autumn invasion of the Low Countries and then France. Victory there enabled a redeployment of the Wehrmacht for a Jul/Aug 1940 Barbarossa. The USSR looked very weak but just before the invasion was able to beef up their defenses considerably. When attacked, their production goes berserk and it's still not easy for the Germans. Having said that, it's the beginning of Nov/Dec 1940 and the first snows have started but Moscow and Kharkov have just fallen. The still neutral Italians are sabre-rattling in North Africa, which will keep the Commonwealth busy. Help from the Wallies looks far away for Stalin.

[MrsWargamer]

Yeah, I was one of the early purchasers of World in Flames, both board and here. Got the nice hardcovers. Wish I had a wall to allow for the deluxe maps Not easy to find a 9 by 21 foot space.

[Alan Sharif]

I'd opt for TOAW as well.

[Neilster]

ORIGINAL: MrsWargamer

Yeah, I was one of the early purchasers of World in Flames, both board and here. Got the nice hardcovers. Wish I had a wall to allow for the deluxe maps Not easy to find a 9 by 21 foot space.

I have the maps and they live in a box. Not really a logical purchase but I'm glad I have them

[rommel222]

Greetings MrsWargamer,
In 1995 I was using my Commodore C-64 for wargames with following offerings:
SSI (Strategic Simulations Inc)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S ... ions_games

SSG (Strategic Studies Group)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Studies_Group

Microprose:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MicroProse_games

Avalon Hills Computer 3rd Reich:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rise_and_ ... hird_Reich

My favorite was Avalon Hills Under Fire (tactical WW2 combat)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_Fire!

Also playing Martial Enterprises La Bataille series (grand tactical): Moskowa, Austerlitz, Wagram & Talavera boardgames
https://labataille.me/published-by-me

[dazoline II]

Fire in the East and Scorched Earth which I still have, just don't have the space to have ~50sqf of maps.

I got my first computer in 1995 and ever since its been a war gaming renaissance for me. For example if I was still a board gamer I would never have delved into the american civil war like I have after picking up Grand Tactician: The Civil War.

Although I had to overcome my resistance to real time play modes, once I did that there's so many games that it opens up. I think once I discovered there's a pause button on most rts I changed my mind as it basically makes rts game a "when you choose to make it a turn, its a turn" type of game.

[RFalvo69]

Western Front and Eastern Front II by Talonsoft. I connected two PCs and had a friend coming to play HtH. Those titles gave me some of the best gaming memories ever.

I still have a soft spot for the original TOAW. There was a sort of elegance in its simplicity (relative to the later offerings). I couldn't believe that the demo (Korea '50) was basically a complete game.

But 1995 remains, to me, Panthers in the Shadows/Tigers on the Prowl II. Many features are still at the top. What they would need today is only a modern interface. I never understood why that line was abandoned by HPS.

[Mobeer]

Back in 1995 I would have been playing:
- Carrier Strike: South Pacific 1942-44, with the Expansion Pack that so improved gameplay
- Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, secretly envious that my friends could afford the extra planes which I lacked

I should have been playing Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon Deluxe, but didn't find that for almost 20 years.

1996 was a better year because it saw the release of Twenty Wargame Classics, which included Pacific War, War in Russia and Wargame Construction Set II: Tanks!.