Matrix Games Forums

Okay, we've talked about best generals, worst generals, movies, books. What else can we talk about while awaiting some news of the game's release or website?????

My moustache is turning gray during the wait, and before you know it will be 1916 and I'll have to turn in my Pickelhaube Helmet for a new steel one....lol

Best tanks...best aircraft...best ship...best submarine...best rifle...gun...etc...[:D][:D][:D]
Just some idea...[;)]

Best WWI Documentary!...for me it's the 1960's CBS documentary World War I (duh?) which was narrated by the actor Robert Ryan..a close second was the 6 hour PBS documentary The Great War...both need to see the DVD light of day...

How about best WW1 boardgame and why? I think I've tried them all but would like to hear other opinions.

Guns of August from Avalon Hill was a good game...it did a decent job of simulating the attrition on the Western Front and the more open Russian Front...I also enjoyed Diplomacy, though it was an abstract representation of the war, it was fun to play if you could manage to get hold of six other players.....SPI's tactical game of the Battle of Cambrai was very good, especially the use of the armor units....

Ever tried any of the Ted Raicer games such as Great War in Command 33 or All Quiet on the Western Front? Or La Grande Guerre from Azure Wish? Or even the old SPI games on WW1, the little one and the War in Europe version?

Best WWI board game? Two actually Azure's La Grand Gerrue 1914-1918 Hands down winner.Fatal Alliances by GDW and SPI's monter WWI

I played several of SPIs WWI games way back when. The S&T First World War had an interesting system, I seem to recall a CTR where you could expend points representing manpower / armaments for losses rather than retreat. And declaring an overall status for each front (similar to Third Reich): offensive, defensive, etc. I don't have a copy and haven't played it for, hmm, decades so could be wrong in these details.

The first WWI SPI game I played was 1918, and was always impressed by the supply/artillery system which consumed supply units, esp. on the offensive. Forced the German player to think ahead as to where the offensive should focus late in the game. Not a bad game for its time, and also similar enough to the horde of WW2 operational games SPI had out that players otherwise unfamiliar with WWI could play and feel at home with a relatively mobile situation rather than stuck in trench warfare.

And I second JP Falcon's nod to SPIs To The Green Fields Beyond. A great game on Cambrai; I wish someone would do this on PC (the scale of TOAW just doesn't do it justice).

Cheers

Actually I never tried SPI's WW1 game although I had read a review in Fire and Movement which mentioned how you could lose manpower for losses at the front. Did the game "work"?

Another series I should have mentioned was the Der Weltkrieg series (the one with the weird hexes). I only tried Schlieffen Plan, anyone try any of the east front games?

Re: S&T 51 WWI, Did the game "work"?

I thought it modelled the situation fairly well, but could never find anyone interested in playing it, so only solitaired it. Web Grognards site has a much more thorough description, and some post play analysis at http://grognard.com/reviews/spiww1.txt

Whets the appetite even more for GoA.

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Guns of August from Avalon Hill was a good game...it did a decent job of simulating the attrition on the Western Front and the more open Russian Front...I also enjoyed Diplomacy, though it was an abstract representation of the war, it was fun to play if you could manage to get hold of six other players.....SPI's tactical game of the Battle of Cambrai was very good, especially the use of the armor units....

Speaking of Diplomacy and finding players, have you ever tried playing a game online through one of the diplomacy
judges? The judge automates the running of the game sending emails to the players. Good way to play if you can't find
enough ppl.

For World War I games, I think the only one I have played is Paths of Glory. I remember there being Guns of August by
AH, but never got a chance to play it.