What's Left to Make?

[GaryChildress]

What wars or battles in history have yet to be covered in a wargame, which might make for a good game? Is there any military struggle left which wargames haven't covered or portrayed.

[Bo Rearguard]

If you are in the mood for a short game, how about the Anglo-Zanzibar war of 1896? Shortest war in history in that it lasted about 45 minutes. The pinnacle of gunboat diplomacy, the war was pretty much decided by a brief naval bombardment of Sultan Khalid's palace.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Zanzibar_War

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: GaryChildress

What wars or battles in history have yet to be covered in a wargame, which might make for a good game? Is there any military struggle left which wargames haven't covered or portrayed.

warspite1

There are probably few that haven't been covered - there are many that haven't been covered properly.

No apology for repeating (and will continue to repeat):

Proper, detailed, land sea and air games about:

The War in the Mediterranean June 1940 - May 1943
Guadalcanal August 1942 - February 1943 (to be clear, this includes the naval battles off the Solomons in that time period)
Norway April - June 1940

Really interesting, periods of the war (albeit on different scales) - soooo much to game, so many possibilities and genuinely allows either player to 'win'.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Alfred]

What's left? If we are talking about computer games with a campaign (as opposed to limited scenarios of a war), just about every war in history.

Here are some wars which are lacking in modern computer campaign games.

* Crimean War of 1853-56

* Pre WWI Balkan War against the Ottomons

* Greek War of Independence

* Carlist wars of C19th Spain

* Italian Risorgiemento

* German Unification wars

* the C17th Anglo Dutch wars

* the 80 Years War, Spain v Netherlands

* the C18th East India campaigns in India


The common theme of the above, and many other possible alternatives, is that they don't involve the USA, hence developers are loath to make the effort.

Alfred

[Grotius]

Heh, I just asked a similar question here in this forum, but I'm glad you asked too, because I'm very interested. I'n now semi-retired, I can code and make art, and I've got some time on my hands. I want to make a small wargame covering a conflict that hasn't had a definitive treatment. My favorite period is WW2, though.

Warspite, you mention Guadalcanal, but didn't "Uncommon Valor" cover that subject pretty well?

Alfred, as I just said, WW2 is my favorite period -- but I'm willing to expand my horizons. The Crimean War interests me. In fact much of your list does. I wonder if there were some small battle I could start with, to get something done, even as a prototype, before diving into a larger project.

[RFalvo69]

SOPAC and Bomb Alley from Avalanche Press cover nicely, respectively, WWII in the Solomons and the Mediterranean. I know that AP doesn't enjoy the status of, let's say, GMT in the wargaming world, but this is mostly due to the dire rulebooks (and some idiosyncrasies of the owner...) Once you decode/fix them, the overall experience is quite enjoyable.

What these games lack, however, is a campaign. You have scenarios for the single battles and some "what ifs" and that's it.

NavalWarfare Simulations built an interesting campaign engine for SSI's Fighting Steel. I spent a lot of hours playing it - but sadly I never found a way to run Fighting Steel on modern OSs (if you know some trick, please post!)

Talking about old games, Great Naval Battles II was about Guadalcanal, but I never played it so I can't comment.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

Warspite, you mention Guadalcanal, but didn't "Uncommon Valor" cover that subject pretty well?

warspite1

You may be right - I've never played it but given when it was made, and who by, its almost certainly not what I am looking for.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

SOPAC and Bomb Alley from Avalanche Press cover nicely, respectively, WWII in the Solomons and the Mediterranean. I know that AP doesn't enjoy the status of, let's say, GMT in the wargaming world, but this is mostly due to the dire rulebooks (and some idiosyncrasies of the owner...) Once you decode/fix them, the overall experience is quite enjoyable.

What these games lack, however, is a campaign. You have scenarios for the single battles and some "what ifs" and that's it.

NavalWarfare Simulations built an interesting campaign engine for SSI's Fighting Steel. I spent a lot of hours playing it - but sadly I never found a way to run Fighting Steel on modern OSs (if you know some trick, please post!)

Talking about old games, Great Naval Battles II was about Guadalcanal, but I never played it so I can't comment.

What OS does the Fighting Steel use, or can use?

[RangerJoe]

Try these links:

https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showth ... p?t=238049

http://www.dynamic-mess.com/jeux/fighti ... ism-guide/

https://nws-online.proboards.com/thread ... -on-modern

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Grotius

Warspite, you mention Guadalcanal, but didn't "Uncommon Valor" cover that subject pretty well?

warspite1

You may be right - I've never played it but given when it was made, and who by, its almost certainly not what I am looking for.

Uncommon Valor is basically WitP in the earliest stage of the game engine. Actually I enjoyed it a LOT. Played it to death for a while. IIRC the AI wasn't too bad either. AT least when I played as Allies I seem to recall it gave me pretty good resistance.

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

What's left? If we are talking about computer games with a campaign (as opposed to limited scenarios of a war), just about every war in history.

Here are some wars which are lacking in modern computer campaign games.

* Crimean War of 1853-56

* Pre WWI Balkan War against the Ottomons

* Greek War of Independence

* Carlist wars of C19th Spain

* Italian Risorgiemento

* German Unification wars

* the C17th Anglo Dutch wars

* the 80 Years War, Spain v Netherlands

* the C18th East India campaigns in India


The common theme of the above, and many other possible alternatives, is that they don't involve the USA, hence developers are loath to make the effort.

Alfred

Yeah. The wars involving the US have been covered pretty well.

[ttollefsen]

I would buy a remake of Age of Rifles.

[Jim D Burns]

How about a massive strategic level game covering the era of the sea peoples and the collapse of the Bronze age 1250-c.1150 BCE. History isn't 100% sure who they were, but the best bet is they were a mass southward migration of many peoples driven south by the onset of an ice age that wiped out food supplies in most of northern Europe. They were responsible for the destruction of many/most ancient empires in the eastern Mediterranean, I think only Egypt survived their onslaught.

Jim

[Simulacra53]

Russo-Japanese war in all its depth
The Boer Wars
SYW on a global scale
SC3 Franco-Prussian
SC3 Balkan Wars

Up to date games that capture the essence of
- Great Naval Battles (original)
- Steel Panthers

[AndySfromVA]

Rome vs. Carthage, turn-based, strategic and tactical.

[wodin]

The problem with little known conflicts is that they would attract only a small number of buyers, so just not viabke, blimey even well known Wars are rarely covered due to high chance of low sales. There maybe developers willing but a publisher wouldn't go near, unless the developers have an engine that has been a massive success maybe the publisher would be more willing, but I wouldn't bank on it.