Favorite wargame?

[reimero]

Just out of curiosity, I'd like to know what everyone's favorite wargame is and why: not what you feel is the best out there, but what is your favorite, the one you keep coming back to. It can be a computer game or board game or any other wargame.

In my case, I think I have to go with Avalon Hill's Wooden Ships & Iron Men since it was the first wargame I ever played and kind of got the ball rolling, as it were.

[Richard]

Hmm my favorite BOARD wargame has to be European Theater of Operations by TSR. I spent an entire semester playing this solitaire on my desk at college. My roomy thought I was nuts playing a game like that without anyone else to play against .

Hmm but computer wargames thats hard to say. Probably Steel Panthers II or Panzer General. I played those the most for quite awhile. I would say X-Com, since it models tactical considerations, however it isn't REALLY a wargame .

Overall my favorite types of games are 4X games. My favorite of those is MOO, MOOII, Imperialism II, and Civ II.

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Sarge is coming...

Richard Arnesen
Director of Covert Ops
Shrapnel Games
http://www.shrapnelgames.com

[nikb]

For me it was the original Steel Panthers - mainly because it was FUN...

It was also one of the few games that made me come back and retry different tactics. I would also class SPII in this Category.

Cheers

Nik

[Mikeman]

I really liked Afrika Corps by Avalon Hill, also Panzer Leader.
Some might laugh but I got a real kick out of Soldiers at War too. I was new to computers then so that's probably why.
I've made many very recent purchases that I think will be better games than SAW but I haven't had a chance to play them yet.
My absolute favorite right now though is WDK. Lots of replayability. Really gets the wheels turning too.

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Mikeman out.

[Jake]

I was originally going to say Battle of Shiloh which was one of the early SSI games, but then I remembered SSG's Decisive Battles of the American Civil War series. I was hooked on the first one for awhile.

I also loved their Run 5 magazine which included scenarios you could create. I'm not a hard-core wargame, but these scenarios were easy enough for me to complete.

And this was also at a time when the Internet wasn't really as popular as it is today so it wasn't like there were a ton of scenarios you could download off the Net or a spot you could get together with other fans of the game. Either you knew enough to come up with a scenario on your own or you lived by your mailbox waiting for the next Run 5.

I think that magazine is what made the game extra special....you felt like you were part of a nice little community.

And I'll toss out another old SSI title that may not initially fit into the term wargame, but Galactic Gladiators did require some strategy similar to what you would use in a traditional wargame.

Almost forgot about another classic which I wish would be updated....Computer Ambush, again from SSI. I guess the Close Combat series would be the closest to recreating that game.

Thanks for jogging the brain cells so I could remember some fond times with those games!

[nikb]

These postings have made me think back a wee bit...

I quite liked Tanks by SSI (I think that was the name) - I seem to recall that I liked fiddling round with the editor.

Back in the days of tape loaded games (Oh those were the days...not), I liked two other games which the name escapes me - one was set in North Africa and another was Bunker Hill (or something like that).

I also liked a stick figure type cricket game which you had to code from one of the magazines - but that won't be of much interest to you guys living in the states.

Nik

[albert]

SALVO II is my favorite game. It's World War One and the Germans have much tougher ships than the English. But either side can win in this game. I know 3W is out of business, whatever happened to Michael Smith, who designed that game?

[nikb]

Here is another one that I played alot and can't remember the name...

You had generic blue and red forces with tanks and other material such as cannon. Tanks were light, medium and heavy and it took various amounts of damage to destroy them. When destroyed it left little blobs of metal on the landscape. I used to play this one until I think I started dreaming about how to win each scenario.

It was a reasonably shallow game...but...boy it was fun. Any idea what the name was? Makes me want to go and see if I can find the disks...well until H&M and WDK2K turn up.

I also liked V for Victory series such as Market Garden (name again) by Atomic.

What are your least liked games?

Cheers
Nik


[This message has been edited by nikb (edited 06 January 2000).]

[Tim Brooks]

I remember playing an SSI game called Gettysburg: The Turning Point. I used to play this game until my eyes crossed. You couldn't tear me away from it. Awesome. Horse & Musket reminds me of this game quite a bit.

[reimero]

Well, since you asked, the game I liked least was Three-Sixty's Patriot. Man, that game was awful!!! I was sooo looking forward to playing it after playing Harpoon, which was very well done, and it was the pits! The learning curve was steep, the graphics were poor, confusing and cheap, and the realism seemed to be... lacking.

On a related note, the game that got me excited about the possibilities of computer wargaming was Harpoon, which I first saw on an Amiga in Europe. The graphics weren't the most spectacular, but since the designers knew graphics would be hard, they made the interface look like a radar display. It does a great job with FOW (even throwing in fishing trawlers and news helecopters you need to ID.) Actually, I still think it's one of the better-done wargames out there, especially of those designed for DOS. But because the graphics are less than intensive (but by no means crappy - the map modelling is very well done) it means that the game is using even more realistic data and weapons behave as one would expect. I still have it and would play a lot more frequently if I could find a DOS driver for my mouse