why winspww2 and not toaw3?

jnpoint · #1 February 16th, 2014, 03:20 PM

Hi. I have looked at those two games for some days now, and read some reviews, but I can not decide whether to buy the one game or the other.

What does this game offer that toaw3 does not?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

DRG · #2 February 16th, 2014, 03:24 PM

They are really two very different games so it's more an apples-oranges comparison

Mobhack · #3 February 16th, 2014, 05:16 PM

SP is tactical - one unit=1 tank, basically. Platoon, company and battalion level, brigade maybe. Firing is individual shells versus appropriate armour, tabletop wargames with model soldiers style.

TOAW is 1 counter = 1 entire company, battalion or brigade or so, i.e. operational level (Divisions, corps or even army level). Combat resolution is probably shift tables etc, as in the old SPI type of operational and strategic games on paper hex mats of the 1970s?. Check out their website for any details.

So 2 totally different beasties aimed at different levels of combat.

Try the free download version of SP before making a purchase decision - limited to the 800x600 display mode, it will tell you if the full version (which handles 1080i just fine) is worth the purchase.

I have no idea if TOAW has a demo or not. Not my cup of tea, so have never looked.

You may want both - ours to move little 1/300 "model tanks" tabletop wargaming style and TOAW to shuffle paper counter stacks about in the traditional SPI(?) wargame mode.

Andy

paulo · #4 February 16th, 2014, 08:07 PM

I had TOAW3 for a few days. It didn't work on the Win7 laptop I had. I ended up returning it. If you read up on it you'll find TOAW3 has a number of negative issues. TOAW3 has problems, winspww2 does not.

Imp · #5 February 18th, 2014, 07:53 AM

As Mobhack said chalk & cheese I would call TOAW a strategic & this a tactical game.

A game turn represents a day or weeks in TOAW minutes in this game.
You fight a war in TOAW & a battle in this game

Both are thinking mans game to play well, TOAW also you have to learn the interface, to me it is not intuitive.

For me this game is easier to get into, more immersive & fun.

The difference I suppose is the mechanics of this game are actually fairy simple, so you can pick up & play virtually straight away.
Your thought goes into developing your tactical skills & using units effectively.

With TOAW you really do need to learn the rules to master the game so its a lot harder to get into, killing cardboard counters also doesn't draw you in the same way.

mr_clark · #6 February 18th, 2014, 08:53 AM

Both games are good. And both games are very different. Most differences are clear from both games websites, and you can try SPWW2 with the free version offered from shrapnel.

Regarding paulo's post: On a Win7 64bit desktop, and with the latest patches installed(!), I've never had problems running TOAW3. Honestly, on the contrary, both WinSPs still don't work without windowed mode for me...(Though, windowed at desktop resolution isn't bad, it's just a nuisance vs "real" full screen mode)

Mobhack · #7 February 18th, 2014, 12:26 PM

The "win 7" problems with TOAW just may be the same as for ours - and many other older games - the Win7 UAC problem with "managed folders".

Therefore installing it to a folder outside of the good old "program files" may well work for it, as it does with ours, and many other older model games. (I got the hint off some other games support forums, in the first place).

Make a folder like C:\games and point your older game's installer to there e.g. c:\games\TOAW.

Cheers
Andy