Two New Tiller Games: Naval Campaign Wolfpack and Wellington's Peninsular War

[Grim.Reaper]

Two new titles dropped....both individually priced at $39.95

New Naval Campaigns Wolf Pack seems interesting....

http://www.johntillersoftware.com/NavalCampaigns/Wolfpack.html?mc_cid=a93dd79bae&mc_eid=cddf15686c

Historically, Great Britain being an island nation has been one of it's great strengths. However, with the development of the submarine, that strength also exposed a vulnerability. Britain was absolutely dependent on its maritime lifeline, a lifeline the Germans had nearly severed in the Great War, and one they would attack with even more fury in the Second World War.

Wolfpack covers the battles over that lifeline, not only from the perspective of the U-Boats, but also that of the escort commanders on their cold and lonely vigils in the North Atlantic.

Can you bring down the transports that carried the very life blood of Britain? Can you keep the hunters of the sea away, and keep your charges safe?

Scenarios
50 scenarios ranging from small single submarine actions to massed wolfpack attacks.
Scenarios also highlight the role of air power, both land and air based.
Two campaigns are included, one on the career of the legendary ace Gunther Prien, and the other highlighting the changes in the Battle of the Atlantic from 1940-45.

Features
Wolfpack uses a real-time game engine that can be run from 1x to 10x real-time and has the ability to pause.
Players can play each scenario against the computer A/I or using network play.
The British player has access to the full ASW arsenal, including Depth Charges, Depth Charge Projectors and Hedgehogs, while the Germans have innovative equipment like Snorkels and Homing Torpedoes.
A powerful Scenario Editor and Order of Battle Editor are included so that players can design their own scenarios of historical or hypothetical situations.
Shore terrain is included for Scapa Flow, the Kola Inlet, Gibraltar, Aruba and the North Carolina Coast.

And Wellington's Peninsular War....

http://www.johntillersoftware.com/NapoleonicBattles/WellingtonWar.html?mc_cid=a93dd79bae&mc_eid=cddf15686c

The Peninsular War was one of the longest and most drawn-out campaigns of the Napoleonic War; a piece of Imperial regime change designed to close off the last European ports open to British trade, which instead developed into the "Spanish Ulcer" that sapped the strength of Napoleon's empire and left him to fight a two-front war that would ultimately destroy him. The second title covering the "Spanish Ulcer", covers all the major actions left out of Bonaparte's Peninsular War and quite a few minor ones as well.

Firstly, that of late-1808 into January 1809 when Napoleon intervened in the Peninsula in person and led the veterans of the Grande Armée to join the survivors of his failed first invasion attempt and sought to crush the armies of the Spanish Juntas and the British under Sir John Moore who sought to come to their aid. The climax of this campaign was the French capture of Madrid and Moore's posthumous victory at Corunna which bought time to evacuate his troops. The next campaign is that by the French to secure Eastern Spain, culminating, after a series of initial setbacks, with Suchet's advance from Saragossa to Valencia over the course of 1809-1812, snapping up fortresses and defeating the armies that were sent to cover them. His victory, however, was never entirely complete and 1813-1814 in this theatre saw British troops land to aid the resurgent Spanish forces. The last two campaigns represent Wellington's attempts to liberate Spain. The first of these, in 1812, saw what was arguably his greatest battlefield victory at Salamanca but ultimately ended with overstretch and a dangerous retreat back to Portugal. The second, launched in the summer of 1813, saw the combined French armies crushed at Vitoria followed by an advance that eventually took the allies over the Pyrenees to Bayonne and Toulouse. Also included in the game are a small number of standalone battles that fall outside the main four campaigns, most notably the 1806 Battle of Maida – fought in Italy rather than Spain, this nevertheless saw many future Peninsular commanders and was the first British victory against the French since the conclusion of the Egyptian campaign five years previously.

[stolypin]

Over the past 25 years, I bet I have posted over a dozen times to a dozen different forums about how much I would like to see a non-sim sort of computer wargame focused on U-boats in the Atlantic.  This title finally appears to be the game I have always wanted.

[Jarhead0331]

Interesting. Wolfpack might definitely be worth a look...

[Tripoli]

I would be very interested to hear what people think of Wolfpack.  I'm not a fan of the JT "Naval Campaigns" system, but I'm willing to give it another try, especially given the subject matter.

[-budd-]

I'd be interested in Wolfpack also, going to need some game play video though.

[-budd-]

The manual is available to read

[Zulu1966]

There seem to be additions to the previous games to account for specific submarine actions - they seem good - but never really got on with this system - I think it was being very interested in carrier warfare but the weird requirement to manually launch torpedoes. Could get very hectic.

Also little info about how campaigns work.

Will have to think about his one.

[Grim.Reaper]

Really want to pull the trigger on wolfpack, but have been burning my credit card with a lot of purchases lately...very intrigued by just being able to simulate controlling a sub at this level.  I guess the good news is Tiller games never go on sale so no rush to get any kind of deals, so I guess I focus on other things for now and hopefully by the time I am ready there will have been reviews to confirm if worth picking up:)

[Zulu1966]

Really want to pull the trigger on wolfpack, but have been burning my credit card with a lot of purchases lately...very intrigued by just being able to simulate controlling a sub at this level.  I guess the good news is Tiller games never go on sale so no rush to get any kind of deals, so I guess I focus on other things for now and hopefully by the time I am ready there will have been reviews to confirm if worth picking up:)

Yep never any deals. I bought Tiller games religiously but with the slew of recent releases I am now for the first time in my life four games down. Its a completionist thing but thats a slew of money in one go and have so much else to get on with.

[besilarius]

Both of these are very intriguing. 
The adjustment of ASW weapons in Wolfpack, could be very interesting. 
RN Captain Johnie Walker's tactic of the "creeping attack", where one or two ships kept their speed slow, so sonar would work better, and they would coach in the attack ship, gave the escorts a much greate chance of success.
Replicating tactics is often a very hard thing to do in game design.
Also, how would the closing of the Air Gap be represented in the campaign, and would convoys have blimps and VLR planes like the Liberators?

[GaryMc]

The campaigns are more a "tour of battles" than an operational campaign.  All the actions are tactical.

That said, there are blimps, and various aircraft (Liberators included).

The way the 1940-45 campaign is structured is that you have a battle from each year. If the German doesn't lose (that is to say, he survives!  ) twice, he wins the campaign. Otherwise, the British win.

Mike Cox did the heavy work, I just helped finish it up, but I did add a few scenarios and that campaign, so blame me for those bits.

[Grim.Reaper]

The campaigns are more a "tour of battles" than an operational campaign.  All the actions are tactical.

That said, there are blimps, and various aircraft (Liberators included).

The way the 1940-45 campaign is structured is that you have a battle from each year. If the German doesn't lose (that is to say, he survives!  ) twice, he wins the campaign. Otherwise, the British win.

Mike Cox did the heavy work, I just helped finish it up, but I did add a few scenarios and that campaign, so blame me for those bits.

Just curious, did the team record and videos or write up any AAR's for it?  Would love to see them.

[GaryMc]

Nothing I know of.  It's unlikely that I can do a video (old system, small town internet cramp my video style.)  I can work on a short AAR for y'all, but it'll likely take me a bit. Today's a work day.

[Grim.Reaper]

Nothing I know of.  It's unlikely that I can do a video (old system, small town internet cramp my video style.)  I can work on a short AAR for y'all, but it'll likely take me a bit. Today's a work day.

That would be great when you have time....thanks.

[Tripoli]

Nothing I know of.  It's unlikely that I can do a video (old system, small town internet cramp my video style.)  I can work on a short AAR for y'all, but it'll likely take me a bit. Today's a work day.

Gary-Is there any ability of actually being able to modify the game to actually recreate the WWII Atlantic war?  While Wofpack's "Tour of Battles" concept sounds interesting as a tactical resolution engine, I would be extremely interested in a game where you actually had to fight the 1939-45 war in the Atlantic, juggling resources, repairing ships and resolving the convoy battles tactically.  Something along the line of "Steel Wolves" by Compass games for the strategic layer, married with Wolfpack for the tactical layer