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Carriers at War

Started by panzerde, June 09, 2014, 07:43:08 PM

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panzerde

Great, the Matrix sale this week is Carriers at War. I think I remember reading a thread here last year about how great this was - maybe Toonces was playing it? Anyone else have any spin on this one? I'm wondering if it might scratch the itch for WWII carrier warfare while I'm figuring out WitP AE.
"This damned Bonaparte is going to get us all killed" - Jean Lannes, 1809

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jomni

Good game. But replay value very limited.

Nefaro

It's worth twenty bucks or more IMO.

I believe you have to do a text edit to get it to run in a widescreen resolution, but it's no biggie.  Either a shortcut target one, like that in WitP-AE, or a text file.  I can't recall.

Think I'm gonna load it up for some more focused carrier warfare than WitP soon.  With Carriers At War, you're in command of a battle with a small amount of task forces under your control albeit with a bit more fidelity than WitP.  It's a smaller scale so if you want to have a bit more fine control over searches and the use of your carrier wings, then it's for you.  The battles can also be finished within a couple hours, depending on how fast you want the game to advance.

panzerde

Thanks, very much what I wanted to know. Sounds like I couldn't go wrong for $20. There are definitely times when the more tactical nature of Carriers at War would be my interest.
"This damned Bonaparte is going to get us all killed" - Jean Lannes, 1809

Castellan -  La Fraternite des Boutons Carres

Toonces

I don't play it a whole lot anymore, but it is worth $20 IMO. 

Also, while it doesn't have a TON of scenarios, I do believe it has some random starts to enhance replayability.

It's a fun game.  Kind of lite, but still fun.
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panzerde

Thanks Toonces. It does look a bit light on scenarios, but sounds like it might be the fix for evenings when a just want a beers and to launch a strike on a task force with a couple of mouse clicks.
"This damned Bonaparte is going to get us all killed" - Jean Lannes, 1809

Castellan -  La Fraternite des Boutons Carres

Nefaro

I think it also catches the search and strike launch timing difficulties better than any other I've played, due to the scale.  You're really worrying about finding the other guy's forces and getting your licks in at the right time, before he can do the same to you.  With night time, weather, and re-arming/re-attacks being notable factors.  O0

jomni

#7
Carrier Strike is better because you need to do some flight deck management as well.  And it has a dynamic campaign. Too bad there's no remake for that.

While Carriers at War is great, once you are in the groove, you can beat the Ai in any scenario whether US and Japanese. Short play time and few scenarios (including variants) make it boring quickly. $20 is alright and it is a fair price. I bought this at a high price. :D

JudgeDredd

I was very disappointed in this one very quickly.

iirc there was very little scope for movement of the fleets because of the size of the fleet...I seem to remember rather huge battleships on smallish maps. This made it, as Jomni said, very, very low on replay value. I don't know if there's third party stuff out there or if any of the things I didn't like which led me to drop it like a hot stone have been changed.

It might be worth $20...but from what I remember of it, only just.

Graphically I recall it being nice and gameplay was good...but it was just extremely limited imo.
Alba gu' brath

RyanE

The interface made it much easier to play than equivalent battles in WITP.  But as mentioned, there was little replay value and really only handled carrier war.  Any surface action was kind of arcade like.  The deck management stuff was interesting though.

bbmike

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Staggerwing

Quote from: bbmike on June 10, 2014, 05:21:33 AM
Saving my pennies for Order of Battle: Pacific instead.  8)

It looks like an updated Pacific General. Not that that is a bad thing, it's just what I thought of looking at the screenies.
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GJK

Naval Campaigns Midway is my preference at this scale in the Pacific.  It's ugly and it's over-priced but it really captures all the elements that I want in a game; deck management, search management, task force/fleet organization and movement/screening.  The interface is a typical HPS Sims interface that is clunky but functional yet the game is very easy to play once you learn how to work with it.
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jomni

Quote from: Staggerwing on June 10, 2014, 05:24:51 AM
Quote from: bbmike on June 10, 2014, 05:21:33 AM
Saving my pennies for Order of Battle: Pacific instead.  8)

It looks like an updated Pacific General. Not that that is a bad thing, it's just what I thought of looking at the screenies.

time to sign up for beta.
http://www.slitherine.com/beta_test/order_of_battle_pacific

Nefaro

#14
Quote from: GJK on June 10, 2014, 06:48:01 AM
Naval Campaigns Midway is my preference at this scale in the Pacific.  It's ugly and it's over-priced but it really captures all the elements that I want in a game; deck management, search management, task force/fleet organization and movement/screening.  The interface is a typical HPS Sims interface that is clunky but functional yet the game is very easy to play once you learn how to work with it.

I have eyed those HPS Naval Campaign games in the past, but I got the impression that the scenario selection was also limited.  As if it only models a very specific attack with little strategic maneuver beforehand. Combined with the cost, that always made me shy away.

I also eyed the Air War series.. notably the Arab-Israeli one but again, it seemed like the scope was a bit too limited and considering I have the various Harpoon iterations and CMANO, those can probably model such things better anyway.