Your definitive favorite ETO wargame

Started by GJK, November 15, 2014, 07:04:20 AM

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GJK

Awesome!  I enjoy making maps and counters for games - for VASSAL modules, for print and even a computer game or two.  What I wish that I had was the same skill level for programming that Gameleaper or the like does.  Then I'd make a PC version of HW with AI included!
Clip your freaking corners!
----------------------
Blood Bowl on VASSAL - Ask me about it! http://garykrockover.com/BB/
----------------------
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Vernon Wormer

Rekim

#31
Over the last month I've been baby stepping through the Blocks in the East rules/scenarios. Currently I'm (solo) playing the small Barbarossa scenario which covers the first 3 months/turns of the campaign. Prospects are looking a bit bleak for the Germans heading into August (turn #3) and will require a minimum of four more major cities (locations marked with yellow cubes) be captured in order to eek out minor victory.



I have high hopes for this title, or should I say series, as I have already invested in Blocks in the West and Blocks in Africa. If it clicks, and proves to be playable with all of the modules combined [Blocks in Europe], I can see this game being my definitive ETO wargame. I suspect I will mostly be playing solitaire. The fog of war that the block system provides should add plenty of suspense and uncertainty. Especially considering that I am unlikely to play more than a half turn per sitting. This means that any time I sit down to play it will have been 24+ hrs since I last viewed the opposing setup.

Ergonomics pose some real challenges with this title. The blocks are very dense in certain areas of the map, plus the hexes are quite small, making for quite the challenge when poking my fingers into the mosh pit to grab a tall stack. At this point I am only using the most basic rules. Once I add the advanced and optional rules the number of blocks and other wooden bits in play will increase substantially from what you see now. Finding a way to keep all those game pieces manageable is going to be to be the biggest hurtle to success. So far it hasn't been a problem. Being uber OCD certainly helps. Plus I have already incorporated some house rules with the aim of keeping the centre of gravity as low as possible on the battlefield. One HR can be seen in the photo; if a side decides to place a third or forth block in a single hex those blocks are placed horizontally on top of the bottom two tiles. This makes for a shorter stack when there are only three, better stability, with a small intelligence leak being the only impact on actual play. This seems a small compromise, and adds an interesting twist when deciding which of the units will be displayed.

GJK

I'm not ignoring the rest of the responses here and I certainly do appreciate them; not sure that a block game is something that I want but I'd be very willing to give one a try.

I've been working on updating the map and OOB/Counters for a version of Hitler's War that is basically half the scale of the original game.  As discussed, the map would be exactly the size of the original Third Reich and that was what I used as a template.  I'm simple and I like the map/colors of the old TSR "European Theater of Operations" game and so I borrowed that look for my "enhanced" version of Hitler's War:





I'm playtesting what I have so far (solo) and so far it seems to be working ok.  I need to figure out if armies will advance at about the same rate as they did in the original game given the change in scale.  Actually, to be anal about it, I need to know if the armies can/will advance at about the same pace that they did historically.  If I meet that criteria, then I'll be satisfied.

Playtesters?  I'm open for any that are intersted!
Clip your freaking corners!
----------------------
Blood Bowl on VASSAL - Ask me about it! http://garykrockover.com/BB/
----------------------
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Vernon Wormer

Ubercat

I walked a couple of miles to the game store (Riders Hobby Shop in Flint, MI) to buy 3rd Reich as a teenager when I finally had enough allowance saved. This was in the summer sometime around '82 or '83. I could have gotten a ride if I'd been willing to wait a week but that wasn't going to fly! I was practically floating home in my excitement to get it open as 3R was the next step up from Hitlers War for me. When I read the rules and tried some experimental turns I was so disappointed at the boring, bland rule set and components.

I ended up using the map much more for games that I invented myself than I ever did for 3R. Mostly, I'd use game pieces made out of modelling clay.  I do seem to recall messing about with an embiggened version of HW at one point.
"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labelled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago, and a racist today."

- Thomas Sowell

Ubercat

Quote from: GJK on November 27, 2014, 03:43:03 PM
I'm not ignoring the rest of the responses here and I certainly do appreciate them; not sure that a block game is something that I want but I'd be very willing to give one a try.

I've been working on updating the map and OOB/Counters for a version of Hitler's War that is basically half the scale of the original game.  As discussed, the map would be exactly the size of the original Third Reich and that was what I used as a template.  I'm simple and I like the map/colors of the old TSR "European Theater of Operations" game and so I borrowed that look for my "enhanced" version of Hitler's War:





I'm playtesting what I have so far (solo) and so far it seems to be working ok.  I need to figure out if armies will advance at about the same rate as they did in the original game given the change in scale.  Actually, to be anal about it, I need to know if the armies can/will advance at about the same pace that they did historically.  If I meet that criteria, then I'll be satisfied.

Playtesters?  I'm open for any that are intersted!

The 18th Army should be up with AG North. The 9th should be with 4th as part of AG Center.  :D

I'm tempted to offer to help you test it. I'm in the middle of trying to learn No Retreat: The NA Front, Pax Baltica, and get back up to speed with Wilderness War. Oh, and I keep getting drawn, like a moth to the flame, to ASL. I have the rules binder and should be getting ASLSK1 in the mail tomorrow (along with Pax Baltica).
"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labelled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago, and a racist today."

- Thomas Sowell

GJK

I attached the 18th Army to AG South to fill in a hole in the lines down there.  That's the neat thing with HW, you can attach/detach as you wish and build your army however you envision. 

Are you on my dropbox folder for ASL?  I have the Starter Kit rulebook in ebook format that really makes searching and looking up rules much easier.  There's also some VASL logfiles from pbem games that may help you out as well.  And I'm up for a game via VASL any time that you like!
Clip your freaking corners!
----------------------
Blood Bowl on VASSAL - Ask me about it! http://garykrockover.com/BB/
----------------------
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Vernon Wormer

Ubercat

Quote from: GJK on November 27, 2014, 09:17:14 PM
I attached the 18th Army to AG South to fill in a hole in the lines down there.  That's the neat thing with HW, you can attach/detach as you wish and build your army however you envision. 

Are you on my dropbox folder for ASL?  I have the Starter Kit rulebook in ebook format that really makes searching and looking up rules much easier.  There's also some VASL logfiles from pbem games that may help you out as well.  And I'm up for a game via VASL any time that you like!

I'm not on your Dropbox, but thank you for the game offer!
"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labelled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago, and a racist today."

- Thomas Sowell

Ubercat

.... and my games were "delivered" at 7:53 AM this morning while I slept. No package greeted me at the door. No sign that the package was accidentally dropped off at the neighbors. I've contacted Fedex and it might take until Tuesday for them to contact the driver and find out exactly where he delivered it to.

There went my plans for how to spend the hours before work today. You can bet I'm going to be watching Craigslist and Ebay closely to see if some local "gamer" might be selling the same games by coincidence.
"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labelled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago, and a racist today."

- Thomas Sowell

Staggerwing

Any chance Fedex turned your package over to the local Post Office for the final deliver? They often have a setup like that and sometimes the package will show 'delivered' while the USPS sorts it. Later status might get switched to show that the Post Office has it (or it might not ::)). I've had that happen and when the Fedex folks tried to track it they also think it was delivered only to have it show up two days later with my regular mail.

I am not a big fan of Fedex myself. When things do go wrong the reps I've talked to always seem underinformed about what's happening.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

GJK

Here's that link to some ASL goodness Uber:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kt7tjcajhw8dlgs/AAAgaRbdpr-R525-Qyv6WPuNa?dl=0

Still playtesting the Expanded version of HW.  I'm finding that I need to double the amount of turns in order to accomplish what was achieved historically, which makes sense.  This is actually really fun to play...I've had to do a number of "reliefs" in order to rescue armies that penetrated too deeply too quickly (mmmm mmmm mmmm!).  HW is really the perfect sandbox for exploring all kinds of "what if's" and doing what you think would of worked better.  It's so simple to play as well.  Fun stuff!
Clip your freaking corners!
----------------------
Blood Bowl on VASSAL - Ask me about it! http://garykrockover.com/BB/
----------------------
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Vernon Wormer

Ubercat

Quote from: Staggerwing on November 28, 2014, 06:12:48 PM
Any chance Fedex turned your package over to the local Post Office for the final deliver? They often have a setup like that and sometimes the package will show 'delivered' while the USPS sorts it. Later status might get switched to show that the Post Office has it (or it might not ::)). I've had that happen and when the Fedex folks tried to track it they also think it was delivered only to have it show up two days later with my regular mail.

I am not a big fan of Fedex myself. When things do go wrong the reps I've talked to always seem underinformed about what's happening.

The box was at my door tonight when I got home from work. I assume now that no foul play was involved so I can stop wishing eyeball parasites on someone.
"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labelled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago, and a racist today."

- Thomas Sowell

Staggerwing

Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

Ubercat

Quote from: GJK on November 28, 2014, 07:37:36 PM
Here's that link to some ASL goodness Uber:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kt7tjcajhw8dlgs/AAAgaRbdpr-R525-Qyv6WPuNa?dl=0

Still playtesting the Expanded version of HW.  I'm finding that I need to double the amount of turns in order to accomplish what was achieved historically, which makes sense.  This is actually really fun to play...I've had to do a number of "reliefs" in order to rescue armies that penetrated too deeply too quickly (mmmm mmmm mmmm!).  HW is really the perfect sandbox for exploring all kinds of "what if's" and doing what you think would of worked better.  It's so simple to play as well.  Fun stuff!

And thank you! I may, likely, will definitely ask you for a game in the not too distant future.
"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labelled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago, and a racist today."

- Thomas Sowell

Ubercat

Quote from: Staggerwing on November 29, 2014, 09:51:19 PM
Good news!

Interestingly enough the neighbor across the street, who's outside with his little dog at least every couple of hours, said that he saw a Fedex truck in front of the house around 8 that morning. He said that he didn't notice anyone else around, though.
"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labelled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago, and a racist today."

- Thomas Sowell

Pete G

If you are talking about a larger-scale game then Liberty Roads. Great game, great replayability, lots of options especially for the Allied player AND *gasp* no ZOCs...

If you are talking about any ETO game then its Normandy 44.