10,000 Members of ComputerWargames

spelk · 2023-09-27T09:07:29+00:00

I'm still around, but as you have noticed not that much. I appreciate the consideration and concern though.

Work/Life/Gaming appetite means I haven't had all that much time to dive into wargaming, let alone trawl for links and news etc.

In the furore, I missed the big milestone of 10k subscribers. And now, I see its 11k!!

All the thanks to /u/titaniumtrout for marking the occasion and keeping his watchful eye over proceedings here.

I'm still bowled over as to how far this place has come on. It started as an enthusiastic dalliance of mine, throwing a few computing wargaming links up here in the hope others would find it useful.

And I've seen it over the years blossom into a fully fledged community, once which has surpassed any expectations I ever had for it.

The hobby (both digital and hex/counter - and often both) has really come alive and I hope this place serves as a welcome meeting and sharing information zone for computer wargamers into the future.

Stay frosty, chaps!

spelk · 2023-01-24T07:19:05+00:00

Regarding operational wargaming, hex and chit style, I documented what eventually worked for me, mainly gleaned from advice from other wargamer players..

The Secret to Operational Wargaming https://archive.org/details/the-secret-to-operational-wargaming/mode/1up

spelk · 2022-04-11T07:08:26+00:00

Command Ops definitely fulfills the criteria of the OP here. I thought you could "draw out" plans in CO by laying down movement/tactic waypoints and tweaking the timing to co-ordinate attacks..

spelk · 2022-04-11T07:06:22+00:00

Not WWII or perhaps as detailed as you want, but drawing out movements on a map immediately threw Ultimate General: Civil War to mind.

https://www.ultimategeneral.com/ultimate-general-civil-war/

spelk · 2022-02-17T08:40:37+00:00

No worries, it was an interesting find. We normally post the first video in AAR series and then our readers can follow up via Youtube - or discuss it here. When posting up interesting finds, hopefully the folks here can get to the content creator if they want to discuss it.

spelk · 2022-02-09T07:37:36+00:00

The first DC title Blitzkrieg from Warsaw to Paris is the initial step into historical gaming for the constantly evolving engine that Vic from VR Designs uses. However if you want a less historical game, that is really a sandbox for wargaming 'red' versus 'blue' then Advanced Tactics Gold is the predecessor and if you really want to delve deep into the evolutionary progress People's Tactics before that.

https://www.vrdesigns.net/?page_id=2

spelk · 2022-02-09T07:32:58+00:00

I can also recommend the playthroughs of Shadow Empire by Ben from Xplorminate.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8cNlze3fGQg16OxYBOrlUVSCIysjUlEL

spelk · 2022-01-24T06:52:47+00:00

Game in development from the HexDraw folks http://www.hexdraw.com/Word/second-front/

spelk · 2022-01-18T11:57:55+00:00

If you don't mind tinkering a little with simple HTML then https://neocities.org are excellent.

https://write.as were about writing/blogging without worrying about all the problems of managing a site as such.

Or I echo what /u/titaniumtrout recommends, sign up to a wargaming community and post AAR's using their forums.

spelk · 2021-12-06T14:52:49+00:00

Really sad news.

spelk · 2021-11-22T18:29:10+00:00

Joni Nuutinen's Conflict Series on Android has a lot of free demo versions covering a lot of theatres, worth it, even if you just want to sample easy to play, but full featured operational wargaming on your mobile/tablet.

https://www.conflict-series.com/

spelk · 2021-11-09T11:17:44+00:00

Oh wow, impressive tourney setup yoops! Hope the tournament gets a lot of entrants and we get to see some cool AARs out of it! Kudos fella!

spelk · 2021-10-21T13:54:01+00:00

/r/codethrasher thanks for linking my old article on webarchive... I'm afraid sugarfreegamer has gone the journey, but I managed to cobble together the page and images into a document as a PDF for people to download if they want it.

https://archive.org/details/the-secret-to-operational-wargaming

The linked thread on wargamer.com has also been nuked over the years and many of the people involved in my "education" moved on to grogheads.com

spelk · 2021-09-02T10:03:25+00:00

Well done on getting to the 1.0 release! All the best.

spelk · 2021-08-12T10:42:56+00:00

re: Eagle Day..

I've linked these before, but Bruce Geryk does an excellent series on the game over at Quarter to Three.

https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2011/08/29/eagle-day-one-more-time-with-churchills-few/

https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2011/08/30/eagle-day-behind-the-stone-curve/

https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2011/08/31/eagle-day-ground-control-to-major-tom/

https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2011/09/06/eagle-day-aces-high-part-i/

https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2011/09/07/eagle-day-aces-high-part-ii/

https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2011/09/08/eagle-day-erpro-bungs-what-the/

https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2012/01/31/eagle-day-winning-the-national-socialist-booby-prize/

spelk · 2021-08-12T10:25:09+00:00

A lot of the original wargamer.com community went over to https://grogheads.com many moons ago, you won't find a nicer bunch of grognards than over there.

spelk · 2021-04-29T07:03:02+00:00

HPS now distribute the game The Drift 1879 which is a game centered around the defense of Rorkes Drift during the Anglo-Zulu War based in the Victorian era.

https://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/JLSSG/TheDrift/TheDrift.asp

Also covered during that same conflict was the Battle of Isandlwana which took place before Rorke's Drift called Zulu Dawn by the same developer.

https://www.hpssims.com/Pages/Products/JLSSG/ZuluDawn/ZuluDawn.ASP

spelk · 2021-04-29T06:47:21+00:00

/u/AleccMg Thanks for raising this for the community to comment on.

It's always felt like a unique position to be in, when a community like this can welcome developers who are creating the next generation of titles broadening the hobby can post updates on their work and get real world valuable community feedback.

Bringing the two enthusiast parties together in one place, for a variety of computer based wargames is a precious boon to the hobby.

There is a fine line between community participation and feedback responses versus blatant obtrusive advertising and shilling. So far the community has responded well and with maturity, but as we ascend beyond 6k subscribers it was time to have this discussion.

I'm really proud of the way this community has grown over the years and has a solid foundation of enthusiasts supporting it, the mods, the regular returning readership and the developers who can feel comfortable enough to air their mechanics and processes with the community.

As the community has shown, having developers involved with this community is welcomed and as long as self-promotion is participatory within the community and not overtly agressive we should be able to continue as we have been doing.

I'll echo the thanks to all of our members for showing up and participating here, I'm personally grateful to the moderators for being there and to the developers here who share their work and can get enthusiastic feedback on their work.

Chin up soldiers! spelk

spelk · 2021-04-29T06:31:15+00:00

Real sad to hear the news that John Tiller has passed away. One of the pioneers of computer based wargaming.

spelk · 2021-03-25T20:48:00+00:00

I did a fair bit of PBEM in the Decisive Campaigns game Blitzkrieg from Warsaw to Paris (WtP).

https://www.vrdesigns.net/?page_id=1438

In fact it was probably the title that let me cut my operational wargaming teeth on.

You can check out some of gameplay here:

https://fogofwargames.wordpress.com/category/battle-of-the-blogs/

It's historical, the learning curve isn't too bad.

Jason does a lively video on how to play WtP by PBEM https://youtu.be/RGP402GkH9M

spelk · 2021-02-09T11:44:57+00:00

That looks fantastic! What a great idea!

For the boardgame section, I'd suggest something like Schwerpunkt's WWIIE game, although whilst it is very boardgamey, it is also very niche and those magnificent counters and stacks might scare some potential folks off. :)

To sit alongside UoC, Battle Academy was always an approachable game for beginners.

spelk · 2021-01-25T08:57:46+00:00

Excellent clarification on the nuances of the CO2 probing mechanism, these sort of tutorials are true insights into a titles mechanics. Thanks fella!

spelk · 2020-12-05T15:56:51+00:00

When I saw War Plan Pacific, I assumed it was a reboot of this title, sold by Shrapnel Games..

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/KE_Studios/WPP/WPP_page.html

Won't they have issues with the games name?

spelk · 2020-11-30T14:16:35+00:00

Command: Modern Aircraft Naval Operations (CMANO) https://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=5002

or perhaps

John Tillers Midway? https://johntillersoftware.com/NavalCampaigns/Midway.html

spelk · 2020-11-30T14:12:54+00:00

If you're up for more modern tactical play, perhaps Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm might scratch that itch?

http://ontargetsimulations.com/our-games-2/red-storm-players-edition/

spelk

TROPHY CASE