I’ve played Squad Leader for a bit (2008-01-19 Squad Leader), played some Battle Lore, and today I played Tide of Iron. I’m still not happy. 🙁
Squad Leader is nicely abstract, but the rules concerning the carrying around of machine guns, the huge stacks of units, and monolithical turns are a bummer.
Battle Lore is nice and simple, but simulating hit points using little plastic miniatures is a mess to set up, and the cards introduce a strong element of chance that is sometimes aggravating.
Tide of Iron seems inspired by all the wrong ideas. Not only do we have even smaller and finicky plastic miniatures to simulate unit strength, now attack values depend on unit strength and various miniature types can be combined into units, further complicating things.
Somehow it seems that it should be possible to assemble the best of the various ideas into the “perfect” game.
I think I’d like something that plays like Advance Wars. That would be simple and cool. Does something like that exist?
I also faintly remember there being a turn-based squad fighting game on the C64 that we used to play – each side gives commands to a squad of ten people. People had names such as Garret and Mario. I remember there being a garrote to use, a church to defend or blow up, and so on. I wonder what it was called.
Maybe I should take a closer look at De Bellis Antiquitatis. Not a new thought, either. I would not care about the painting of miniatures. I’d try to play it using cardboard rectangles. 😄
#Games #Wargames
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Computer Ambush!!
– Marcel 2009-04-09 05:57 UTC
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Padooka, Richfield, Bastinelli, Lawson, Garrity, Cheng, Wheelock, Hoss, Marootian, and Dumke!!
– Alex Schroeder 2009-04-09 07:51 UTC
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DBA is one of my all-time favouritest games, ever. I play once every 4-6 weeks with my Persians, and hopefully that’ll increase now I’ve found a local friendly wargames guild. Woot!
It’s quick, simple and immense fun to play. A quick game can last just an hour and a full blow campaign over a rainy Saturday afternoon with a bunch of friends. One £6 booklet gives you all you need to play (just add dice and cardboard counters or minis and a tabletop) and you’ve got everything you need to play in any era from 3000BC to 1500AD.
The only downside is that the rules aren’t exactly written in an easily understandable manner. That’s where the Unofficial Guide to DBA comes in. That’s essentially the rules rewritten in Plain English, with examples. You still need the Real Rules of course as they contain the full army lists, etc. This page at DBA Gamer is a terrific primer.
Me, I love it.
– greywulf 2009-04-09 11:42 UTC
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Ok, you finally convinced me. Printed the unofficial guide, ordered the official rules.
Gaaaaaaaaah!
How long before you will make me by Mutants & Masterminds + Warriors and Warlocks!?
BTW, DM Peter has suggested Marcel and I start playing Warhammer 40k. Hm... DBA sure looks cheaper. 😄
– Alex Schroeder 2009-04-09 12:20 UTC
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Lol! Yeh, I seem to have that effect on people :D
What’s great about DBA (ok, one of the many things that’s great) is that it’s been adapted to many different genres too, so if a 4,500 year spread isn’t big enough there’s more. I’ve player DBA World War II and that worked well. I’m pretty sure there’s a variant set in the world of Warhammer 40K out there somewhere.............
– greywulf 2009-04-09 12:35 UTC