15 November 2024 ~
We’re back to computer wargaming, as we pick up where we left off and start shifting up in echelon away from tactical to operational and strategic level games. This isn’t some “all-time top 10” or anything; it’s just games we’ve enjoyed over the years and some commentary on them, from ancients to modern, and everywhere in between.
So join Brant, Bryan, and Cyrano for a rambling romp through our digital wargaming as we call out some of the better games we’ve played over the years. And no, Bryan is not from Ohio, but still likes adding a “s” on all the titles anyway.
Here are some of the other episodes referenced in this discussion, too
- Mentioned in Dispatches, Season 5 Episode 10 – The Charles S Roberts “Awards”
- Mentioned in Dispatches, S3E6 – On Target Simulations & Flashpoint Campaigns
- Shadow Empire AAR and forum thread
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I’m not familiar with Steam. Does playing on Steam address the problem of cheating by replaying turns in a PBEM game? This has always been THE game killer for me in regard to PC wargames. If a player has the ability to reload a turn and play it repeatedly until he gets a favorable outcome before sending the file back to his opponent, it’s a pointless exercise.
The single exception to this that I’ve found are the Combat Mission series of games, which I would submit derive much of their popularity and longevity precisely because they’ve solved this issue. But those are tactical level games and I’m not sure whether such a system could be used for operational or strategic level games – I would guess not, for various reasons.
Are there any operational or strategic level PC wargames that have solved this problem?
Spare me snide remarks about finding honest opponents.
Also, playing against the computer is pointless – fun for a time or two, but thereafter forgetaboutit.
In all of our Steam-multiplayer Civ 6 games you can force-quit in the middle of a turn if it hasn’t committed the turn to the server and reload to try it again, but the timing is a little tricky and doesn’t always work. You can get away with it b/c the game commit the turn to the server until you’ve played everything and finalized the outcome. Never used it for anything but a Civ game b/c that’s pretty much the only thing *I* play through Steam, but others might have different experiences.
IOW, the problem persists on Steam. Too bad.
Civ VI, huh?
I never went past Civ III. Tried Civ IV, but the prohibition against any units traversing mountains is a game breaker. Absurdly unrealistic. My understanding is that Civ V has the same “feature”. The developers did that on purpose to make programming the artificial opponent easier, despite vociferous denials by fanboys. Again, too bad.
Fwiw, rome total war has a setting called *generals cam*, which completely changes the game. The camera is locked to your general, and you have to move him around the battlefield to even see what is going on, let alone give orders effectively. Also, you better keep him alive! Makes flanking attacks hard to pull off, and city assaults way more complicated. It’s probably my favorite real-time tactical game playing in that way
Thanks for that! We’re going to take a deeper dive into the Total War series next season, for sure.