Grognards amongst us?

[Klc]

Blast! I found the old copy of ASL in my basement, but its missing the manual! And probably alot of the pieces.

Meaning its most likely useless to me. However, if anyone else plays ASL, and could use the boards/spare pieces - I would most likely be willing to let them go to a good home.

 

[goodform]

VG - As far as I remember my roomie assembled the monster from several other maps which were parts of games. He had a set of rules for the east front, west front and whole of Europe when the maps were combined. I want to say 'Europe at War' for some reason, but that seems wrong. There were production boards and it was all at the divisional/corps level, as there were hundreds of markers it was quite impressive to have laid out. I remember having to take the russian side because he wanted to play germany and his buddy played the western allies. I just wanted to produce an SS panzer corps, it had ridiculous defence and movement capabilities. The only thing I had to slow the German onslaught were AT units that were cheap for the defense bonus you got for having taken one turn to dig in. I only played a few turns before I moved out, but I went to get some mail and he still had it up.

 

[vonGarvin]

Blast! I found the old copy of ASL in my basement, but its missing the manual! And probably alot of the pieces.

Meaning its most likely useless to me. However, if anyone else plays ASL, and could use the boards/spare pieces - I would most likely be willing to let them go to a good home.

Don't give up on them just yet.  It would probably be easier to get the manual.
If, however, you feel the need to part with what you have, PM me and I'll send you the address of a really good home

 

[vonGarvin]

VG - As far as I remember my roomie assembled the monster from several other maps which were parts of games. He had a set of rules for the east front, west front and whole of Europe when the maps were combined. I want to say 'Europe at War' for some reason, but that seems wrong. There were production boards and it was all at the divisional/corps level, as there were hundreds of markers it was quite impressive to have laid out. I remember having to take the russian side because he wanted to play germany and his buddy played the western allies. I just wanted to produce an SS panzer corps, it had ridiculous defence and movement capabilities. The only thing I had to slow the German onslaught were AT units that were cheap for the defense bonus you got for having taken one turn to dig in. I only played a few turns before I moved out, but I went to get some mail and he still had it up.

Hmm...Europa was/is a collection of smaller wargames that, I believe, could fit together in the manner you stated.  There was "Fire in the East" (That's the one I have), Case White, Their Finest Hour, and so forth.

 

[goodform]

Well now you've prompted me to go check. It's possible I'll be able to organize my next post better than a 'stream of consciousness'  I also need a turn based fix... Think I'll meet the Japs on the Kokoda Track!

 

[vonGarvin]

My current fix is on the Eastern Front.  I am the Soviets in a delay action before Smolensk in one, the Soviets in 1944 Central Poland smashing some SS dudes (I already took out a JagdTiger!) and finally, I am Soviets in a street battle in Stalingrad, all using Squad Leader and VASSAL.  In one game, my opponent is in the south of Franch (Marseilles?) and the other two the fella is somewhere in Pennsylvania!

I can't get enough!

 

[Thorvald]

OK.  If you've played Squad Leader (or any other wargame), AND you still play from time to time, vote!

Finally a real wargamer!

Haven't had time to play since high school, still have all my "gamettes" however and other Avalon Hill bookcase cames.

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for a proper computer conversion of the original Squad Leader, but to no avail.  They always botch it up.

Remember the series of Avalon Hill Computer conversions (Third Reich, 5th Fleet, Stalingrad) from the 90's, they were 100% conversions, very nice.  They had a Squad Leader verison in the works and some "idiot" decided to make it more "appealing to a wider audience"...sheesh.

It's quite easy to still get ASL games, manuals, etc.  They are mostly still in print or being re-printed.  Just to go http://www.multimanpublishing.com/ASL/asl.php.

Cheers
  Tim

 

[sigpig]

I never had Panzer Leader, but my friend did, and I played a couple of games from time to time.Another game I have that's getting some resurgence is Russian Campaign.

Panzer Leader, Russian Campaign, wow, names from my childhood  ;D  And Blitzkrieg, and Third Reich. I've got some World in Flame boxes in the closet but I don't know if I've got enough to make a real game now.

And I've got a lot of the old Star Fleet Battles and Federation and Empire sets but I'm guessing they don't count in this discussion 

 

[LeonTheNeon]

I play tons of strategy/war games but mainly on PC these days, it is hard to get the buds together to play any board games.  Currently I'm playing Operational Art of War III, I picked up DEFCON a couple of weeks ago (which is a pile of fun even if it isn't very deep) and I just got Dominions 3 on Monday (this game is pretty deep although not as much as OAoW3).  I still have BCT Commander installed on my PC but I'm not playing it much anymore.

 

[sigpig]

Currently I'm playing Operational Art of War III,

Is that more playable than the original? It was an interesting and comprehensive game but hard to have fun with.

 

[LeonTheNeon]

I didn't play the first one so I cannot make any direct comparisons.  It is playable, but it isn't friendly to play.  Like a lot of the semi-independent, medium budget games you sometimes feel like you're fighting the game because it is missing that polished interface you get in big budget games.  That can be frustrating at times.  Information isn't readily available and isn't cross-referenced well, so there's a lot of screen flipping.  Clearly, the game also expects you to be familiar with military symbols and acronyms, which really shouldn't be a problem for a grognard or likely anybody in uniform right now.

For those reasons, I find it hard to recommend the game.  If you can overlook the amount of micromanagement and an at times frustrating interface, you get an insane amount of depth, and in my layman's view, a pretty good look at operational-level warfare.

 

[niner domestic]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/tech_life_cyberolympics_col

I see a glorious gaggle of gold medals if you compete...lol

 

[goodform]

I don't think that the hand eye coordination of grognards matches that of the Starcraft player The speed at which some grognards go is much slower than the historical battles they recreate!

 

[Klc]

And a starcraft player can be proud of the tactics needed to win the average match... (Build 50-100 of any one unit - attack enemy.)  :

 

[211RadOp]

VG, SOCOM is an FPS, not a simulation of the type that would make a grognard.
I slant towards the electronic versions. I play Talonsoft games (largely the campaign series, as I have trouble finding the battleground series games, especially when so outrageously priced on the take2 interative site, yeesh) and occasionally I try and slug away at something converted from an Avalon Hill game or of that ilk (Smolensk '41 and its brothers). I'm also a Combat Mission fan. I also do the I did play a bit of the european theatre on a board with my first roommate when I moved to Vancouver. I should be able to remember the name, but it escapes me, anyway, the map was huge, 8'X8' and we put it on the wall. Quite a hassle to get all the unit markers cleaned up so that I could gum them up again and repeat the process as I forgot what was in a particular stack.

www.theblitz.org

I played on the SP ladder at the Blitz for years. Might even get back into it. I found I was spending too much time on the computer and got to the point I couldn't even turn it on.

 

[Sigger]

I figured there would be some Grognards here on Army.ca. I am looking to get into playing some real games like this.
Please, if you can, I am looking for a starting point. Preferably PC based (I guess).

I am a big RISK fan, but am looking for something with some more depth(not that RISK has any).

Thank you in advance.

 

[JimMorrison19]

In my experience with Dungeons & Dragons and similar games, I've seen "grognard" be used to refer to those who are skeptic/cynical/generally negative about the release of newer materials or editions for the game, piously standing their ground in favor of old material regardless of whether or not it is actually superior in any way. In this light the term itself is fairly negative. I've never heard it be used to refer to war-gamers in general.

 

[Yrys]

In my experience with Dungeons & Dragons and similar games, I've seen "grognard" be used to refer to those who are skeptic/cynical/generally negative about the release of newer materials or editions for the game, piously standing their ground in favor of old material regardless of whether or not it is actually superior in any way. In this light the term itself is fairly negative. I've never heard it be used to refer to war-gamers in general.

"Âge of JimMorrison19:  19"

Maybe the meaning is different depending of the group age ?

In my experience, it is use related to wargamers, in the 30 ish, 40 ish group age, francophone.
Mortarman Rockpainter seems to have the same experience, and he's 41, anglophone. They do tend to be unfavorable toward game that use "scale soldiers".

 

[vonGarvin]

NECROTHREAD update

I just learned this morning that John Hill, designer of Squad Leader, died last night.  He had a massive heart attack a few days ago and never recovered. 

And I'm no longer 41... 

 

[a_majoor]

Sad news. When I get home I will have to find my copies of Squad Leader and Panzer Leader...