Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: DSWargamer
This product will be a defining moment in [computer] wargaming.
There really can be only one downside to MWiF being released... there won't be any reason to buy any other serious grand strategy wargame made for computer.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Grotius

No, MWIF can be played by one person, in solitaire mode. I do it all the time (I'm a long-time beta-tester), and it's great fun. As wargames go, MWIF is quite solitaire-friendly. It has no hidden units or fog of war on the map. (Unlike, say, War in the Pacific-Admiral's Edition, which is not at all solitaire-friendly.) I find I'll make what I think is the best move for one side, then find mistakes when I'm playing the other side -- rinse and repeat.

Solitaire gaming isn't for everyone (almost literally!). But there's a time-honored tradition of board wargamers playing wargames solitaire. I have solitaire OCS "Case Blue" and solitaire TCS "Canadian Crucible" set up on my gaming tables right now.

I think I make a stronger opponent for myself than most AI. :)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Numdydar

Unfortunaly Hasbro will never let a computer version of ASL come to pass. Not sure if they would even know how to make any computer game lol.

There has been a major effort to just get the ASL manual into PDF form that is searchable. That alone would be an awesome asset. But they will not allow that either .

This is all very sad since I too would love a computerized ASL game. I guess I will have to console myself with WiF

quote:

ORIGINAL: Numdydar

Unfortunaly Hasbro will never let a computer version of ASL come to pass. Not sure if they would even know how to make any computer game lol.

There has been a major effort to just get the ASL manual into PDF form that is searchable. That alone would be an awesome asset. But they will not allow that either .

This is all very sad since I too would love a computerized ASL game. I guess I will have to console myself with WiF

quote:

ORIGINAL: Missouri_Rebel

Since I ran it through the ocr I can also do searches, including adobes advanced search. As you can see by the highlighted blue field on the page I had searched for the key word vehicle.

It is very crisp and clear. Much more so than these screens capture.

quote:

ORIGINAL: brian brian

I used to play a lot of Squad Leader; more particularly a lot of Cross of Iron. I was simultaneously playing a lot of Third Reich, until I discovered World in Flames. And I actually think WiF ruined me for Squad Leader. Squad Leader is a great, great game, but in some ways a terrible simulation. WiF simulates high-level military decision making very well. Squad Leader does not simulate military decision making at all in my opinion. To have God-like control over small groups of men is just impossible. Still a very fun game to match ordnance and small groups of men vs the other side's ordnance and small groups of men.

Another game that ruined me for Squad Leader was SPI's Task Force, a game of 70s/80s hypothetical Cold War Naval Combat. It used a dual map hidden movement system, with grid call-outs reminiscent of AH Bismarck and Battleship! (as in, you sank my Battleship!). I thought it actually worked fine and I miss it. But it made me wish for a WWII company to battalion level game with umpired Hidden Movement, which would obviously be handled best by a computer, and also more of a simulation of what a company commander has to do in infantry combat, where you can't precisely order the fire & movement of a squad unless it is standing right next to you. Even moving down to platoon level, a platoon leader can not do this as perfectly as the player of Squad Leader can. By the time you reach the level of an actual squad leader, yes, the fine control is possible and you have almost reached the level of first-person shooter games I have no interest in playing. But at the level of squad leader, so many other events are going on nearby simultaneously, that have a huge impact on what happens to you (all the other squads on your side), you again need some outside system to model what the other friendly forces are doing.

So in approaching improved levels of realism I see huge possibilities in the use of computers and yes even AI. Someone mentioned on one of these many threads (I'm fine with derailing one away from World in Flames, there are scads of these that all say the same thing) that the best AI performance will happen out of a game system designed in advance for AI decision making.

And when we moved on into Cross of Iron and never left (I could play Hube's Pocket over and over again, but never punched the counters in GI:Anvil of Victory), we also burned out on I-go-You-Go tactical AFV combat eventually. Another place where video and computer assisted gaming will eventually satisfy what I want out of a game at this scale. And I think a good way to go is to have an AI run parts of your own forces. A tank company commander can tell another tank what to do, but not necessarily every minute decision that tank executes.

One of the best depictions of infantry combat command I have ever seen, is the Mel Gibson movie We Were Soldiers. A battalion level infantry battle is an intense thing, with simultaneous activity on a 360 degree horizon, performed by enemy units that can't be seen, not by enemy units all in known locations that patiently wait for your decisions, in even 60 second or 30 second intervals. No "turns", just continual real-time information input and decision making, with many results of your decisions beyond your control.

I would also like to see an operational American Civil War game run by a computer where information moves across the battlefield at the speed of a horse (which might not reach it's destination), and units are even more unlikely to do what the high-level commander tells them to do, while that commander can only sort out information based on his immediate vicinity and the no-radio time delay of all other incoming and outgoing information. Another case where AI could boost realism while only partially 'playing' the game.

I think there are probably computer games out there by now along these lines, though I don't go looking for them. Because I play World in Flames too much.

quote:

ORIGINAL: wodin

Paradox has the Squad leader rights..have had for awhile.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Numdydar

quote:

ORIGINAL: Missouri_Rebel

Since I ran it through the ocr I can also do searches, including adobes advanced search. As you can see by the highlighted blue field on the page I had searched for the key word vehicle.

It is very crisp and clear. Much more so than these screens capture.

Any chance you would want to share a copy