RichMunn
Posts: 65
Joined: 5/14/2008
Status: offline
|
So I have at last invested in the behemoth of Grognard games.
I expressed my doubts about whether I should do this in an earlier thread, and was welcomed warmly by helpful posters here, to whom I am grateful.
This is an expensive investment; however, if it proves to be a game for me I can see that the initial expenditure will dwindle to nothing over many hours of war gaming pleasure.
So – today I purchased and played, for a couple of hours only, Gary Grigsby’s War in the West. Is my first AAR to be an “Awful and Anachronistic Rip-Off”, an “Amazing Achievement by Realists” or an “Authentic and Accurate Response” from a newbie?
Well, it’s a combination of these possibilities.
The short (32 page I think) and much-vaunted player’s handbook is hopeless to get you started unless you know this sort of game. I have no doubt that should I persevere it will be my right-hand man. Or woman. I tried to read it and it was full of that stuff that puts you off if you’re trying to understand what to do next to progress in the game. Goodness knows what the 300-page plus manual is like, even if beautifully presented in a leather binding.
The video tutorials, on the other hand, do help. The bit when the presenter stifles a yawn is not particularly inspiring, but this is clearly a long-term project and any such production is bound to have its tedious moments. I watched 2 and a half of them before becoming impatient and starting to play.
I then tried to engage “Operation Husky” and could not remember if I should cancel North or South attacks. My fault. I tried again.
This time my air attacks went as planned. (Well, as planned by the AI.) I had no idea whether the losses shown were acceptable or not, and there is nothing to tell me if these attacks were successful or what their effect would be. However, I don’t want to have my hand held all the way, so I thought let’s get on with it. However, I pressed “end turn” before doing anything with the invasion troops, and that seemed to be a mistake, because I missed a rather important bit of my first turn, so I started again.
I must admit that at this point I was questioning my sanity in spending a large amount of money on a game that was designed to frustrate me, with no action and a few anodyne screens to tell me the state of affairs in 1943, something which is more fitting for a peace-time Parliament than during a war.
However –
The next thing I knew, having remembered something from tutorial 3 about the second phase of “invade”, I was in the scenario and I played right through to the end, all 7 turns. (Wow, stamina!)
Towards the end, since the aim of this scenario was to take Sicily, I diverted some air attacks manually. I threw the Nazis and their acolytes out of Messina. It was great fun. I didn’t even consider the abilities of my ground troops, just stuck them in there.
I lost, of course, but Hitler had only a minor victory. OK, it was on Easy. OK, I did it all wrong. But there was enough there to make me come back. I’ve hardly tried yet. I could yet become reasonably incompetent.
Rich
|
Printable Version
My first AAR - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread