MicroProse’s last ocean-going release was a bit of a stinker. Their next, however, looks awesome.
Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age aims to transmute historical and fictional Cold War naval/air confrontations into subtle real-time wargaming challenges, and should be with us in Early Access form in November. Features to look forward to include “advanced flight and ship physics”…
spacious dynamic campaigns…
impressive coastlines…
mobile land units…
nocturnal action…
remarkable modability…
and, of course, missiles and eels galore.
* * *
I visited Narnia last night without the aid of a wardrobe.
Released earlier this month, the £4 Hannibal 218 is Wars Across The World’s take on the Second Punic War. Unpredictable neutral factions, colourful event cards, and a roomy, multi-theatre map led to a five-minute reconnoitre morphing into an hour-long “I wonder if I can take Rome before bedtime” play session.
My cosmopolitan (Carthaginian, Insubrian, and Boii) elephant-equipped invasion force met relatively light opposition initially, which was a tad concerning. ‘Is this yet another WATW adjunct blighted by over-generous victory conditions and ineffectual silicon opposition?’ I wondered as I nudged my counter stacks closer and closer to the Roman capital.
Happily, on arriving at the critical* VL, I discovered a city pretty resistant to sieges and assault. When I eventually retired to bed, enemy activity seemed to be increasing – albeit in piecemeal fashion – and The Eternal City was showing no signs of throwing in the towel. Maybe Hannibal 218 has teeth/mileage after all.
* The North Africans can also win by taking all other Roman fortresses.
* * *
Talking of Ancients aggro, the Arete recommendation that turned up in my inbox recently, feels like something worth passing on.
While Ada gets extremely jealous if I get my groggy kicks elsewhere, if I did wargame on phone or tablet, I suspect this hexy homage to Alexander the Great’s generalship is precisely the sort of thing I’d be seeking out.
* * *
The Enemy on the Tail! demo baffled me until I watched the trailer on its Steam page, and realised that I needed to drag manoeuvre cards onto the ‘board’ to instigate actions.
The simple mechanics and the apparent absence of a campaign leave me wondering if the full game, due to arrive on October 23, will keep my interest for more than an evening or two, but while playing the trial I did find myself wishing Until the Last Plane had shipped with something similar to this (minus, the nasty AI-generated art) instead of those dull combat mini-games.
Sea Power does indeed look fabulous!
Anyone know what the verse is in the trailer voice-over? I would guess something from Moby Dick, but that’s probably way off the mark.
I think it’s this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Father%2C_Strong_to_Save
If I had a nickel for every time a naval simulation used a Christian hymn or poem beneath its intro or trailer, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
Arete is quite mediocre. The designer should really check out something like “Great Battles of History” to better understand the subject. His game looks very nice but does a poor job of simulating warfare during this time period. Specifically, there’s no real differentiation between unit *types* in the game. This is a critical oversight. Heavy Cavalry isn’t just “stronger” or “weaker” than, say, Heavy Infantry. It depends on the situation. For example, Cavalry is at a disadvantage against formed infantry when attacking from the front. But, from the flanks, it can be far stronger. The game is similar to wargames we had back in the 1970s. There is no concept of morale, leadership, cohesion, flanking etc. Without including these bare minimum critical factors, those counters could represent anything from spaceships to panzer divisions to wizards. There is simply no connection to the underlying subject matter. It ends being a very attractive-looking but also very generic wargame-lite that bears little to no resemblance to warfare during that time. If the designer would add just a few of these things (such as the classic “weapon matrix” from Art of War in the Western World), he’d potentially have an amazing wargame. I mean, no morale? No cohesion? No flanks? Every unit is defined entirely by its Strength and Movement rating? It feels like an S&T magazine game from 1973.
Disappointing, but thanks for the review. Hopefully, Molotov Cockateil will end up here, and read and heed your suggestions.
Arete is light with roots in early wargaming, no GBoH, but the above remarks are not entirely accurate. Leaders are critical to activating wings and providing combat bonuses both to the units they are attached to and units in their command radius. Morale is abstracted in – units don’t have HP, they have ‘steps’ which are a combination of the physical and morale strength of the unit, and lowered steps = lowered combat power (unlike something like Commands & Colors Ancients). Flanking does matter – not just because piling on increases the combat odds, but because defeated units that can’t retreat without passing next to enemy units suffer additional step loss. Finally, heavy infantry gain strength from being formed together, and breaking up those formations by missile harassment can be useful.
So, it certainly is light, but it’s not braindead, and I think the level of depth is suitable for the platform it’s sold on. I think we can all agree that a new edition of digital GBoH would be welcome on PC, one can dream…
I’ve played the Blue Sky Aces demo for just over 2 hours this past week.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2513100/Blue_Sky_Aces/
WW1 aerial warfare
Has a somewhat-low-poly look that I’m fine with (I can’t imagine going even-lower-poly would look better for propellor aircraft held together with wire)
I haven’t really tested the flight model, using mouse controls and easy mode. Finer control might be possible with a flight stick.
I’m not a fan of the Upgrade scheme where successful missions earn points in whatever you’re researching: bombs should be a loadout option, not something you need to unlock first.
Currently 5 missions for the Brits and 4 for the Germans (though they’re the same, just opposite sides) plus a tutorial
Choice of three aircraft for each side from various eras. A damned hard baptism in the Airco, which is why I bumped it down to easy – probably too easy now I use the Sopwith Camel.