Wargames - Computer Geeks and War

nationalreview.com ^ | October 1, 2001 | Dave Kopel & Glenn Reynolds

[Lazamataz]

A miniature wargaming bump (boardgames are for sissies!).

Yeah, if you like playing with brightly colored dolls. :o)

[SAMWolf]

For WW II Tank sims, there is nothing that beats Panzer Elite!!

[Junior]

At least you don't have to worry about sneezing and changing history ...

[Poohbah]

OK, K42...and the modern game, and ADC2 (I want to digitze some of my manual games).

[steve-b]

When I was in college in the late '60s and early '70's, both Risk and Diplomacy were considered very useful tools for getting know people's characters.

A Diplomacy game with Bill Clinton would be amusing....

[steve-b]

That reminds me of a Knights of the Dinner Table story where two of the characters had been playing a highly detailed World War One simulation in weekly all-night sessions. The game had run for longer than the war did, and no end was in sight.

[Poohbah]

Requirement A: Bubba wears short sleeves. Requirement B: hands visible at ALL times, and flat on the table when he's not actually moving. Requirement C: you have to watch him every second of the game.

[Chemist_Geek]

At least you don't have to worry about sneezing and changing history ...

BWHAHAHA!

That's certainly an advantage of the computer based games nowadays. Back in middle school, we set up a Third Reich game in one teacher's classroom and played after school (it was a private school; we all had to wait for rides) for nearly a year. Those were the days.

Then I could tell stories about undergraduate, being thrown out of the student union by security guards at 1 AM. So we went into the parking lot and set up on the hood of a car and kept going. "Hey guys, what's that great big glowing ball of gas over to the east? Did somebody nuke Detroit?"

[Poohbah]

The ultimate Monster Game: War in Europe on the Sniper! unit scale. Sniper! is man-to-man, counters are indivdual soldiers, tanks take up multiple hexes. WiE covers everything from the Bay of Biscay to the Urals and North Africa to the Barents Sea. YEE-HAW!

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

Thank you Talonsoft. Operational Art of War Vol II. Greatest Wargame ever.

[Junior]

Back in my junior high school days (late 70s) me and my buds would play Ogre using the Blitzkrieg board and the counters from about four Ogre/GEV games. Those sessions often went on until well after sunup ...

[Kobyashi1942]

WW II Tank sims, there is nothing that beats Panzer Elite!!

Ahhh..Pz-IVH. Good looking tank with the skirts. Tell me, I bought PE when it first came out but it had a lot of bugs. Did they patch it sufficiently to make it work right?

[bluetoad]

Sorry folks, Steel Panthers II is the defacto standard at a tactical level.

I already run the scenarios many times, and it don’t look good for the Taliban…

[BaBaStooey]

Kobiyashi Maru BUMP

[rb22982]

Speaking of war games, check out the free multiplayer online demo for Return to Castle Wolfenstein (WW2), the long awaited sequal to the first mainstream First Person Shooter, Wolfenstein 3d.

link here It's really good, but you'll need at least a 700 mghz computer, 128 mb of ram, and a decent video card and a stable internet connection for it to be fast. Oh its a 63 MB dl.

[GeekDejure]

Yikes!!! It's those dreaded P words... People. . . Public and Population !!!

So sayith GeekDejure pro bono !!!

As a population, the American public probably has prevaricators who have promptly provoked the proletariat to protest by professing to profit (punily) from the proximate project!

Hence, pro and con is pronounced to provide the poor proletariat with a prolixity of presumptions to pretend such profane profiteering is produced to procure and provide proprietary protection by proxy! And all without proof of prior protocol which proscribes the prosecution of progressive taxation!

Wherefore, there is promptly some probable cause to procure or produce the probative facts publico in this procedure, and NOT prohibit a peon geek's paltry profit margin from producing the process whereby ALL shall proclaim profit sharing pro facto... or would you prefer pro se probation and promulgated prolicide!

This proceeding is prompted to produce proper product pro forma, and propounded to promote pro rata participation... pro posse suo... pro solido!!! (e.g., Let's Roll !!!)

[Shooter 2.5]

I love the combat simulator. I started with Aces over the Pacific and later Aces over Europe. Later it was Red Baron I and II. I was able to have two joysticks set up. My left controlled rudder and throttle and the right controled the aelierons[sp]. I then bought a new computer where I still haven't figured out how to do the joystick setup. So I play Combat simulator where the rudder control is automatic.

I started playing Delta Force I and II because I needed more practice for the gun stuff. Lesson learned #1 is never, never move to get closer. Move to change viewpoint. I tried to play online put the fastest computer wins so I quit.

My son and I are getting into the woods more. I'm learning about the real game of movement.

[jalisco555]

I loved Wolfenstein 3D. I still can't get the game music out of my head. I look forward to playing the sequel.

[michigander]

Am I the only one here that's nuts about Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator?

I trashed my joystick playing Jane's USNF '97, ATF Gold and Longbow Gold.
Have to get a new one soon since I just purchased Jane's Naval Combat Collection (F-18, Fleet Command and 688(i)).
Can hardly wait!

[NeonKnight]

This may be the only non-gaming forum where I will find lots of folks who have actually played "Diplomacy". Much better than Risk, simpler than most 70's era board simulations.

Diplomacy was great...but in the end, everything always got nuked. What was it, 12 nukes and the game was over?

Axis and Allies was another great one. I used to play back in the '70's all the time. I have it on computer now and still play sometimes.