Games for the iPad - Battle Fleet - Readers' Comments and Minireview

Some fellow readers were very kind sending their comments about Battle Fleet, an iPad strategy game.

Let's see what they had to say about it!

March to Baghdad - A Position Area Not for the Faint of Heart

On the charges of not paying too much attention to artillery units, only remembering them when the things go hot and I need them: guilty as charged, your honor ...

I'm trying to take better care of the artillery units and as I was playing the free wargame March to Baghdad, the position area of 1-10 Forward Artillery (FA) during the assault on Tallil airbase caught my eye.

TF 1-15 IN (blue icons in the lower right) is getting ready to assault objective Liberty. 1-10 FA (blue icons in the top left) are already deployed in a position area (PA). We are assaulting from the southeast and the artillery is already positioned past our objectives, in the northwest?

The creator of this game engine, Pat Proctor, is an artilleryman and if there is something screwy in his games I am sure is not the artillery part.

What happened here?

Future Force - Gameplay Notes About this New HPS Sims Release

Future Force was released last Friday by HPS Sims. 

This is a grand strategy game that lets the player manage a defense budget in a simulated conflict spanning 5 areas of operation. The player is in charge of mobilizing, deploying, re-deploying, refitting  and demobilizing five types of units (heavy brigade combat teams, Striker brigade combat teams,  infantry brigade combat teams, SOF groups, aviation brigades and engineer teams). Also, the player has the ability to allocate funds for strategic and tactical intelligence. There are costs associated with each of the activities mentioned above and the challenge is to allocate the right amount of funds and military assets to achieve victory. 

This is not a traditional war game and it may be a bit difficult to grasp what is all about without playing it. So I will be posting some notes and screenshots of a game that I played today.

  

Future Force's main (and only) screen.

Great Game, Poor Interface ...

Hello,

Just a quick entry before I leave to work.

Guns of August (Matrix Games) is a great WWI strategy game, but the interface is a bit cumbersome. Not only the buttons are in odd places, it also sometimes difficult to figure out what is going on game-wise (did my offensive work? how many losses did I take? etc).

I guess I will have to suck it up and continue the fight against the Entente and the interface ... :)

Cheers,

Jutland - The SMS Moltke Makes a Stand - Part 2

Due to heavy work load at my day job (end of quarter, yay!), I will be posting short and little these days. Looking forward for the weekend.


This is a continuation of a previous entry.


I read somewhere that in naval warfare the most important thing is the ability to make decisions quickly. I had my share of hesitation in this scenario. Keep my formation sailing towards the Canal or make a stand and confront the threat?


The British formation is approaching and I don't want to be caught with my ships negotiating the narrow Canal. I order the Moltke to make a sharp turn (actually an euphemism for a ship of this size) due north. In that way she can have all guns bearing the enemy.

The SMS Moltke has changed course north and now all guns are shooting at the enemy.

Games for the iPad - Battle Fleet

For the readers of the blog who have an iPad: check out the naval game Battle Fleet.



If you get it, would you be so kind to report back, please? :)

Cheers,

Jutland - The SMS Moltke Makes a Stand - Part 1

Due to heavy work load at my day job (end of quarter, yay!), I will be posting short and little these days. Looking forward for the weekend.

If you have the guns, you may as well use them ...

The game: Jutland (Storm Eagle Studios)
The (purely fictional) situation: the battle cruiser SMS Moltke, escorted by a demi-division of destroyers gets jumped by a Royal Navy scout force.

Panzer Command Ostfront - Who Killed Pak36?

It came to my attention that the Niemirow scenario I played a while ago was actually intended to be played by a human player as the Russians against the computer and not like I did as the Germans against the computer.

Trying to do it the right way now and ... Doh! What a tough nut to crack!

The town of Niemirow lies in the center of this map. Me commanding the Russians advance from the foreground. See main text for details.

HPS Simulations Gets Serious About Download Versions, Keeps Promise About DRM-free Games

HPS Simulations already had one war game available as a download  (Ancient Warfare Greek Wars), but since June 3rd it has widened its downloadable offerings to:

• Civil War Battles: Campaign Peninsula
• Naval Campaigns: Jutland
• Ancient Warfare: Punic Wars
• Early American Wars: Campaign 1776
• Aide De Camp 2

I've treated myself to Naval Campaigns Jutland and it's just great.

Naval Campaigns Jutland

You already know that I am not to worried about DRM schemes, but when there is none it feels really great. Just save the file and install it wherever and whenever you want. HPS Sims made a promise late last year about not spamming their games with DRM and it seems they kept it. Kudos.

Looking forward for more download content!

Cheers,

Pride of Nations - AGEOD's Game Engine Goes for the World!

With the exceptions of World War One and maybe Napoleon's Campaigns, AGEOD has been doing pretty darn good with games sharply focused on wars that were limited to just one theater of operations during relatively short periods of time.

Pride of Nations breaks the mold with a massive grand-strategy/operational warfare game in which you can roam your armies and sail your fleets through the entire globe from 1850 to 1920.