These are done by Joni Nuuntinen. At first, I was a bit skeptical about them, but the few I tried are really really good and the series is improving constantly. Playable on my GN2 without trouble, they are worth a look.
BTW, I promise to not buy GTA V until I’ve achieved FY 1.09 and a little gift for you my friends đ
As I was decided to buy the Parthian expansion, I took a plunge into the AJE forum. Apart it confirmed me there’s something fundamentally wrong in the combat system, indirectly at the source of some threads, I’ve learnt the map will be the same.
My God. The same scale. Any simulation would need scale to be downsized.
So I cancel my project to do some mod about. A bit disappointing.
BTW, if you Wonder if the coming game on the Spanish Civil War is Worth buying, I’m myself on the verge because one main question has not yet be raised: will the AI be able to form Fronts? AFter the first months of war waged by columns, the SPW mutated to a frontline fighting between large forces. Until now, the AGE AI has been unable to form front. I don’t doubt the AI has been updated for SPW, because the contrary would just limit the game to PBEM. However, as no precision has been provided on this key point, I prefer for now watch what is planned for.
The first should come in my hands this week:
Grazhdanskaya Voina i Voennaya Interventsiya v SSSR, Entsiklopediya (Encyclopedia: The Civil War and Foreign Armed Intervention in the USSR). Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, 1987.
Large quarto, 720 pp. Hardcover. Second (Revised) Edition. Massive encyclopedia of the Russian Civil War published during the last days of the USSR, from the February Revolution to the consolidation of Soviet power. Numerous full-color fold-out maps and illustrations showing troop movements along the various fronts, Revolutionary posters, war scenes, and images from the period. Detailed entries on military commanders and operations as well as political figures. Text is in Russian.
I know it’s late Soviet military stuff, and so will present a very biased view of the RCW. Now, there are in maps and certainly many interesting dĂ©tails. I don’t read Russian, but the combined use of my Galaxy Note camera, Omnipage and Bing Translation should allow me to extract many useful data.
My second purchase will be the Parthian DLC for AJE. I’m a convinced admiror of Miranda’s Trajan game, published years ago in S&T, and I would try with pleasure to get a satisfying version of Ancient war on the AGE engine. If I’m successful, I will share then this ( and the AI script), with all those who have supported me these late years.
Here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.johntillersoftware.pzc&hl=fr
And it’s…free đ
Now let’s see if the AI has been improved.
Now sickness is gone, it’s time to give some news.
First, FY is progressing. Nothing to show, but the usual work on events, text strings, railroads is progressing. Main tasks remaining are the economical options and this little thing taking much of my time: AI.
About Ancient Battles on IPAD: played all the Britannia campaign as Roman. I’ve tried the hard setting, and I’ve lost one battle. The AI is definitely scripted and on the whole poor. One trick overused in this game is the enemy units appearing in your rear in the middle of a battle ;-). All thing considered, this game remains an enjoying beer and pretzel wargame for relaxing before sleeping.
Currently trying this new wargame on Android, on battles from the 1939 Poland campaign. The presentation refers to the old Avalon Hill game. Let’s see if it fulfill promises….
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cloudworth.kursk
Very classical wargame. Not very pretty ( and yet the programmer has left the Blue/Red terrain painting of most of his previous games). No innovations too. The game runs effortless and  isn’t deprived of details. I never found why Kursk was a prized them for wargames, but the mileage may vary. For the price, a good purchase.
On ipad and Android, wargames are yet in infancy and aren’t among the best ever made. However, they are reaching the first steps: be playable and more or less trying to find a balance between gameplay, easiness and accuracy. An important step for the future.
It’s a new wargame on ipad, released today.
https://www.huntedcow.com/game/abrome
Very short first impressions:
Price : 1.5 $ + 2 in games campaigns for 0.89 each. 4 campaigns with each about 8 battles.
Gfx: clean and good looking. neither very good or bad. Just good đ
GUI: easy to master. 5 minutes needed.
Game engine: a simplified version of of Field of Glory ( See Matrix forums). Not a surprise, as the company releasing the games is HexWar, that ported Field of Glory to computer for Sitherine, before turning to Ipad field.
As FoG is itself a very streamlined depiction of Ancient battles, ABR is very close to beer and Pretzel game, even if flanking and a few other unavoidable concepts of Ancient battles are present. Don’t expect more than a glimpse of very abstracted simulation.
Battles: Civil war, Gallic , Germany and Britannia campaigns with all the most known battles.
AI: on normal difficulty, I won my first 2 games :-). Of course, I’m a very gifted player, but the AI isn’t very bright. At least, it doesn’t seem suicidal or even hopeless. It has putted a credible, even if clumsy, opposition. I Wonder how much scripted it is, as I’ve not played twice a battle. I don’t know if the hard setting is just adding cheats to AI or improve its skills, even if I guess the former to be the more probable.
All in all, a good buy when you’re waiting for your annual medical examination đ
However, this game confirms the trend: low, easy wargames are coming on tablets at very cheap prices. All in all, this game reminds me some of Ancient Battles boardgames done in the 80 ‘, or even the last Battles of Napoleon: very few realism, but tons of fun. If computer wargames persists in their never ending complexity for the sake of complexity, they will lose yet more players, as these games allow fast and fun games and so let less time to practice the monsters they release….
Note: Android and Ipad has got too a hex wargame on the 1939 Poland campaign: hexex, counters, ie the pure wargame legacy. the game is free, the GUI nicely keeps some of the charms of DOS :-), I haven’t played it yet, but it’s free…
Design by Ted Raicer, a very skilled paper and dice wargame designer, by the same company that released Battle of the Bulge on Ipad. A very well done simple wargame, not accurate, but keeping right the basic points of a war simulation.
http://www.johntillersoftware.com/SquadBattles/FirstWorldWar.html
I haven’t bought the game but the design notes ( at the bottom of the page) are just one of the most interesting article I’ve read about WW1 tactics. Design notes: the moment where a designer explains his game, rather than reply WAD đ An exercise of humility.
Modder Corner 