Archive For The “Analysis” Category
by Gary Mengle, 8 October 2018
Around 1998 I declared wargaming as a hobby finished, washed my hands of it and sold off most of my games.
Yeah. That was dumb.
I mean, it seemed logical at the time. The wargame-as-simulation designs that the hobby was then still in the grip of could clearly be better accomplished on computers. Non-CCG tabletop gaming was getting crowded out of retail spaces and conventions. Gamers’ time was increasingly being devoured by computer games. And wargaming, by then a niche for the better part of two decades, was the first to vanish from the major convention scene.
Digital wargaming
by Jim Owczarski, 2 October 2018
Given what is about to happen here, I really ought to establish my bona fides. I am a huge fan of Richard Borg’s Commands and Colors series. I own the entirety of the Ancients series and have taught it as an introductory wargame at Origins. I think its clean design and relative simplicity make it one of the the best gateways to this hobby of which I am so fond.
Despite this, when GMT Games announced that it had partnered with Hexwar to bring C&C:A to the PC, I was skeptical. For me, C&C in all its flavors is the perfect game for face-to-face play. The learning curve is reasonable, the time commitment is modest, and it still brings a decent amount of historical flavor. As much as I love more complicated games, my ratio of C&C played to any other system these days is very high. As a result, I felt no particular need for a digital version.
And then there is the fact that Field of Glory 2 exists. (more…)