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Author Topic: What's your favorite strategic Eastern Front game?  (Read 14550 times)

bob48

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Reply #30 on: September 24, 2019, 03:26:15 PM
Thinking about it, 'No Retreat' is maybe one of the best examples of a 'pure' EF strategic level game, dealing as it does with army/front level units.

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Bison

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Reply #31 on: September 24, 2019, 03:30:49 PM
A strategic level game would include military, diplomacy, economic and other forms of national power. Unconditional Surrender does this more or less and so doesn’t triumph and tragedy. Frankly one of the best strategic models is the game every bitches about being not a wargame...twilight struggle. It is a strategic level game. What it doesn’t do, because it’s strategic level, is focus exclusively on military options. A game like A World at War is an example of a WW2 strategic level game.



Bison

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Reply #32 on: September 24, 2019, 03:31:50 PM
Yes; No Retreat! I had forgotten that one.

It’s my fall back game for all things eastern front. 😀



mirth

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Reply #33 on: September 24, 2019, 03:33:31 PM
Frankly one of the best strategic models is the game every bitches about being not a wargame...twilight struggle. It is a strategic level game.

It is definitely a strategic level game and I don't even have a problem calling it a wargame. I just don't like Twilight Struggle :P

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Bison

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Reply #34 on: September 24, 2019, 03:37:58 PM
I’m not overly enamored with it either. My biggest issue is there is a clear advantage for an experienced player who knows the deck of cards by stages and how the various events interact.



mirth

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Reply #35 on: September 24, 2019, 03:43:15 PM
I’m not overly enamored with it either. My biggest issue is there is a clear advantage for an experienced player who knows the deck of cards by stages and how the various events interact.

Absolutely correct. I played as a noob against an experienced player and got my ass handed to me because of his knowledge of the card play.

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bob48

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Reply #36 on: September 24, 2019, 03:48:43 PM
Didn't BC run a forum game of it over at 'The Other Place' a couple of years ago? I seem to remember playing it.

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Bison

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Reply #37 on: September 24, 2019, 03:51:11 PM
Not sure but there is a decent port of the game for PC.



BanzaiCat

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Reply #38 on: September 24, 2019, 04:16:04 PM
Didn't BC run a forum game of it over at 'The Other Place' a couple of years ago? I seem to remember playing it.

That might have been 'The Real Game of Life,' where everyone kinda ditched me. That was in the lower levels of the forum, which is quite appropriate considering the game was pretty adult-oriented. :)


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Staggerwing

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Reply #39 on: September 24, 2019, 06:06:40 PM
Here is another contender from 'ye olde SPI' days.

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6938/global-war

It was, like World in Flames, an absolute pig to play.

LOL, you should try Tomorrow The World. That one was a disaster, though one I enjoyed to an extent. It was eminently frustrating because the Japanese outnumbered the Germans, and could easily outmaneuver the Germans through sheer weight of numbers, anywhere (the Germans don't have nearly enough units to cover all their territories, while the Japanese do easily).

Ty Bomba made that game, and then re-did it later with Compass in a title called Triumph Of The Will, which has a low rating and some rather spiteful reviews/commentary on it over at BGG. I've been tempted to get that latter one on occasion only because of my love/hate with TtW and the fact that TotW looks much simpler and cleaner.

I actually have Triumph of the Will. I *even* took the shrink wrap off it.

Haven't actually...  you know, played it or anything.

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Adam

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Reply #40 on: September 24, 2019, 09:21:00 PM
Does EastFront 2 count?



BanzaiCat

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Reply #41 on: September 24, 2019, 09:26:54 PM
I actually have Triumph of the Will. I *even* took the shrink wrap off it.

Haven't actually...  you know, played it or anything.

What do you think? The components seemed kind of disappointing from the unboxing videos I've seen.

Does EastFront 2 count?

That's the Columbia Games block-style game, correct? Of course it does!

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Staggerwing

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Reply #42 on: September 25, 2019, 06:25:04 AM
I actually have Triumph of the Will. I *even* took the shrink wrap off it.

Haven't actually...  you know, played it or anything.

What do you think? The components seemed kind of disappointing from the unboxing videos I've seen.

It does seem a bit sparse.

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BanzaiCat

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Reply #43 on: September 25, 2019, 09:11:19 AM
I think that was it, Stags- it was far too generic-looking. TTW had some personalization (the King Lion Korps, the Imperial Rocket Corps), and I think TTW has a couple of 'bonus' elite units but otherwise, nothing.

If you ever play it, let me know what you think. At this point unless the price drops (it's about $58 US on Amazon Prime right now), I'm not interested.

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BanzaiCat

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Reply #44 on: January 15, 2020, 03:57:13 PM
I played TTW a LOT back in the day, and it NEVER ended well for the Germans. The Japanese just had way too many units and could swarm the Germans on any front, which meant they could then concentrate even more force on the Germans in other theaters. It's difficult to take advantage of maneuverability on the German side when the Japanese can basically cover every dot on every border territory, with units to spare.

Triumph of the Will looked like it is MUCH more balanced, but...I dunno. It's just not looking terribly appealing.

I should clarify 'strategic' as meaning a full-on war. The military side of it, not necessarily the political side. Though a good wargame will deftly incorporate political elements into it, as well.

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