What games to get?

[Vaevictis]

My wife will get me 3-4 games for my birthday. I'm to pick them out, but need some advice. Here are my thoughts:


General: I'm interested in games that have great playable scenarios for PBEM. Play balance not important.

Normandy -- not at all, sounds like it is a real slog with tons of units and snail's pace

Bulge -- Ive gamed this a lot, so the battle is less enticing. But if HPS put an interesting spin on it, I might be interested

Tobruk -- heard bad things about it, only title that is not success -- is this correct?

El Alamein -- Very tempted here. I'd like to see PzC in the desert. I've never wanted to game the battle, though, as it seemed some kind of WWI style brute force assault. What is PzC in the desert like and does the battle generate exciting scenarios despite its reputation?

France -- This would be automatic for me -- any considerations that might give pause?

Salerno -- Quite tempted, but worried it will be too much mountain fighting. Sicily has enough of that for me.

Rzhev -- I very much enjoy the Russian attack campaigns. I've been afraid that this would have too much of the Kharkov hopelessness to it though.

Non-PzC:

War over Mideast (air game) -- is this insanely detailed? how playable is it? For that matter, I have no idea what it is like.

Decisive Action -- same as above

[Sgt Fury]

Hi,

I'll give you some of my thoughts, but over all, you probably should just go for the battles that interest you.

- El Alamein: Title is very well done, and although there are battles with fixed positions, others allow much more maneuver. One of the best titles in the series in my view. Go for it.
- France: Quality title, go for it.
- Normandy: Yes a real slog. Some love this title, but even with the updates it is not fun to play as German in my view.
- Rzhev - Even a worse slog than Normandy. Some of the bunkers are impervious to artillery fire when all mods are considered. If you want a big attack by the Reds, go for Minsk or perhaps Stalingrad if you don't have those already.
- Bulge -- one of my favorite titles but I don't think it puts too much of a new spin on things. So if you're tired of bulge you may want to look elsewhere.
- Tobruk - Had it but traded it. Since then, some revamped scenarios have emerged that others claim are great. Still, only game I don't have.
- Salerno - Similar to Sicily in the terrain so you may not like it. It comes with Crete attack which is ok.

In summary, based on your write-up and my slant, I think you should go for France, El Alamein, Bulge and Salerno in that order.

Fury

[Krak]

Tobruk is fine, you just need to be able to adapt to desert warfare, not all can.

[Panzer VI]

I'm getting Bulge '44 and France '40 next week.Definitly looking forward to France '40.I've heard the best feedback from this title.

Bulge '44 however, I've never heard anything about this title.

Panzer VI

[Mr Grumpy]

I agree with Krak about the desert titles, when you play a new non desert title you sometimes have to change your playing style a little to suit the particular conditions of that title, but often you don't have to do this at all.
The desert titles are not like that, the fact there are huge mp allowences (which almost give you too much choice of direction),soft ZOC and often being isolated means you must be able to adapt your style of play much more to suit those unique conditions and i think it is that shock to the system that many players don't like.
Tobruk has been improved hugely by VM Alt scenarios several of which have been through the H2H system and Alamein has some great scenarios including the invasion of Malta and you can download VM "add on" Compass '40 which a whole new set of scenarios.

So don't rule the Desert titles out, but if you get one be prepared to go back to PzC school for a while. ;)

I am playing F40 at the moment and i love it.