Slitherine - Field of Glory

Nikb · 11-15-2009, 06:42 PM,

I see this game has just been released.

Has anybody played it? I would be interested to see how this title shapes up.

I'm still looking for a good replacement for Great Battles (Imagic) which I still think is the best of the bunch. Though having difficulties getting it running with Vista.

RADO · 11-17-2009, 01:54 AM,

IMO, if it is a computer version of the FoG miniatures rules, don't waste your money.

Lot's of fluff, great financial backing, great distribution, and a "broken" game for an inflated price.

My 2 cents.

acb3 · (This post was last modified: 11-22-2009, 03:54 AM by acb3.)

Saw this game a few days ago and it looked interesting - but I normally wait to see others reviews before buying. RADO are you saying the game (both original and PC port?) is not for the serious gamer? Is it too gamey/not enough realism? Also, what exactly is broken?

Was planning on buying based on other reviews but interested in the details of your view.

Many thanks.

RADO · 11-23-2009, 03:05 AM,

I purchased the FoG miniatures rules and a few suppliments for about $130.00 to see what R.B. Scott had come up with. For those of you that do not know, Scott was the co-author on a number of games and works with Phil Barker. Mr. Barker is a "GIANT" in the area of games and research on the ancient and medieval periods. Scott somewhat less so IMO. To make a long story short, they finally parted company and Scott went his own way.

FoG miniatures rules are a very well marketed and produced set of rules. Unfortunately, in my opinion, they do not accurately portray warfare of the period, nor does the game provide a point system for buying armies that is fair across the periods the rules address. The rules are not well suited to large battles and I hear complaint after complaint by players that say nothing ever happens. They watch the two armies approach one another, go into combat, and the lines remain static for the rest of the day. Another complaint is that skirmish combat appears to be handled very poorly, with skirmishers repeatedly being caught in close combat and literally preventing the two main lines from engaging.

Again, in my opinion, Scott has produced a very poor product and has taken full advantage of his previous relationship with Mr. Barker and he (Scott) obtained a publisher with an excellent distribution list in order to market his product.

If you want his rules, all one has to do is go to other web sites to find people dumping the rules off cheap to try and recover some of their investment.

I can only hope that the computer game is better than the miniatures game. For one, I'll wait to buy it cheap after I see people dumping it as they are the miniatures rules.

RADO · (This post was last modified: 11-23-2009, 11:14 AM by RADO.)

Here are some comments by others:

“I've played them and finally put them away. To much effort finding things; pretty book, impossible to use with ease. The plethora of army lists was a pain as well; imagine waiting 18 months to find out how to play your favorite army.
Hope everyone made their money”.

“Well my copy and the army lists I bought will be for sale at the next con I go to, real cheap”.

“A few people played a few games at the club here, but I haven't seen it for months now. Just good old DBA again”!

“The biggest drawback is the rule book. It reads well initially so you go into your first games feeling well prepared…but during play you can never find anything, aspects of play are split amongst several chapters".

“Fog seems on the wane in Ireland with only a couple of occasional players still interested in the Republic. We had to cancel the FOG comp at an event in Dublin last summer due to lack of interest”.

“I bought the rules and the first four supplements as they were released to Amazon.
The rules got a big sigh, and they went on the shelf. The supplements got a quick scan-through and went on the shelf. I pulled two of them down last night for the first time since buying them, to see how they addressed a couple of armies. I was disappointed; the categorizations of troops seemed rather odd”.

Gris · 11-30-2009, 02:46 PM,

Hi Nikb,

I don't owe it yet, but I do plan on picking it up. I'll hold any comments till then and I really can't say anything about the tabletop rules since I don't play them.

However in the meantime here are some links for your own info.

http://www.gamesquad.com/node/674

http://www.wargamer.com/article/2801/field-of-glory-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41t0ZM2rpxM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPKmgzQtL...re=related

This is what I could find outside of Slitherine's website. Hope this helps

Nikb · 12-02-2009, 03:48 PM,

Thanks Wartwo and Rado. Appreciate the help.

I managed to pick it up through Matrix via the Aussie download for a reasonable price (much better than the UK price).

There are some differing opinions out there and I'm a wee bit wary. But I thought it worth giving a new game series ago - at least to support the hobby.

Downloading now...

RADO · 12-03-2009, 06:39 AM,

Please let us know what you think about it compared to the HPS games.

cheers

Nikb · 12-03-2009, 08:54 AM,

RADO Wrote:Please let us know what you think about it compared to the HPS games.

Hmmm...I quickly played two scenarios last night. My initial response - disappointed and annoyed with the published reviews (just how objective have they been?).

Actually the more I think of it I wish I could get my money back. I wonder if Matrix would allow that?

It is a very basic game to play and I kept looking for more options. I wonder if simply porting (is that a word?) a table top game to the computer leaves the player with enough depth. Part of the depth of the table top game play is the complexity of rules, dice rolls etc. Taking all that out for the computer player just leaves what is really just the movement of virtual counters...as you can see I'm struggling to explain it.

I not too keen on making direct comparison with other game types. It is especially difficult to make a comparison with say HPS Gallic Wars as they are like chalk and cheese. I have all three of the HPS Ancient titles with one ongoing game of GW. I'm not a fan of the 'wego' of the Ancient titles - actually I really dislike it and think it would have been the perfect game if it was turn based. But I much prefer this HPS series to FOW - the depth of this game is so far in advance of FOG its not funny.

I'm at lunch but will take this up again.

What I will be doing is reading some of these reviews again (not comfortable on that front).

RADO · 12-05-2009, 07:46 AM,

Thank you very much for your initial views on 'computer fog' and I must say that I am not surprised.

Looking forward to hearing more.

IMO, the HPS computer ancient games are by far the best I have ever seen. They are not perfect and have a number of issues, but Paul is doing his best to address them, which takes time.

:chin: