Squad Battles - Is it for me?

[Kool Kat]

Gents:

I've been "flirting" with getting into the Squad Battles system... but need some SB vets to answer my questions.

Would I make a good SB player?

My Likes / Experience

WWII era combat. (East, West, or Pacific - not African front)
Platoon / company size (Been exclusive Campaign Series player)
Squad Battles scale is "squad" - individual men and vehicles - correct?
Tactical (of course!)
Have dabbled with AH Squad Leader (board game) - found it interesting. Could not stand Advanced Squad Leader - spent too much time reading / deciphering the rules... not enough time actually playing!

Questions

1. Which WWII Squad Battles game would be best for a newbie player? (e.g. Least difficult learning curve) I have a "fear" of getting bogged down in rules and such.

2. Which WWII Squad Battle game(s) are the more popular and played more as PBeM matches? I do NOT wish to play against the AI.

3. How active is the Blitz SB ladder?

4. Environment / atmosphere of the SB forums? Friendly? Helpful? Quiet?

5. What are the top 3 best qualities of the Squad Battles system?

6. What are 3 "not so good" things about the Squad Battles system?

Many thanks in advance for your responses!

[Compass Rose]

The SB series is a very popular and a very enjoyable series. It does not have a very steep learning curve and if you are playing a small enough scenario, it is the only game series I know of where it can actually take less than a minute for you to completely finish up your turn.

I never tried to play ASL before however, it is not uncommon to hear a former ASL player say that they wish they would have found out about the SB series years ago.

As for popularity here are a few links to monthly results that Alan and Abram puts out showing how many games from each titles were reported during that particular month.

Feb results: https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...?tid=61254

Jan results: [url]https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards
/showthread.php?tid=61060[/url]

All of the game titles offer different sized scenarios. There is no complexity scale that increases or decreases depending on the scenario. The complexity level is the same for every scenario.

It is very easy to find answers to your questions when posting them on the forum. There are also several informative articles that are available to help out new players to the series and also help refresh players who have played the series, in the past.

Here is an example of a few:

https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...#pid357518

https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...#pid337169

(There is a link problem and I can not get the other really good thread to appear in this thread. It is located in the Important Threads section and is titled Squad Battles-Grunt School: SB Tips for newbies)


The best suggestion is to pick a title that interests you the most.

Red Victory (RV) is arguably the best, well put together SB titles to be released, to date. Oz is the master mind behind it and he is very active on the SB forum boards. He is also a super good player of the series, and 99 times out of 100, you will loose to him however, watching the moves that he preforms, are a invaluable learning lesson.

Depending on what you are use to playing, you may find that it may take a few tries to get into the series and start enjoying it. I know for me, it took me three separate tries at starting to play the series before I found the enjoyment in it and how easy it was to play.

Hopefully, you will give the series a try. I feel that you will find it fun and addicting as much of the rest of us have.

[Mad_Dog]

Hey Kool Kat!

Any of the WW2 games are pretty popular, Red Victory has the best balanced scenarios, and over 90 of them. Winter War is good as well, with great scenarios, and a very cool topic, but it's not as popular as RV. Advance of the Reich and Eagles Strike are good as well, with a ton of user made scenarios for those two games. Lots of well done ASL conversions. If you have any of those games, you will have lots of opponents. We are pretty active, if you want to play I don't think you will lack for games. I've never had a problem. :) We are much better behaved than the CS forums. Polite and helpful. The designers and playtesters are pretty active on the boards as well, which can give you an inside look at how the game works. Oz, Mike and Joao are all good guys and willing to answer questions.

Top 3 qualities... I like the scale, once I get above a battalion I am lost. Even some large SB scenarios are almost to big for me to enjoy. Good infantry combat, and a simple but effective morale system as well. You can control individual weapons in a squad. The interface is a little tough to learn, lots of buttons, but once you know it you don't even have to think about it. Three not so good things... Simplistic armour system, which can be frustrating. I haven't played many other games, so I don't have much to compare it too.

Anyway, here is some more reading for you, about gameplay and tactics and how the engine works.

https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...?tid=57984

[grofaz]

Think of it like Advanced Squad Leader but without the manuals... =)

[Richie61]

Think of it like Advanced Squad Leader but without the manuals... =)

Amen Brother!!!

I am kind of newbie to SB. I started in Feb. of 2012 and it's one of the best
WWII series games out there. What the graphics lack, the game engine more
than excels 10 fold. I am a former board game, so the graphics look great
to me.

PBEM is where it's at! You won't meet a better group of guys here!

Come in, the water is fine

[Jeff Conner]

Hey Mike

Good to see you over here. I agree with all of the comments above. Red Victory is probably the best title, both in terms of scenarios and opponents. Anything that Ozgur did the scenario work on is going to be good. He also did Winter War (Russo - Finnish 1940 conflict mostly) and Soviet-Afghan War.

Squad Battles is a pretty good infantry simulator. It is not overly complex, making numerous compromises between accuracy and playablity. Consequently, it is very fast to play and to learn. Campaign Series is a better armored combat simulator, Squad Battles is a better infantry and leadership simulator (leaders are crucial in Squad Battles). Squad Battles is easier to learn the basics of that CS, but probably just as hard to get good at. It has a very similar interface to all of the Tiller products that came after Talonsoft, so if you are familiar with those, Squad Battles will look much the same.

If you want someone to walk you through a scenario, let me know. I'd be happy to show you the ropes and give you some pointers. Only the last two titles (Falklands and Modern War) are available at John Tiller Software by download. I have heard that HPS has started to offer downloaded games also, but I don't know which ones or if they are any cheaper. If you shop around a bit, you can usually find a better price that is available at HPS.

Jeff Conner

[Kool Kat]

Gents:

Many thanks for your responses and welcomes! :)

Leaning towards Red Victory!

I need to review your info links... and make a decision!

[Jeff Conner]

All of the Squad Battles titles work fine on Windows 7 as long as they have the most current patch and they are installed in the proper folder. Red Victory, if I remember correctly, already has the necessary changes incorporated.

Jeff

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

Don't discount the post ww2 titles either.

I opersonally would still like to see some larger scenarios upwards of rgt/bde to div sized or better yet, have the oob of all the divs to pick from when going into a random fight. Something like one person takes the 2 Arm div and his opp chooses the 1st Pz Div and they go for a meeting engagement on a large map with casualties as the only vps and either you bring in any amount of your div when you want or x amount of points per turn to spend on your div for reinforcements. I like the actual oob rather than the generic Steel Panthers inf bn or whatever. There are so many possibilities still to go in this series. Even to the point of having oob for up to div sixed fights in post ww2. There are a lot of countries and a lot of forces available out there. You don't have to do div fights, can always choose CCA 2nd arm div vs pz rgt from 1 Pz Div and if enough points left to grab an inf bn from same div. I have seen some large maps that are not being utilized enough with larger force fights.

Bottom line though is ww2 or post ww2, you can't go wrong anywhere.

[Richie61]

I like the following the most: don't read into the order I wrote them

Red Victory
Eagles Strike
Advance of the Reich

I also have:

Vietnam
Pacific War
The Proud And The Few
Soviet-Afghan War
The Korean War

These all run fine on my Win 7 64 bit Pro machine.