Favorite Titles

Many Mariuses · 02-23-2015, 01:02 AM,

Hi all,

The next birthday is coming up soon, which means I will be adding another title or two to my collection. I've already began the process of winnowing down my possible choices, but as many of you probably know, that's easier said than done.

The standard piece of advice, "pick the campaign you are most interested in," is quite good, but I'm interested in almost all of them.

So, with that being said, I thought I'd ask you all which titles are your favorite, and why? The discussion might help me narrow down my options, and should be interesting.

I'll start. Thus far, my favorite has been Salerno. I've always been fond of amphibious landings, I like that there are two separate campaigns included, and most importantly, the campaigns are quite manageable for two players.

Honorable mention: North German Plain '85. This was a recent pick up, but I have been impressed so far. Modern combat is much bloodier and dynamic than in WWII, and since the campaign is fictional, I've found that the scenarios are much more likely to be balanced than the historical scenarios.

**Ricky B** · 02-23-2015, 02:08 AM,

If I had to rank the games I had the most fun with over the years, I would have to go back to Smolensk and Kharkov 42 still. Plenty of good battles from all the games but those two stick in my mind. Also, for a specific scenario, one of my favorites has been the Jihad 2004 scenario for Middle East, an add on from Volcano Man.

Rick

Many Mariuses · 02-23-2015, 05:02 AM,

(02-23-2015, 02:08 AM)Ricky B Wrote: If I had to rank the games I had the most fun with over the years, I would have to go back to Smolensk and Kharkov 42 still. Plenty of good battles from all the games but those two stick in my mind. Also, for a specific scenario, one of my favorites has been the Jihad 2004 scenario for Middle East, an add on from Volcano Man.

Rick

The 2004 scenario was pretty great. The team game I was involved in fell apart before things became too intense, but it was shaping up to be a great one before that.

**Mr Grumpy** · 02-23-2015, 08:25 AM,

Salerno is a good title despite not really being talked about much here, both the scenarios covering the landings are great fun but both do tend to grind down to a attritional battle after a couple of days.

If you like amphibious operations then don't overlook Sicily, obviously only the landings at Gela were seriously opposed, but it does have the advantage that if you play the campaign you can break out to try to capture the whole island, there are also campaign variants where the US forces land at other points of the island.

It also poses a real challenge for the Axis player to use the slim resources and the terrain to slow the Allied advance. Smile

Don Czirr · 02-23-2015, 09:42 AM,

I'm liking Budapest 45 a lot.

- Good mix of small, medium and huge battles
- Styles range from sieges with intense unit density to wide open cross-country treks as in the Soviet Prelude battle ...
- Excellent "toys" on both sides : by this time, the big super weapons are available to both sides - King Tigers, IS 2s, Panthers, Nebelwerfers etc ...
- Equipment above fielded by famous / infamous divisions such as Wiking and the Death's Head .
- A lot of Winter maps but also a couple of normal maps for Prelude etc ..
- Lot's of river crossings / bridge operations ...

FLG · 02-24-2015, 05:57 AM,

If you like NGP then DF85 is a must, covering both NGP and Fulda Gap. Lots of high quality mods available. The grand campaign is big, but there are a few smaller campaigns.

One of my personal favourites is Stalingrad. Good mix of dash and grind, small scenarios and large. Ones with the Germans racing forward and ones with Russians breaking through.

Landser34 · 02-25-2015, 02:59 AM,

My favorite is the first HPS\JTS game I bought Korsun 44 and that caused me to buy most of all the games that has been put out and the 2000+ games I have played in all the HPS\JTS series

smurf309 · 02-25-2015, 11:56 AM,

what did you like about korsun 44 Smile

(02-25-2015, 02:59 AM)Landser34 Wrote: My favorite is the first HPS\JTS game I bought Korsun 44 and that caused me to buy most of all the games that has been put out and the 2000+ games I have played in all the HPS\JTS series

Many Mariuses · 02-26-2015, 07:24 AM,

Some good detail here, although, as I suspected, the posts aren't helping me narrow things down. Virtually all of the titles that have been mentioned have been on my "short list" at one time or another. Smile

Some follow up questions for previous posters:

-Do the weather conditions significantly impede movement in Stalingrad or Budapest? I have Kharkov 43, and it took me a while to adjust to the limitations snow imposes (especially on foot units).

-Landser, what was it about Korsun that you found so impressive? My sense has always been that it, along with Normandy, are among the more controversial titles.

Landser34 · 02-26-2015, 11:05 AM,

The Reason I got Korsun 1st is I had just finished reading a few books on Korsun and then the game came out I like this one from either side the Russians trying to encircle and the destroy while trying to keep the Germans from rescuing the troops in the pocket and as German player you have to try and keep as many german troops as you can until help arrives