Oddball is my favourite movie character of all time.
I tried 101st Airborne about 2 years after release – when it was in the AUD20 bargains bin.
For 6 years I was a keen player of Close Combat and found 101st Airborne very very slow.
In the meantime my life changed and I find I have little time for continuos time games and I started playing turn based games PBEM.
The advantages of both genre have been debated vigorously within the wargaming community. But in reality, infantry combat is a mixture of “continuos time” and “turn based” action.
And the one genre missing is where you control a single squad in a series of missions. Then I read about 82nd Airborne and the improvements over the original game. Yes, this could be the missing link.
82nd was announced in late 1999 set for release in June 2000. Since then I have bought – at full price:
Close Combat 4 by Atomic
Close Combat 5 by Atomic (played both Online – fantastic)
The Ardennes Offensive (“TAO”) by SSG - a free download and a great game. Played it by PBEM)
Uncommon Valour by 2 by 3 – a fantastic strategic level wargame. Best played PBEM
Soon Korsun Pocket by SSG – the sequel to TAO
Soon Battlefields! by Matrix- a replacement for TAOW and for the old World at War series by Atomic
Soon Combat Leader by Matrix – probably a great game but would be better at the squad level of 82nd Airborne.
Soon Airborne Assault by Panther Games. A terrific continuos time game set at the operational level.
So, since the announcement of 82nd Airborne I have bought 4 fantastic wargames and will soon buy another 4. Certainly before June of 2004
I have pushed to get away from board games and instead use computers to make better wargames. Each of the games listed above has at least one great innovation in that direction.
Unfortunately 82nd Airborne uses 1998 technology/ ways of doing stuff – and so in another thread I came up with the word “obsolete”.
This game could have been great, but unfortunately the wargaming community is small and Shrapnel cannot afford to develop it. That’s why science fiction, fantasy and now baseball get such a run.