Victory Point Games: Battlesson

[Merctime]

So, I've went over and made an account here.

I'm thinking about checking out some of the Battlesson games available.

I'm basically 'green' or non-experienced when it comes to wargames, having only played a few games of RISK and Axis and Allies and the like back in the day. So, I've no experience with how Hex n Chit wargames go outside of a few games at Hexwar.com with Makofan here on these boards. Because of this, I'm thinking this series of games may prove to be a good intro.

Have any of you had any experience with these games in particular? Any encouragements or input? Fun experiences to share?

[kesher]

Never heard of these particular games before, but they certainly look noob-friendly.

It's hard to go wrong with only two pages of rules...

[coffee]

They look somewhat familiar, albeit later versions.

"Battle for Moscow" was the free introductory game from GDW.

"Strike Force One" was the free introductory game from SPI that replaced "Napoleon at Waterloo"

"Drive on Metz" was the sample game/design from Jim Dunnigan's book "The Complete Wargames Handbook: How to Play, Design, and Find Them"


Also, I note in the credits that Alan Emrich is involved. He's been teaching wargame design for years; on his website he has hosted files where you can print your own copies of such games as the ones I've listed above.

I'm not sure I'd pay $18.99 for these games, but I'm notoriously cheap.

If you do take the plunge, please do let us know how it goes!

[Merctime]

Wow, Coffee! Thanks so much for that input, man... I really appreciate that!

I'm going to have to find Mr. Emrich's site. I think I'll print a few and try those before buying. And, I don't see any problem at all with being notoriously cheap... I could stand to be more so myself. Wisdom.

Thanks again for the heads up! I'll have to look for that book, too. Great info, brother... Fight On!

[Otto Harkaman]

Haven't checked all the games on there but if you click game resources on The Drive on Metz game you can download the rules as a pdf. Also they have a Vassal and Cyberboard PBEM (play by email) modules. Vassal and Cyberboard are virtual tabletop programs to play the game on your computer. Vassal is java based and requires java to be installed on the computer, the Vassal setup will install it. Cyberboard is a PC only program.

The Strike Force One game in the game resources has a nice video on how to play the game.

[Merctime]

Thank you also, Otto! ...But your pictures aren't loading...

EDIT: Is Vassal for single or multi-player? I'll give it a look. Is it like Hexwar?

[Otto Harkaman]

I was trying to load images from my google drive.

Here is the Vassal website
www.vassalengine.org/

There are some youtube videos how to use it.

[derv]

I have a suggestion for you Merctime if you're just looking for a game to try out.

Go over to Noble Knights and check out some of the older war game magazines by SPI, 3W, or Decision Games. Look for the ones that included a game with them. Some of these are pricey, but some are as little as $4-8. You then can check out particular game titles online at BoardGameGeek or elsewhere for reviews. This site has a good list of the offerings- many of the games in the magazine would later be published as box sets.

While you're there look at Avalon Hills old boxed games like Tactics II or Kriegspiel. Here again, if you're looking for a game to just give a whirl, you can buy them for as little as $6-9 depending on the quality.

You might want to try and compare prices on ebay or amazon if you see something that interests you.

I also like this little company called Minden Games. He offers quite a few solitaire games with simple to understand rules.

edit: for some reason I can't get the link to work for Minden Games. The addy is minden_games.homestead.com

[Merctime]

Thanks, Derv! I'll give all of this a look over the weekend.

[coffee]

Okay, here we go:

Battle for Moscow, links to the complete game you can download and play. From web-grognards:

grognard.com/bfm/index.html

And Napoleon at Waterloo, from Alan Emrich's website:

www.alanemrich.com/PGD/Week_03/PGD_NAW_rules.htm

Hope that helps!