From: Bruce Rennie Subject: Re: Two AH games--opinions, please! Harrison Bolter wrote: : Does anyone have any opinions about the Avalon Hill PC games Operation : Crusader and Stalingrad? I'm toying (unintentional pun, honest!) with : the idea of purchasing one or both (or neither!) and would appreciate : any feedback. Thanks in advance. I have Stalingrad and enjoy it very much. It's my all time favorite wargame. Warning: I am extremely interested in the WW2 eastern front campaign so this game is a natural for me. Remember that as you read these words. Stalingrad (along with Operation Crusader, and D-Day: America Invades) is an "operational" level wargame. The unit level is company/battalion/ regiment. As the name implies, the game is focused on the fighting around Stalingrad and the end of Case Blau in late '42. There are several scenarios of various sizes and one monster campaign that covers Operation Uranus from start to finish. There are three different scales represented in the scenarios. The game is based on Atomics old V for Victory series and look similar. (See the wargames Utah Beach, Velikye Luki, Market-Garden, and Gold-Juno-Sword). The game model is simultaneous movement (ie. You plan your movement, attacks, etc which are then resolved with the computers plans at the end of the turn). >From a realism perspective, the games are fairly good. Fog of war is implemented in several ways. First, units are unseen until within spotting distace of one of your units (the Germans also have recon aircraft). However, specific knowledge of the unit (headquarters, strength, etc) is only available after extended contact. I like this feature a lot. Some of the other features: - Weather: Historically accurate or random. - Engineers, entrenchments, and fortifications (play the Germans and you will know this well). - Airfields. - Supply isolated units via air. - Modelling of fatigue, disruption, supply levels for each unit. - Disruption and supply modified by distance of unit from superior HQ (no running units around aimlessly). - A "staff" officer feature, whereby you can turn certain duties over to the computer. - Several "what if" options, such as extra reinforcements for the Germans, early withdrawal of Army Group A from the Caucausus, no purge of officers for the Russians, etc. - An excellent order of battle viewer that lets you quickly see the HQ hierarchy, and the units in each division. The AI is "adequate". I say this because there hasn't been a computer wargame yet where you couldn't slam dunk the AI once you had some experience. The computer is much better on the defense than on the attack (where it sometimes doesn't watch its flanks). However, if you take some of the negative options, or give the computer some favourable ones and you get a pretty good game. The campaign game is truly large. In fact, the earlier versions had a problem if you fought too many battles (get the v2.0 patch and everythings great). The game comes with a large map. I suggest laminating it as soon as possible and using it to keep track of where your divisions are located (I think there are approx 50 divisions on the German side in the campaign. The game supports PBEM. Check out the LeadEaters World at War web site at http://leadeaters.com/waw/ for more information, tactics, etc. They also have a ladder. All in all, I like this game a lot. The campaign will keep you occupied for a while and there is a lot of replayability. One of my buddies is more into the North African campaign and has Operation Crusader. He says similar things about it, but finds it very difficult. He attributes this to the more limited maneuver options (your constrained by the Med and the deep desert) which may make life easier for the AI. I find the smaller scope and lesser overall importance of the North African campaign makes it hard for me to keep interested, but that's just me. Hope this helps, /bruce -- ******************************************************************************* * Bruce Rennie Q: Are We Not Men ? * * brennie@interlog.com * * * *******************************************************************************