Games have got a mixed reputation as some are totally ahistoric FPS shooters but pretend to be historic.
However some are really good, one of these is battlefront which was also used by the American Military University where I did my MA in history.
The Eastern front in WW2 classes used combat mission for simulating tactics. The goal was to write papers on what the outcome was focussing on how tactics on the Eastern front (and all fronts) actually worked.
This “game” is not easy but really lets you learn about how tactics work.
Hoi4 and the Hoi series in general is good but the Black Ice mod is super overrated. Useless micromanagement, pointless technologies, no historical accuracy for nations outside of the ‘interesting’ ones etc…
At the tactical level the older Close Combat games were quite enjoyable and realistic. For example, Tiger and Panther tanks aren’t depicted as the unstoppable behemoths they are in other games. I also like the fact that machine guns in these games do in fact run out of ammunition.
Close Combat was one of my favorite games, starting with CC1 which got more difficult the better you do. Also the effects were pretty realistic for the time. It did have fields of fire and if people die the stay dead so there was a real interest in doing it ok. The realistic use of ammo, mortar round and the unpredictable effect of air/artillery strikes are also modelled pretty well.
Thanks for the tip:
Hoi 4 is still on my list to try out. I checked the BlaceIce mode and it seem to combat one of the major problems of historical strategy games: Hindsight. On of the problems of course is that we 75 years later know what worked and didn’t work. E.g. carriers made more sense that battleships, how fast can we develop the A-bomb. Historical knowledge is a massive bias when replaying battles. .
Micromanagement, while realistic is a game killer as well but important. The old adagio amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics. No offense meant to anyone.
My first strategy game I played to death (and it was the first one) was Empire on the Commodore Amiga. (Now ancient history but in the day Commodore was far bigger that Apple and even de IBM PC.
It is a relatively simple game but it had a pretty good AI when I played it and it probably still is addictive. On of the features is that you explore while conquer like in civilization, so you don’t know what is around the corner.
I can see my mother shaking her fist at you (she’s pro-IBM, at least after 1981). But I remember when the Commodore was a big deal. The very first computer I had as a kid was a Commodore PET – I used the PET for only a year before Dad bought an IBM PC for me.
I really enjoy hoi4 , i have arround 400 hours in that game.
Recently have been playing post scriptum which is great fun, squad based realistic shooter based on ww2 battles. Its pretty good in terms of realism and world war 2 squad based tactics.
50vs50 with most of the maps being based in operation market garden.
If you end up being a squad leader you command a squad of 9,
Each team also has a commander who gives orders to all of his team’s squad leaders.
Has anyone played Commandos 2? A fun tactical game with one of the best soundtracks ever.
EDIT: I was going to post the songs individually, but when I went on YouTube I realized that there was an actual HD remaster available So, if you’d excuse me…
EDIT 2: Wow, I was scared for a bit when I saw that it had a mixed score on steam, but then I realized the negative votes were from just from some ‘anti-liberals’ complaining that the swastika was removed. I don’t even remember the swastika being in the game, aside from some stock documentary footage in the beginning. Sheesh.
Hi,
I had a simular experience with teachers. My first gamecomputer with keyboard was the G7000 and I did a 3 day course on a TI 99/4A Texas instruments computer (which was priced out of the market by Commodore). That got me in the local newspaper in a group photo with a blabla whizz kids story. Actually I did by VIC20 with taperecorder and could play PET games as well. At univerisity I was one of those with a commodore Amiga. The teacher where always moaning it was a “games computer”. I did run MS-Dos emulator for school work and rather had real graphics than the choice of black and green or 4 colors (CGA) at best. I think their strategy was that too much graphics and a graphical user interface (which had been around since 1973) isn’t “business like”. Amazing how this rea
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