Cromwell 2026
Peter (NikTheRake) and myself tried this one out last night.
Aim of the game:-
This is an easy to learn wargame. The rules are straightforward and printed on two A4 double-sided pages. One of these sides is an example of play. The object is to eliminate the opposing army and take over all of Ireland. The map of Ireland is divided into four regions (depicting Ulster, Munster, Connaught and Leinster) with each region further divided into areas.
Set up:-
One player begins with control of Munster (bottom left) and the other in Ulster (top right). Connaught and Leinster form a no-mans land in between.
Players take turns placing a unit within their own area starting with the first player and continue until all units are on the board. There is a stacking limit of 5 units per area.
Reinforcements:-
The game differs from other wargames I have played in that you begin with all your units on the board, but you will receive no further reinforcements during the game. Certain areas in each region of the board give the controlling player a token during their turn. Four of these can be traded for a chip which can be placed below a unit. A chip will take a hit instead of the unit.
Action Phases
1. Jet
Can either bomb any enemy land/ water based unit 3 dice or
Battle for Air Superiority 2 dice against opposing jet – a 10 point hit track is provided and once exceeded a hit is scored2. Move Units
3. Fight (in contested areas)
4. Collect tokens
5. Purchase and Place Chips
Units:-
A simple player aid sheet gives a breakdown of unit movement, dice, any special rules and keeps track of hits on the Jets. Units are summarised (if I remember correctly) as follows:-
Unit Move Dice Special Rules
for Jet attacks see 1. above.
Jet* Once placed doesn’t move 2 Dice are for defence only. For attack see 1. above
Helicopter 6 2 Must land on a mobile Heli Base
Mobile Heli Base 1 1 If you have more helicopters than bases at the end of your move extra helicopters are destroyed
Tank 1 2
Motorised Infantry 2 1
Hover Tank 3 2 Can move on land or water
Hover Craft 3 1 Can move on land or water
Rocket Launcher 1 2 Can support an attack up to two areas awayHits:-
Any 6 rolled scores a hit
Removing Casualties:-
Each unit is also depicted on a card. A card is placed to the side for each unit involved in a battle (note if you have two tanks and a helicopter are involved in the battle then two tank cards and one helicopter card will be placed to the side). If you suffer a hit your opponent picks a card at random which takes the hit. Remember if the unit has a chip the chip is removed instead of the unit.
Overall Impression of the Game:-
I rate this game a 5 (see rating system below). It’s an enjoyable two-player game, which I would be more than happy to play again on occasion. Very easy to explain and play. The (lack of) reinforcement mechanic stops this relatively simple wargame from outstaying its welcome. The different unit capabilities ensure an element of strategy.
My Game Rating System
10 The Holy Grail of games (still waiting to give a game this score)
8-9 Very good game.
6-7 Good game. Would happily play whenever it’s brought to the table.
4-5 Reasonable game. Would play and enjoy occasionally if it is brought to the table or suitable to play with certain opponents.
2-3 Poor game, but has one or two good points, such as good quality components which can be salvaged for other games (making it worth a couple of quid from a charity shop, but not much more) or I get the feeling there’s a reasonable game hidden in there somewhere if only I could be bothered to look/ invent house rules.
1 Somebody’s had a laugh at my expense. I can’t think of anything good to say about this one (only one game has achieved this, if achieved is the right word, but it’s also the only game I have ever thrown in the bin and I can’t remember it’s name. I had received it amongst a bundle of games from ebay. It was a Power Rangers type game)
King of the WW2 FPS's
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Of all the WW2 shooters, the best one is Brothers in Arms. I have the first one, Road to Hill 30, and I will get the second eventually. In short, it’s everything a WW2 game should be, and less Duke Nukem than the other ones. There aren’t any one man armies carrying all kinds of weapons, killing the enemy with bubblegum and stuff. This one does the squad system very well, and even gets into working with tanks and the like. Like so many other games, this one begins with the D-Day campaign. Here you are from the Airborne perspective, and the game actually goes from engagement to engagement in a single campaign.
The only problem is that the aiming is sometimes off, but then again, this is about squad command and maneuver, not going all Carlos on them. -
thanks for the post. I had been thinking of getting Brothers in Arms. How did it compare (for you) to Medal of Honor?
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BIA sucks… Get Call of duty 2 and be happy. BIA forces you to control a team of like 4-6 dudes and isnt true “shooter”… Call of Duty is the best game of 2005 hands down. CC trust me …just buy COD2…
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I have to agree with IL on the quality of games. I just find COD 1 & 2 to be everything I dreamed of. However, I wouldn’t discredit BIA and MOH.
MOH definitely set the tone and was great in its time. COD just came along and did it better, plus a few bonuses (iron sights, graphics, playability, etc….) I’d say COD also has the best AI and “fluff” (sounds, dying animations, level design, etc.)
I have to give praise to BIA, though. Its better for realism, and the strategy of squad combat makes the replay value go up. Not to mention the story is good and multiplayer is fresh with so many options - you can be the Joes or Jerries. I’d recommend it CC, but don’t neglect Call of Duty. Both have non-stop action, but if you want to think a bit more, go with BIA.
By the way, IL, I just got a not-so-legal version of COD2 to test it on my laptop. Runs b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l, so I’ll pick up the real thing soon a get with you online. I love the tweaks they made to the weapons, and glad they left the BA-mfin’-R true to the 1st game.
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Yea and i found a bug in one of the maps… it lets you go inside a building that you sould not be in and “snipe” off targets… it was too funny to watch about 10 dudes sweating inside this “bughouse” trying to jump into it from the window… the map in question is the multyplayer map that has a machine gun nest on the top floor on TDM… its gone on the CTF map. It overlooks that “doghouse” forward to the left. You just jump on the window ledge and try to jump on the lower roof and the “glitch” allows you to drop into the room…
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@cystic:
thanks for the post. I had been thinking of getting Brothers in Arms. How did it compare (for you) to Medal of Honor?
Compared to Medal of Honor, the story is much better. I think the main character’s waxing intellectual is boring and melodramatic, but I’m kind of thick skinned about things like that. One thing about Medal of Honor was the 40’s movie-esque way you took on the entire German Army yourself. Now those were great for the kids and may have raised morale in the states, but the Germans laughed at them, and upon returning, they made the Veterans sick. The VAs in BiA are very, very good. Best I’ve heard in a wargame really. MoH’s were cheesy. Medal of Honor was also heavily ‘on rails,’ meaning you didn’t have a free roaming environment. IMO, that’s what made the greats like Doom what they were. BiA is kind of on rails, but you can choose your avenue of approach and the deep gameplay makes up for it. MoH is great cinematically, but great games are not interactive movies (except Kessen perhaps….but that is touted as one). One other thing about MoH: The reloading system has always sucked. Even if the gun is reloaded, you have a delay until it actually registers it, so you are screwed over a lot.
Interestingly, the upcoming MoH Airborne is supposed to have all kinds of free roaming, even allowing you the choice of where you land.The agent/soldier thing is a great idea, but works best with Metal Gear Solid. If they made one of those about a British or American or even a free French agent in WW2, that would be king. MGS spinoffs generally suck though, and it’s just because of gameplay.
The thought of a massive battlefield game with BiA gameplay makes me want to clean my guns and turn up some music. That would be the greatest. I liked BF1942 a lot, but it’s still like a war between a bunch of commandos and NPCs. If there were all kinds of squad leaders with an actual in game command structure (based on victories and experience) where players are the officers and commanders, that would be the ultimate online game.
Call of Duty, despite what it’s touted as, is actually almost the same as MoH in all the ways I’ve discussed. The enemies are deadly but still to easy. Lifebars really don’t have a place in shooters anymore…not with the technology we have today. CoD is still a very good game like MoH, but I resent that you can play as the Soviets but not the Wermacht. I am hoping they branch out in to the Pacific and even into the Sino-Japanese war perhaps. It’s a fun game but once you’ve done it, you’ve done it. AI is probably the weakest in CoD.
A rundown of the AI in each game:
MoH: The enemy waits in his designated place for you to do what you are supposed to do. If you shoot a machine gunner in the head, expect them to line up like sheep to the slaughter for more headshots.
CoD: Same as above, but the enemy really doesn’t want to live. Defending a point can be difficult, but why are the Germans doing Stalin Marches? :?
BiA: Cover system is very strong in this one. Troops follow your commands well (Ghost Recon…take some notes). The enemy makes attacks that cause you to think as well as use your trigger finger. Enemies defend positions as well as attack yours, and you have the occasional enemy who charges like he’s at Verdun. Close fighting is deadly and decisive. The conscrips fight like conscripts and the veterans fight like real Gold Badges. -
CoD is still a very good game like MoH, but I resent that you can play as the Soviets but not the Wermacht
BTW in Multyplayer you can be anything… of course i only play Germany… except in Leningrad and moscow maps.
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(except Kessen perhaps….but that is touted as one)
Mmm…Kessen <drool>…
Love the first one, and the third isn’t bad, but as much as I like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I couldn’t swallow number 2.CoD is still a very good game like MoH, but I resent that you can play as the Soviets but not the Wermacht. I am hoping they branch out in to the Pacific and even into the Sino-Japanese war perhaps.
I was going to ask your opinion on this (I could only guess your answer :roll:), and I feel that both a German perspective and a Pacific theater game are in order. I’ve heard the team wants to keep strictly European, but hopefully they will change their minds…</drool>
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Honestly, I’m kind of tired of ALL of the attention going to Normandy all the time. Now I have absolute respect for the men who fought and died at Normandy. That was a better battle than what I was ever in, but that was one landing in a war that had so many. What about the near 7,000 men who died on Iwo Jima? What about bloody Tarawa, or Peleliu, or the D-Day (in scope, not in landing tactics) of the Pacific: Guadalcanal? The greatest battle in Europe for the western powers was Ardennes, so if they do make the series with the 101st we will probably see it.
If they every do make a game from the German perspective, it would be nice to see it from the Afrika Korps, since that part has been neglected by game makers (and because Rommel is my favorite general of the era). -
Oh yeah, IL. Forgot to mention this:
The thought of a massive battlefield game with BiA gameplay makes me want to clean my guns and turn up some music. That would be the greatest. I liked BF1942 a lot, but it’s still like a war between a bunch of commandos and NPCs. If there were all kinds of squad leaders with an actual in game command structure (based on victories and experience) where players are the officers and commanders, that would be the ultimate online game.
What you wish for is granted in Battlefield 2, although still there are people who aren’t team players. It’s not WW2, but it blows BF1942 out of the water. Voice chat is the bomb!
You can find the Ardennes offensive in a variety of games : COD1, for instance.
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comments noted.
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What you wish for is granted in Battlefield 2, although still there are people who aren’t team players. It’s not WW2, but it blows BF1942 out of the water. Voice chat is the bomb!
You can find the Ardennes offensive in a variety of games : COD1, for instance.
I’ve heard good things about BF2 and I will get it eventually when I get a good computer. I’m hoping that they keep updating it like they did recently. Maybe they can even throw in some sub saharan nations for Europe colonial conflict and new terrains. What would be really cool to see would be a Red Dawn scenario type game.
The reason I’m not getting A&A DDay is because I now know that the Bulge will be out this year. I haven’t played EiB yet but I’m sure the story will eventually find its way there and beyond, and maybe they’ll even hit the Market Garden fiasco. I like how they actually do the campaigns though instead of the campaign hopping that MoH does.
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Whew
Thanks for the feedback. When i have more gaming time, i (and a buddy) will have to lock-and-load. -
I really want a shooter with no HUD, meaning no ammo number, no health meter, no CROSSHAIR.
I really enjoy DoD, (Day of Defeat), even the first one. Death is in a matter of seconds, not a minute like in Counter Strike. I’d like to see as far as they can get with realism.
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DOD sucks! COD has no HUD… well its got a very small thing in the corner.
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And why is that so?
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I really want a shooter with no HUD, meaning no ammo number, no health meter, no CROSSHAIR.
I really enjoy DoD, (Day of Defeat), even the first one. Death is in a matter of seconds, not a minute like in Counter Strike. I’d like to see as far as they can get with realism.
Most games you can at least turn crosshairs off. Just check the options. Some have customizable HUDs as well. Doesn’t DoD show your ammo & health (as well as a crosshair by default), though?
I had a great time playing the first DoD back in the day, but can’t get in to the newest version of it. Not to mention I’d rather not think about trying out Steam again. Although, Red Orchestra may change my mind…
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And why is that so?
so you can see where your buddy is in multyplayer.
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What I mean by turning off HUD and stuff, I meant that to be MANDATORY as in everyone has to play like that. Obviously with the HUD on, you’ll have a large advantage.
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it doesnt really make sense to have a health bar in most games anyway. You get shot, your out.
maybe if you get hit in your kevlar than your good, but that wasnt around in ww2.
Thats why I like Battlefont2, only your armor is between you and death. :mrgreen:
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