Wargame: Airland Battle

[keith.lamothe]

Well, it may not be so boolean as being able to enjoy the action or not, it probably depends on how much micro is involved to know how much attention you can spend on watching the battles during the game.  Replays being a different thing; they work for some people (like me, assuming it's not plagued with technical issues like a lot of replay systems I've seen), not for others.

[Wingflier]

I mean you do enjoy the action, you just don't do it from a zoomed-in perspective.

Watching videos online doesn't give you the full effect because you don't even know what units you're using. We're talking about a game here which has a unit selection of nearly a thousand tanks, infantry, helicopters, aircraft, and more, from 12 different nations. Building your own deck allows you to connect with the types of units you've grown up admiring your whole life.

As I said before, in an hour or so I'm going to post a new thread about another game which is similar (in terms of representing modern combat), but which is much more zoomed-in so you can "enjoy" the battlefield experience a lot more. The consequence being, of course, that you lose the large-scale battlefield perspective.

[Coppermantis]

(Note that I've only played European Escalation, but I'm assuming that the view is done in roughly the same fashion.)

In EE, most of the time you aren't seeing it super close like in most of the screenshots, but neither are you going to be zoomed out to the maximum level where the units are just represented by icons. Bigger units like tanks and stuff can be seen moving around, you can see gunfire, missiles and artillery shells going off and so on. Infantry is usually barely visible except for the name icon floating above it, but because you generally aren't doing a ton of active micro I actually disagree with Wingflier that it's entirely feasable to zoom in for a little bit to see your guys doing their thing up close.

[Cyborg]

You make it work by putting an action camera in the corner.

[keith.lamothe]

Redshirt Cam!

"And here's the infantryman you just ordered to flank that tank column... wait, where'd he go?"

[chemical_art]

In my rts games i like having several factions at once. thus it is impossible to watch all at once so then replays let me. it is both enlightening and entertaining to watch

[Coppermantis]

http://www.wargame-ab.com/#290

So it looks like they're making another sequel sort of thing? They're certainly milking this franchise, but at least they add a decent amount of new content each time, so it's a step up from, say COD. Apparently this new one is "even more ambitious than Airland Battle." The new Asian nations are going to be cool (North Korea best Korea) and naval/amphibious will as well. I didn't get Airland Battle, but I might get this one depending on the price.

[Volatar]

I got Airland Battle given to me during the Steam Sale. I haven't played it much though (I was also given Kerbal Space Program and have sunken 46 hours into that over the past couple of weeks). I am only halfway through the tutorial missions. I can't seem to understand how to handle the infantry one. I keep getting everyone killed.

[Cyborg]

I got Airland Battle given to me during the Steam Sale. I haven't played it much though (I was also given Kerbal Space Program and have sunken 46 hours into that over the past couple of weeks). I am only halfway through the tutorial missions. I can't seem to understand how to handle the infantry one. I keep getting everyone killed.

I'm new at it also. Trying to learn. Still frustrated by the camera.

[Wingflier]

It's got a steep learning curve at first, and even when you know how to play it, playing it well is even more taxing. My Steam library says that I played it for 174 hours. As fun as it was during that time, I'm not likely to play it again any time soon ;p

[Cyborg]

Learning curves don't bother me, I just feel like I'm missing out on all the fun because I'm so busy on the zoomed out screen I never get to see everything blow up. Is there a hotkey or something to zoom in really quickly on battle? I'm not trying to be the best in the game, I just want to see some awesome battles.

[Wingflier]

Just wanted to revive this thread to post the trailer for the new one coming out soon!

[fanneyjack]

Wonderful, wonderful game. Man, I don't even LIKE RTS, but the realism in thsi game honors realistic war game predecessors like Combat Mission. The easy shift between great overview and cinematic actions on a closeup makes the replays of specific action packed combat hotspots delightful as a mtf.

[Shrugging Khan]

Played two rounds of Red Dragon with my brother yesterday, and eh.

The ships look good visually, but the lack of Naval Artillery is a little saddening. The new maps are a blessing.
But German Special Forces armed with G11s? Where have we gotten to?