Squad Battles

[BarcelonaBlom]

I was busy perusing HPS's website when I saw the Squad Battles (IIRC) game series. How are these games. I like large level strategy games but I absolutely LOVE tactical games. I believe that Tour of Duty was reviewed in ACG and it got some good backup there. Anyone else play these games?

http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/SB/SBVietnam/SBVietnam.html
http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/SB/TOD/TOD.html
http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/SB/ProudFew/ProudFew.html
http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/SB/EagStrk/EagStrk.html
http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/SB/Korea/korea.html
http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/SB/AOTR/aotr.html
http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/SB/pacwar/pacwar.html

[KG_Norad]

Hello again Richard :) I play them. They are a good tactical game. Each squad icon keeps track of men and weapons much like steel panthers. The interface is easy to work with too.

Vehicles are very abstract though because the intent was to focus on infantry. Weapons are also a little abstract in the sense that they lose effectiveness as you fire it...this is to simulate ammunition usage and malfunctions but you can never regain effectiveness in the course of a scenario so you really can't model days and days of fighting, only hours. This is not really a big deal though...after all a hit is a hit and a miss is a miss in the end but it tends to keep scenario length short.

I have come to really enjoy pbem with SB because it is SO Fast and Easy to play. Scenarios are generally small although there a few larger ones around for various titles.

It is a good solid game. I think Combat Mission is a much more detailed tactical simulation and I like those extra details better...but squad battles is fun in its own right and truthfully I like to PBEM with SB more because it is easier.

One good thing about it is a scenario designer can give the AI paths to follow giving it more "intelligence".

One bad thing about the game is that there is no user set up zones or random scenario generation so once you have played all the stock and user made scenarios you can find there will be no more surprise.

Also one other thing to note is that movement rates are pretty small. Thus in most scenarios contact is immanent and there really isn't too much maneuvering.

Hope this helps some. Also search for Squad Battles threads in the Panzer Campaign Forum. There has been some discussion on it there. Also just so you know PzC has more of a grand tactical feel then an operational feel...kind of like Campaign Series only taken to the next level...

I tend to like PzC better, there is more maneuver, it also tracks the number of men or vehicles in a unit includes fatigue that you can gain or lose, and is a much more detailed game. But SB is fun too if you want some quick close in fighting.

[Ivan Rapkinov]

I worked on TOD, P&F, ES, Korea as both scn/campaign designer, beta tester and help desk guy. It really comes down to a matter of taste - I don't know any other wargame does Squad level in the same way - personally, I moved onto the more "hardcore" milsims (TacOps, ATF, DA etc) so that was my reason for stopping playing them, but they occupy a special place in my heart :D

if you like the other Tiller games (PzC, Nappy etc) you like em - personally not enough modern battles for my liking, but that's due to customer interest.

No demo, so you can only truly know whetehr you'll like it if you've played other Tiller games (even the Campaign Series is like it) - but it's more beer'n'pretzels than say SPMBT, and it does Vietnam really well.

look for the Echo Four website - I'd recommend getting PacWar if you get any, as Frank and te others did a really great job on Africa @ war - a mod for PacWar.

[Aries]

Every game usually only approaches perfection.
Never really seems to get there.

But this ASL player thinks Squad Battles deserves to have a vote as being truely closest to emulating our great board game on the computer.