Do you have a favorite scale in wargaming?

[Dr Zaius]

What wargame scale captures your interest the most? Do you like being in command of the whole Eastern front, or would you rather decide which building is the best place for your .50 cal?

I remember the heat that the original East Front system took because of its scale. There were a lot of critics who seemed to think that combat at the platoon scale was unrealistic for a variety of reasons. PC wargaming has moved on since then and we now have all sorts of different scales and wargame types to choose from.

Which do you prefer and why?

 

[Aries]

I voted squad because I am an obsessed Advanced Squad Leader player.

But hmmm would controlling 40 or 50 units in a game of ASL make me a "squad" level gamer?

I am also an obsessed Advanced Third Reich player, so I was also wanting to vote higher echelons.

But frankly, if the game is well made, and turn based, I will play it.

I am currently only uninterested in playing games where the game features images of GI joe doll level of image.

I am possibly a minority, but somehow these games just don't look seriously like wargames. They have to much of a "toy" look to them.

I guess it's my age showing, wargames to me will always somhow be things with cardboard counters and Nato symbols or or vehicle sillouettes.

 

[Headshot]

for WWII it has to be squad. Civil war, battalion. some of the newer, more realistic sims, its all about game quality, the one exception is steel panther: main battle tank. In this game a grouping ability would be immensely appreciated. No fun commanding 500 abrams that take about 10 seconds to move each. oh that coupled with a terrible engine. So all in all it depends on the era and on the game. I think it boils down to the fact that if a game is a good, the scale can become negligable.

 

[Deltapooh]

I like company to brigade level. The more troops you command, the more detached you can become. One of the reasons I didn't like Decisive Action was this level of detachment. I found it difficult to remain focused on the entire battle over a long period of time. Each turn seemed to frustrate me more.

The main reasons I turned against the game was the lack of scenarios, turn-based gameplay (although I recognize this important feature at Division to Corp level), and complicated user-interface. DA needs to be re-hauled to truly maximize it's potential

This wasn't too much of a problem for me in TOAW Vol. II. Maybe the friendlier user-interface had something to do with that. I'm not sure.

However, I've taken to ATF and BCT. I don't have to worry about turns stripping away concentration. I can remain focused throughout the game.

I still haven't tried any WWII-era games. I might be missing out on alot, but I really don't prefer fighting battles with the M4 when I keep thinking about how the M1A2 is so much better.

 

[Dr Zaius]

Perhaps I should clarify my original question. When I say "which scale do you prefer," I am referring to the scale that the individual units or counters represent. I'm not talking about how many forces you are commanding as a whole in the scenario (although that might be an interesting question as well).

My first true wargame was Panzer Leader. My Mom got me a copy of this when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I loved the simplicity of the system. It may not have been that realistic, but it was very fun. I played that for many years until a gentlemen I was talking to in a North Carolina wargames store persuaded me to try Advanced Squad Leader. I really wasn't interested in the scale and I thought it looked too complicated to be fun. Then I opened the box... Wow, what a game! I was never a "great" ASL player, I fiddled with scenario creation and making map overlays as much as I played. But we had some great times with that system and it raised my expectations of what a wargame should be tenfold.

Then I saw an ad in a gaming magazine for an upcoming release called East Front. It looked interesting and I had just bought a computer a few months before. I had been messing with Steel Panthers and although it was no ASL, it was fun. I grabbed East Front the first day it was released and never looked back. To me, it was Panzer Leader/Panzer Blitz on the PC. I played that series to the exclusion of any other for several years.

So I had went from platoon level boardgames to squad level, then to squad level PC games then back to platoon level. Since then I have been heavily involved in both Combat Mission and The Operational Art of War. These two reside at almost exact opposite sides of the scale. One is squad level and the other is operational.

In the end I have a hard time making my mind up which scale I prefer. They have all been good.

 

[Aries]

If by scale you mean manner of gaming complexity, ie Tactics II being fairly close to one end, and Fire in the East being close to the other, then I would possibly re interate and once again say ASL.

Yes the game is monstrously complex in it's detailed rules manual.

But I play games for one of two reasons.

1. I need a quick easy game to kill some time, with or without friends.

or

2. I need a game that makes no bones about accuracy, and playability is not the objective, credibility is.

It's like all the guys obsessing over details in films eh. There is simply put, not a single game more ruthlessly accurate than ASL (on or off the computer).

There will be plenty of gamers out there that will not concur though. And I care not a whit if they do NOT concur.
That is one definitive statement I will not be retracting.

I have not played every wargame in existence, and neither have you.
I have played every "mode" of wargame though. And ASL tops them all for attention to detail.

There are numerous games I would place in 2nd place, but I am not about to list danged near every well known title in existence.

So in "scale", if you mean "how far will you go" I guess, max detail is the best way to sum me up.

I like how ASL also doesn't have to acknowledge politics, economics, research and production.
These aspects 9 times out of 10, seem to be the ones that disrupt games from seeing "real".