Re: OT Non SF Recommendations..

On Wed, 18 Sep 2024 09:04:08 -0700, The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca>
wrote:

On Mon, 16 Sep 2024 09:05:08 -0700, Paul S Person
<psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>

I played a lot of solitaire Computer War in Europe.=20
>
In the DOS version, I discovered that the programmer had never
contemplated the Soviet Union declaring limited war and going through
Bulgaria into Greece: the Soviet units couldn't see, never mind
attack, the Greek units. Presumably, they were involved in cultural
exchanges involving bouzoukee/balalaika music and ouso/vodka and so
fighting was out of the question. This got fixed in the final version.

>
One knock I have against the game is that unless the German player is
asleep at the switch, a Soviet-initiated "limited war" is suicidal
since the German play can EASILY win a war of attrition - the last
time I played that scenario as the German player I reached Smolensk in
the first 2-3 turns and advanced as quickly as my railroad repair
units advanced and never ever went "out of supply". I don't remember
the details but took Moscow well before the end of the summer season.
But mostly it was about unit killing and it was very easy to win a war
of attrition against "limited war production".

I don't doubt it.

Another test game (these were all test games and all solitaire games,
BTW) found my continuing my attack (as the Axis) beyond Poland in
1939. This turned out to be a mistake for three reasons:

1. I had selected "variable weather". Guess who rolled "Mud"
each and every turn until "Snow" came?
2. The Soviets started Full Production immediately.
3. Since the Axis Allies had not yet activated (not enough
Political Points) it was the full Soviet Army against the /Northern/
part of the actual war (OK, including the northern part of AGC's area,
IIRC). Some screening forces were deployed to the South, but the Red
Army was very much concentrated on the German Army.
4. The German Army in 1939 is /not/ the German Army of 1941.

So I had fewer Germans fighting the pretty much the entire Red Army on
a much narrower front than in reality. Even if I had rolled "Clear"
every turn, the Axis would have been in deep doodoo.

The only advantage is that the Soviet Rail Net started much further
East and did not extend into the Baltic States. This made repairing
the rail net go a lot faster.

Interesting discussion of the MSDOS vs Windows version of the game...
>

Note that the SPI version of /U.S.N./ was a magazine game; it ends in
1943 because otherwise it would have required another counter sheet.
It stopped, IOW, just as US Naval Production was /really/ taking off.
DG redid it as a boxed game and, IIRC, extended it to the end of the
war (boxed games allowing more counters than magazine games), but I
have no idea if what I said above applies to the DG version.

>
I'm pretty sure I've still got the magazine version of the game still
unpunched in one of my storage bins (that I need to go through to get
rid of junk in this room) Any idea whether this would be of interest
to a collector?
>
(Bearing in mind it's a 40 year old 'classic' allegedly)

That is something I have only thought about investigating.

Originally, I punched out each game, organized the counters, read the
rules, and played at least a few turns solitaire. But eventually I
stopped punching the out, and now I have about 3 linear feet of
unpunched magazine games (not all S&T, to be sure).

One question might be whether you still have the issue of S&T it came
with. And if by "unpunched" you mean the rules are still in the
magazine.

And, of course, what condition it is in.

<https://grognard.com/> might have a marketplace or a discussion board
(although I don't see one). There may be useable Usenet groups that
could help. And eBay could be checked to see if there is a market.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"