Rob Zacny

Episode 424: Command Ops 2

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Three Moves Ahead 424:

Three Moves Ahead 424


Command Ops 2
The Winter of Wargaming continues with Panther Games' Command Ops 2. Released a while ago under a different name under a different publisher under a different moon, Command Ops 2 is real-time wargame that truly puts you in the shoes of a commander. The realistic order delay and beautifully tactical map make this a unique wargaming experience that can be played in a variety of theaters. Rob, Michael, and Troy "Even in my simulations no one listens to me" Goodfellow dive into what makes Command Ops such a gem.

Command Ops 2

 

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thats a big AAR

 

This has been a good winter of war gaming so far. I've found this game to be amazing when it really hits home but for that one good game i have a dozen false starts and damp squibs. Mostly I just struggle to absorb all the important info and then miss an objective, weapon type or reinforcement and the whole plan unravels. 

 

I have had the sleeping battalion problem a few times. It seems that the men just love their sleep even if i want to move them out of an area being decked with artillery fire. 

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On 3/1/2018 at 7:58 PM, Michael said:

Hopefully this will help me finally play this game. I picked up Highway To The Reich years ago in the hopes that I could finally play something like this after spending so much time longing to play an unpunched copy of Devil's Cauldron. Ultimately I found Flashpoint Campaigns to be the sharper design even if it was still archaic in terms of modern game design; it became my favorite computer war game. Glad to hear the 3MA finally tackle this series and CMANO. 

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Thanks for the kind words. It may be two weeks before we get back to it, though. There are just too many good games being released. We had to break up the WOWAG schedule a bit but there are a few more episodes planned for it.

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This is easily one of my top 5 games of all time. I love making my own AARs and drawing up plans with lots of arrows across the map and then executing them. (and seeing the plans all fall apart).

 

On the topic of games that have a fog of war for your own units - the only one that springs to mind is the HPS sims game Tigers Unleashed - although it is still quite buggy.

 

2017-01-19 22_03_15-Command Ops 2.png

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This was a nice podcast.

I'm somewhere with Troy when he explains how RTS lost him: historical and fantasy strategy games where easy to understand. Those guys shoot, those guys hack, those ones have anti-cavalry spears. And maybe those guys throw fireballs. But with those modern settings you really have to get into it to understand what happens. It's like Football Manager! I look on those screenshot and see a lot of units. Each units is some dudes with rifles and machines. Some units have more and better armored machines with bigger guns. Some have far shooty mortars. But they're all more similar than Spartan hoplite compared to Cretan archer. 

 

Though this indirect control does look compelling.

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I really enjoyed this podcast, guys, as this game is one of my favorite computer wargames.  I love trying to see the big picture, then issuing simple orders to try to solve big problems.

 

However, I think your analysis missed one important piece of this game: the orders delay (especially being longer the more complicated the orders are or the higher echelon you are commanding) rewards realistic tactics and making the right decisions that real commanders made.  Keeping a reserve is very important, because it takes time for your units to react to the surprise enemy attack on one of your flanks.  Deciding to commit the reserve to shore up a hole in your lines or to exploit a gap in the enemy's defenses, and committing the reserve on time--well, those are the important decisions and judgments commanders made that won and lost engagements.

As much as I love other wargames, with a IGOUGO system and no orders delays, you can always position your reserves the right number of hexes to be useful and then commit them on your turn.  With Command Ops, they need to be in the right place, they need to be rested and ready, and then you the commander have to use them when and where they can be effective.

 

It's a great system.

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