Rob Zacny

Episode 258: A Land War in Asia

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Rob, Troy, and regular panelist Fraser Brown try to figure out just what Wargame Red Dragon is. Is it a wargame? RTS? A real-time wargame? A platforming roguelike? Tune in and find out where Red Dragon ranks in the Wargame series.

 

Listen here.

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Oddly I remember listening to the episode about AirLand Battle, and despite the recommendation not really feeling like checking it out, but this episode is making me want to reconsider (AirLand Battle, not Red Dragon).

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The thing that's kept me away from the series is the thing that kept me away from Ruse, even though I actually bought Ruse; UPlay.  I liked Ruse, and it sounds like the Wargame: _____ series is pretty good, but I just can't be bothered fighting user-hostile DRM to try to get to the fun bit when there are so may other games that just let me play.

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Wargame doesn't use UPlay, I bought it through steam and haven't had to sign up for anything else. 

 

Edit: Oh now that I think of it I did have to register my CD key with Eugen but didn't have to download anything.

 

I agree that the implementation of ships is less than ideal. I don't really even enjoy the combined land-sea maps. They require you to play an annoying naval game, the winner of which can park their ships along the shore and annihilate anything that moves on land. It makes the excellent land game largely pointless. 

 

On another topic, I also think the large number of units is a double edged sword for Eugen. On the one hand it sounds really cool but on the other I know people who are far too intimidated by it to even give the game a chance. You guys touched on the reality of the situation: you don't need to know the units, but the classes (atgm, apc, tank, AA, etc.) to get started. The unit icons are great for this. Does it help to know the difference between a malyutka and a konkurs? Sure, but its far from essential.

 

Anyway, I don't have much to add to what you said on the 'cast. Despite Red Dragon's shortcomings, Wargame is an excellent series and has replaced Company of Heroes as my go to multiplayer RTS.  

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As for where next to take the series, how about a science fiction setting? I bet the engine would work well with a Hammer's Slammers or an Ogre license.

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Wargame doesn't use UPlay, I bought it through steam and haven't had to sign up for anything else. 

 

Edit: Oh now that I think of it I did have to register my CD key with Eugen but didn't have to download anything.

 

Ok, that's good.  Ruse pesters me for my UPlay login, and it's one of those "that's written on a piece of paper somewhere in a stack of paper on my desk in the other room, screw it, I'll play Unity of Command instead" things.

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I am really divided if I should bought Red Dragon or not. In on hand I would like to see and play with the extra armies, but then there all the other stuff which isn´t appear to be working very well or missing...Like Tom Chick said in his review, I almost which there was a way to some how add this armies and some features in Airland Battle.

 

About the huge amount of units in Wargame, I got to agree that after a certain point and if you aren´t really familiar with the modern militar terminology it does get a bit confusing, I had to read the almost 200 pages guide on Steam which Fraser mentions to figure out some important stuff, such that there is some anti radar missiles which I wasn´t aware, or that autocannons cause such damage to morale or how to use infantary (most time I had only anti-tank or anti-helicopter infantary only). Still, most time the icons they use do their job very well.

 

I might add one more thing about the challanges of having sea battles? aside from their role, another issue is that range of the weapons is very long, so much that you need large maps to avoid ships of one side snipe the other before they even had a chance to do anything. Fall of the Samurai sea battle in multiplayer where really annoying because of that, as long someone show up with Ironclands the other side, most times, had no chance at all, specially with the earlier ships, because Ironclads range was so large that they could hit ship in the other side on their deployment zone. To be fair, even in Sea of Japan map, the which was that biggest map, the only thing that changes is that this take slight time to happen the side with Ironclads had only to move a bit before firing and the other side was helpless trying to getting near.

 

I got to agree that a Napoleonic themed game using this engine could be fantastic, as long units didn´t die that fast like in Airland Battle, maybe a sci-fi theme could work to, given their engine ability to deal with missiles and explosions, how about some giant robots bashing each other and exchange barrages form a pistol range?

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I am so intrigued by this series. It sounds like Red Dragon is the wrong place to get on board. 

 

Does it still make sense to get Airland Battle? This is a multiplayer series, right -- will the multiplayer action shift over to Red Dragon, making Airland Battle worthless? Or on the other hand are lots of people going to continue playing Airland Battle?

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the only current downside to Airland battle is that most of the big games are empty and the privately hosted games are few. When Red Dragon went live the community moved over pretty rapidly. I haven't bought Red Dragon yet (and will probably wait for a sale), but AirLand battle is a good game. It is very hardcore though, i suck at it but i can hammer the AI.

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Bought this on a steam sale, first time I've played a game from this series.  I HIGHLY recommend it.  I am not a big RTS guy, but I'm hopelessly hooked on this game.  I recommend the 200 page steam guide mentioned in the podcast. 

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