Naval Simulations - Midway

[DaSloth]

Has anyone tried this yet? Just wondering if it will be similar to War Over Vietnam..

http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/NavCamp/Midway/midway.html

Midway!
For six months following its surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) had dominated the war in the Pacific. But 4 June 1942 would see the tide turn, with three US Navy (USN) aircraft carriers waiting in ambush for the IJN near a tiny atoll whose name would become immortalized in history: Midway.

By the end of that day, the Japanese would lose four fleet carriers, and the course of the war would drastically change.

Naval Campaigns: Midway covers not only this action but also other major carrier battles of World War Two, including Midway, Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz and Philippine Sea.

Can you, as the fleet commander, sail your fleet and fly your air forces to victory, or will you be plunged beneath the deep blue waves never to be heard from again?



A Whole New Dimension
The previous three titles in the Naval Campaigns series examined various surface actions in detail from World Wars One and Two, but with the addition of aircraft the complexity of the battles increases drastically. Now, players must not only maneuver their fleets, but also conduct air operations. This means dealing with search results, wind direction and speed, and coordinating multiple carriers and their air wings. This is a true challenge for any naval commander. Midway features the familiar Naval Campaigns interface with its real-time environment that can be paused or run up to 10x normal speed. 19 different landmasses are included to model a wide variety of actions. Historical and hypothetical OOB’s are also in the game giving plenty of material for would-be scenario designers to exercise their skills

[Maserati]

How on Earth did I miss the release of this ?

[Raptor1]

I haven't played this one, but I have some of Tiller's other games, including the previous Guadalcanal game and War Over Vietnam. They added the aircraft to Guadalcanal and they function pretty similiarly to WoV, except for obviously not having missiles and such (Though I think airborne radar is present in certain cases, not sure) and some other things. Also, like all of Tiller's games, the interface is pretty similar.

I would buy this one, but I have too many games to buy right now (And already bought too many lately). Also, if I was going to buy another game from HPS right now, it would probably be their Musket & Pike game (Since I'm mildly obsessed with warfare in the era, also heard they'll be releasing one on the Thirty Years' War somewhere, which I'll definitely buy).

[eddie]

Here in the States, if you want to save some money, buy it here at NWS Online Store.

http://yhst-12000246778232.stores.yahoo.net/nacami.html

They have the whole HPS series.

[Happy Times]

I haven't played this one, but I have some of Tiller's other games, including the previous Guadalcanal game and War Over Vietnam. They added the aircraft to Guadalcanal and they function pretty similiarly to WoV, except for obviously not having missiles and such (Though I think airborne radar is present in certain cases, not sure) and some other things. Also, like all of Tiller's games, the interface is pretty similar.

I would buy this one, but I have too many games to buy right now (And already bought too many lately). Also, if I was going to buy another game from HPS right now, it would probably be their Musket & Pike game (Since I'm mildly obsessed with warfare in the era, also heard they'll be releasing one on the Thirty Years' War somewhere, which I'll definitely buy).

What kind of campaigns do these games have?
Compared for exsample to Paradox and AGEOD games?

[Raptor1]

What kind of campaigns do these games have?
Compared for exsample to Paradox and AGEOD games?

Not really comparable, as Paradox and AGEOD games are all strategic and HPS doesn't do that.

The Naval Campaigns series is tactical, with combat taking place between individual ships. In the Guadalcanal game most of the scenarios last only a few hours, but I suppose in Midway you also have multiple-day operational scenarios (Not sure though).

John Tiller's other games are operational in scale (Excluding Squad Battles, which is also tactical) with units ranging from company to battalion. Generally, each of these will include quite a number of smaller engagements, larger battles and a giant scenario (With variants) covering the entire subject campaign. For example, Danube Front '85 has small battle scenarios covering battles for individual cities and areas, large scenarios covering fighting between the Warsaw Pact and NATO forces in Austria and Southern Germany and an enormeous scenario covering the entire war in West Germany from Denmark to the Alps.

The 16th-19th century games also include a campaign system with linked scenarios that have an effect on each other, but each of these scenarios is also usually quite large (The Jena-Auerstadt game I have includes a 6-day scenario (With 10 minute turns, that's quite a lot) covering Napoleon's march through the Thuringian Forest and the ensuing Jena campaign).

[DaSloth]

Thanx for all the good info, I just ordered it from NWS.. I will post a first impressions once I get a chance to play it..
:D

[DaSloth]

Well after a couple of weeks of play testing this game (solitaire only) I have found it to be very similar to Wings over Vietnam (go figger, same auther:damn:). Overall the program is well laid out and the pdf manuals are well laid out and explain (almost) everything. The AI is fairly good in the attack/defense mode, but like most AI, once you understand how it operates you can discover ways to easily beat it. For example when the AI discovers shadowing aircraft it will attempt to intercept unless the aircraft moves out of the visual range of the closest spotting unit. A human (me :D!) will continue to send out a fighter to close the last sighted position to remove the threat. Another small issue that I have deals with the creation of strike missions. Spotted units are grouped by class (CV, BB, CA, etc..) in the target destination but there is no way of knowing which unit is which as they are generically id'ed as "Unknown CV, BB, etc" as they are spotted or visual is lost. So by assuming that assigning a strike group to Unknown CV (second on the list of targets) may not necessarily be the same CV if another one is spotted or visual is lost on one.. a minor annoyance but.... I am hoping to get a network game on the go with a couple of buddies (yes, you can more than one opponent) to see how that works out. Mind you it will have to be one of the shorter scenarios as some of them can last up to 14 hours in real time.
The scenario editor is well laid out and with the ability to use deployment boxes the replay ability of custom scenarios should be pretty good as it will hopefully give enough randomness that your search missions may be hit and miss.