Cold War Operational Wargames for the PC

[Raellus]

I'd really like to play out a final spring '01 Soviet offensive in Iran but I'm not sure how I could go about doing that. I've researched GDW's Third World War series of PNP games and they are pretty hard to come by. Also, I don't have anyone who could play the OPFOR. What I need is an AI opponent or maybe someone else out there on the net.

So, does anyone know of an Operational Wargame that my Vista PC could run that could be used to simulate some of the major T2K battles? All the computer games I've found were designed for much earlier operating systems.

I've probably missed the boat since the Cold War isn't very popular as a setting anymore. But, it doesn't hurt to ask. You guys are the best resource out there.

[boogiedowndonovan]

Try the Operational Art of War III (http://www.matrixgames.com/products/317/details/Norm.Koger%27s.The.Operational.Art.of.War.III)

I'm a big fan of this game. Lots of scenarios (WWII, WWIII) and a scenario editor so you can create your own.

Someone converted GDW's Third World War series to run on Operational Art of War III.

[Raellus]

Thanks BDD. Looks very promising. It's system requirements don't mention Vista. Have you (or anyone else out there) played it using Vista. It'd probably work but I'd like some reassurance before I drop $50 on it.

[boogiedowndonovan]

Hey Raellus,

I have Vista Home premium on my pc.

The game runs fine even if the system requirements don't list Vista.

However, to be completely honest, I've found that during some of the later turns with large games (300 plus units on both sides, after about 25 or so turns) the combat results window disappears or fails to show. (This window shows the results of each combat during the turn.) I usually just minimize and come back and it goes to the next combat sequence in the turn without any adverse affects.

I went to the Matrix games forum and searched for Vista problems. This problem seems to be related to something else and not Vista (XP users sometimes have this problem as well).

Here are the two threads from the Matrix games forum

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1482535&mpage=1&key=vista&#1483004

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1366191&mpage=1&key=vista&#1366191

let me know if you have any other questions about the Operational Art of War III. you can hit my inbox or send me an email boogiedowndonovan at gmail.com

[GDWFan]

Using the modern steel panthers, you could truly play out the operations of the third world war.

Does anyone play this? we should try to get a large game going to determine some things on there?

[cavtroop]

Using the modern steel panthers, you could truly play out the operations of the third world war.

Does anyone play this? we should try to get a large game going to determine some things on there?

I play WinSPMBT all the time. It's better suited for Platoon - Battalion sized operations though, anything bigger will take years to do, as it's a 1:1 scale for vehicles and squads.

[Dog 6]

the Operational Art of War III I play all the time, works fine with windows 7, idk about vista but should work. I've made many T2K games for it, its a very good engine, but its modeling of air and navy is poor at best, for very big games the programing of the AI in limited, and it does not distinguish between damaged and destroyed equipment ( ie. only knocked out or not ). very good for pbem imo :)

[GDWFan]

Definitly not for the whole war, but I think it would be very realistic to play a 7 or 8 game campagin that plays out the major battles. Depending on the leadership you could build some really great stories about the battle for your background in say berlin, kalisz.

[boogiedowndonovan]

the Operational Art of War III I play all the time, works fine with windows 7, idk about vista but should work. I've made many T2K games for it, its a very good engine, but its modeling of air and navy is poor at best, for very big games the programing of the AI in limited, and it does not distinguish between damaged and destroyed equipment ( ie. only knocked out or not ). very good for pbem imo :)

Operational Art of War III works on Vista, both me and Rae have Vista and Operational Art of War III. Don't ask me why, but it works better on his for some reason, but there's some minor bugs on mine.

agree on the AI and the modeling of air and navy.

hey how about sharing some of your T2k scenarios? just curious

-bdd