Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical (
More info?)
Here are my comments from a few days ago. No one responed to them, which
reveals a general lack of interest in my opinion, a lack of interest in
First Blitzkrieg, or both.
---------------------
I've been playing First Blitzkrieg for about a week. My copy is almost
certain to hit
eBay within another week. It is basically a 1970's monster wargame (War in
Europe, Europa, etc.) with a more complicated combat calculation, fog of
war, and little else. There's no command & control. There are only two
states of supply: IN and OUT OF. There are no formations -- each unit is an
entity all to itself. There's no historical "chrome" -- for example: there
are no rules to prevent French, Belgian, and British units from all stacking
and fighting in the same hex. Other than slightly different strength
ratings, the only difference between nationalities is the color of the icon.
Folks who are old hands at HPS games will probably have no problem with the
graphics but the tiny units drive me nuts. I got tired of having to
constantly look over to the left side of the screen for any info on the tiny
units I had selected. About 2/3 of the units on the map are support units --
engineers, arty, MGs, rail repair, etc. It's hard to tell some of them
apart, especially the arty, without checking them out constantly in the unit
box, which requires more looking back and forth, back and forth. Would it
kill HPS to make the counters bigger and put some numbers on the counters?
The map is bland with very few terrain types but it is serviceable.
Don't believe anything HPS is saying about improved AI. It may be a
different AI but it's no better. This game is strictly PBEM only. It's
ridiculously easy to win as the Axis against the AI and just as easy to win
as the Allies against an Axis AI. To give one an idea of how pathetic the AI
is, I set up an AI vs AI game of the invasion of France. By the end of the
game, the Germans had managed to get three units all of 1 hex (10 KM) into
France, nor had they taken Belgium out of the war. The other German units
were all stacked up in southern Belgium and Luxem. With a human (me) playing
the Allies, the German AI didn't even do that well.
Some of the scenarios are goofy. I took out all of Norway's "surrender
objectives" by turn 5 or 6. However, the scenario went on for many more
turns as tiny French and British units made pathetic attempts to land in
hexes that I controlled. Mostly I just hit the "end turn" button over and
over.
On the plus side, it's relatively bug free and plays quickly. But there are
much, much better operational games out there.
tbob
"von Schmidt" <von_schmidt@mail.com> wrote in message
news:1117727590.860862.124030@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> All,
>
> I know there have been a few previous threads about this new game; has
> anyone actually bought/played the game since?
>
> No reviews yet and the HPS website offers few details (to put it
> succintly): 3 screenshots of which 2 are the same, no scenario list, no
> overview of game elements...
>
> I am not too fond of the grand-tactical PzC series, which seems to
> force operational scenarios into a tactical system; leading to counter
> overkill and odd tactics.
> However, 1st BK looks like a proper operational effort and rumours
> have that this time an AI may be included.
>
> And there is always space in my cupboard for a WW2 operational game
> besides BIN/BII and the upcoming Anglo-German War.
>
> So, any news?
>
> Thx,
>
> von Schmidt
>
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram