Seriously, though, I haven't seen a real-time game that can adequately answer the hard-core grognard's lust for detail, especially at operational levels. Shogun: Total War and Ground Control both came tantalizingly close in terms of gameplay, but both fell short because, in order to make the game playable in real-time, they cut out a lot of detail (and flavour). They're both effectively tactical games, anyways.
For those of us who want to worry about lines of supply, unit morale, and the difference between an M1A1 and an M1A2 against kinetic penetrators, turn-based games are where it's at.
Another advantage to turn-based wargames is the fact that most of them come with a good scenario editor. If I want to find out what might have happened at 73 Easting if the Iraquis had been better prepared, or had been equipped with T-80s instead of T-72s, or something of the like, I can spend maybe half an hour in TOAW2's scenario editor and come up with a plausible scenario.
I can't say that the RTS genre could never
come up with a sufficiently anal-retentive^W^W^W
richly detailed, but still playable, tactical or operational wargame, but it hasn't happened yet as far as I can tell. Screw Blizzard, Norm Kroger owns my soul.
Slashdot Mirror
So that's why "blinkenlights" is more associated with networking than front panels these days.
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Seriously, though, I haven't seen a real-time game that can adequately answer the hard-core grognard's lust for detail, especially at operational levels. Shogun: Total War and Ground Control both came tantalizingly close in terms of gameplay, but both fell short because, in order to make the game playable in real-time, they cut out a lot of detail (and flavour). They're both effectively tactical games, anyways.
For those of us who want to worry about lines of supply, unit morale, and the difference between an M1A1 and an M1A2 against kinetic penetrators, turn-based games are where it's at.
Another advantage to turn-based wargames is the fact that most of them come with a good scenario editor. If I want to find out what might have happened at 73 Easting if the Iraquis had been better prepared, or had been equipped with T-80s instead of T-72s, or something of the like, I can spend maybe half an hour in TOAW2's scenario editor and come up with a plausible scenario.
I can't say that the RTS genre could never come up with a sufficiently anal-retentive^W^W^W richly detailed, but still playable, tactical or operational wargame, but it hasn't happened yet as far as I can tell. Screw Blizzard, Norm Kroger owns my soul.
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