I've been looking for a strategic "simulation" like Norm Koger's The Operational Art of War III by Matrix games. Does anyone know of something similar in a modern context?


Happy 4th of July everyone!

If you don't mind going hardcore try Command: Modern Air and Naval Operations

Yet plays DCS and administrates multiple DCS servers

I don't believe you.

If it helps in any way, none of the submarines i sent to attack ever returned.

Nor my F-111s, LOL!

Seriously though, Zulu1, CMANO is one comprehensive, detailed encyclopedia / database which through some very complex statistics comparisons can pit units' capabilities against each other and show you the results, taking into the calculation many variables, as well as the actions of "your own hand" in utilizing and employing the units. The stage? As Vampyre stated; The whole world, or your proverbial back yard, your choice. That's it in a very simplified nutshell.

I would recommend CMANO, as a modern strategic sim. The interface is a bit hard to get to grips with, to start with, but stick with it. CMANO is on sale at the moment on Steam, btw.

Vampyre also mentioned another old favorite of mine; Harpoon. I played it for years. If you can still get it, it is like a "light" version (because it is older, I guess) of CMANO.

That said, the original game you mentioned I think is hex map, right? Not played it, so cannot comment. Hex map is a different story, then...

LOL! Tracer, I unashamedly admit it. It is my fault, again, for talking you into it. How many times have I done this to you before?

First, thanks guys for the suggestion of Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations. I will have to look at that a bit closer. It does look rather hardcore, and I wish it a just a wee bit of eye candy, but we shall see. I think I will have to upgrade the Operational Art of War to IV after reading Vampyre’s statement.
I can’t quite believe that Tracer doesn’t have the patience for this considering what you do in mission design. Even worse, is that Tracer can’t get onto his own servers…



Thanks again,
Zulu

Hmm. Thinking about it.

By "strategy" I am wondering if you also include the "stand back and administer the big picture" type of sim, too. As in, resources, trades, deals, and everything that gives you the ability to go to the battlefield (or not, as your choice may be). CMANO can actually be quite "tactical", and is certainly military hardware focused, and not so much on the why's of "how we got to this state of foreign affairs" (ie; major donnybrook between nations). I may, of course be misinterpreting completely, but...

Might the Supreme Ruler games be of interest? I've played off and on "Supreme Ruler 2020". It has a bit of the eye-candy, too, and is entertaining enough. Again, though, player interface takes some initial getting used to.

How "real" are you wanting the sim? How detached / involved? There was a game I used to play years ago, which has had a new version out now for a while. Carrier Command. It was great fun back in the day, and what I have seen of the new version looks interesting enough. The minus side was is that the units are "fantasy". I always remember thinking "wouldn't it be better if this game had a Harrier, instead of this hover thing. And a proper Tarawa. That would rule". In any case, I will be getting it, soon enough, I believe. I'll be able to say more on it then, and draw a better comparison with the original.

Just some thoughts...

PS:
This being true...

Precisely, you see this is what confused me and made me think twice. Plus silly me for reading the title of the thread again and seeing the word "Strategic" jump out at me. I've not played TOAW, but looking it up it did not entirely strike me as a true strategic game. That said, TOAW looks kind of interesting for me, too .

Do you mean "Gary Grigsby's War in the Pacific"? The original 1992 version was so addictive, and it was a true strategy game. I still get flashbacks from it I was so far gone! :shock: This is the reason I never got the remake of it.

You know, I do remember that particular one.

Yep, that's the "remake" of it, all right. I'd probably have to quit my job and disappear into a cave for a year if I got that.

I used to try playing as the Japs, mostly. I'd get all their fantastic heavy cruisers together by class, assign the TF's to admirals I knew to be historically capable guys, and go on a rampage with the carrier TFs before the might of US war machine gathered itself together and started rolling. Sooner or later, you'd have a "Midway" or "Guadalcanal" somewhere else, no matter how many "Savo Islands" you could manage to dispense, and it was all downhill from there. The stone in the shoe, the stumbling block, was invariably the logistic demands of the inconclusive China theater. Two front wars. Nope, the Japs couldn't have won, by any fluke. Only made their defeat costly, as they did.

The nukes, aye. They saw that clearly enough, then.

+1 here.