A unexpected flash from the past. I forgot that I once owned this game until I saw this video (discarded by my parents when I moved away from home)!?! I cannot remember how it played but I do remember it feeling too sterile due to the simplicity of the map and counters. I am sure I didn’t give it a full chance due to other games I enjoyed and was more familiar with. Great job as always Gilbert!
Thanks for another insightful video. You by far are one of the best video game reviewers out there. You know the games and provide a consistent, fair and detailed overview.
Regarding meeting people...I was a teenager in the early 70's, who went into a hobby store and liked to look at the lines of Avalon Hill wargames on the shelf. Cool stuff...The guy at the counter came back and showed me the game Panzerblitz, explained the maps, the counters, the scenarios. But I couldn't buy the $12.00 game (twelve dollars, can you imagine?!), as I didn't have that much cash. This was in Lafayette, IN, at a model shop called 'The Scale.' I learned much later the owner who showed me the game was John Hill, and who not long after that published a little effort called 'Squad Leader'.
wow, I am glad you posted this. I bought 3 tubs of donated games and magazines from a game store for $20 four years ago and this was one of them. My initial reaction was this one probably didn't have any gameplay value by today's standards. Glad to hear I may be wrong. One day I might want to do some WWI small unit gaming. I have Red Poppies but usually prefer the classics which is why your channel is my favorite as you allocate some attention to these
Your videos are always great watches, and you've sold me on a few games (Frederick the Great, 1812). This one would have slipped totally under my radar, but now it has my curiosity, especially since I own a few of Isby's other games (Cambrai 1917, Napoleon's Last Campaigns, To the Green Fields Beyond) and have thoroughly enjoyed them. I hope you post some gameplay.
Hi Gilbert, I am a long time fan! I don't know if I ever left a comment on your videos, but I really appreciate the content you create. This is one of my favorite points in historical warfare. The political, strategic, and human decisions of this period (WW 1) seemed to mark the transition between the grand scale of warfare to the personal side (the individual soldier). We really get more literature about what the individual went through, instead of the "bird's eye view" we get from history books. Also, is your wargame published? I showed my wife your game, "The Kaiser's Navy" and she liked it. It's one of the few games I like she said she's "excitedly" play with me. She liked the mechanics (as do I) and it gets me out of the "take and hold" mindset. Anyway, thank you for all of the amazing work you've done so far. Hello from Japan!
Hello, glad you like the videos. I enjoy making them. My "Kaiser's Fleet" game is now finished from Compass Games but now it would be going into actual production. Best case scenario would be coming out at the end of 2022. But that would be lucky. 2023 seems more probable, but you never know.
A little story about Red Poppies that might answer one of the questions about the counter design. The original files provided to Worthington were in Photoshop and had text that was larger and clearer. But the files had these as the raw font rather than shapes (rookie error). Worthington didn't have the font used. Rather than contact the artist, they just used a substitute font that wasn't a good match to the original.
I have this for 44 years now. I played it several times. Defense is calculated on terrain odds. Very very bloody. I bought it because there were some Belgian troops in it. I would rate it 8.
This was a great game. Playing and you understood why world War I was fought the way it was. I wonder if there's anyone who has played this who hasn't had a machine gun jam at exactly the wrong moment.
As an FYI the S is silent in Ypres (it's pronounced E-preh) however being a good commonwealth lad, you should just say what all the troops back then did. They called it Wipers.
thank you very much, i had panzer blitz and panzer leader but could never find anyone to play with, then i found eastern front for the atari 400\800...the greatest war game ever made.
Has snooty teenage miniature napoleonics players, I recall at the time referring to Grenadier as Grenadog. Soldiers is a great game. They should make kids play this in high school and or college at least once or twice to see what the slaughter of open warfare is really like. This game along with some miniature games I played made me VERY. anti war. I am a conservative I remain an anti-war kind of person because of these games. They were also a heck of a lot of fun.😊
No game I have ever seen or heard of uses NATO symbols. NATO symbols use different shapes of boxes to hold the unit type, for friendly, enemy, neutral, and unknown countries. This is obviously unsuitable for a game, since no one want to be labelled the enemy. NATO symbols can also use color. These are documented in APP-6A, which can be found online. Wargames use modifications of old US Army symbols. Those symbols are largely the same as NATO symbols as far as unit types go, but they, being from pre-computer times, don't use different shapes and colors. Apparently, some people don't like giving the US Army credit for anything, and so pretend that NATO originated the symbols.
50 years….. ok that made me feel old.
Gilbert, I look forward to your insights and reviews and especially appreciate that you include the older AH and SPI classics.
A unexpected flash from the past. I forgot that I once owned this game until I saw this video (discarded by my parents when I moved away from home)!?! I cannot remember how it played but I do remember it feeling too sterile due to the simplicity of the map and counters. I am sure I didn’t give it a full chance due to other games I enjoyed and was more familiar with. Great job as always Gilbert!
Thanks for another insightful video. You by far are one of the best video game reviewers out there. You know the games and provide a consistent, fair and detailed overview.
Thank you very much Molly. Hope you are staying safe in this world of 'now' the Omicron variant.
Regarding meeting people...I was a teenager in the early 70's, who went into a hobby store and liked to look at the lines of Avalon Hill wargames on the shelf. Cool stuff...The guy at the counter came back and showed me the game Panzerblitz, explained the maps, the counters, the scenarios. But I couldn't buy the $12.00 game (twelve dollars, can you imagine?!), as I didn't have that much cash. This was in Lafayette, IN, at a model shop called 'The Scale.' I learned much later the owner who showed me the game was John Hill, and who not long after that published a little effort called 'Squad Leader'.
wow, I am glad you posted this. I bought 3 tubs of donated games and magazines from a game store for $20 four years ago and this was one of them. My initial reaction was this one probably didn't have any gameplay value by today's standards. Glad to hear I may be wrong. One day I might want to do some WWI small unit gaming. I have Red Poppies but usually prefer the classics which is why your channel is my favorite as you allocate some attention to these
Yes, I think this one is a winner. Especially from David Isby who has sound credentials.
It's a credit to the designers that the game is still being discussed (and played by some of us!) fifty years on. Well done David Isby et al.!
A classic. One of the games I never plan to part with…. I think you’ll find it holds up (more than grenadier).
Your videos are always great watches, and you've sold me on a few games (Frederick the Great, 1812). This one would have slipped totally under my radar, but now it has my curiosity, especially since I own a few of Isby's other games (Cambrai 1917, Napoleon's Last Campaigns, To the Green Fields Beyond) and have thoroughly enjoyed them.
I hope you post some gameplay.
I hear that 'To the Green Fields Beyond' is very good.
Another great video! Would love to see you do a playthrough video with this game...
Hi Gilbert, I am a long time fan! I don't know if I ever left a comment on your videos, but I really appreciate the content you create. This is one of my favorite points in historical warfare. The political, strategic, and human decisions of this period (WW 1) seemed to mark the transition between the grand scale of warfare to the personal side (the individual soldier). We really get more literature about what the individual went through, instead of the "bird's eye view" we get from history books. Also, is your wargame published? I showed my wife your game, "The Kaiser's Navy" and she liked it. It's one of the few games I like she said she's "excitedly" play with me. She liked the mechanics (as do I) and it gets me out of the "take and hold" mindset. Anyway, thank you for all of the amazing work you've done so far. Hello from Japan!
Hello, glad you like the videos. I enjoy making them. My "Kaiser's Fleet" game is now finished from Compass Games but now it would be going into actual production. Best case scenario would be coming out at the end of 2022. But that would be lucky. 2023 seems more probable, but you never know.
enjoyed after the stream . keep them coming. My must see tv !!
Rommel wrote an interesting book about WWI small unit tactics. Wonderful video as always.
A little story about Red Poppies that might answer one of the questions about the counter design. The original files provided to Worthington were in Photoshop and had text that was larger and clearer. But the files had these as the raw font rather than shapes (rookie error). Worthington didn't have the font used. Rather than contact the artist, they just used a substitute font that wasn't a good match to the original.
I have this for 44 years now. I played it several times. Defense is calculated on terrain odds. Very very bloody. I bought it because there were some Belgian troops in it. I would rate it 8.
This was a great game. Playing and you understood why world War I was fought the way it was. I wonder if there's anyone who has played this who hasn't had a machine gun jam at exactly the wrong moment.
As an FYI the S is silent in Ypres (it's pronounced E-preh) however being a good commonwealth lad, you should just say what all the troops back then did. They called it Wipers.
Oo a legend!
thank you very much, i had panzer blitz and panzer leader but could never find anyone to play with, then i found eastern front for the atari 400\800...the greatest war game ever made.
Maybe u could look at king Phillip s war
Has snooty teenage miniature napoleonics players, I recall at the time referring to Grenadier as Grenadog. Soldiers is a great game. They should make kids play this in high school and or college at least once or twice to see what the slaughter of open warfare is really like. This game along with some miniature games I played made me VERY. anti war. I am a conservative I remain an anti-war kind of person because of these games. They were also a heck of a lot of fun.😊
No game I have ever seen or heard of uses NATO symbols. NATO symbols use different shapes of boxes to hold the unit type, for friendly, enemy, neutral, and unknown countries. This is obviously unsuitable for a game, since no one want to be labelled the enemy. NATO symbols can also use color. These are documented in APP-6A, which can be found online. Wargames use modifications of old US Army symbols. Those symbols are largely the same as NATO symbols as far as unit types go, but they, being from pre-computer times, don't use different shapes and colors. Apparently, some people don't like giving the US Army credit for anything, and so pretend that NATO originated the symbols.