WW2 "Heavy" weapons crew.

[Ithoriel]

A fault in me I suppose, but I cannot understand using a computer for tabletop games.

If I'm in front of a computer I have a plethora of perfectly good computer wargames to play. Combat Mission, Company of Heroes, Memoir '44, Heroes of Normandie, the Total War series, Mare Nostrum, Naval Action or Victory at Sea to name just my regulars.

If I'm at a table I want to push lead and roll dice.

Ah, well! Each to their own.

[John Cook]

Do you have a link? trying to search for that just gets me things like Civilisation, Command & Conquer and Total War.

Yes, there are lots of 'computer strategy' sites out there.  The website for Computer Strategies games is at:

http://www.computermoderated.com/

Computer Strategies have games covering ancient to the distant future.  Once you have mastered one, you have mastered them all.  In addition to Computer Strategies there is also Carnage and Glory.  C&G, is limited to 17th to 19th Century gaming.  Their website is at:

http://www.carnageandgloryii.com/ 

Ultimately, if throwing dice forms a fundamental part of your game enjoyment, then computer moderation is not for you. 

[John Cook]

Ah, well! Each to their own.

I've never really liked video games but, as you say.

I too want to push push lead, but I don't want to roll dice, consult tables and matrices or keep records.  So, on balance I prefer computer moderation.

[fred.]

I'm quite intrigued by this as an idea. But having checked out the website, I'm more confused than enlightened.

The website is amazingly old school - especially for a piece of software. It looks to be windows only, which is a problem for me. Somewhat that runs on a tablet would seem much handy to have at the table.

The photos of the WWII game look very weird with tanks side by side like Napoleonic lines of infantry.

[John Cook]

Fred, No, I'm afraid Computer Strategies is no use to you if you don't have a device using Windows.  Same goes for Nigel Marsh's Carnage and Glory.  Computer Strategies V7 is specifically intended to run with Windows 10.   

Not sure what 'old school' is.  I find anything 'new school' confuses me - I just spent over an hour trying to complete DHL's on-line ordering pages, to send parcel to my son in Australia.  It was so user unfriendly that even a teenager would have difficulty with it. 

I'm sure Clinton Reilly will happily answer any questions you have (see the ordering section for his email).  He is a very helpful 'old school' Aussie.  This is part of his hobby, so don't expect a wargaming Bill Gates. 

I'm surprised so few people seem to have heard of computer moderated games.  The first Computer Strategies and C&G games I used ran using DOS - Windows didn't even exist and before that I used Follow the Eagle, which was a Napoleonic specific game authored by the late Dave Watkins who also published First Empire magazine.   

[Raider4]

Not sure what 'old school' is.

I think he's referring to the look of both of those websites. Both look like they haven't changed since about 1996.

[John Cook]

I'm sure you are right.  You could probably say the same thing about Pendraken's site.  If it works don't fix it as they say.

[steve_holmes_11]

A fault in me I suppose, but I cannot understand using a computer for tabletop games.

If I'm in front of a computer I have a plethora of perfectly good computer wargames to play. Combat Mission, Company of Heroes, Memoir '44, Heroes of Normandie, the Total War series, Mare Nostrum, Naval Action or Victory at Sea to name just my regulars.

If I'm at a table I want to push lead and roll dice.

Ah, well! Each to their own.

I can see the benefits of having the gadget remember unit status and conduct the rolls.

My only experience of this was a couple of decades ago.
A big club game where all information had to be relayed to and from an umpire with a rather slow laptop.
It wasn't an ideal example, as the ump-laptop combo formed a very tight bottleneck, causing the action to drag.

[steve_holmes_11]

I'm quite intrigued by this as an idea. But having checked out the website, I'm more confused than enlightened.

The website is amazingly old school - especially for a piece of software. It looks to be windows only, which is a problem for me. Somewhat that runs on a tablet would seem much handy to have at the table.

The photos of the WWII game look very weird with tanks side by side like Napoleonic lines of infantry.

That's not unusual in Operational scale WW2 games, (and some popular competition games).

[mmcv]

I have looked at those style of games before, especially in regards to solo play, but they always seemed to add a bit too much admin overhead to move the action forward. As I grew up putting many many hours into strategy video games, I definitely enjoy the tactile experience of tabletop as a change of pace. I've actually barely played any sort of video game in the past couple of years.

Plus I spend enough of my life staring at screens so nice to have a break from that from time to time. But I can see the appeal for club games and the like where you can share the load of using it a bit and I imagine reducing quibbles over rules.

[John Cook]

I agree entirely.  If you spend your working day staring at the 'magic lantern' the last thing you probably want to do is stare at one on your own time.  Computer moderated rules are not for everybody, that has always been clear enough, even from when they first appeared back in 1990s.