Has anyone played Armored Brigade? I just added it to FreeWargamer here. It seems pretty robust and was wondering what others thought of it?

Thanks,
Dave

It looks very interesting, may have to check it out.

If you do, let me know what you think!
Thanks,
Dave 

Armored Brigade is an excellent game for a one man effort.  In brief, it's a 2D, top down, pausable continuous time, tactical level game of WW3 circa 1985.  Units are squads and individual vehicles.  Maps are pretty good.  I haven't checked out the game for a while but ISTR that the some sort of real world mapping system had been introduced.  Force selection is points based and very flexible.  The system is optimised for multi-battalion battles but I was quite happy playing with a couple of companies.

When I last looked at the game (around two years ago) the infantry model was a little adrift.  I felt that infantry died too easily.  The graphics are not flash (the game looks a lot like real-time Steel Panthers) but they are more than adequate.

This is definitely a game that should be drawn to wargamers' attention and is certainly worthy of discussion on a website like the Wargamer.

Hope this helps

Andy Brown

Andy - Wow, that is an awesome synopsis. Could I post that on FreeWargamer?

If you like, but it's probably better if you simply include a link to the game's website, which includes a moderately active forum.

http://www.armoredbrigade.com/

There was talk about developing a WW2 database but I don't know what happened there.  As I said, it's been a couple of years since I looked at the game.  That's not a judgement of it, I've just got too much else to do.

Cheers,

Andy

More like Close Combat than Steel Panthers if you know what I mean.

I think I used to describe it as Steel Panthers with Combat Mission's interface.  Another way would be 2D Combat Mission.  For me anyway, it feels like Combat Mission more than Close Combat.  YMMV.

Andy

I can't access it. Is their site down?

armoredbrigade.com? I just checked and it works fine for me.

The site has been unaccessible all day for some reason. When it's working again I recommend getting the latest test build from the forums, currently 0.805a. The next release should have several new armies for the 1987 time frame.

The site is up and running again. The server had a malfunction and it took them 5 days to fix it. It seems that some things are still missing, including the latest release in the downloads section, and I'm unable to update the website. The latest 0.805a test build can be found here:

http://www.armoredbrigade.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=534

By the way, I'm working on the Linux version of AB. It will be one of the very few "real" wargames that have native Linux support.

I noticed the 7/10 score at FreeWargamer. Not trying to be pushy or anything, but I suggest re-reviewing it, as that score must be based on some very, very old version of the game...

I'll give it another look as soon as I get a chance, Veitikka.

Dave

Armored Brigade just had a major update. There are 11 nationalities now: Finland, France, FRG, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK, USA, USSR and Yugoslavia. 321 units and 38 aircraft in total.

http://www.armoredbrigade.com/

Thanks for the update Veitikka, I'll get this to the site news for more attention

Thanks Veitikka! I updated Armored Brigade's page on FreeWargamer and also added a new news item to the site.

I downloaded this, installed it, and tried to play.

No documention that I could find. I was like a monkey with a typewriter, stabbing at various keys. Couldn't even figure out how to start the sim..until it did. Still don't know what key(s) I pressed.

..and then it crashed. Reload, got it started again, crash again.

This might be a good game..but it needs a manual, even a rudimentery one. It also needs to crash less.

I appreciate that this is still an alpha build, and I will try again in a couple of months.

Many thanks for support!

Originally Posted By DennisS (2 MAR 2013 8:08am)

I downloaded this, installed it, and tried to play.

 

No documention that I could find. I was like a monkey with a typewriter, stabbing at various keys. Couldn't even figure out how to start the sim..until it did. Still don't know what key(s) I pressed.

 

..and then it crashed. Reload, got it started again, crash again.

 

This might be a good game..but it needs a manual, even a rudimentery one. It also needs to crash less.

 

I appreciate that this is still an alpha build, and I will try again in a couple of months.

I admit that the lack of good documentation can make the game challenging for inexperienced players. On the other hand, many people who've player similar games find AB easy to get into. The community wiki and forums are the only sources of information. For years I've been trying to write a proper manual, but I always get back to improving the game. It's a free alpha/beta after all, and I do this for fun. It doesn't always feel like fun though.

v0.810 should be very stable. If it crashes then there's probably a conflict with your system. Have you tried to update your video drivers?