# Why no good WW1 Games?



## rogthedodge (May 23, 2007)

Apologies if this is in the wrong section but does anyone know any good WW1 strategy games? I bought that dreadful entente rubbish and only bothered a couple of times with it 

Ideally I'd love 'Cossacks with trenches' type of thing but so far no joy. any hints / pointers?

R


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## 102first_hussars (May 24, 2007)

I dont know thats a good question


I have played a few good 


WW1 flying games but nothing really that interesting


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## Negative Creep (May 24, 2007)

The only WW1 game I can think of is Blazing Skies, which was on the SNES. Next nearest would be Empire Earth on the PC. It goes from cavemen throwing rocks to battle mechs and space ships, one of the ages is World War 1. It's an RTS game which can be picked up pretty cheap now


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## Cyrano (May 24, 2007)




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## Soundbreaker Welch? (May 26, 2007)

Red Ace Squadron was ok. Nice flying feel but not so real graphics. But I loved it. It was those WWI games by Little Rockets that taught me to fly in my computer.


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## 102first_hussars (May 27, 2007)

Well I know there is a few WWI Aircraft Games

But I think what me and Rog want to see is some WW1 First person shooter games

Which would be cool


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## rogthedodge (May 29, 2007)

I just love Cossacks on the PC - once you get the resources side of it under control it combines tactics strategy. I play it a lot and get myself into tricky spots just to see if i can get myself out of them. 

But I'm always thinking where's cossacks 6 or whatever when the arty gets bigger and you can construct trenches, decide where when to try a 'big push' or even try the behind the lines amphib option to turn the flank.

'Entente' was a cossacks 'development' or just rip-off but very badly concieved and executed, pay the postage and it's yours! 

TBH I think a WW1 1st person shooter would be a bit odd - up the line, reserve, 'rest', repeat ad nauseam (maybe a bath every other week) until a sniper or a dirty great shell ends that phase and you get the slow ambulance-journey phase. A tactical strategy game however would be really interesting - for me at least


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## comiso90 (May 29, 2007)

There isn't much interest in WW1... the sequel was more popular...

the third in the series may be the last release however.


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## rogthedodge (May 31, 2007)

comiso90 said:


> There isn't much interest in WW1... the sequel was more popular...
> 
> the third in the series may be the last release however.




Good gag!

I agree about the interest point - the game market is driven by what interests kids in the US aged 14-20 (hence the accuracy issue in many games). 

Interest in WW1 seems to occur later in life (did with me anyway).

Oh well the price of being a kidult I suppose


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## Soundbreaker Welch? (Jun 1, 2007)

Comiso that's a chilling statement.


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## comiso90 (Jun 1, 2007)

Soundbreaker Welch? said:


> Comiso that's a chilling statement.



Yeah, and it would look good on a T-Shirt!


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## Soundbreaker Welch? (Jun 2, 2007)

You're right!


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## mkloby (Jun 2, 2007)

rogthedodge said:


> Apologies if this is in the wrong section but does anyone know any good WW1 strategy games? I bought that dreadful entente rubbish and only bothered a couple of times with it
> 
> Ideally I'd love 'Cossacks with trenches' type of thing but so far no joy. any hints / pointers?
> 
> R



You could do Hearts of Iron (great game) and install the WWI mod...


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## HealzDevo (Jun 3, 2007)

It is because WWI ultimately was a war of stalemate which doesn't help its chances of a game being created. It was basically a meat-grinder type situation and ultimately even those of you that are interested would not be fond of a historical game that stuck to the truth. Disease, poor conditions. Being able to be out of the fight before the game really began. Ugh, no way. This is why a WWI game will never take off except at a large scale tactical level...


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## mosquitoman (Jun 4, 2007)

A game based on Jutland would be interesting


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## 102first_hussars (Jun 6, 2007)

mosquitoman said:


> A game based on Jutland would be interesting



That would actually


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## rogthedodge (Jun 7, 2007)

HealzDevo said:


> It is because WWI ultimately was a war of stalemate which doesn't help its chances of a game being created. It was basically a meat-grinder type situation and ultimately even those of you that are interested would not be fond of a historical game that stuck to the truth. Disease, poor conditions. Being able to be out of the fight before the game really began. Ugh, no way. This is why a WWI game will never take off except at a large scale tactical level...



Yeah it's the large-scale tactical / strategic level I'm looking for.

I appreciate you're just agreeing with what I said in my earlier posts, not correcting me as it appears. I hope I'm right.


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## Njaco (Jun 12, 2007)

Jutland would be a good start for a WWI game. Maybe also add Zeebrugge. I think they can come up with something similar to Call of Duty if they take some sectors of the war and create a flowing game. It could be done.


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## HealzDevo (Jun 13, 2007)

Yes, but then you risk turning it into an arcade game. I agree that a naval battles of WW1 would be interesting. Or maybe a game which could be called something like Iron Thrust as a large scale tactical troop simulator with bombers and fighters as well as troops, and in some cases ships. Would really be worth looking at...


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## falcon from sweden (Jun 13, 2007)

if you want a good ww 1 flying game you should test Wings of War.


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## HealzDevo (Jun 17, 2007)

I did like Red Baron II but it was slightly arcadey as a game...


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## rabu (Jun 28, 2007)

Over Flanders Fields is doing just fine. Why not give it a go?


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## Jugulator (Jun 29, 2007)

I think the reason no one has made a WWI game is just because of how brutal and stupid it was. In the age of modern weaponry generals march their soldiers in column warfare? Are they crazy?

ALso, who want's to play a game about standing in a trench for 6 months?


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## LaggyMcLagLag (Jun 30, 2007)

You can also download a world war I mod for Battlefield 1942, then either make youre own or download world war one maps.

EDIT: there weren't trenches in Gallipolli


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## Bandy (Aug 29, 2007)

One of the best WW1 flight sims going is ThirdWire's "First Eagles" for $30 or less. It already has an incredible 3rd party community of modders, even though the game is not even a year old yet, see: First Eagles The Great Air War 1918

Then go over to Combat Ace for the forum: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showforum=101

As well as the FREE 3rd party downloads!!!

PS: If anybody is interested in a board game version of Jutland, with cardboard counters (the olde way to play wargames...), I have one for sale in great shape...


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## Hunter368 (Aug 29, 2007)

Lots of good WW1 games you just have to know where to look.

Check them out here:

BoardGameGeek | Gaming Unplugged Since 2000


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## rogthedodge (Sep 1, 2007)

Thanks for the suggestions.

I see some can't help lapsing into trotting out silly inaccurate received 'wisdom' about WW1:

'Column warfare vs modern weapons' - what?! 
Just when did that happen? Ever heard of 'artillery formation'? Any idea what that might be??

'Standing in a trench for 6 months'? - and just who did that in WW1? Concept of unit rotation, forward, support and reserve lines a new one to you? Deploying companies 1;1;2 ? 
Most front-line stints were 24hrs per company as even a cursory study of the odd book would reveal. 

'Can't make a game about WW1 because it was 'brutal and stupid' ' - unlike other wars eh? Didn't stop games being made about other wars did it? Amazes me how many 'experts' 'know' they could fight a better war than those in charge at the time! 

Of course there were trenches at Gallipoli! Why would anyone think there weren't? Squaddies are known to prefer being shot at to digging eh?


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## phas3e (Sep 18, 2007)

Where do you think the nickname Diggers for the Australians and New Zealand troops came from?


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## The Stale Mate! (Jan 17, 2008)

i no why they dont have w1 games its easy well as u can see ww1 was trench war(line battles) as u can see well in the 1800 people was fighting in line battles and when ww1 brokeout they still had the fighting style as if they were in the 1800s so they really didnt get a new style until WW2! BROKE OUT THE TRENCH WAR WAS USELESS WITH MACHINE GUN FIRE AND PLANES BOMBING THE **** OUT OF U SO THATS WHY THEY DONT HAVE WW1 GAMES IT WILL BE PINTLESS TO SEE MEN MOVING BACK AND FORTH KILLING EACH OTHER AND I WOULDNT EVEN HAVE A WW1 FIRST PERSON SHOOTERS GAMES IMAGEN THAT DYING EVERY 10 SECONDS THAT WOULD BE THE POINTLESS GAME EVER


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## Njaco (Jan 23, 2008)

.


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## Dharand (Oct 17, 2008)

I think it would be awesome to play a WW I 1st person shooter, styled somewhat like call of duty. WWI was more then trench warfare on the Western Front DO NOT forget the Italians, French, Russians, ect fighting on the other fronts. I think a little trench warfare gaming would be neat. Also, throw in some stuff from the battles of the isonzos, Verdun, gallipoli... plus tons more things to throw in to make an awesome game. Of course it would be extremely difficult to keep it historically accurate, but i think just taking main concepts into the game would satisfy me.


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## Flyboy2 (Oct 19, 2008)

I know for the tactical type games some RTS games that go through different periods of time usually have a World War I age. I'm think of Empire Earth specifically.

One of the reasons I think there is no real World War I 1st person shooters is because the mass audience of game players likes running around throughout huge maps and using devices like gernades and such. A World War I game would be interesting, but would not have as much running and would make some people bored.

On a side not, didn't EA Games start a prototype Battlefield 1918. I thought I heard something about it


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## B-17engineer (Oct 20, 2008)

comiso90 said:


> There isn't much interest in WW1... the sequel was more popular...
> 
> the third in the series may be the last release however.



I thought you were talking about a game at first.


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## parsifal (Oct 20, 2008)

In the boardgames genre, there is an old old game called "The greenfields beyond" put out by SPI. Was not too bad. In the moer modern genre, ther is Paths Of Glory (POG), which I personally am not that keen on, but which is not too bad fom a grand strategy standpoint.

Me and the ADG playtest group (Australian Design Group - of World In Flames fame) have been considering a WWI game played at "operational level, but as others have pointed out, getting players to hurl their manpower at machneguns, and make it interesting is a bit of a challenge. Game scaling is also a bit of a problem....the front might be 500 km long, and advanceds measured in hundreds odf metres....


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## Lucky13 (Oct 20, 2008)

Would be cool to see a good WWI shooter though.....


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## BombTaxi (Nov 6, 2008)

Sorry to ressurrect this, have only just come across it. If you're into boardgames,try this site: Avalanche Press

The Verdun and Jutland games are currently on their way to me  They are also on the verge of releasing a company scale tactical game based on the Eastern Front in 1914... all good stuff


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## Burmese Bandit (Dec 7, 2008)

comiso90 said:


> There isn't much interest in WW1... the sequel was more popular...
> 
> the third in the series may be the last release however.




That was witty, Comiso!  

BTW....I agree.


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## Stonewall1973 (Jan 22, 2009)

I have Red Baron 2...With the Full Canvas Jacket superpatch...A great graphical experience but with all the addons and other stuff...like Glide wrappers and first aid kits...It always crashes after I finish a mission...And I've installed them in the order thay supposed to be...
Would love to get this game up n running...But at moment...I'm waiting for Over Flanders Fields between Heaven and hell...Which looks Amazing...


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## Trebor (Jan 22, 2009)

I only have Wings of War on original xbox. it's quite fun.


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## sturmer (Jan 26, 2009)

there is a very good mod for bf 1942 called bf1918. it was incredible popular but its aging pretty rapidly.
i think they could make good RPG games.
but then again the most deads during that war was because of deceases and stuff. and the fact that it was mostly trenchwarfare and that a push wasnt that common. so it was more a sit and wait game. if they would try to copy that then well it would be a very boring game.
some battles could be made, but then they better make campaigns for allies and axis to lett the game be more intresting and to make the game longer


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