Hello to all,
My first post. I have been a naval warfare and history self taught "student" for years. I am not as obsessed with the subject now as much as I used to be once, but maintain a keen interest in the subject, and still hold that the best reading is sitting down with a book on any event of naval history. It is a marvelous way, indeed probably the best and most exciting way to study, as a conduit, history in general between the 1400's to the middle of the 1900's. Though I am unlikely to be much of a poster here, I am sure I will learn a great deal from your discussions.
As an after note, and why I post on this sub forum of hypothetical scenarios; has anyone here ever played the old PC DOS simulation Action Stations!? If so, do team pairs ever play hypothetical scenarios with it by exchanging two player save scenarios? It is an excellent WWII surface battle analyzer, at least in my opinion. Just a thought.
Thanks for your reception on the site.
New member first post
Re: New member first post
Welcome to the forum!
I played Action Stations a lot in bygone days, but I don't think it will run on modern computers, will it?
I haven't played Fighting Steel for a while either, but I think that is pretty good if you are looking for a more recent one.
Oh, and the only way I ever played pvp was switching seats at the computer, so I have no knowledge of your question.
I played Action Stations a lot in bygone days, but I don't think it will run on modern computers, will it?
I haven't played Fighting Steel for a while either, but I think that is pretty good if you are looking for a more recent one.
Oh, and the only way I ever played pvp was switching seats at the computer, so I have no knowledge of your question.
Re: New member first post
Welcome Cuttlefish!
I never tried Action Stations (didn't get into computers until later in life), but did play a bit of Fighting Steel and it seemed like an excellent game. The newly released Jutland game appears to be magnificent in terms of graphics and accuracy, but alas I have a Mac and though I have Bootcamp set up I haven't loaded Windows into it yet. Jutland is a PC game.
Fighting Steel is a great game to try hypothetical scenarios with, BTW.
I never tried Action Stations (didn't get into computers until later in life), but did play a bit of Fighting Steel and it seemed like an excellent game. The newly released Jutland game appears to be magnificent in terms of graphics and accuracy, but alas I have a Mac and though I have Bootcamp set up I haven't loaded Windows into it yet. Jutland is a PC game.
Fighting Steel is a great game to try hypothetical scenarios with, BTW.
Re: New member first post
Although Harpoon was designed for latter actions I seem to recall reading that it could handle WWII actions fairly well. I'll admit my experiance with it was with an early version of the miniatures game and not the latter computer versions.
Re: New member first post
Yeah thanks for mentioning that, I have heard it works for historical as well as modern naval combat, and have been meaning to check it out. Do you know if there is a Mac-compatible version?
Re: New member first post
a number of links here
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw= ... =&aql=&oq=
should answer your question and at least one indicates a version does work with Mac's
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw= ... =&aql=&oq=
should answer your question and at least one indicates a version does work with Mac's
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CuttleFish
- Member
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Re: New member first post
Hello again, and thank you for that welcome!
Bgile, yes I do have Action Stations! running on a 64 bit system, through DosBox, and that on Linux Debian 6, so fortunately my favorite simulation proved to be quite adaptable.
I only ever played a demo of Fighting Steel, and quite a while back, but I recall it was impressive. From some browsing just now I notice it is still quite alive, and with online multi-player support, by the looks of it(?).
Analyzing hypothetical's was a particular joy of mine. Not only in pitting against each other ships that never met in battle, but sometimes omitting one key ship from a formation, or just changing the visibility, time or sea state of a real battle made for different and interesting outcomes. It was surprising how close to the real outcomes the battles on Action Stations! used to be for some the "real" scenarios. The Java Sea action almost always went the way it really did, as did the Denmark Strait. Two of my favorite "home made" real scenarios were the fights of Exeter against the whole Nachi class, and Scharnhorst's unlucky last forray. They prove repeatedly how the former could never have escaped and how the latter should have got away. The one draw back of Action Stations!, I thought, was the AI. The computer opponent rarely held cohesive formations for long, and many times allowed the human player to split up a force and defeat it, at least in part, without major loss of his own fleet, which was why I preferred playing another human opponent.
Anyway, thanks again for the comments, and yes I probably will upgrade to Fighting Steel in the near future.
Cheers for now!
Bgile, yes I do have Action Stations! running on a 64 bit system, through DosBox, and that on Linux Debian 6, so fortunately my favorite simulation proved to be quite adaptable.
I only ever played a demo of Fighting Steel, and quite a while back, but I recall it was impressive. From some browsing just now I notice it is still quite alive, and with online multi-player support, by the looks of it(?).
Analyzing hypothetical's was a particular joy of mine. Not only in pitting against each other ships that never met in battle, but sometimes omitting one key ship from a formation, or just changing the visibility, time or sea state of a real battle made for different and interesting outcomes. It was surprising how close to the real outcomes the battles on Action Stations! used to be for some the "real" scenarios. The Java Sea action almost always went the way it really did, as did the Denmark Strait. Two of my favorite "home made" real scenarios were the fights of Exeter against the whole Nachi class, and Scharnhorst's unlucky last forray. They prove repeatedly how the former could never have escaped and how the latter should have got away. The one draw back of Action Stations!, I thought, was the AI. The computer opponent rarely held cohesive formations for long, and many times allowed the human player to split up a force and defeat it, at least in part, without major loss of his own fleet, which was why I preferred playing another human opponent.
Anyway, thanks again for the comments, and yes I probably will upgrade to Fighting Steel in the near future.
Cheers for now!
Re: New member first post
If you have the slightest interest in WW I naval combat, you should definitely check out Jutland!
Or maybe also the game by the same company about the Russo-Japanese war (Distant Guns? I forget the name sorry).
I read somewhere these games were based on Fighting Steel to a large extent. But they are the next generation to be sure. The graphics alone are outstanding. And you can actually follow the trajectory of each shell if you want!
I'm not a schill for the Jutland company, trust me. There were actually some complaints about support for the game, particularly if it needed to be moved to another computer. But last I heard they were working on it.
My guess is, in another few years they will issue a WW II version. Which ought to be spectacular for us Bismarck fans who are also gamers.
Or maybe also the game by the same company about the Russo-Japanese war (Distant Guns? I forget the name sorry).
I read somewhere these games were based on Fighting Steel to a large extent. But they are the next generation to be sure. The graphics alone are outstanding. And you can actually follow the trajectory of each shell if you want!
I'm not a schill for the Jutland company, trust me. There were actually some complaints about support for the game, particularly if it needed to be moved to another computer. But last I heard they were working on it.
My guess is, in another few years they will issue a WW II version. Which ought to be spectacular for us Bismarck fans who are also gamers.
Re: New member first post
That Java Sea comes out pretty much the same is not at all unreasonable. Denmark strait doing so seems a bit questionable to me.CuttleFish wrote:... It was surprising how close to the real outcomes the battles on Action Stations! used to be for some the "real" scenarios. The Java Sea action almost always went the way it really did, as did the Denmark Strait. ...