I sit here expressing my opinions and views in the hope that someone out there will respond. There are occasions when I begin to wonder if any of you actually read this section of Lone Warrior and if anybody would notice if it didn’t appear. But then the membership stops my wondering by actually writing and emailing me. As I keep on saying this Games Corner is yours I am only the editor so now over to you.
My thanks to Bob Walker for the following in response to Games corner 25 “Where have all the Wargames gone?” Thanks for reminding us of all the great PC wargames that never seem to appear in the shops any more. Sadly, I can tell you where many of those games have gone. You only have to go to the AbandonWAR website at http://abandonwar.isonfire.com and you can download them for nothing! Like it or not, failure to sell and keep selling in the software business means a one-way trip to this kind of elephant's graveyard, however good your programs are. If you look around the Oldwarez/Abandonwarez Webring* that this site belongs to, you can see that this rule applies to everyone and not just wargame designers. Still, it keeps us software people in work somehow. * I suppose I had better explain for the uninitiated that a Webring is a group of websites on a single subject with a controller who vets them for quality. The controller hosts a central site which lists the sites in the Ring and provides search facilities. Once admitted to the Ring, the sites are linked together like a wheel with a common set of control buttons on each site, so you can browse round them easily (or even ask for a random choice). Annoyingly, you will find that Webrings are not immune from broken links, but they often beat a general search engine to the answer you want. For examples, see:
The Wargamers Webring at http://j.webring.com/hub?id=682&ring=wargamers&list
The History Webring at http://s.webring.com/hub?ring=history&list
or any of the Webrings on the American Civil War listed at:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1867/cwring.html
Good soloing! Bob Walker
My thanks too to Steve O’Brien for the following: For those members who are serious about their wargaming on computers, or are old and crotchety like me and you, I would recommend the following site: http://www.strategic-plus.co.uk/ I have found this to be an excellent site and it has an extensive catalogue which seems to cater for all the various tastes of the wargaming fraternity.
I quite fancy branching out into Medieval castling building and have spotted a game called Stronghold which looks like it might fit the bill. From what I have read the game is more of a simulation of the feudal system, a kind Civilisation but stuck in a single period. It seems you can play the game in many ways, be ‘mister nice guy’ lord or a totally evil one. The write-ups indicate that there are all sorts of historically correct devices. These include siege ladders, undermining the walls and a large variety of siege engines. Enemy tactics are varied depending on your actions. If I decide to spend my pennies I will get around to doing a review - promise. Happy soloing. Steve O.
Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #138
Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 2002 by Solo Wargamers Association.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com