Predictions

Hi,

Back at the start of this year I had a look into my crystal ball and
predicted that the pace of wargame releases - which was one new game
every two weeks - was untenable from an economical pov and that we
would see much less wargames getting released this year.

Now that the year is nearly finished it's maybe time to see if should
call the crystal ball helpline to report it broken or not.

A quick count of the games released this year gives 31 - as 2006 had
seen a sharp drop of -30% (from 43 in 2005 to 30 in 2006) this number
was quite surprising - have releases bottomed out at around 30 ? Or
are there other factors ?

Well, there are other factors : 6 of the games released this year are
actually not new games, but re-releases of old games. While these were
welcomed by the fans, they're not exactly shiny new toys. And unless
Matrix pulls another unexpected IP ace out of their collective sleeve
the source of these re-releases has dried up so I see this more as a
one-time release number enhancer than anything else. Ok, so discount
those 6 games, which leaves us with 25 new games released this year.

Wait-a-sec. How many of those are based on an existing engine, either
as an add-on, a scenario pack or even with serious modifications ? 11,
but only half of them could be considered virtually identical to other
games in the series so we've got 14 true new games and half a dozen
seriously modified existing game engine for a total of 20.

Which is an impressive number. I mean, if you look back 10 years these
were all the wargames released in 1997 (afaik)

SSI : Pacific General
SSI : Imperialism
SSI - Panzer General 2
Strategy First - Man of War
Ages of Rifles Campaign Disk
Firaxis - Sid Meier's Gettysburg
Talonsoft - Battleground 8 : Prelude to Waterloo
Sierra Online - Civil War Generals 2

A couple of new games, but more updated engines, scenario packs and
add-ons than anything else.

So 2007 certainly wasn't bad from a pure release numbers pov, but how
about quality ?

This is partly taste of course, but I can easily pick half a dozen
games from the list which I absolutely think are great games - YMMV.

Ok, so my crystal ball appears to be malfunctioning a bit - let's
apply the standard technical solution for delicate equipment that
isn't functioning properly : whack it with a hammer and have a look at
what 2008 will bring us. Maybe if we see a drying up of games in the
pipeline my prediction of less games getting released might become
true given a bit more time.

Battles from the Bulge will be finished in 2008 - guaranteed. AGEod is
working on a couple of new releases as well - BoA 2.0 and Vainglory of
Nations. Battlefront has the CM:SF Marines module ("Semper Crash ?"),
HistWar and Galley Battles lined up, Panzer Command : Kharkov is
practically finished and so is Flashpoint : Middle East. Then we have
Grigsby's ACW game, Lock 'n Load, the WitP Gold version, a couple of
modules from the AATF engine and HPS launching the new series Horse &
Musket.

Nope, that pipeline looks pretty ok to me - anyone wants to buy a
crystal ball from me ? - not used a lot and highly reliable (ahum) -
low price.

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

The 2007 data :

New engine

Thermopylae
Punic Wars
Battlefront
Making History - The Calm & The Storm 2.0
Theatre of War
Carriers at War
Commander : Europe at War
Ta.La.Co.Si (Tactical Land Combat Simulator)
Guns of August 1914-1918
Combat Mission : Shock Force
Hornet Leader
Panzer Tactics (DS)
Great Battles of Rome
Empires in Arms - The Napoleonic Wars of 1805-1815

Existing / updated engine

Down in Flames WWI - Bombers
Silent Hunter 4
Panzer Campaigns - Budapest '45
Civil war Campaigns - Atlanta
AGEOD'S American Civil War - The Blue and the Gray
Civil War Battles: Campaign Chickamauga
Squad Battles - Soviet-Afghan War
Advanced Tactics (People's Tactics 2)
AGEod's Napoleon's Campaigns
Strategic Command 2 : Blitzkrieg - Weapons and Warfare
Napoleon in Italy

Re-release

Close Combat : Cross of Iron
John Tiller's Campaign Series : Matrix edition
John Tiller's Battleground Civil War
John Tiller's Battleground Napoleonic Wars + Age of Sail
Cose Combat : Modern Tactics
Larry Bond's Harpoon Commander's Edition

On 20 dec, 14:28, "Neil Kaufman" <neilkauf....RemoveThis@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> You forgot HPS Danube 85

Whoops - my bad - added to the list

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx