Holy Shit I've soiled my pants!

World in Flames computer edition by Matrix Games has been in development for more than 10 years and now it is released WITH hardback rulebooks and a FUCKING KING map which is ...wait for it




Did you see that? Its a map that is 9ft X 21ft. Wait while I wipe the drool off my chin. Not only that they are supplying the maps and the hardback books with the software so you can play it with your chums.

It's hard for me to explain how excited I am about all this and how much I'm looking forward to receiving all this shit.

Flim Flam, Repo get on the fucking case.

Also why wasn't I told about this earlier?

What, you wargamers had a lapse in memory or what???

I'm off to get more Kleenex

Wow - that's pretty amazing. I will definitely check out picking this up and would love to find opponents. Our epic WIF games are some of my best gaming memories.

** GROGNARD / WARGAMING SNOB ALERT **

My only regret with this package is that they are supporting the FE rules. I think the series peaked with 3E, and would love to see that resurrected.

One other regret, I guess - that the maps are nine feet high and won't fit in my basement gaming area

But nice find! If you're looking for an opponent, let me know!

And, as an aside for those of you not familiar with what WiF did for the hobby - When it came out (in 1985), the strategic WW2 space was dominated by the original Third Reich. It's a solid game, but has some very odd design choices, and was the epitome of the IGO-UGO approach to wargaming.

You could literally leave the room for an hour while your opponent planned out his move with super-precision. And if you left one piece out of position, one hole in your defenses, it was pretty much game over. It's one of the most unforgiving games ever designed, and led to one of my few board-flip incidents (not by me, by my opponent).

World In Flames turned all of that on it's head. Turns were still long, but much more interactive, and divided into alternating impulses. You didn't know when turns would end. The naval system and air systems were marvelous (especially naval). The economic and production systems made planning critical. What you did on the board had political consequences.

It, in many ways, brought 'euro' elements into wargaming before those things even existed. In our wargame club at college it was like a bomb had exploded. We just couldn't get enough WiF. I am pretty sure it directly led to the release of Advanced Third Reich, which took many cues from WiF.

I see WiF as a harbinger of the 'playable monster' and the entry of modern design techniques that transformed wargaming throughout the late 80's, eventually leading to the 'card driven' games of the 90's.

OMFG. The three books that come with it are two Player Handbooks and a Rules as Coded book. All in full colour roughly 300 pages per book.




Tanya, where's that extra box of Kleenex????

So how much does this monstrosity cost?

$100 for the game (including the books). $75 for the map set (promotional price, normally $100).

I know because I just bought the game. Passed on the maps as I really don't have any place to hang them.

A very reasonable price, I think, considering that a 40K codex is now $50 or something like that.

I just whispered in my wife's ear that Christmas is coming. And I provided the link.

Ne'er hath men been so excited about a subway poster-sized world map.

Before you order you should know:

There is no AI at the moment it will be a paid for add on if required

The software enforces rules (not like VASSAL)

NetPlay is being implemented (will be free upgrade)

PBEM still has some fixes

VERY extensive tutorials (interactive, video and using Player Handbooks)

Advice is to learn the computerised interface now while they fix NetPlay

You can solitaire

@StormSeeker...I would stick to Quarriors, Magic, Monopoly and King of Tokyo if I were you. Wargamers are a different breed entirely. Real gamers do war.

Wowza. And right as I am beginning A World at War campaign with a FtF buddy here. I do think I might need this though. I have never played WiF....off to check it out

Goddamn, do I want this game and I'm glad that Matrix has finally released it. Unfortunately, the most compelling feature for me was the AI which ain't done and sounds like I'll have to pay extra for. Until that's finished I worry it'd just be another expensive game that sat on the 'shelf' and collected dust. Someone talk me out of this rational thinking

AI for this type of game is very low on my list. They are usually absolutely abysmal. I'd much rather have the focus on enforcing the rules properly to act as a streamilned FTF platform.

You're never going to get a competitive AI opponent for WIF.

To be fair, this is one of the reasons the game was delayed for so long. They eventually realised that it can be released without AI because people will still buy a quality product and this is definitely in that category.

I know a LOT of work has gone into the AI and I fully expect an AI release but the primary opponent is a real person and it is exactly the same for War in Europe (WiE) and A World at War (AWAW) both of which have software that enforces the rules for play across the net. WiE is a particularly expensive piece of software for what it is (just software with no manuals for $60) but that's Decision Games for you. Compare with Warplanner (for AWAW) which also has no manuals but is free.

World in Flames has three chunky hardback manuals to teach the software AND the game hence you don't need the original game (entirely different from Warplanner or WiE). If Decision Games had half a marketing brain they would have done something like this for WiE and a few other monsters to keep them alive (Highway to the Reich, War in the Pacific, Atlantic Wall for example) but instead they rely on one piece of software and don't support it (it is recommended to run only on XP). You have to have a hard copy of WiE which is stupidly expensive on the secondary market.

Fuck DG, as I say to myself every time I'm tempted to buy something from them and it's worked so far.

I've always been interested in war games, I just never had an opportunity (i.e. an opponent) to play them. But hey, I guess instead of trying something new I'll just fuck a Pokemon or something instead.