Recently I bought "War on the southern front". Find the game pretty interesting and the map is gorgeous (I installed a wonderful mod). I don´t know the reason why this serie seems to be ignored by the community.
Is there any plans to update the games or publish something new?
Good question that I don't have a good answer for, however if you are going to launch a new series with a unusual movement/combat system it REALLY pays to have the designer on stream and/or very detailed designer notes to answer questions and explain in detail how the system works and maybe some of the workings under the "hood".
An AAR or two somewhere on the net would have been nice also.
IMO players became frustrated when they were unable to understand some of the combat results and have the unique tactics required to enjoy the game explained to them, so they drifted away.........
The First Blitzkrieg attracted a fair bit of interest, but by the time War on the southern front came out that interest had waned, I had the title and really tried to get into it to the point that I was asked to review the title and see how it could be improved, unfortunately I was very busy helping test France 14 and so had to turn that offer down.
I had the first one and the two things that should have been different was 1)The most likely combat results displayed so that a player could add more to the assault to get the desired result he wanted rather than leaving it unknown and 2) The details weren't good enough. With a Division, should have had all units attached to it down to possibly companies, but at least battalions. At any time, units could be attached or detached for KGs/TFs and each unit had the details as to how many tanks, men etc One battalion gets mauled, it should show the one mauled, not split evenly among the rest. I guess that would also make for a larger map as well. Organizational details I guess is what I am trying to say.
I'd like to see that idea for an overall Civil War game that looks like board games, but you take care of all the organizational stuff as well. The ability to detach units as you move the ANV north, leaving a Bde to defend a certain mountain pass or maybe two rgts and some cav and arty, but you select what exact units will be detached for that duty. The rest, as long as they are attached, move as a whole div. Replacements arrive from the various states and you have to decide if they will be used to make some units stronger after losses or create a new unit if enough left over to do so.
@ Outlaw Josey Wales:
I agree with you about the maps on the series.
And at the risk of hijacking the thread: I agree wholeheartedly with you about a theater-level Civil War game ala the old SPI games.
I asked about the status of the series and received an email form JTS stating nothing was being done at this time. I would like to see a theater-level Civil War game also.
I miss a better tutorial (specially about the use of planes), some kind of information during combats and air bombardments in the magnified view. Besides this, the game is fully enjoyable. With a bit of work from the development team the SW series would be a blast.
In the huge JTG catalogue a well supported theather-level serie is essential.