Tobruk '41 any good?

[Oxford_Guy]

Hi - I'm interested in picking up my first Tiller WW2 operational game, my main interest is in the early desert war, so am considering getting Tobruk '41, but is it any good? Are there a good mix of small, medium and larger scenarios? Are both sides fun to play?

Would prefer to start with the smaller scenarios as a newbie. I'm also considering El Alamein '42, but only because I hear it has a good Operation Compass scenario.

An alternative I'm considering is to go for the Operational Art of War and finding some decent North Africa scenarios - is that a viable choice, or would Tiller's Tobruk '41 be better, as it's purpose designed for North Afrika campaigning? Which has the better AI? Longer term I know that playing PBEM will be better and more fun, but a decent AI could help me to learn the ropes.

[HirooOnoda]

Hi - I'm interested in picking up my first Tiller WW2 operational game, my main interest is in the early desert war, so am considering getting Tobruk '41, but is it any good? Are there a good mix of small, medium and larger scenarios? Are both sides fun to play?

Would prefer to start with the smaller scenarios as a newbie. I'm also considering El Alamein '42, but only because I hear it has a good Operation Compass scenario.

An alternative I'm considering is to go for the Operational Art of War and finding some decent North Africa scenarios - is that a viable choice, or would Tiller's Tobruk '41 be better, as it's purpose designed for North Afrika campaigning? Which has the better AI? Longer term I know that playing PBEM will be better and more fun, but a decent AI could help me to learn the ropes.

I found it wanting. 88s are not the "God King" of the battlefield they were historically and you can push all the DAK into one hex (unless they've changed that).

A great one is El Alamein. That is a great one.

[Mr Grumpy]

Welcome to the club.......

Like yourself I am a big desert war fan, personally I was disappointed with the Tobruk title when I bought it as it just didn't "feel right" for this period of the war, however the work Ed Williams aka Volcano Man has done in his _Alt versions of the scenarios with various PDT and OOB tweaks has made the title a much better product in my opinion and others may disagree with that, I personally worked with Ed on producing balanced _Alt versions of the Brevity and Battleaxe scenarios.

If you want to go right back to the beginning there is indeed a Compass 40 "add on" for Alamein 42 that covers the whole of the Compass campaign from the initial Italian invasion to the entire Compass campaign with 360 turns, again this was produced by Ed and I have actually played a chunk of the campaign H2H, I was the Commonwealth side and enjoyed the scenario, however my opponent while acknowledging that the scenario was an excellent piece of work found the fact that the Italians had nothing with which to even occasionally hit back with a bit discouraging.

I have never played TOAW so I cannot compare the two game systems.

[Oxford_Guy]

Thanks for the replies, @Foul - where can I find the _"Alt"versions of the scenarios? Does anyone PBEM these?

@HirooOnoda - what's better about the El Alamein '42 game? I'm not so much of a fan of the later period around the constrained El Alamein terrain, though.

[Mr Grumpy]

Thanks for the replies, @Foul - where can I find the _"Alt"versions of the scenarios? Does anyone PBEM these?

Ed's _Alt (or alternate) versions of the stock scenarios are very popular here with many players posting for PBEM games using his _Alt version.

You can get all of his scenarios and artwork from here http://volcanomods.com/index.php?option=...e&Itemid=1 and note you have to use the optional rules discussed in this sticky thread https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...yeAoSZFC70, this thread tells you very thing that you need to know about the _Alt scenarios.

You may not be aware that the Alamein title also covers the fighting at Gazala and the Axis advance towards Cairo as well as the battle of Alamein itself.

[Oxford_Guy]

Thanks for the replies, @Foul - where can I find the _"Alt"versions of the scenarios? Does anyone PBEM these?

Ed's _Alt (or alternate) versions of the stock scenarios are very popular here with many players posting for PBEM games using his _Alt version.

You can get all of his scenarios and artwork from here http://volcanomods.com/index.php?option=...e&Itemid=1 and note you have to use the optional rules discussed in this sticky thread https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...yeAoSZFC70, this thread tells you very thing that you need to know about the _Alt scenarios.

You may not be aware that the Alamein title also covers the fighting at Gazala and the Axis advance towards Cairo as well as the battle of Alamein itself.

Thanks, yes Gazala would be quite interesting, perhaps more so than Alamein itself. Are there ant small scenarios with El Alamein '42 or Tobrul '41 (including _ALT versions) to learn the ropes?

Also are there any decent graphics mods suitable for the desert war?

[Mr Grumpy]

Thanks, yes Gazala would be quite interesting, perhaps more so than Alamein itself. Are there ant small scenarios with El Alamein '42 or Tobrul '41 (including _ALT versions) to learn the ropes?

Also are there any decent graphics mods suitable for the desert war?

Indeed both Tobruk and Alamein have scenarios of all sizes (which is true of every PzC title), the best graphics mod that I have seen is from the VMods site that comes with the T41 or EA42 _Alt scenarios.

[Oxford_Guy]

Thanks, yes Gazala would be quite interesting, perhaps more so than Alamein itself. Are there ant small scenarios with El Alamein '42 or Tobrul '41 (including _ALT versions) to learn the ropes?

Also are there any decent graphics mods suitable for the desert war?

Indeed both Tobruk and Alamein have scenarios of all sizes (which is true of every PzC title), the best graphics mod that I have seen is from the VMods site that comes with the T41 or EA42 _Alt scenarios.

Can you use these mods with the Map Mods here, or is this not necessary with the graphics changes included? Thanks

[Mr Grumpy]

Well to be honest I am not that graphic Mod driven, so my knowledge may not be bang up to date, but as I understand it you can load Ed's _Alt scenarios and artwork to a title and then load MapMod which changes the graphics again but not the scenarios, it says at MapMods..........

"How to easily avoid problems:

1. MapMod is 100% compatible with Volcano Man's unit art and alternative scenarios, as long as you install Volcano's mod first and MapMod second.

2. Whenever you install an update from HPS/JTSoftware, or from Volcano Man, you should always follow with a reinstallment of MapMod."

[Oxford_Guy]

Well to be honest I am not that graphic Mod driven, so my knowledge may not be bang up to date, but as I understand it you can load Ed's _Alt scenarios and artwork to a title and then load MapMod which changes the graphics again but not the scenarios, it says at MapMods..........

"How to easily avoid problems:

1. MapMod is 100% compatible with Volcano Man's unit art and alternative scenarios, as long as you install Volcano's mod first and MapMod second.

2. Whenever you install an update from HPS/JTSoftware, or from Volcano Man, you should always follow with a reinstallment of MapMod."

Thanks, I'm not that bothered about how the game looks, but if improvement mods are available, why not? :-)