Deja Vu - Recollections of an old wargamer

Gary Grigsby’s War in the West 1943-45 is the most ambitious and detailed computer wargame on the Western Front of World War II ever made. Starting with the Summer 1943 invasions of Sicily and Italy and proceeding through the invasions of France and the drive into Germany, War in the West brings you all the Allied campaigns in Western Europe and the capability to re-fight the Western Front according to your plan.

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gargoil
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Deja Vu - Recollections of an old wargamer

Post by gargoil »

Let me first say I love the small taste of WitW of have played so far (Major Victory in Husky[:)], and total failure in Air Campaign[8|])

As for how WitE and WitW have come to be, and for the plans for a WiE, it is amazing how the history of this game parallels SPI's boardgames of the same names from the 1970's. SPI released a WitE game first, and later WitW at a different map scale, the same as Sliterine/Matrix has done. They then put together a grand monster wargame WiE. A friend of mine had originally purchase WitE (SPI) and we played it. I later purchased WitW. I heard about the WiE version, and wrote SPI on how we might go about combining the games to play that. Unexpectedly, they sent me everything else needed and did not charge me a dime. I think their generous nature may have been their swansong.

Anyway, I am looking forward to playing WiE by you guys sometime in the not too distant future (if I live that long, and have my wits about me) [:D]

Thanks for taking care of us serious wargamers.
MisterBoats
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RE: Deja Vu - Recollections of an old wargamer

Post by MisterBoats »

I remember those days (years) well. SPI, then the Europa games. I had ping pong tables dedicated to holding the maps. It took hours to set up the counters. Then, one cat or one impatient mother would ruin everything. How much better it is to sit in a recliner and let the computer do the grunt work. I've already put more hours into WITW than I was ever able to with the monster board games.

A North African expansion of WITW would be nice. Everything from O'Connor's raid to the end of resistance in Tunisia. Watching the generals of both sides make names for themselves would be very interesting.
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IslandInland
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RE: Deja Vu - Recollections of an old wargamer

Post by IslandInland »

The closest parallel for me is Crusade In Europe on the C64. [:)]

Obviously this is much more complex.

I am also looking forward to a North Africa campaign being added at some point. It's my favourite theatre of WWII.

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Numdydar
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RE: Deja Vu - Recollections of an old wargamer

Post by Numdydar »

TOAW III has an entire NA campaign from '40-43 if you did not know [:)]
MisterBoats
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RE: Deja Vu - Recollections of an old wargamer

Post by MisterBoats »

SSI's "Western Front," which I purchased in 1991 with my first PC, was a great game. It covered the same areas as WITW and had a great deal of detail, including the air groups. Between it and "War in Russia" I had hundreds of hours of enjoyment. When "Pacific War" arrived in '92, I had a trilogy of WWII games to satisfy my gaming wishes.

It still amazes me what the programmers could do back in those days with what little they had. The C64 had some awesome games; now I imagine that many of the individual files in WITW are larger than entire late 80s programs.
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