Gotta give John Tiller credit

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Rosseau
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Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by Rosseau »

Smolensk '41 Gold is out, which is basically a nicely patched version of the original I bought 12 years ago. I expected to pay a little something for this, but it is free. Makes me feel better how many of his games I have, and now they have some value again.

I just hope he finds some new customers to generate the income he deserves.

Bravo!

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Lobster
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by Lobster »

Don't worry about him. He has some government military contracts.
http://www.operationbarbarossa.net/

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MrsWargamer
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by MrsWargamer »

I took a peak, and to my knowledge, it is a 39 dollar purchase and not 'free'.
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Play with Barbies 05% of the time.
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Build models 20% of the time
Shopping 60% of the time.
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Red2112
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by Red2112 »

ORIGINAL: MrsWargamer

I took a peak, and to my knowledge, it is a 39 dollar purchase and not 'free'.

Just in case, you havent already...

May I suggest the "Panzer Battles Demo", which uses the new graphics, and has +13 scenarios! It´s almost like a full game.
http://www.johntillersoftware.com/PanzerBattles/PanzerBattlesDemo.html

Also, you may like "Modern Air Power SPV", which is a single player version of the MAP series. I counted atleast 10 scenarios including tutorials. It´s also free.
http://www.johntillersoftware.com/ModernAirPower.html

Remember, to exit the game hit the "x" key! Or you will be looking for the manual on how to get out of there! [:D]

I have "Modern Air Power War Over the Mideast". It´s quite fun, here´s a vid of mine...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqNQynZMBg8&t=565s

With all the demos he´s got, you have plenty of game time for free, which is nice of him!

Red


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Hexagon
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by Hexagon »

I think age made Tiller lose his mind... games with demos, discounts, free updates... i dont know if Nostradamus wrote something about this apocalipsis signals [:D]

In my case i really really really wait the new nap title, sounds promising even when 1 campaign and certain battles are not added yet... next one is less interesting for me, i never feel atracted by post Jena 1807 winter battles but lack of Egipt and spanish part is [:(]

http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/ ... ?tid=71246

"Jim did a good job of whetting your appetites for the game. He clobbered my French in the Battle of Neerwinden. His outnumbered Austrians used the terrain to their advantage forcing the French to crawl through the fields.

Included in the next game will be:

The battles of the campaigns of 1792-94 in France and the Austrian Netherlands. This includes 9 battles:
Valmy
Jemappes
Neerwinden
Kaiserlautern
Pirmasens
Tourcoing
Tournay
Fleurus (balloons too!)
Aldenhoven

For the campaign of 1796 in Germany we have 6 battles:
First Altenkirchen
Ettlingen
Neresheim
Amberg
Wurzburg
Emmendingen

For the campaign of 1799 in Switzerland and Germany we have 5 battles:
Ostrach
1st Stockach
Winterthur
1st Zurich
2nd Zurich

For the campaign of 1799 in Holland we have 2 battles:
Bergen
Castricum
(and I will be adding in more battles after the game releases - I want to wait til Geert's book on the campaign comes out next year)

For the campaign of 1800 in Germany we will have 6 battles:
2nd Stockach-Engen
Messkirch
2nd Biberach (Paul Synnot translated part of a French text for me for this one)
Neuberg
Ampfing
Hohenlinden

Altogether TWENTY-EIGHT (28) battles! Definitely the hardest title that I have worked on up to this point. The OBs for the battles were often built by piecing together information from various sources.

There are FOUR campaigns to include:
The Battles of the War of the First Coalition - not the traditional kind of campaign but a string of historical battles with choices for both sides. Its meant to acquaint the players with the battles and let them make choices as if they were the commanders at the battle.

The Campaign of 1796 in Germany
The Campaign of 1799 in Swizerland and Germany
The Campaign of 1800 in Germany

I want to add in a campaign in Holland in 1799. I have built a large map of the entire upper peninsula above and including Amsterdam. Its a huge map. I was aided in this work by Mark van Hattem, a Dutch member of our team who made numerous corrections to the map. As I said before once Geert's book comes out I will finish off the battles and then build the campaign.

You will like the Situation maps and image maps for the campaigns we built. Joe Amoral reworked some physical relief maps and they look great. I look at this game as our team's crowning achievement for this series. No one has ever done this period of the wars on this scale before.

The armies represented are:

French
British
Austrian
Russian
Prussian
Hesse-Darmstadt
Hesse-Kassel
Hanover
Dutch Republic and the Batavian Republic
Conde's army and other Emigre contingents
Bavaria
Poland (Legions)
Swiss
Cisalpine Republic (Grenadiers and Hussars)
Saxon

The Spanish front was not as active so I chose to pass on working on the battles. We also did not do the Egyptian campaign for Marengo and I chose not to include it here too. A game on the Russians, Austrians, French vs. the Ottoman Empire would be interesting but unlikely. Its the only way I can see us ever adding in the Turks. Frankly I have little data on those battles (other than Egypt) and it would be a real "crapshoot" for me to try and guess at the OBs, troop locations on the maps, etc. Just not my strong suit.

There were numerous "Clashes" listed in Digby Smith's book that I passed up on. I felt that 28 battles was sufficient (HUGE WINK). Moving on to the Eylau-Friedland game was the next logical step for me.

Once the game comes out I know that you folks will enjoy it. Its going to round out the period nicely. Marengo is the companion game to this next title and yes, I may eventually include a huge campaign file for the 1796 Germany AND Northern Italy campaign which would give both sides choices in transferring troops to Italy. Wurmser was sent to the Italian theater right before Moreau and Jourdan attacked across the Rhine. It didn't matter as Charles defeated the French without those Austrian troops. Italy was the more important theater anyway.

A campaign linking the 1799 campaign in Italy to that in Switzerland and Germany would be interesting too. I have variant scenarios (stand alone) featuring Suvorov arriving at 2nd Zurich.

There are several variant battles added in as well. I have an "Islands" battle that use a map of islands that each player tries to hold. Naval forces arrive for the French to do battle against the British. Units use the "Has Boats" capability to try and take other islands. All SIX Nations are used in the game to include:
French
Austrian
Russian
Prussian
British
Emigre (replaces Spanish)

There is a variant Battle of Fleurus where Bonaparte and his army of Italy (Massena, Augereau, etc) take on the Prussians. Also featured is a battle of Zurich where Bonaparte fights Charles AND Suvorov.

For diversity this game has it. Pick a nation of the period and you can fight with its army. The British army in Holland is not terribly large but has nice morale. Lots of Dragoon Guards cavalry units. Guard infantry and the usual regulars.

Ok .. enough hype! Off to work on the Battle of Ostroleka in Poland, Feb. 1807."
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Yogi the Great
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by Yogi the Great »

ORIGINAL: MrsWargamer

I took a peak, and to my knowledge, it is a 39 dollar purchase and not 'free'.

I believe if you own the original game you can update for free. For the rest of us you have to buy it.
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MrsWargamer
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by MrsWargamer »

ORIGINAL: Yogi the Great

ORIGINAL: MrsWargamer

I took a peak, and to my knowledge, it is a 39 dollar purchase and not 'free'.

I believe if you own the original game you can update for free. For the rest of us you have to buy it.

Ahh, ok, might try that. I don't have it currently installed.
Wargame, 05% of the time.
Play with Barbies 05% of the time.
Play with Legos 10% of the time.
Build models 20% of the time
Shopping 60% of the time.
Exlains why I buy em more than I play em.
elmo3
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by elmo3 »

The free Panzer Campaigns demo Mius '43 has been updated to the Gold version now.

http://www.johntillersoftware.com/
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stormbringer3
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by stormbringer3 »

I haven't bought a John Tiller game in years. The AI was usually considered lacklustre. Any meaningful improvements in the AI?
Thanks.
Rosseau
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by Rosseau »

Of course the game is not free, but the patch is. But you better have a serial number. I bought mine from NWS 12 years ago and they want me to take a picture of it. I don't own an Iphone or camera. I told them I would rather Fedex them the disk. So I guess nothing in life really is Free!

Stormbringer, just download one of the demos and decide for yourself.
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athineos
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by athineos »

JTCS - Best game ever. I'll play it forever!!!!
Rosseau
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by Rosseau »

I know. Like Steel Panthers MBT, I had to force myself to quit so I could play other games.

Well, Rich Hamilton got back to me directly and sent a link to the updated game so I would not have to take a picture of my CD. They are also having a first-time-in-history (I believe) sale over there on a few games. He also sent me the 10 serials he has on record. I will admit to having almost all HPS games, but we're talking up to 17 years ago, and most from NWS, a reseller.

Anyway, stuff like this makes me glad I support them, and same goes for Matrix.
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zakblood
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by zakblood »

not sure if it just me, just never bought in to a pay for patch type game, and maybe never will, no matter how good tbh, and any extra content being separate as a DLC etc, so if you wish to have extra it's your choice, but not for a patch, imp that's just wrong, i understand that supports costs, but patches to fix bugs and errors should imo always be provided for free,

then again i don't also do free games which offer pay to play better or quicker either,...
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76mm
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by 76mm »

There seems to be a lot of confusion here about Smolensk Gold, so two things:
1) It is free for anyone that already owns Smolensk. I bought Smolensk from HPS several years ago and JTS support sent me a download link and serial number upon my request, for free.
2) Tt is not a patch, the basic game is not bugged--I haven't installed it yet, but my understanding is that Smolensk Gold is basically a graphics upgrade and compilation of a bunch of scenarios which have been floating around.
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Lobster
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by Lobster »

Like he said ^, if you own the game it's free like a patch. If you don't own the game you have to buy it because you don't have the game so how could you apply an upgrade or patch? [;)]

John Tiller and company are great at support. I lost all of my serial numbers at one time because of a hard drive failure. They got them all to me and the ones for a couple of games I bought through HPS and I didn't have to jump through hoops for them to do it.

What JT is not is Battlefront/Combat Mi$$ion. Talk about a con job. Bought Normandy. Then bought Italy and paid $10 to upgrade Normandy to Italy specs. Bought Red Thunder, paid $10 to upgrade Normandy and $10 to upgrade Italy to Red Thunder specs. Then they come out with their Bulge version. Guess what? They wand $10 FOR EACH UPGRADE for the other three I already have. WTF. Screw them and their frickin games. And all of the games before their latest are not upgraded. You still have to pay for that. Never will I buy another game from those crooks.

So yeah. Tiller game company is okay in my book.
http://www.operationbarbarossa.net/

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity and I’m not sure about the universe-Einstein

Q: What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t come back?
A: A stick.
bazjak
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by bazjak »

ORIGINAL: Lobster

Like he said ^, if you own the game it's free like a patch. If you don't own the game you have to buy it because you don't have the game so how could you apply an upgrade or patch? [;)]

John Tiller and company are great at support. I lost all of my serial numbers at one time because of a hard drive failure. They got them all to me and the ones for a couple of games I bought through HPS and I didn't have to jump through hoops for them to do it.

What JT is not is Battlefront/Combat Mi$$ion. Talk about a con job. Bought Normandy. Then bought Italy and paid $10 to upgrade Normandy to Italy specs. Bought Red Thunder, paid $10 to upgrade Normandy and $10 to upgrade Italy to Red Thunder specs. Then they come out with their Bulge version. Guess what? They wand $10 FOR EACH UPGRADE for the other three I already have. WTF. Screw them and their frickin games. And all of the games before their latest are not upgraded. You still have to pay for that. Never will I buy another game from those crooks.

So yeah. Tiller game company is okay in my book.

Well said sir
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Zap
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by Zap »

ORIGINAL: athineos

JTCS - Best game ever. I'll play it forever!!!!

At least until you kick the bucket. or are you planning to play it in the afterlife. [:D]
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Talon_XBMCX
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by Talon_XBMCX »

ORIGINAL: Zap

ORIGINAL: athineos

JTCS - Best game ever. I'll play it forever!!!!

At least until you kick the bucket. or are you planning to play it in the afterlife. [:D]


Heaven is full of all the war games that have ever been or will be created. It's why I try to be good ;-)
Tejszd
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by Tejszd »

it is pretty amazing that a game that is about 20 years old is getting an update!

I also like that they have updated the base game so new owners will not have to download a patch right after buying and downloading the game. Wish Matrix would do that more....
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76mm
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RE: Gotta give John Tiller credit

Post by 76mm »

They just sent out a similar free upgrade for Moscow 42!
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