"CD Nostalgia - the best CD game you ever played...and why?" Topic

I once lured most of a Tiger Battalion into an ambush with a regiment of 6 pounders. Its was a large game – like two+ brigades of British armor and infantry in Tunisia – with the AT guns and bren carriers hiding in the weeds.

The morale check following the Op Fire – General Fire phases was truely horrible. Most of the few survivors failed so badly that they bailed out and abandoned the tanks. It was a game ender.

Good thing too as my tanks would not have stood up to the massed fire of those 88's.

Oh! Command Decision! I thought you were talking about computer games on CDs! DOH!

"Age of Rifles" – I really enjoyed that game, as you could make your own scenarios, including making the map, setting out the orders of battle, "painting" the soldiers' uniforms, setting up events and so on, then playing the turn-based wargame. I made some scenarios for the colonial New Zealand Wars with it.

The Close Combat series were great in their day Normandy Bulge East front Iron cross were a time suck for me in the 90's

Civilzation II, and I'm still playing it, infinite variety, a good wind down after a mad day at work

Civ IV. I like it much better than the other iterations although I do miss the ability to build undersea cities.

I know I liked reading it, and its spinoffs, but I didn't get my hands on Command Decision until after I'd left the gaming group that would have liked it, so it eventually got sold unused.

Obviously most people didn't read the original post or the board this question was posted to. Not surprising for TMP.

I actually thought they were replies in concerted irony.

I actually thought they were replies in concerted irony.

Blame Tom. It's all his fault.

I've only played a small number of CD games over the years, using various editions of the rules. Sad to say none were particularly memorable. Part of the problem is that I never played CD enough to gain any real proficiency. My memories of CD consist mostly of flipping through the rule books during play.

Having said that, I really liked what they did with CD: Test of Battle, especially the Fog of War cards.

Guilty as charged! But in my defense I mever thought it would go this far. The best Command Decision game I ever played in was an early playtest of the rules at a locl convention. I was in charge of a regiment? of new T-34s, charged with supporting the infatrys clean up of a small town. I was given strict orders not to enter the town (thus endangering my new tanks). Needless to say the infantry Co was quite upset with me. It was great fun.

I still like the "Red Storm Rising" mega-game in Champaign. WW3 in Europe at 1:25 bathtub scale. I had a German Pannzer Grenadier battalion in the sector south of the US Vth Corps. I was there to see the Belgian Leopard battalion get massacred when Allied command and the referees mistakenly had it enter the adjacent table behind Soviet lines.
My second favorite was my first CD game. I had wandered into the room where the GDW crew was setting up the game and asked Frank Chadwick some questions. Next thing, I'm commanding a very beaten-up Soviet division in front of Moscow with Greg Novak and Winston Hamilton commanding the supporting mobile units.

Not a single game, but a mini campaign a friend created based on Anzio. I planned the allied invasion force in two waves (campaign days), plotted a battalion level paratroop drop, and planned campaign air strikes. The highlight was when a massive B-17 strike on a bridge cut off the short way to the main battlefield for a unit of Tigers.

No single game sticks out for me, they were all fun (and 15+ years ago…)

The gent hosting the games had a 10x12 (or larger) table and we played with microarmor and used cm instead of inches – the battles were massive.

Not a scenario, a whole campaign. SCW and I was the Italian Commander. So many memories.

Steel Panthers.

I never cared for the rules, so I can't say I had a memorable positive experience in any CD game.

I genuinely misread this thread's title on the TMP home page, and 'Age of Rifles' immediately sprang to mind as my favourite CD computer game. So I clicked on the thread and posted straight away (as I sometimes do with "what's your favourite" type questions before I forget what I was going to say!). Only then did I read the original post! Doh!

I have no idea what the 'Command Decision' wargames rules are like, but I still liked 'Age of Rifles' computer game!

My friend and I played "Marche Highway" from the Bastogne scenario book back in the 80s. It is still one of my fondest memories of playing CD. I have run and played in many more elaborate CD games since then, the most recent being Mokra, which I ran at my home earlier this year which included "Smialy, Armored Train 53" and several Stuka runs. Lots of Lancers and early war tanks, ATRs and such involved as well. This probably ranks highest on my list.

My favorite was the gigantic Desert Generals mega-game Glenn Kidd and I put on at Historicon a few years back.

Favorite CD game – wow, I've played quite a bit, but I think my favorites are either the "Crossing the Waal" scenario from the Market Garden Scenario book. There is some tense city-fighting in that, coupled with the famous crossing of the Waal in canvas boats while XXX Corps is trying to bash through to the bridge, OR "The Masters of Tunisia" scenario from the Clutches of Eagles book – great little game with a varied mix of French Cav, British Paras, American artillery, German FJs, and Italian assault engineers.

So many games, dozens or hundreds of games. I guess the best were parts of mini campaigns. An invasion of Italy in '43 where the timeframe was scoped down to where a turn was an hour. Best system I've played for WWII games.

Numerous games at John Holtz's table. It's ironic but one particularly topped my streak of games where I had very few losses (being very cautious and a bit of a role-player who doesn't want my men to get killed). I took too much of a chance and arrived too close to the enemy and managed to lose a big chunk of my command to bad morale. I was relieved that no one died; they just lost confidence in their commander and did the right thing--flee!

Not the best, but the most memorable was my first (a CD3 game and my first WW2 wargame) when I put my loaded half tracks too close together and then discovered this thing called mortar fire ; ) I sure learned from that.

Now if only CD was available as a PDF it would make it so much easier to get hold of this outstanding rule set across the world and encourage further adoption. I have a physical copy of CD Test of Battle and would buy it over again as a PDF for ease of reading/travel etc

Something like wargamevault.com is the way to go along with so many other rules systems now available digitally.

Come on Frank, just say 'Yes' ; )

I think my fave was either the recreation of Market-Garden on a reduced scale (divisions became regiments) held in Springfield Illinois in September 1994. Many tables in many rooms. Great fun.

Coming a close second was the game where we did a parachute landing during D-Day. Frank Chadwick passed out maps and had orders and objectives written up. Except when we landed, the terrain did not match the maps, units were all mixed up, and there were Germans everywhere.

Loren Wiseman

The battle at the bridges of Veghel Holland sept. 23 1944. the south defense by the 101st.

victory condition get a unit that could spot to 10 inchs of the bridge.

Battle report and photos.

link

Unfortunely the Geramns won. LOL, I was an American

Turn out to be a blanced game with good moves and bad made by everyone.

Loed Ghee

"I think my fave was either the recreation of Market-Garden on a reduced scale (divisions became regiments) held in Springfield Illinois in September 1994. Many tables in many rooms. Great fun."

I played in this game too. Great game run (in part) by the late John Holtz.

Back in the CD glory days – before 3rd Edition…

TomT

Best thing IMHO about the new version is the "Commander's Reserve" rule. So much fun either springing an ambush on the enemy just when he thinks he is through your defences, or faking him out by pretending you have something incredibly nasty in your commander's reserve when it is really a dummy.

And it actually simulates that notorious Allied "Tiger phobia" brilliantly.

I would have to concur with Frank Chadwick that my favorite game was also the gigantic Desert Generals mega-game he and Glenn Kidd and a host of others put on at Historicon a few years back. It made me a believer in CD4-TOB, to which I switched after having played all the other versions for years.

But a close second is the game Jake mentions, the Masters of Tunisia scenario from the Clutches of Eagles book – and by the way the US artillery is firing 25pdrs. It's always interesting and down to the wire. I've run this a good number of times in different venues (maybe to justify to myself all the work of scratch-building the two D-1 French tanks!)

So very many..
48 turn Navric style 1940 game set in winter – snow.. Paras, ski troops, ex destroyer crews, great variety of troops, morale and experience – all played on a Friday night.

Good mates, good map and kit, good times

link

link

My "favorite" CD game was one put on by Chadwick and Radey at Dan Lombardy's Celebrate History in 1998
It was Skirminovka, Nov 41. According to Frank and Jack, the Soviets were supposed to catch the Germans huddling in a village, with a surprise attack by Soviet cavalry into the German rear
Didn't quite work out that way
Drawn game
A company of German Mk3 on a Ridge knocked out BT 5, T26, T3r, even KVI because Jack was using the HE values instead of the AT values for the penetration numbers. The German player was considered untrustworthy because, well, he was playing the Germans so he must be a N…
Then there was that pesky turn sequence regarding the cavalry surprise. The cavalry had too far to go to make contact with the Germans, soooo..the Germans just changed facing at their turn and voided the rear attack
I don't recall if Jack ever figured out his misreading of the stats, I do know that Frank practically leaped across the table after seeing the results of the too short cav move and the legal but, well, unrealistic, reaction by the Germans
The question was who spotted the cavalry and the reply was, well, the figures were on the table
But that was then
As Chadwick himself admitted, there were elements of his boardgame, First Battle, Sands of War, Blood and Iron, that he prefers to CD1,2,3
Oh yas, in his boardgame he gets the platoon frontages close to right. The CD platoon frontages are Napoleonic.

Just played my first game of CD:TOB at fall In!. Primasole Bridge scenario, double blind and I teamed up with Joe to command the British Paras and reserves of infantry and armor. Having never played either these rules, nor a double blind game, I was blown away.

The stress of not knowing where and when Italian and German troops would appear, the fluid rules and command decisions, the terrain and minis all made for a fantastic game. I will definitely be picking up these rules and scenario books to expand my WW2 gaming.

This was also my first game where a stand was more than a fire team or one model. In reading rules I always thought I would have a tough wrapping my head around it, but after a turn or two it was just another great game.

Having Jake (the scenario writer) as one of the GMS made it even better. My first game, but a favorite! -BG

The CD charts are notorious hard to read. Others issues suffer from over wrought rules.

But the system itself is sound and still one of the best WWII systems. The Order Chit system is still the best method for both hiding intentions and adding an element of Command Control yet developed and way better than random cards or pulling stuff out of a bag.

I'm not suprised by a couple rule glitches even with the designer helping to run the game. Creeping complexity has taken a toll on CD over the years.

TomT

My best game was my first way back when with CD1. The ability to maneuver about the battlefield gave the game a particularly realistic feel. I never had a problem with each model representing more than one of its kind. Chadwick's explanation in the designer's notes made sense. Have not played the most recent edition, though I own them.

@Borderguy190,

Glad you had a great time – I know we did running the game as well :)

Hope to see you at the next CD game in December.

Jake

Thomas T
If it were only a couple of rules glitches, I could live with that But it ain't Follow
Having been around the block with the various incarnations of Command Decision, the First Battle boardgame series, posting on the old and defunct CD site, I have seen many glitvhes, and wholesale game system screwup and controversies that in the end have relegated CD to a third or fourth class status.
Here are a few. The basing of the platoons. The bases are, excepting the double stands, of the frontage of one inch, with vehicle platoon varied slightly because they are not based, an inch equaling 50 meters. Infantry platoons unless hugely understrength did not have such narrow frontages, even in the attack, certainly not in defense Yes I read the defense of this basing as the platoon in defense represent strongpoints, but it won't fly because there's no way to have a historically accurate defense line with such basings. We even discussed zones of control to extend the platoon area so as to obviate reading of the figures, but that Chadwick turned down, he merely made the firepower greater, which distorts historical tactics as much as the narrow bases do. Indeed, his boardgame gets the frontages right, so why not use them? Oh yes. Osprey has a remarkable book on, of all things, Japanese tank tactics which give the historical frontages that most armies used, and it's a lot larger than can be replicated using CD.
Another is the overwhelming amount of vehicle and troop and weapon statistics, which again, we're neatly summed up in the boardgame. The company and battalion organizations are far too complex,and are just plain wrong.Soviet so called platoon of armor acted in a group of three vehicles or in their "battalion" of nine vehicles, not the CD stated organization, indeed, a lot of the special weapons were incorporated into the larger platoon organizations and did not act alone as "platoons" And the problem with what the "to hit" and "penetration" which is right for a skirmish game, but not for platoons. I will pass over the many attempts to have Fog of War in the game, Test of Battle's cards are merely the latest solution. And I will pass over the Command and Control glitches, as I noted in a previous post the incredible comm and rules concerning command casualties and pass over the usual miniatures problem of the time and turn sequence in which, as noted, with the several break points in CD can make for a game where the player spends more time fudging with his moves to adjust to these break points

I think my favorite game involved the Russians attacking a German held city that included an airport. The Germans were a hodge-podge of units thrown together for the defence. The whole set up (houses, apartments and factories) was in glorious 285th scale stretched across the table.