Naval Sims

[happygoron]

Wondering if anyone knows any good naval strategy sims out there that are worth a play? I've played a fair bit of Janes Fleet Command and I love it, but on XP/Vista the game has an annoying crashing bug. anyone know a similar battle group command style game? I've had a search around but can't find much, seems an under developed genre, especially as Janes still sells on Steam.

[shouldbworking]

The Harpoon series is similar - http://www.computerharpoon.com/

[Kuroblack350]

Harpoon is great, but my last copy (probably abuot ten years ago) was incredibly buggy. Still pretty addictive though.

Might try the above link when I get home

Edited to add; ok, so it's not quite Naval Strategy in true terms, but the Silent Hunter series was really good, 2 and 3 in particular.

Edited by Kuroblack350 on Monday 9th August 12:19

[FourWheelDrift]

Depends how strategic and how visual you want it to be.

Turn based (which I don't like) or realtime. If it's realtime and you like WWI then Jutland might be for you - http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/public/html/se_ju...

There is a demo as well so you can try it out.







They do other scenarios as well - http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/public/home.html

[happygoron]

I fancy modernish one as the air aspect makes a massive impact. I swear there's a market for a Falklands strategy game. Not really bothered by real time/turn based, though I'd lean towards real time with reasonable time acceleration features.

I've heard about the Harpoon series but they say the interface makes DOS look sci-fi, is it as bad as they make out? I'm fine with functional (Fleet Command ain't no FSX) but I like a bit of pretty.

Got SH3, cracking game but my copy has the StarForce protection so loath to install it again. Massive resource hog too.

Jutland looks entertaining, may give that a look.

[SlipStream77]

There is a Falklands flight sim in production.

http://www.thunder-works.com/news.htm

[FourWheelDrift]

SlipStream77 said:

There is a Falklands flight sim in production.

http://www.thunder-works.com/news.htm

Post it on here - http://www.zonamilitar.com.ar/foros/malvinas-1982/

[happygoron]

That ooks great, and if released would definatly get me dusting off the joystick and playing flight sims again but it seems as though it's been in development forever.

[MoleVision]

For a slightly more classic theme you probably won't get much better than empire total war naval battles.... though any sizeable battle seems to quickly descend into chaotic naval pile up.

The total war genre is in the 1800s now so it shouldn't be long before they reach the 20th century? (I hope)

[oj121]

Mate they are going medieval Japan next.

[HarryW]

Not seen it for years but master the passive sonar (towed and flank) in all its modes in '688 attack sub' and use the information tactfully/properly in commanding the submarine. Try to understand what its telling you and just don't bang off 'adcaps' and or decoys at the slightest. If you can do all that undetected, like a real silent killer, then I think you'd be surprised how satisfying it can be and how close you'd be from getting a phone call from the USN/RN .

[rich1231]

Harpoon is hardcore... very

[HarryW]

rich1231 said:

Harpoon is hardcore... very

Not the stealthiest way to attack though

[HarryW]

Just to clarify I mean 688(I) from the mid 90's not the very early 80's DOS version. This was developed with ex USN 'advisers' and a modified version is carried on all USN SSN's as a tactical training tool.

[Kaelic]

There was a Janes naval game that I had once, wasn't as realistic or accurate as harpoon (incidently Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising is based on Harpoon with Larry Bond'd technical know how )

The janes one is : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Command

was a good lightweight version of harpoon


Still Harpoon is the daddy, bought the commanders edition only a year or so ago again so as to play it at work so want an iphone version hehe

[happygoron]

Got the demo of harpoon yesterday and gave it a vey quick go, looks promising but the UI needs considerable work!

My fleet command copy is still a little buggy, does anyone know if the one on steam is stable? Tempted by http://store.steampowered.com/sub/200/. Is dangerous waters any good?

[shouldbworking]

rich1231 said:

Harpoon is hardcore... very

It's not that hardcore - I always felt it needed limited crews, fuel and ammunition as well as unservicable aircraft.

When playing as the Russians or similar you could just send up wave after wave of tu-22s with as-6s, launch without ever entering danger knowing only 1 or 2 missiles would get through for that far out, but that was fine because they would be in the air again 1 hour after landing with a full set of missiles again. Presumably they must have had 3 crews per aircraft at each base

Likewise with strike missions you would always just go up with laser guided bombs, because they were better than the rest and you had infinite of them at the carrier / airbase.

Oh and whilst im making suggestions the unlimited fuel and ammo also meant you had permanent ASW patrols going about dropping sonobuoys everything with a huge cap complete with EW and AEW support.

Oh, and the AI needs to learn that just because you have radar, having it permanently on might not be a good diea

[happygoron]

happygoron said:

My fleet command copy is still a little buggy, does anyone know if the one on steam is stable? Tempted by http://store.steampowered.com/sub/200/. Is dangerous waters any good?

Got this pack, gonna take me a while to get the hang of Dangerous Waters methinks, time to read up on modern sensor equipment! Thats the biggest failing of steam, no printed manuals!

Also the fleet command seems much more stable but modern graphics cards will need a glide wrapper to get it to run properly.