Just wondering how much of a following Calvinus's game still has.
I'll certainly buy "To End All Wars" when it comes out, both to support AGEOD and because I'm genuinely curious to see what the game is like, and I have no doubt it will be fun. Still, I wonder if it will dethrone WWI Gold as my "go to" Great War strategy game. My gut instinct tells me, "No."
WWI Gold truly merits that much-overused and carelessly used description: unique. It really is one of a kind. A lot of that is due, of course, to the fact that it's a port of a boardgame, and preserves (for better and worse, but mostly for better) many boardgame mechanics.
As some weird hybrid of computerized boardgame and AGEOD game, "La Grande Guerre" should probably be a complete disaster. And I'm aware that, when it was first launched, it was. But in its current state, this is by far one of the best strategy games I've ever played, in any genre or historical period. For me, it is absolutely one of the "10 Games You'd Take With You To A Desert Island".
It oozes character and atmosphere. I absolutely love its unique visual presentation, and the way it does not hide the fact that "I'm essentially a boardgame." For some strange reason, that doesn't kill the realism for me. It strangely adds to the immersion. The user interface is, without question, the most quirky, idiosyncratic, cranky UI I've ever seen. It is frustrating and unintuitive. And yet, once you get the hang of it, it's kind of endearing. I actually kind of like it.
Anyway, all this is just to say: it's hard for me to imagine To End All Wars topping this. I'm sure EAW will be very good, to judge by the excellence of Civil War II. But it's very striking that EAW is pretty much using WWIGold's map and appears like it will lean heavily on other aspects as well, like the Events. I question whether EAW will really be able to compete with the unique feel of WWIGold, or, as another poster put it in another forum, it will essentially be "Civil War II with pointy helmets." I guess we'll see.
Anyway, I hope some other WWIGold die-hards out there will chime in with thoughts.