I guess Memorial Day kicking around in the back of my mind reminded me of how many great hardcore hex-based wargames I've never really gotten too deeply into.  I love them, but they require a certain amount of dedication to get back the generally atrocious interfaces and poor documentation.  So over the weekend I sat down with three of them, determined to make some headway: The Operational Art of War 3, WinSP WW2 (Steel Panthers for Windows, basically), and Battlefront.

WINSPWW2 is a fantastic game.  You can get it for free from Shrapnel & Camo Workshop, but I highly recommend paying for it.  It's a great reminder of why low level hex-based tactical wargaming is so satisfying, and it takes me right back to my Squad Leader days.  Of course, I wish someone would still do a real conversion of Squad Leader.  Don't get me wrong, it has it's warts -- poor resolution support, a fairly crappy UI (par for the course), and most frustratingly its very difficult to follow combat results since they proceed at a fixed pace with no log.  But these are minor compared to the joy of squad combat you get, and there is an insane number of scenarios, units, and campaigns included.

Battlefront, I'm afraid, I cannot be so kind to.  While I loved some of the older games in the "Decisive Battles" series (that this engine is based on), Battlefront is a bit of a mess.  Only 4 scenarios, no real explanatory text, and an even more obtuse interface than it's predecessors.  Which is a shame since the production quality is otherwise pretty high for Battlefront, and it does more "traditional application" things right than the others.  Of course, that's a relative comparison... basic things like file navigation and widescreen support are completely absent.

TOAW3 is more like what I want Battlefront to be from a core game mechanics and documentation standpoint.  It has a zillion scenarios and seems fairly well documented.  More importantly the mechanics seem pretty transparent if you want to dig it, but it's playable if you stay abstract.  The focus for the TOAW series is on building a wargaming engine, and that holds up pretty well for it here. 

People claim hex-based, turn-based games like these are a dying breed, and that may be true if you only look at the Top 10 on NPD.  But they are definitely alive and well in the direct-distribution market, and I look forward to some of the ones on the horizon (like the granddaddy of the cardboard-counter hex genre, World in Flames).