Since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated by the idea of hex wargames ala Strategy and Tactics magazine. I never had any friends who I knew to have a similar interest, and had very few opportunities to actually have access to actual sets, so I never played.
I’m guessing I can find people to play online or by email with, but right now what I’m interested in is just sort of dipping my toe in the water a bit–I’d like to know if there’s software somewhere that let’s me play some game or games of this style against either myself (preferably the software will be able to enforce rules so as to help me learn them) or even better, against an AI. After messing around with this, I’d be comfortable trying to find other newbs to play with online…
There are some demo games here http://www.hexwar.com/ and there are opponents available when you’re ready. Note I haven’t actually used this site myself but it seems to fill your bill.
Hexwar doesn’t come with an AI for the games - the “demo mode” is just you playing against yourself (which is in fact not a bad way to learn a game).
There’s a lot of old games like this. Panzer (Allied, People’s, etc.) General and the V for Victory series come to mind.
Thanks for that! It’s just about exactly what I was looking for, minus the AI (which was the most minor of my wishes anyway).
I’ve now played through Napoleon at War a few times and I think it is pretty fun–but I’m not sure whether the game type is $13/month worth of fun (which I would have to pay to play any of the other games).