Also thought it might be interesting to provide links to the wargame clubs I’ve joined:
Colonial Campaign’s Club: Club dealing with HPS’ Early American series (French & Indian War, Campaign 1776, The War of 1812). Upon entry, members select a team to join (British, American, French, or Indian) and are awarded points based on the games played (number of turns and outcome). This is “friendly” competition — points accumulate towards your own personal total, and you rise in rank in your army as you accumulate points. (In other words, number of points doesn’t represent someone who is “better” or “worse” than any other player; rather, just how long they’ve been playing and, to a lesser extent, how well they do.) The forums for this club are moderately active, and there is some nice roleplay banter that goes on between the different armies.
Modern Battles Club: Essentially the same idea as the CCC, but covering the operational-level and tactical-level games HPS’ modern titles — Panzer Campaigns (WWII), Squad Battles (WWII through Present-day), and Modern Campaigns (Middle East and hypothetical WWIII in Germany). The structure is the same as the CCC, where players join a team and accumulate points. This club seems to have less activity, though, and not really much roleplay to speak of.
GameSquad Ladder: GameSquad is a site with fairly active forums, covering a wide range of wargames. They offer a ladder which, as I understand it, is a more competitive way of ranking players based not only on battles played, but battles won and other players they have defeated. One aspires to be at the top of the ladder, knocking down those above them as they go. More points are awarded, for example, for defeating someone higher on the ladder than yourself. I’ve not done anything on this ladder yet, but the forums are a great resource and there are lots of file downloads for the different games as well.
Blitzkrieg Wargaming Club: Another ladder-based site, apparently fairly competitive. I am still in the “Boot Camp” section of the ladder, until I complete my DF85 game. Very active forums, some of the HPS programmers and scenario developers frequently visit and post here as well. Again, a number of different games are represented.
