Your Indispensable WWII Game

[Steelgrave]

Civilization 5 with R.E.D. WW2 scenario.  Seriously.  It's HOI but in turn based form. 

But if you insist on a WW2 dedicated game then it would be Combat Mission Barbarossa to Berlin.  The reason is that I can play it the way it's meant to be played, i.e. a tactical wargame.  Or I can create a scenario in the editor and make a map that looks like Europe and play this as a strategic game.

I'm going to have to try that, Civ V fan that I am. And I loved HOI, I just got tired of waiting for them to make a game out of it.

[Bison]

Bison's WW2 fav's:

Combat Mission Battle for Normandy
Combat Mission Fortress Italy
Conflict of Heroes
Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge
Battle Academy

And unlike Toonces' suggestion, all of the games I listed can be finished in a single lifetime.  :P

Bison has pretty much nailed it. All of those games are winners, though I would hesitate to put Battle Academy in the same class as the rest of those games. It's fun, but not a real wargame.

I am not speaking to you for 5 minutes.  That is your punishment for insulting Battle Academy.   For crying out loud it's title is BATTLE - an event that occurs during military conflict - and ACADEMY - it's like a school or something.  You know like it's a place to study conflict and stuff.

[Bison]

Unity of Command easier to get into than Panzer Corps (which I also own)...inconceivable.

OK so I have Unity of Command, Panzer Corps (and the '41 expansion) and the Company of Heroes anthology...I am in a solid WWII gaming starting position. Since I am fascinated by the Eastern Front, I am leaning towards Panzer Command Ostfront and Operation Star from what guys have collectively said so far.

Well you could just install the East Front mod for Company of Heroes and call it a day.

[jomni]

Longblade, gus is asking about ww2 games in general and not limited to War games.

[Anguille]

Don't have much time to play games, so Strategic War in Europe is my current choice...

[Gusington]

Where is the best ace to get Company of Heroes mods?

[sandman2575]

Where is the best ace to get Company of Heroes mods?

http://forums.relicnews.com/forumdisplay.php?195-Weapons-Range&s=e83ecd061224d8601e2256df509e6354

here is a link to the big mods ('total conversion').  there is a ton (and then some) of user content, as you will see.

vanilla CoH is quite fun in its own right.  but once you tire of it (or even before), there are excellent mods to try out -- the 'big 3' for me (in order of preference) are:

1. Blitzkrieg
2. Normandy '44
3. Battle of the Bulge

Overall I like the way Blitzkrieg plays the best.  Normandy '44 is beautifully detailed, but it tends to play too 'fast' for me -- the AI is relentless.  Battle of the Bulge is probably the most challenging in terms of overall tactics -- it's the one that most rewards careful planning -- it very deliberately limits your resources and access to vehicles, as seems appropriate to the logistics of the Bulge -- and is the least given to AI 'rush' tactics of the 3.

Eastern Front is also cool, but a bit half-baked, as the Wehrmacht hasn't been modded (last i checked anyway), and so you get these beautifully modelled Russian units fighting German units in their hideous vanilla skins with the fluorescent decals and what not -- kills immersion for me.

[Gusington]

Thanks again. Automatically an East Front mod would be my first choice but with CoH 2 coming I am going to wait on that. Do any of the currently available CoH games have Battle for Berlin scenarios available, either modded or vanilla?

[LongBlade]

Bison's WW2 fav's:

Combat Mission Battle for Normandy
Combat Mission Fortress Italy
Conflict of Heroes
Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge
Battle Academy

And unlike Toonces' suggestion, all of the games I listed can be finished in a single lifetime.  :P

Bison has pretty much nailed it. All of those games are winners, though I would hesitate to put Battle Academy in the same class as the rest of those games. It's fun, but not a real wargame.

I am not speaking to you for 5 minutes.  That is your punishment for insulting Battle Academy.   For crying out loud it's title is BATTLE - an event that occurs during military conflict - and ACADEMY - it's like a school or something.  You know like it's a place to study conflict and stuff.

Fine. You figure out how the logarithmic distance compression works and why all units have only two - three shots per turn and get back to me.

It's more like Battle Recess where we pretend to have a wargame.

[Ashcloud]

John Tiller Campaign Series

[JasonPratt]

A fine recommendation, Ash, although I'm not sure it quite counts as "modern": I recall it started being released around the same time as Panzer General.

But yeah, aside from some UI clunkiness, that collection is literally sub-operational land fighting WW2 in a box. Panzer General on the super-solider serum. Still better than Panzer Korps in many ways (though PK is far more elegant and a fine successor/update to PG).

[Gusington]

So I attempted to load my copy of Company of Heroes (Anthology) and the damned disc is corrupted. #$%@!!

[Bison]

Don't do it Gus.  Just bite the pencil eraser and buy it off of Steam.  The update off discs is one of the worst experiences in gaming.  It literally takes HOURS to patch itself up.

[Gusington]

The anthology on Steam is 50.00!! I got this disc for 11.00. Figures.

[Bison]

I goes on sale like once every month for a few clams.