Commander: The Great War is Out Now!

[Martok]

So if you are beaten on balanced, yes you are ass-whipped by good designed and well written AI! The AI was one of our main developing new features and we had one special assigned AI programmer (Dave aka Myrddrraal) who worked with unseen passion on it during the past 3 years and it is one of the best AI I have seen in a wargame for a long time. So a big credit goes to him.

This is awesome to hear (and all the more so now that I know Myrddrraal did the AI -- I know him from over at the Org in days gone by).  Gonna have to get this for sure now! 

[Gusington]

Myrddraal answered my tech questions personally a few weeks ago, I agree he is a good guy and obviously an evil genius for programming the AI the way he did.

[W8taminute]

I hate to be the only skeptic in the group but after the patch comes out I'll reserve my judgement until fleshing it out.  The ai is indeed intelligent in that it knows how to rotate units in and out of the line.  It knows how to exploit holes it punches through.  It plays the static and the mobile warfare roles brilliantly.  I'm still not convinced that he gets unfair advantages over the human as far as upgrades and the tech race is concerned. 

Based on my observations it seems that when one of the ai nations discovers Infantry III all enemy units are instantly upgraded to Infantry III.  It's frustrating to see a Russian line have Infantry I on one turn and then the next turn they are all upgraded to Infantry III whilst my men are still at Infantry I.  If I try to accelerate my tech research I don't have enough PP for replacements, let alone building new units.  If I dump all my PP into production, then I get creamed because my men are all low tech compared to the enemy.  Even if I dump all my PP into production I'm still struggling with having enough units to cover all fronts. 

Maybe I'm playing this game with a Civilization mentality where the player is free to pump out as many units as he wants while still keeping research up to snuff as long as his economy can handle it.  Even in the HOI series I never had problems popping out units to man the various fronts and keeping my research progress up to speed. 

That might be my problem, I need to unlearn what I've learned?

[Martok]

I hate to be the only skeptic in the group but after the patch comes out I'll reserve my judgement until fleshing it out. 

It's all right; we really need at least one of us to stay cynical anyway.  That way, in case the rest of us are proven wrong (and you right), we can then at least claim that we weren't *completely* taken in.  8) 

[republic]

Just curious, are we going to see an official Grogheads review of Commander: The Great War?

[Staggerwing]

^When you've finished writing it?  ;)

[republic]

lol

This game is on my list to buy...once I get caught up.  :)

[Toonces]

That review on Rock, Paper, Shotgun has me interested.  I'm not really a WW1 guy, nor a strategic guy (unless you count WiTP), but strangely this sounds like it might be fun.

I really don't know too much about the subject, though.

[Gusington]

^Oh there is so very very much awesomeness ahead of you.

[Con]

Is there a way to see the combat results after the AI's turn?  I see the AI launch a major attack and then am told they used gas but where and on how many units etc?  Also submarines suddenly a convoy is gone, was it attacked by a sub, did some of it make it etc?

A bit frustrating to not know what happened and where

Con

[Lord Zimoa]

Commander The Great War review from Wargamer France:

http://www.wargamer.fr/commander-the-great-war-un-wargame-pour-grignoteurs/

"The developers worked hard to integrate innovative concepts in a proven system"
"The Great War is very well depicted and the game will please both the newcomers and the expert wargamers"

[Steelgrave]

Nice review. Except for the part where it's written in French.  ;D

[Con]

I am getting my but whipped each time I play as the Entente.  I just cant seem to balance the units with all the needs.

I have started and stopped about five different times the grand campaign based on what i have learned.  Boy was it a shock when Bulgaria joined in and whipped my Serbs who were just keeping the Austro-Hungarians contained.  Talk about taking it in the rear.  Funnily enough the first game where I was making all the worst mistakes was the one I was doing best with on the Western Front with me taking Strasbourg and threatening the German Ruhr early 1916.  Russia was a complete loss though.

So how are you guys doing?  Anyone beginning to get a good handle on this and have some tips that would help?  I learned the hard way you better have a full army and not just garrison troops in the Sinai unless you want the Turks to prevent about a fifth of your convoys from reaching home by closing the Suez canal.

Con

[Longdan]

You do not read French? C'est une honte.
Somebody hate this game for me quick before
I has to buys it.

[Slick Wilhelm]

You do not read French? C'est une honte.
Somebody hate this game for me quick before
I has to buys it.

And deprive you of a huge challenge? No sir, buy and enjoy getting your derriere kicked. It really is a lot of fun.  :)