WWI Strategic Games

[panzerde]

Strategic Command WWI The Great War or Commander - The Great War?  Or Tiller's France '14, for something a bit more operational?  All of this playing SAI and Jutland and reading Castles of Steel has me jonesing for some WWI land warfare, too.

[Bismarck]

Good question. I'm doing an omnibus review of WW I strategic games starting with Guns of August.

[panzerde]

Good question. I'm doing an omnibus review of WW I strategic games starting with Guns of August.

I looked at that one, too.  I've seen a couple of mentions of it, but the look of it turns me off.  How's the game play compare?

[Gusington]

I thought Guns of August was good but Commander The Great War is more accessible for me.

[Nefaro]

I thought Guns of August was good but Commander The Great War is more accessible for me.

CTGW is definitely the easiest to get into of the lot.

I'm still very partial to WWI Gold but it's kinda sluggish.  SC:WWI is a nice middle ground if you want to brave the DRM, high price, and limited download amount.

[Sir Slash]

Just tried-out the demo to SC WWI. I like it. But it's not that easy to learn even after reading the manual. Some strange political set-ups at the start-Syria & Palestine start in 1914 as neutral minors so I guess if the Ottomans want to attack the Suez they have to invade them. There maybe some decision event that changes this but as there is no save feature with the demo, I can only get 1 or 2 turns in before I quit the game. The decision events are very nice, the naval warfare is kind of beyond my understanding and the whole game seems designed to throw you into a stalemate situation no matter what you do in 1914 anyway. The AI seems very good & there are many strategic considerations & possibilities. Graphics-fair, sounds-terrible.

[Gusington]

Sound? What is the sound like?

[Sir Slash]

Just generic feet-tromping, horse-tromping, and vehicle-driving sounds when you move a unit also some gunfire and explosions during combat. And some basic marshall music all of which can be turned off. It's not that bad but annoying after a while. Alot of units in the game which may make it too big for some but the campaigns have a nice variety and size, ie. corps, division, and brigade level.

[Gusington]

You've piqued my interest. Now my wallet hates you.

[Sir Slash]

Tell your wallet, the demo is FREE.

[Gusington]

My wallet chimes in that nothing is really free. I told him to STFU.

[MengJiao]

Strategic Command WWI The Great War or Commander - The Great War?  Or Tiller's France '14, for something a bit more operational?  All of this playing SAI and Jutland and reading Castles of Steel has me jonesing for some WWI land warfare, too.

I had fun with France '14.  I got all the mods.  The heavy artillery is a lot of fun and there's a fair amount of cavalry action.

I tried a few things such as -- What if Von Kluck held the First Army back as ordered?  If I remember correctly, this didn't even work as well as
doing what he did -- driving  right on trying to envelope the BEF and the French 5th Army.  The Germans pretty much have to pull back in either case when the French deploy a fresh army out of Paris.

Still, it was a massive and rather slow game.  It did clarify a lot of what happened, though.  For me anyway.   

[panzerde]

My wallet chimes in that nothing is really free. I told him to STFU.

Gus, your wallet and mine seem to have gone to the same school.  I'm trying my best to ignore what mine says, depending on how the demo of SC:WWI plays.  Right now that seems like the most appealing to me, though I do have a weakness for games using the Tiller engine these days.

Thanks all, for the great feedback and suggestions.

[Bismarck]

Actually, none of the games mentioned are bad although, as mentioned, GoA's interface is quirky.

[Nefaro]

I've been happy with SC:WWI & Breakthrough package.  Despite the terrible download policies & DRM at Battlefront, I had some extra spending cash and did it last month.

From what I've seen thus far, the AI can put up a decent fight.  It looks for your weakened units and does it's best to eliminate them and advance into the hole. 

The game is easier to learn than WWI Gold was. 

I thought the sounds were just fine - not overdone but a fair bit better than something from a Tiller game.  I actually kinda like pixel art graphics, if done well, and the unit art is pretty good in this regard.  It's the map graphics that look like shit - that, coupled with squares (vice hexes), kinda makes the map look poor despite the actual pixel terrain on it looking okay.  The plains are just a flat single color but at least it's an earthy one and not some bright-ass neon mess.

My big hang-up in purchasing the thing was the limited download window, for one.  I think I can manage okay with some various back-ups but there's always the odd chance that something will get lost, a house fire, media damage, etc could eventually take it's toll - so that makes me rather paranoid when it comes to companies' that strictly tell you they won't help you get the installer ever again after the first year or a specified amount of downloads.  The other was my concern regarding the limited activation DRM, despite easing up on the amount allowed and how often they 'refresh'.  I gave in when I found out I could have multiple installs at once, so I could have yet another turn-based strategy game on the notebook.  These are some serious purchasing considerations, for any product, in my mind.