Review Tacticular Cancer reviews Commander: The Great War

[Trash]

Tags: Commander: The Great War; Review; The Lordz Games Studios

Oscar underwent his baptism by fire when he went over the top in Commander: The Great War. Did he enjoy his sojourn in no man’s land or did he just end up with a bad case of trench foot? Check it out in our review of The Lordz Games Studio’s Commander: The Great War.

Commander: The Great War admirably succeeds in staying true to the nature of warfare in this era and being a fun, accessible game that keeps you on the edge of your seat cursing as your offensive peters out of steam and manpower shortages begin to cripple your industry. The hex-based map will feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s spent time with Panzer General (and really, who reading this hasn’t?). What stops this game from being just another Panzer General clone is its well-thought out research and economic components. The tech tree simulates the doctrinal and technological advances that over the course of the war sapped the seemingly insurmountable advantages of the entrenched defender. The game correctly debunks the misconception that the entirety of the First World War was static, with innovations such as the tank (a laughable failure at first but quickly to become the heavy cavalry of the modern battlefield), gas warfare, dedicated fighter and bomber aircraft, creeping barrage and infantry assault tactics opening up eventual effective offensive possibilities.

Read the full article here.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Holy JPEG compression batman!

Not that Haig deserves anything more.

Anyway the game looks really good,we're seeing a ton of hex based games with quality map art and sprites again finally.

"High manpower losses will see both your infantry quality (as you are forced to dig deeper into reserves and conscripts) and economic production decline," And this sounds fascinating, usually it's the opposite, late game your troops turn into space marine veterans and your production skyrockets like a motherfucker.

 

[Trash]

Yeah, really liked that part of oscar his review. Finally I can try and see if 'bleeding France white' could work. Do wonder how much of an impact naval warfare makes and how it's simulated in the game. The German fleet never really went at it because they full well knew the British ruled the waves. Kudos to the game acknowledging the uboat blockade's impact btw.

 

[oscar]

And this sounds fascinating, usually it's the opposite, late game your troops turn into space marine veterans and your production skyrockets like a motherfucker.

Not here. As everything has an industrial upkeep cost you can actually pretty quickly reach a stage where you're struggling to reinforce and maintain your present army, let alone produce more. For reference, in my Central Powers game by late 1916 (we'd reached Paris and conquered Verdun but were doing worse than historically on the Eastern Front and Brits were advancing pretty speedily up the Levant against the obsolete Ottoman forces) Germany was beginning to suffer production penalties and manpower quality losses (fighting a two front war ain't easy). Getting bled out over time is a major concern (far more so than in say Hearts of Iron where you'd have to fight in a braindead manner to event dent your manpower as a major nation) and this is one game where you are forced to think in the long-term.

The U-Boat campaign is simulated by merchant convey units automatically spawning in the south (to represent reinforcements and supplies from the Commonwealth) and the west (the vital American munitions for the Entente). If these successfully make it to an Entente port than the Entente receive an industrial bonus for that turn with the more strength points the convoy possesses the larger the bonus (a convoy reduced to 4 strength by U-Boat attacks grants a smaller bonus than one that makes it intact with 10 points). Germany receives iron shipments from Sweden in a similar fashion in the Baltic.

One thing I will say is that knowing the dates nations declare war is a great advantage. Deploy correctly and you can, historically I might add, knock the obsolete and ill-deployed Romanians out in a single turn. Likewise I'd feel sorry for the First World War ignorant who loses Trieste and Munich due to not knowing that the Italians declare war in May 1915 and therefore not having left any soldiers defending there. Some events giving pre-warning ("intelligence in the Balkans reveals the Romanians are increasingly hostile to us" or "diplomacy with the Bulgarians has proven fruitful and it is likely they will join our cause within the next few months") would help remedy this prior knowledge dependency. If your knowledge of the First World War is shaky, keep a timeline of major events at hand so you're not caught at a complete loss.

 

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oscar. Sounds as if the uboat blockade is actually simulated quite nicely. One thing (almost the only thing I might add) I liked about Ageod's WWI was that it simulated the growing social unrest and war weariness so well. Strikes, shortages, difficult social policy choices and all really had an impact. Anything like that in this game? Also wonder if as the Germans you can try and take on the British fleet. One thing I always digged about the timeframe where the ironclads and no WWI game is complete without a Jutland imo.

Events seem a little spare but you also say the same about diplomacy. In Strategic Command: WWI you can use points to try and swing states to your side. The good thing about this is that the country targeted doesn’t have to swing all the way into entering the war before you might benefit from the effect of your diplomacy. For instance, if the Entente can swing the Dutch away from being friendly to Germany, then this will cut Germany’s food imports, hitting both her income and morale. Put further pressure on the Dutch and they will even start supplying the UK with goods, and this additional income can help alleviate the effects of German U-Boat warfare against the UK. It's simple but very effective. Does Commander: The Great War use a similar system?

Lotta questions, I know. This game is having me rather intrigued.

 

[oscar]

Events (even flavour ones) are pretty sparse. I guess in a fashion the game simulates it with your production falling as more men are forced into uniform to replace the fallen professionals. Navally, things seem a bit ahistorically 'balanced' (I guess Britain having a fleet bigger than everyone else's combined mightn't be too fun). Ships seem to take a hell of a lot of resources to produce and even repair (fixing up this battleship costs me as much resources as an entire infantry division??). One cool thing is that divisions quickly become disorganised and ineffective after long naval journeys (and are also excellent submarine targets).

Nothing like that I'm afraid on the diplomacy front. Nations declare war on their historic dates (with the exception of America who are influenced by your destruction of convoys). One can declare war on any neutral power during their turn (so if for some reason you want to throw some bodies at Switzerland or the Dutch you can). But no, nothing as in-depth as what you've described for Strategic Command.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Good review, thanks oscar. Quite intrigued about this. Hopefully there's a demo I can try out.

Edit: ah, there isn't.

 

[Trash]

Good review, thanks oscar. Quite intrigued about this. Hopefully there's a demo I can try out.

Edit: ah, there isn't.

Yeah, I don't get that Matrix/Slitherine policy of not releasing/hardly ever releasing demos. They got a number of excellent titles which would imo really get a lot more attention if people could simply try them out.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Yup, no demo, no scene release.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Out on steam and ipad now, i'll prolly take a punt.