The Great War begins, Strategic Command: WWI is out

[Daniele]

Strategic Command: World War I is released and it’s time for you to relive the War the should have Ended all Wars.

WATCH THE TRAILER

Choose which bloc you want to lead, The Triple Entente or the Central Powers, and witness firsthand the importance of strategic planning coupled with the need for cooperation between all the nations on your side.

Discover new groundbreaking technologies, employ new tactics on the battlefield and try the hardest as you can to break the enemy’s morale with any action!

Unique World War I gameplay mechanics have been implemented for an ever greater dose of realism and historical accuracy. Develop impenetrable trench systems, block enemy sea routes with naval mines, use early aircraft models to scout the enemy and direct focused artillery fire on them. Or undermine the enemy’s will to resist through diplomacy and political intrigue before striking.

Grab the game now.

Are you eager to see the game in action? Strategic Command: World War I will be featured today on our official Twitch Channel at 6 PM GMT. Tune in!

[lordhoff]

Game looks interesting. Is there a map that shows all areas covered (I've never played the WW-II game and it sounds like the east may be a small area)?

Even if I would normally buy it, I'm still pissed at my treatment by the "help desk" when I received a bonus for being a long term customer (14 year bonus, I think it was) and it didn't work on my last order (yes, it was still valid). The first thing he does is state, "we don't do refunds" even though I never mentioned or insinuated that I wanted one - I plainly said I was willing to try it again with another game but wanted to be sure it would work this time. The reply? "Nobody else had troubles using it!". Basically called me stupid. True or not, it was about as unprofessional as one could get and I basically decided that was my last purchase (I didn't order the second game). Maybe in a couple of years I'll cool down and order this game. Maybe.

[BillRunacre]

Hi

Sorry to hear about your customer service experience.

In terms of the map, it goes as far east as Ekaterinburg in the Urals, although most fighting on the Eastern Front will take place far to the west of that.

[lordhoff]

Thanks. I was worried that the east might had been marginalized. In the end, I'll probably try this game - I have a thing for WW-I games starting with the board games "1914" and "Guns of August". The guy was probably fired by now anyway.

[BillRunacre]

If and when you do, be sure to let us know what you think of it. [:)]

[dcinlassen]

I have played this game several times now and I find that it is plagued with numerous flaws. While it is an interesting game, these flaws make it frustrating to play. 1) apparently you cannot disable the end game date in multiplayer pbem games. 2) I find the national morale system flawed in that units may rush behind enemy lines (germans against Russia in particular) and take cities for the only purpose of lowering the morale. its does not appear that cutting these units off effects them very much, as apparently they can draw supply from enemy cities when trapped behind enemy lines. This encourages players to make moves that have no military or realistic applications..just sacrifice a cavalry unit to cause great morale loss. even if the city is recaptured the next turn, there is no adjustment for raising the national morale up again. 3) all nationalities of units are the same. an Italian corp is just as good as a german corp. no history in the effect of what the units were like in reality. 4) apparently the north to the Baltic is a one way sea lane. just pop those british and French warships into the middle of the german navy. Denmark doesn't particually mind as I see little change in their diplomatic status. All in all, I cannot recommend this game to anyone. If I am in error in any of these observations, I readily await correction or explanation.

[Tanaka]

ORIGINAL: dcinlassen

I have played this game several times now and I find that it is plagued with numerous flaws. While it is an interesting game, these flaws make it frustrating to play. 1) apparently you cannot disable the end game date in multiplayer pbem games. 2) I find the national morale system flawed in that units may rush behind enemy lines (germans against Russia in particular) and take cities for the only purpose of lowering the morale. its does not appear that cutting these units off effects them very much, as apparently they can draw supply from enemy cities when trapped behind enemy lines. This encourages players to make moves that have no military or realistic applications..just sacrifice a cavalry unit to cause great morale loss. even if the city is recaptured the next turn, there is no adjustment for raising the national morale up again. 3) all nationalities of units are the same. an Italian corp is just as good as a german corp. no history in the effect of what the units were like in reality. 4) apparently the north to the Baltic is a one way sea lane. just pop those british and French warships into the middle of the german navy. Denmark doesn't particually mind as I see little change in their diplomatic status. All in all, I cannot recommend this game to anyone. If I am in error in any of these observations, I readily await correction or explanation.

You do make some good points on some things that could be improved.

[Xsillione]

1. Sad, truly, you can only fight for over four years, not that you have enough natianol morale to fight over that many rounds anyway.

2. This is valid in the base concept, it is stupid that it gives you massive benefit for suicide attacks, but you also should not allow those suicide attackers to enter you territories, so this is pretty much a once you can be defeated that way, than you will avoid it.

3. This is just plain stupid, massive difference between starting technologies, and those give all nationalities the starting base difference, after that, it is your choice to be just as stupid and bad as the historical leaders were or do better with hindsight and common sense.

4. Yes, the Baltic is a one way sea lane, mostly becouse it was a one way sea lane IRL, several British units (mostly subs) forced to be interned after the Russian collapse, since they cannot leave and had no friendly ports. Denmark get anoyyed for each unit (not much, but it can add up), but i would probably not DOW as Denmark on England, for sending lots of ships, with more marines on them, than my entire army...

[dcinlassen]

the national morale is set to fail, even if the germans put Russia out of the war, commies still affect their national morale even if they are winning the war..its not responsive to events, just its preprogrammed track that it follows. I would have thought that this stuff would have been noticed during play testing.

[BillRunacre]

ORIGINAL: dcinlassen

3) all nationalities of units are the same. an Italian corp is just as good as a german corp. no history in the effect of what the units were like in reality.

Hi

This is true in theory but not in practice, because while the base stats are the same, that doesn't mean that they all fight with equal abilities.

The troops are better or worse if they are benefiting from Infantry Warfare research. Germany for example starts with a good level in this, whereas Italy for instance doesn't.

Then factor in their differing command abilities, particularly between say Germany and Austria-Hungary. Partly due to the set HQ ratings, but also because Germany starts with a good research level in Command and Control, whereas Austria-Hungary doesn't.

This makes a huge difference in how they fare in combat, while Germany has more ability to research these doctrinal areas than some of the other countries.

So the differences between nationalities are not necessarily immediately obvious, but they are very much there. Plus every Major has the ability to invest in improving their combat potential via the doctrinal research categories.

Austria-Hungary and Italy has further to climb than Germany, but the game gives them the potential to do so, and therefore places more strategic options within your hands. But at a cost of not being able to invest so much in improving in other areas if they do concentrate in these areas.

Bill

[BillRunacre]

ORIGINAL: dcinlassen

the national morale is set to fail, even if the germans put Russia out of the war, commies still affect their national morale even if they are winning the war..its not responsive to events, just its preprogrammed track that it follows. I would have thought that this stuff would have been noticed during play testing.

Hi

We are very open to suggestions to improve the game, but we also want things to correspond to history.

For example, the withdrawal of Russia from the war did not boost German National Morale in the way that might have been expected. Huge numbers of German soldiers attempted to desert while en route from the Eastern to Western Fronts, and their civilian population were also becoming so war weary that it eventually led to an internal collapse and revolution even though all their forces were still on foreign soil on the Western Front in November 1918.

One thing having the game work as it does is that it pushes you to attempt to win as Germany before too long, for the longer the war drags on, the less keen on supporting the war effort the population may well be. Although this does vary from game to game and player to player, so while there may be changes we can make, we will need to factor in feedback across the board, because what I don't want to do is to fix one thing and find it breaks things elsewhere.

I hope this and my other reply make sense, and if we can find solutions then I'm all for it. [:)]

Bill

[dcinlassen]

I appreciate the views on the design, although am not totally convinced the national morale process is all that good. but I understand what you are saying. still, why cant the end game date be disabled in the pbem multiplayer version?

[Taxman66]

Try to see if this will do it.
1) Make a 'Mod' of the game with the end date 'script' turn off.
2) Send 'Mod' to your opponent and have him install it. Make sure the name is the same for both.
3) Propose a PBEM 'Mod' version of the game and see if he can join.

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: dcinlassen

I appreciate the views on the design, although am not totally convinced the national morale process is all that good. but I understand what you are saying. still, why cant the end game date be disabled in the pbem multiplayer version?

The honest answer here is that it has never been requested before for a multiplayer game and as a result has been overlooked as an option on our part.

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: Taxman66

Try to see if this will do it.
1) Make a 'Mod' of the game with the end date 'script' turn off.
2) Send 'Mod' to your opponent and have him install it. Make sure the name is the same for both.
3) Propose a PBEM 'Mod' version of the game and see if he can join.

For 1) please make sure you open your desired campaign and then select Save As and save it as a custom campaign first.

Then what you'll need to do is change the end date of the game to whichever date you prefer, this can be found under Campaign -> Edit Campaign Data.

Then go to Campaign -> Edit Event Scripts and open up the Victory scripts and either set all the Victory with #FLAG= 1 to #FLAG= 0, OR just remove the entire contents of the file so that there are no Victory scripts. Save the file, and recompile the script and then re-save the campaign.

This way you can play as long as you like until one of you officially concedes defeat.

Follow steps 2) and 3) as suggested above by Taxman66.

[dcinlassen]

thank you for the response. I like the game. any chance in the future of it being an option for multi player..best game I have played thus far was MP that went to the end and it was still not really decided..would have loved to play it out.

[Hubert Cater]

Very glad to hear you are enjoying the game and we've added it to our list for a possible future update.

[PK1914]

Thanks Hubert, highly appreciated. Please have a look at the ZOC rules as well. I feel that leaving one gap and then having the cavalry enter through it to cut off dozens of corps is rather unrealistic as well. We need something more sticky like in traditional hex and counter board wargames I feel.

[Hubert Cater]

Thanks and I can say that the current ZOC rules for Cavalry are indeed purposeful, e.g. one of the few advantages that Cavalry units have in game, but we can look at adjustments and preferably those that allow us to keep the Cavalry ZOC rules as is while still addressing the concerns.

For example, additional units in key locations to limit some of the possible exploits while still giving players the ability to rush through gaps when appropriate etc.