Is Warplan worth purchasing?

jeffnward · Post by **jeffnward** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:23 pm

With the 30 percent Matrix Easter discount burning a hole in my pocket, I've been considering purchasing Warplan. But I already have every other grand strategic WW II PC game and Warplan's reviews are kinda mixed with most critics claiming there isn't a whole lot of replayability to it.

So, I thought I'd throw it open to a group discussion. Put more simply, what are your thoughts on the game?

Thank you!

Jeff

AlvaroSousa · Post by **AlvaroSousa** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:12 pm

Read the reviews on Steam. They will give you the answers you want.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1084790/reviews/

What makes WarPlan different from other games is the strategic and operation depth without micromanagement.

PanzerMike · Post by **PanzerMike** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:53 pm

I like it a lot. As an old board gamer with all my favorites gathering dust on my shelves, Warplan is the perfect solution for me.

The interface is elegant, play is smooth. There is a lot going on under the hood; you get a sense of that, but most of it is shielded off.

The game has come of age last months, there seem to be very few bugs left, and the game is patched continuously. So support is very good.

The graphics are pretty basic, but mods can alleviate some of that. What is somewhat lacking is the chrome, the glitz, pizzaz. No cutscenes, no historic decision events. You know what I mean. The meat is firmly in the strategic part, and that is where this game really shines.

I heartily recommend it.

AlvaroSousa · Post by **AlvaroSousa** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 5:53 pm

And the reason why no fancy shamacy feel good cut scenes of Rommel in the desert is because WarPlan is a pure wargame. No soft play, touchy feely make you warm in side. It's hard, tough, with a healthy level of anxiety where you feel you never have enough stuff to get the job done.

It's a warrior's game.

sveint · Post by **sveint** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:43 pm

It's one of the best wargames I've played, and I've played a few.

That said there are still some issues, which would normally be a negative, but as you can see Alvaro is hard at work fixing them.

sillyflower · Post by **sillyflower** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 7:44 pm

+1

Alvaro is wrong on 1 point tho'. Overunning 2 of sveint's airbases last turn did give me a warm feeling [:D]. Opening his turns not so much...............

AlvaroSousa · Post by **AlvaroSousa** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 8:49 pm

That's a warriors warm feeling of VICTORY!

nicwb · Post by **nicwb** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 9:42 am

The question for me is - I already own Strategic Command war in Europe, this game seems to be similar in scope and approach. What does it do that's better ?

stormbringer3 · Post by **stormbringer3** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 12:07 pm

With the Easter discount expiring today I also have to decide what to buy. I only play vs the AI. There was an AAR by tyronec on the highest difficulty vs. the AI and he ended it in 1942. It appears that he had a pretty easy time of it. However that was last November and there have been quite a few patches since then. Will it be more difficult today? I own the latest Strategic Command Games and I'm satisfied with the AI in them. If the AI in this game is about equal to those games I'd be happy.
Thanks for any opinions.

OxfordGuy3 · Post by **OxfordGuy3** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 12:53 pm

ORIGINAL: nicwb

The question for me is - I already own Strategic Command war in Europe, this game seems to be similar in scope and approach. What does it do that's better ?

The naval system is much better, naval units stack and move in fleets, none of this one naval unit per port/hex nonsense of SC (though can only have one fleet per hex). The naval game is the worst aspect of SC: WiE in my opinion - other than that I like both games very much.

In Warplan on land hexes, you can have one land AND one air unit per hex. In SC it's one or the other.

In Warplan on land you can choose to make a single attack from multiple hexes (i.e. from multiple units) to increase the odds

There are many other differences, but these are some of the obvious ones. There are similarities too, though.

ncc1701e · Post by **ncc1701e** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:29 pm

What I like is the fact that a unit can move, attack, then move again if it has still operation points. Combined attacks from several hexes.

The historic pace of operations is nicely done. See an example here:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4784371

It is a wargame at strategic level but it has a good feeling of operational wargame (I like TOAW in particular).

FirstPappy · Post by **FirstPappy** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:52 pm

One more thumbs up!

Dalwin · Post by **Dalwin** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:12 pm

I am also on the fence for buying this today, but I'd say there is one other key difference from SC:WIE. In SC they made the mistake of keeping unit scale the same as it is in the World at War version. That means corps and armies that fit fine on the global map are not enough to fill in the front well on a map zoomed in on Europe. War Plan has it as division and corps instead of corps and army and this scale is a much better fit.

ncc1701e · Post by **ncc1701e** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:22 pm

In fact, what would be great, would be to combine the Warplan mechanisms with the terrain graphics of SC3...

OxfordGuy3 · Post by **OxfordGuy3** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:46 pm

ORIGINAL: ncc1701e

In fact, what would be great, would be to combine the Warplan mechanisms with the terrain graphics of SC3...

Warplan looks a lot better with this map mod, though: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4725159

Though I prefer to use it with this counter mod, which is cleaner than the counters associated with the above map (it's possible to use these counters with the map mod above, though): https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4718357

sveint · Post by **sveint** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 3:27 pm

ORIGINAL: nicwb

The question for me is - I already own Strategic Command war in Europe, this game seems to be similar in scope and approach. What does it do that's better ?

I bounced hard off Strategic Command War in Europe, didn't like it at all. Warplan is much much better.

nicwb · Post by **nicwb** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:54 pm

quote:

ORIGINAL: nicwb

The question for me is - I already own Strategic Command war in Europe, this game seems to be similar in scope and approach. What does it do that's better ?

The naval system is much better, naval units stack and move in fleets, none of this one naval unit per port/hex nonsense of SC (though can only have one fleet per hex). The naval game is the worst aspect of SC: WiE in my opinion - other than that I like both games very much.

In Warplan on land hexes, you can have one land AND one air unit per hex. In SC it's one or the other.

In Warplan on land you can choose to make a single attack from multiple hexes (i.e. from multiple units) to increase the odds

There are many other differences, but these are some of the obvious ones. There are similarities too, though.

Ok, thanks for the helpful response OxfordGuy3 -those do sound like improvements & the links to the map mods are appealing too.

I've read a few AAR's here - i think I may cast around and see if there are a few video play through's -that always helps.

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