Matrix Games Forums

Hey all I have been gone for a while and I am looking to shift from single front games to entire WW2 theatre games.

I notice two that have come out that have caught my eye.

Commander: War in Europe and WW2: Road to Victory

I am having issues trying to figure out what the differences are.

I like to zoom in to the action on each front, and have massive front lines with units I can move and adjust. I also like an easy to use airpower system, base supply and a naval system that works with amphibious landings.

I like weather effects, random issues, commanders and some economy.

I like a little diplomacy as well. I just cannot for the life of me figure out which game to pick.

I have played all Battlefront SSG games and some Highway to the Reich and the Crete one.

I liked Strategic Command but it was a little lacking in terms of depth.

http://www.battlefront.com/products/sc2/

I have played TOAW until my eyes bleed. I love the way I can establish front lines and break through and do blitzes in that game as well as dig in and bombard hexes and all that.

Any advice? Also which game is stable and complete in terms of things working well together and a decent AI

If you found SC2 lacking in depth then you will with both the games you have listed.

CEAW is a light Grand Strat game. Focus on manouver and such. Not much on large fronts filled with units. Think Panzer General meets Axis and Allies.

WW2:RtW is also a light Grand Strat game. More detail than CEAW but still about the same depth as SC2. This one still needs some work/patches IMHO. Could be great.... but not yet.

Not a Grand Strat game by itself but there are some world wide WWII scenaraios for Advanced Tactics. Great fun and VERY moddable. Deeper than any of the other three. AI's ok to learn with but not much of a challenge after that.

If you want to play the AI, then SC2 is probably the best one.... I just don't like it very much.... the squares is part of the problem for me. All the others have hexes.[8D]

Hmm yeah the squares didn't really do it for me and I didn't like the economic system too much. This is a tough call. Reading all the reviews and forums makes it even harder. Though I am leaning more towards Commander War in Europe.

What I'd like is a grand scale game that includes ALL of Europe at the scale of TOAW III's FITE scenerio. Also an air war with allied strategic bombing. And finally an economic aspect where axis can vary how it spends its resources for land,sea and air power. This would be a dream come true. This could be a multi-player PBEM game with an axis eastern front player,a western front player ,a Luftwaffe commander and an economic boss who doubles as overall commander and decides how the tanks,guns and other war materials are distributed. I'm curious if there is a market for something this big and complicated.

ORIGINAL: pvthudson01
Hmm yeah the squares didn't really do it for me and I didn't like the economic system too much. This is a tough call. Reading all the reviews and forums makes it even harder. Though I am leaning more towards Commander War in Europe.

Commander: Europe at War is on about the same level as SC in terms of general abstraction. However, I think that compared to the original SC, it's a better game.

WW2: RTV has more detail than either of those, but is also a first release from a new developer and still has a few rough edges. I think the current ongoing AAR shows what it can do though and it's a good game.

If you want something that is more realistic and covers the entire globe, look at Gary Grigsby's World At War: A World Divided. This is a much improved version of the original World at War and IMHO plays out the entire war with surprising realism given the scale.

Regards,

- Erik

ORIGINAL: Bibbo
What I'd like is a grand scale game that includes ALL of Europe at the scale of TOAW III's FITE scenerio. Also an air war with allied strategic bombing. And finally an economic aspect where axis can vary how it spends its resources for land,sea and air power. This would be a dream come true. This could be a multi-player PBEM game with an axis eastern front player,a western front player ,a Luftwaffe commander and an economic boss who doubles as overall commander and decides how the tanks,guns and other war materials are distributed. I'm curious if there is a market for something this big and complicated.

Have a look at the ongoing development for World in Flames in our Coming Soon section.

Regards,

- Erik

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Have a look at the ongoing development for World in Flames in our Coming Soon section.

Regards,

- Erik

He probably wants a game to play this year though... [;)]

Hearts of Iron 2 gets my vote.

He probably wants a game to play this year though...

Has the game taken longer to develop than the actual war?

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins




If you want something that is more realistic and covers the entire globe, look at Gary Grigsby's World At War: A World Divided. This is a much improved version of the original World at War and IMHO plays out the entire war with surprising realism given the scale.

Regards,

- Erik

Gary's World at War is great, excellent advice by Erik!

Regards,

Grell

Although not a Matrix title, Hearts of Iron 2 meets all of your requirements.

Regards,
Feltan

ORIGINAL: Feltan

Although not a Matrix title, Hearts of Iron 2 meets all of your requirements.

Regards,
Feltan

Except that it has that pausible/real time turn sequence that I could never really warm up to........

double post

I would go with World Divided as Erik said.  It's a great game.  It could be a long time for World in Flames ever comes out.
 
How ever World at war is quarterly turns not monthly or weekly.

Has anybody tried the game Making History? [ http://www.making-history.com/hq/ ] I tried the demo...not too much actually happened but I thought someone that owns the game might provide some better insight.  It is a WWII grand strategy game with production/trade/diplomacy/research etc.  It's only $20 so... less buyer's remorse if it happens to suck. 

Computer War in Europe (new version about to be released) is as grand as it gets for the ETO. I've enjoyed playing solitaire and have had some great pbem games going as well. Yes, there's no AI for the initial release, but chat about adding one has come up a number of times with the beta-testers. Personally, I'm not convinced that an AI can do justice playing as the Axis in any ETO game. As the Allies perhaps, but not effectively as the Axis.

Commander is a fun, light little game, but I didn't find it as rewarding or deep as as SC:2 with expansions.  I also think it's pretty pricey for what you get.  I did really like some parts of it though.  It does have a nice Panzer General feeling and I like the oil model, which added some serious motivation to push on Baku.

Even though Hearts of Iron 2 isn't entirely to my taste you might investigate it.  It's much more complex then any of the others on offer and it has a very extensive modding community.  I think the HoI2 forum probably sees almost as many posts a day as the entire Matrix games forum (only a little hyperbole here).  It's also available for HALF the price of something like Commander.  You can pick up HoI2:Doomsday and its expansion pack for like 25$

I haven't tried Road to Victory, but from what it looks like and the complaints on the forum it sounds sort of half-baked and incomplete.  I do like the map scale and some of the feature list, but I'm trying to swear off buying apparently unfinished/buggy games at full/premium price.

ORIGINAL: Unhappy

Has anybody tried the game Making History? [ http://www.making-history.com/hq/ ] I tried the demo...not too much actually happened but I thought someone that owns the game might provide some better insight.  It is a WWII grand strategy game with production/trade/diplomacy/research etc.  It's only $20 so... less buyer's remorse if it happens to suck. 

MH was originally a history teaching tool for students who hadn't a clue abt WW II; I bought an advance copy and later regretted it.

MH is similar to a turn-based HoI, which was much better, but the Grigsby title now has my interest if it's been improved.

Any specific comments on the improvements in "A World Divided"?

The best WW2 grand strategy game I have played it HOI 2 DD + Armageddon). Compared to a game like CotA the HOI ai is flaky, but it does work. There are mods that improve play against the ai.

Put in another vote from me for Making History. It's turn based and does play a whole lot like the HOI series and I found it quite fun. I like it because no two games are ever really the same and it's fun sometimes when certain allies don't ally historically. Of all the ones I've played I keep coming back to it for my grand strategy fix for WW2.

You guys are all missing the true king of the grand theatre games for WW2: War In The Pacific.

Who cares if it takes you as long to play the game as the war lasted? The trip along the way is so fun!

Strategic bombing, amphibious landings, Japanese economy, true combined arms operations - you even have grand fronts in China!