Matrix Games Forums

Hi,

I'm new to tactics games. I just like to learn one of them and enjoy it. I have a cheap and old PC, but soon i'll pick a Mac. I'm looking for something like this:

- Support for PC/Mac
- WWII, realistic, where you can choose lots of countries
- Not too much micromanaging (this is really important, im a newbie!)
- Naval and air units too
- Some basic diplomacy would be welcome
- Campaign mode, and few IA levels.
- Not too expensive

Strategic War in Europe. Quick to play, easy to pick up. However like all games here not Mac compatible.

Mac may not be the best choice if you want to play games.

Your alos veyr unlikely to find a game that can play on both PC or Mac. You have to buy the version particular to the OS.

Thanks for the suggestion. I saw there is another game, Hearts of Iron 3, cheaper (10€ on Steam) and with very good looking graphics. It seems having everything I'm looking for, except that all of them, including Strategic War in Europem, seem really intimidating with all these numbers.

What's your opinion about HoI3 if you have one?

(unfortunately none of these games have a demo)

HoI3 is way more complicated than SWIE. Be a hundred fold.

Personally Real Time Grand Strati.e HoI games do nothing for me and complicate matters to much.

However for $10 it's worth a shot. SWIE is a very quick easy game incomparison though.

Or goto Battlefront and download the Strategic Command demo...another that could be for you.

Thx for the comment, i'll try that demo and, if i dont like it, i'll throw a coin to decide between HoI3 or SWIE

LiquidAgua try Steel Panthers World at War (it's Free) and has mny many versions and scenarios (see Forum below under WW2)

Planner..he is after Grand Strat..with diplomacy etc etc.

I just recently purchased this game never had played the original series way back in the 90s (I think), but wow this is some fun and not a simple game in any way. I would think this to be a "tactics"game but also a pretty good strategy game.

http://www.xcom.com/enemyunknown/entry

radic..he said tactics but I think he wants Grand Strategy. I think he got abit confused between the two.

Alright wodin thanks,tactics/strategy/grand strategy could easily be put into the same hat in many cases.

Well, after a couple of hours testing Steel Panthers, and looking for more variety of games I have few thoughts.

Steel Panthers seems a little boring for me. I need some decent graphics to enjoy a game. I assume this can be true for all games like this.

The reason I was looking a game like this was that I have (and know how to play) Civilization 4 + BtS, and the combat system isn't very cool. I had some envy of Civilization 5 (just for the combat system, I still prefer 4) but I cannot afford it since my old PC doesnt run it (or the new XCom, unfortunately).

Strategic War in Europe continue being my first candidate. I feel unsure, because the GUI hasnt any appeal to me. The second candidate is Making History II. Another cool game i saw xCom-like was Battle Academy.

My drawbacks are:

SWiE: poor graphics, poor third pages review, no demo, they said that there is very few diplomatic option, just 1 scenario
MHII: it seems the buggiest software in the net, all the reviews say that. No hexagonal grid, it seems a game like Risk.
BA: expensive, just a bunch of missions/campaing.

Try Battlefronts Strategic Command..several versions..including a WW1 ONE.

http://www.battlefront.com/

or you may like Unity OF Command if you want something that looks good and plays well...a MAC version aswell.

Or look at Panzer Corps...

Finally at a lower scale there are..

Conflict of Heroes and Achtung Panzer...

Since you have an older PC, why not give the John Tiller's Campaign Series a shot. Matrix resurrected these three games and combined them into one affordable package updated for Windows 7.

John.Tiller's.Campaign.Series

And... if you aren't totally committed to WWII... Matrix has the John Tiller Civil War (and also the Napoleonic) series from Talonsoft all refurbished to run under Win 7 as well and combined into a very affordable package.

Battleground Civil War

These are regimental level games which are a step above "tactical", but close to it. These are my all time favorite games though I mostly play the newer HPS Campaign series games which are significantly upgraded from the Battleground series (but also more expensive).

Just some other options that might work for you [:)]

You may also want to check these 2 sites out! I peruse them almost on a daily basis and some of the reviews, previews are pretty good! Hope that this may help you out my friend?

http://www.strategycore.co.uk/

http://www.wargamer.com/

You're really helpful, great forum! I have enough material now to compare and for testing their demos. I'll write you back when I decide

Thanks all of you!

btw, the reason I want a WWII game is that I want to test if I can do thing like:
- Play as Germany, and after Poland, attempt to dominate England, invading it or eliminating all naval convoys with uboats and destructors.
- Play as France and try to stop German invasion
- Play with Spain, and go to the war taking advantage of France weakiness.

Of course, I'm looking for tons of replay value

There are very good games, I'm playind the demos of Panzer Corps and Unity Of Command. They're really awesome games. I love the fact that they have modifiers like terrain, rivers, 2 troops attacking one, etc. I like that Panzer Corps has ships and planes, and Unity of Command has Fog of War and frontiers. But they're just a serie of single missions. I cannot feel the tension of "****, I gonna lose the north of Italy if my troops cannot resist enough until the two battalions I have in Russia come back!". Poor replay value unless you buy new expansions.

Strategic War in Europe and Commander: Europe at War Grand Strategy 2.0 seems that can give me that feel. However they seems weak in the "modifiers" like terrain, and tactic material, like attack a tile using two flanks. They havent demos, so I only can read reviews and their manuals.

There is lots of games, and I haven't too much time! [:D]

Look at the Matrix World in Flames forum in the Coming Soon section. You'll have time to save up because it won't be finished for a while.

Cheers, Neilster

ORIGINAL: LiquidAgua

btw, the reason I want a WWII game is that I want to test if I can do thing like:
- Play as Germany, and after Poland, attempt to dominate England, invading it or eliminating all naval convoys with uboats and destructors.
- Play as France and try to stop German invasion
- Play with Spain, and go to the war taking advantage of France weakiness.

Why don't you check out War In The East? tt.asp?forumid=695

It's not strategic in the sense that you're playing the entire war, but you can certainly entertain difficult strategic choices like going for Moscow or Leningrad, or concentrating against the South to see how that would work out. I mention that game because you mentioned nice graphics and interface, and WITE certainly delivers there as far as these kinds of games go.

LiquidAgua

With your initial post stating "I'm new to tactics games" I wouldn't recommend starting with World in Flames (not available yet and when it is it will have no AI) or War in The East as they as they are both at the large and complex end of the difficulty spectrum and I would say the same about HoI3.

SWiE or Commander EAW would be far better starting points, or if you can afford to spend a bit more Strategic Command, either SC Global Gold (and I'd recommend downloading the Storm Over Europe Fast Play scenario from the Battlefront Website if you do) or SC WW1 (which comes with the full Storm Over Europe campaign for WW2 and again you can download a SOE Fastplay scenario for it).

SWiE - lot of flexibility as to who you play (i.e. you could play Spain if you wanted or play Spain alongside Germany and Italy if they enter the Axis), cheapest of the bunch but the AI could still use a bit of tweaking.

CEAW - easy to get into and has greatly developed with the free 2.0 (soon to be massively expanded by the imminent 2.1) mod/update, AI can be a bit weak however.

SC - loads of inbuilt and downloadable scenarios, again easy to get into (all three are) and probably the best AI of the bunch, my favourite amongst the three but also the most expensive.

Also if you are even thinking about getting HoI3 get the Complete Collection version (the base game had a lot of necessary fixes in the first two expansions) and wait for it to go into a sale (which are quite frequent) and you will probably be able to pick it up at a 50-75% discount.

I prefer it simple and with replay value. As Wolve says, World in Flames and WiTE seems too complicated for me, the screenshots are really intimidanting. And HoI3. I'm discarding games because I dont want this last forever.

I dont like the fact I have to play with an entirely faction, like Axis. I just want to play with ONE country. I havent enough patience to move 70 units each turn. I played the SC Global Conflict demo, and you must take a faction. I read that the same its true for Military History CEAW. So unless I'm wrong, these games are discarded for me. If im wrong, please, let me know.

SWiE is a good candidate. Panzer Corps is another one... yes, its a different genre, i know, but its cool, just it seems to have not replay value, and i'm confused with expansions, don't know if Africa korps needs something to work.