If I had time and money, I would definitely buy these games. But, I have neither. They definitely look like something I would be interested in. Oh well. When I win the lottery, I'll be sure to pick these up.

Plot twist: "blown" in this case actually means a donkey driving a snowblower.

I would love to purchase these but if the pricing is correct and they are already currently at 50% off....... (shocked look)

yeah, it's the same price as on steam.

As much as i love history games, Slitherine games simply aren't for me. :(

I thought the prices would be lower for a GOG release.

I have both games but be warned; These are niche games,for the hardcore World War 2 wargamer. Not for the casual strategy gamer.
This, I bought bothe games when they first came out...though I gasped at the price...but have gotten my moneys worth:they are infinently replayable..
But, yeah, they are niche games for hardcore strategy gamers who are also World War 2 buffs.
Someone compared them with Hearts of Iron.No way. These are a lot for complex..and more realistic. Also the scale is a bit different. HOI is at the strategic level ,but these are more at the operational strategic level.
Frankly, if you are not hardcore, you are better off with the "Strategic Command " series.


I would not mind seeing John Tiller's "Campaign" series here;probably my favorite computer war game.

Anyone knows if the two games can be joined in some way so that you play a single game with both fronts at the same time?
The idea of having access to one front only pisses me off.
Although if you can access to the African front that's not just one front at the time, but whatever.

Here in the UK the games are exactly the same price at GOG and Matrix, so I'm assuming the difference must be down to regional pricing (unless there's a tax element to it).

It's great to see more games appearing from Slitherine/Matrix and whilst these are at the hardcore end of the scale, there are loads of their less hardcore games that I would love to see here.

I put a large amount into my GoG wallet ~ a month ago. I get the reason, today.

OK, April fools day is over GOG, you can show the real price tag for this release.

So you have no problem selling this super, super niche game at a frankly deranged price tag, but you won't let me buy shooters from an equally top-of-the-genre developer?

You just lost the only plausible justification for rejecting Degica's games.

GOG's curation saves us from all the terrible things plaguing Steam, like low budget titles and niche titles!
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Oh you're right, it isn't the 1st anymore, silly me.

This war game looks like it'd be too much for me but I don't begrudge it being on the store.

Maybe GOG could improve the sorting functions of the store and loosen their mystery curation standards. For example, price: $X, $X - $Y (greater, less, equal or greater, etc..), exclude owned games, and show only owned games plus the currently on sale sort, genres, etc. would be nice.

I can't make heads or tails of gog's curation policy either, but there's been a huge stream of barely finished indie/anime/adventure games (the kind I detest). So if gog is going to occasionally offer brainy, if somewhat overpriced, strategy games, that's fine with me. Thankfully gog is still looking to keep a full game portfolio and not cater to just one small type of crowd.

Gaming in its entirety has become very niche over the years. I would love for gog to offer other titles at lower prices, but for publisher-distributor conversion, it wouldn't make sense if Matrix/Slitherine kept their price for the same product while gog massively reduced it, nor vice versa. If you look around the web, you'll notice that niche wargames are some of the most expensive PC games on the market, save for massive AAA titles that have tons of DLC. The pricing really isn't gog's fault. It's just the nature of the genre.

Do any of these wargames actually justify the price tags or are they, as I suspect, extremely niche stuff that exploits a small, obsessive fanbase?

It depends on what you're looking for. Games like Combat Mission and Close Combat allow for quick, small unit action and lots of Pew-Pew. Larger scope games like Gary Grigsby titles offer top-down operational and strategic plays, and let's you fulfill your inner Patton/Rommel/Montgomery fantasy.

I've only played the Decisive Campaigns and Strategic Command games, which are similar to War in the East. They're great games. They just take a long time to finish scenarios and especially 'whole war' scenarios. These games take patience, knowledge of era-tech and not a small amount of mental war larping to enjoy them. For those reasons, I enjoy them and have been playing those types of games since the SSI/Impressions era back in the 90s. For others who want instant entertainment, it probably won't be their cup of tea... especially at those prices.

Also:

Bullet Witch - janky but fun so-bad-it's-good shooter from 2006, featuring a sexy witch with a machine-gun broomstick, re-released on PC and published by GOG partners Xseed and Marvelous in 2018 --- released DRM-free on Humble, but apparently GOG rejected the game

Redeemer - brawler from 2017 that TotalBiscuit found enjoyable, published by GOG partner Good Shepherd Entertainment (formerly Gambitious Digital Entertainment) --- early trailers and articles listed GOG as a release platform, but apparently GOG rejected the game