Posted on: August 24, 2012
Steellwaters
Verified ownerGames: 84 Reviews: 1
awesome strategy game
This series is one of my favorite of all time. I own it from battlefront but now that it is here I may buy it again to have it on GOG. I only gave it 4 stars because the third in the series has more functionality that was implemented and alot of the scenarios from this one could be played on it. This is a squad level Psuedo Real Time game. you get to think about your moves like a turn based but once you give your orders you watch both sides orders get carried out in a 60 second movie. Ultra realistic Fog of war has your guys reporting sound contacts and sometimes wrong information if the moral and training level is low for the unit. Units follow orders but have their own AI ...just because you told that platoon to cross that open ground and assault the machine gun team doesn't mean they won' lay down and crawl toward the nearest cover once they start getting shot up. Lots of scenarios to play and the only down side is setting up a random scenario can be a chore. You use a point system to buy units and artillery(offboard with spotters onboard) and even air cover(sporadic and no influence from player except that it exists but then all your units are just arrayed along your edge...so expect to spend a good half hour setting up how you want your forces and since you take turns in multiplayer that adds up. and the initial orders phase can be long but once you get by that you will find that once engaged your guys need very little micromanaging as the TAC AI will behave fairly effectively and you can watch the big picture. Armored combat is just as detailed as the infantry combat with armor thickness and angle as well as shell trajectory and toughness...shells will break up upon hitting armor and a non penetrating hit can result in crew casualties due to splintering of inner armor..also a buttoned up tank is less vulnerable to hits but blind as a bat to nearby contacts on it's flanks. Multiplayer can be wonky but way funner than getting chewed up and spit out by the ai. hotseat is fun and quick however the fog of war IS A HUGE PART OF THE FUN SO DON'T LOOK WHEN IT'S YOUR OPPONENTS TURN (I remember dropping artillery and starting a fire and not realizing until after the game that I had scored a lucky hit and knocked out one of my opponents vehicles he had hidden behind the building. PBEM is funfor distance but it involves about 4 emails per turn ....2 for planning and 2 for watching. it mixes it up so that the computer that generates the next minute of the movie based on your orders is alternated each time. at least that is how it seems to me. The game generates a text file that is coded information(you can look its a wall of gobbledegook) that you send as an email attachment....get a drop box account..that cuts PBEM down to the time of a hotseat game. Just share a folder with your opponent and drag and drop the text files into it .....trust me it makes a difference and dropbox is free. I have had a friend get a direct connection game working but its difficult and you have to know what your doing with ip's there are no servers. I could go on and on and I am sure I missed something but I hope you get the gist...oh and one last thing..I love this game and own all three so if you ever want to play a game I'm down for a PBEM game. email me at solitear @ yahoo.com
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