Battle of the Bulge
Very good game. What I like is the simplicity. You can play this game immediately and have a good game with the AI wrapped up in 30-60 minutes. The real enjoyment is verus other players and PBM. It is a cross of chess and a traditional board wargame. The game is well balanced and both sides will be on offense and defense for roughly half the game. You do need to know the nuances of the rules but they are not overly complex. I hate when I play games that are about say Operation Barbarosa and you have to get down to the detail of how many tires need to be ordered for your motorized units…if you take my meaning. This game does not have that detail. Your big issues will be guessing the enemy’s next move, concentrating your forces for offensive action and sometimes trying to withdraw from sticky situations. Offense and defense both take skill and preplanning. This is because once your forces are committed and engaged it gets hard to unengage and redirect. I feel this is historically accurate.
– Real player with 1319.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Asynchronous Multiplayer Turn-Based Strategy Games.
This is a beautifully designed and executed game, a real gem. It looks great, plays quickly, is well balanced, and offers both sides multiple potential strategies and paths to victory. The PBEM system hosted by Slitherine works well, and a small but dedicated cadre of players is available to challenge you online.
A notable weakness is that the AI is not consistent enough to make a challenging opponent. It can execute quite good moves but as often will make terrible blunders. It also seems to try to play on general “good tactics” criteria but doesn’t seem very concerned with the specifics of the victory conditions, which acts to its disadvantage.
– Real player with 529.8 hrs in game
Drive on Moscow
Mixed feelings. I have played this game alot on PC and iPad. It is interesting but flawed in my mind. I like the system but the whole game will depend on special rules, like prepared offensives, command confusion and then weather which can raise and lower the defensive value of terrain for just one side. Some is realistic but it drives the game a little too much in my opinion. You must master movement planning and the special rules or you will always lose. At first it is easier to play the Soviets as they have no real movement problems and fewer units to move. The Germans rarely can get their army moving, especially if you spread out. I have had half my army stationary for most the game at times. In fact, if you are Soviet you can use it to your advantage.
– Real player with 106.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Asynchronous Multiplayer Turn-Based Strategy Games.
Drive on Moscow is the bigger brother game of Battle of the Bulge by Slitherine. It uses the same game play mechanics but on a bigger scale. Battle of Moscow has, of course, to be bigger as historically it happened on a much bigger territorial scale with a lot more troops (historically, the Battle of Moscow involved 2.3 million soldiers and more than 5,000 tanks vs 600k soldiers and around 1500 tanks for the Battle of the Bulge).
As you are certainly aware of, it is a wargame, and a good one at that. It strives to be historically accurate, with an operation calendar, reinforcements, weather conditions and hour by hour time progression. You have to manage your supply situation and take into account the various characteristics of your unit types (armour, infantry, cavalry, panzergrenadier, etc.). While it may seem complicated for someone who has never played the game, it is actually quite simple. The map of operations represent the central part of Russia around the capital city of Moscow, and is divided in terrain zones with irregular shapes. This is done in order to provide a good representation of the geographical challenges posed by terrain to the movement of troops in 1941-1942. As such, it is reminiscent of a table game system that had been developed by the now defunct Avalon Hill company during the 1980s with games like “Storm Over Arnhem”, “Thunder at Cassino” or “Breakout: Normandy”.
– Real player with 77.4 hrs in game
Cauldrons of War - Barbarossa
This is a highly abstract wargame where the abstractions combine elegantly to become more than the sum of its parts. For example, the game has a concept of command points each turn. Each area also has a number representing rail capacity. A rail capacity of 3 means 3 free supply points per turn. When rail capacity decreases in certain area of operations, you are forced to make decisions around prioritizing supply (via truck or horse, which is not always successful) vs. attack/movement. The player is thus forced to tradeoff meeting supply vs. achieving objectives which I think does a good job of conveying a decision that a general would actually need to make.
– Real player with 101.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Asynchronous Multiplayer Turn-Based Strategy Games.
Cauldrons of War is brilliantly designed wargame that puts you in total command of either the Axis or Soviet forces from the German Invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941 until the Soviet Counter offensive in the Winter of 1942. It is one of the most tightly designed wargames on the market and yet its surprisingly complex. The game worries you primarily about issues that would worry a General In Chief, (Supply, Type of Operations, Force Composition of those Operations, how hard and far to push etc…) without worrying you about things a lot of wargames try to force on you, even if your rank doesn’t make that make much sense (micro-management) and in that sense this might be the closest experience to being a Field Marshall during the Second World War of anything that’s been released as a game. There are only a few things I’d change to make this game even better, 1. I’d like higher resolution maps, the games imagery does what it needs to do but it could be even better with an eye popping military style atlas with a great resolution. 2. The campaign needs to extend a bit further into 1942, playing as the Russian’s is nowhere near as fun as playing as the Germans because you’re the punching bag for the entire game and only have a few weeks at the very end of the game to counter strike, the game should extend a bit further, in line with the historical Soviet counter offensive in front of Moscow. 3. At times some key information about why certain tactics work and why later those same tactics don’t work, feels hidden. The game might benefit from displaying combat modifiers or other items that help inform the player why things are working and why they aren’t. Those are minor issues however, overall this is a brilliant game and for only $5, you can’t go wrong with it.
– Real player with 20.6 hrs in game
Axis & Allies 1942 Online
No game has made me hate my friends more……………love it
– Real player with 300.4 hrs in game
Whether it’s nostalgia for the board game, general interest in WWII history, or mere affection for turn based strategy games, you’re going to fall into both love and addiction with Axis & Allies 1942 Online.
– Real player with 44.7 hrs in game
Field of Glory II
If the Panzer General of old was considered a Beer & Pretzel game, then Field of Glory II is surely the craft beer and gourmet pretzel of the wargaming genre. With its simple to comprehend mechanics, yet deep tactical applications, it is a direct translation from table top to the computer (with all the benefits that entails) and a love letter to the history of ancient warfare as well. Before you shake your head, let me tell you, it’s true.
Field of Glory II is a turn based (IGOUGO) system, which allows for a leisurely, thoughtful pace, while making far reaching tactical decisions, hopefully three steps ahead of your foe. How fast you click has no bearing on your generalship and ability to conduct war. There’s plenty of time to think and plan and execute. It’s a play style that compliments the game mechanics as well as the Early Roman (and DLC) era battles, quite nicely. But don’t let that fool you. There is as much stress and imminent threat in a given round of FoG II as any Real Time game can offer (when your center fragments during the first move of your opponent’s turn you’ll understand). And woe unto you if you think the enemy can’t take advantage of a mistake you make during your turn. He can and he will.
– Real player with 367.7 hrs in game
Update 2017.10.14
Just wanted to post again to comment on the AI. The higher level AI does have some issues with specialized battle types. I played the Advanced Guard and Escort Baggage Train types and the AI didn’t seem too interested in fulfilling the objectives, however it still gave me a challenge to win the scenario. I’m not really counting this against the AI; for instance the Advanced Guard scenario is kind of a odd fellow, the object is to keep as many of your units over in the center of the opponent’s side of the map for as many turns as possible. The AI pretty much doesn’t care about that, it just wants to beat you. I’m OK with that.
– Real player with 129.9 hrs in game
Order of Battle: World War II
I would like to start off with saying I a form of dyslexia from a head back tramua I received in 2004 so excuse the grammer and spelling ,with this being said I want give this game a fair honest review . I am the person when reading reviews I look at how long the player played the game , amount of games as well as how many reviews .
I have been wanting this game for 6 months or more but could not afford the full price . I pay for my games do not get them in exchange for a 30 minute play and possitive review.
– Real player with 3926.0 hrs in game
I own all the current dlc for this game. In general I would reccomend this game for most strategy players. At first this game came with both sides playable. In the Pacific you could play as the Allies or the Japanese. Then the Devs decided to narrow the focus.
You then got some nice little dlc’s that were under appreciated areas of the war. The early Japanese vs Chinese conflict. This was great, but would have loved to play the Chinese, both Communist and Nationalist vs the Japanese. But due to the Devs choice to give less for the dollar and narrow the focus of the games to only one side. It was sad. But the campaign is lots of fun.
– Real player with 1128.3 hrs in game
Shadow Empire
Shadow Empire is an incredibly crunchy 4x planetary empire simulator. That’s the short version. Please also note that I purchased my copy on the Matrix site about a week before the Steam release, and I have basically been playing it non-stop since then.
A word of warning. If you are not into highly complex 4x games, you might as well stop reading now.
Still with me? Good. Here’s the TLDR. If you can imagine Civilization, Total Annihilation, Railroad Tycoon 3, and Mad Max: Fury Road all getting together and somehow producing a baby, then you aren’t too far off the mark. Shadow Empire is a love letter to those deep, complex 90’s-era strategy games that have become almost extinct in the mainstream today. Even the quaint and simple graphics reflect this. Remember when games like this came with a big instruction book? Well, this thing’s E-manual is 365 pages long. Three. Hundred. Sixty. Five.
– Real player with 930.9 hrs in game
tl;dr: Mechanics excellent, usability middling poor, visual style atrocious. It’s one of a kind. If you can stomach its looks and a lot of micromanagement, get it.
I’ll not even start talking about the positives, because that would leave me with no time to play the game any longer. Instead, here’s what’s bad.
UI is a sin. Functional, but as ugly as it can be without forcing you to turn your head in disgust. I’ll say no more on the subject, let’s just state that the screenshots, which almost dissuaded me from even giving the game a try, are carefully selected to show its more presentable views. Apart from its aesthetic shortcomings, it’s also cumbersome, inelegant, and sometimes buggy. And you need to pay very close attention to every part of it, because much important information is presented in very unassuming ways.
– Real player with 850.0 hrs in game
Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector
A nicely animated, turn-based tactics game between the Primaris-heavy Blood Angels and whichever Hive Fleet.
On the hardest difficulty setting it is reasonably challenging, particularly during the first half of the campaign…
Until you get to the final mission. I got wiped on my first run, which looked pretty bleak, only to discover that hitting the Defeat splash screen for the last mission got me the Steam achievement for completing the campaign.
So I won? You can win too. Wait for a sale unless you affirmatively want to support old school games with Warhammer 40K skins.
– Real player with 76.0 hrs in game
Best Warhammer 40,000 game released since the release of Dawn of War II. Highly recommended for turn based strategy fans or 40k fans (or both :)).
– Real player with 59.6 hrs in game
The Conquest of Go
Edited: Sep. 15th, 2021.
The game is getting better so far. So I think now I would change my vote to ‘RECOMMEND’. Let’s give it a try. And share your opinion to help them make it better for you.
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Edited: March 9th, 2021.
I’ve played the latest update and think the game is much better now. It’s getting in shape.
I’m looking forward for big features in the future. Please keep up good works.
Ps: to players, you could join forum to share your experience and ideas with the Devs to make the game better.
– Real player with 35.6 hrs in game
First, let me say that I dig the game, and I like that it is put together from a lot of open source / royalty free resources. I have enjoyed playing against my old pal GNU Go, and I particularly like the review portion after games are completed where I can see key moves the computer would have suggested, which has helped me get a better sense of advantageous moves under different circumstances. The approach of the campaign as being a literal conquest for territory is also really cool. However, it doesn’t feel particularly polished at this stage. I would like to see more of a story, perhaps some Go puzzle mini games in between matches. A larger map would be nice too, and it might be cool to have a zoom-out view of the ‘world’ that shows conquered regions as an actual game of Go, but that might be wishful thinking on my part. Finally, its a little nit-picky, but after matches, I feel the resource icons are too small, and sometimes I miss them. Other uses for resources might be worth exploring as well.
– Real player with 17.9 hrs in game
Conquest!
For the type of game this is, it is well polished! I spend countless hours a day playing it and the community is nice and talkative too!
This is a game that you use up movement points for, then return in a little bit. Very strategic, lots of possiblities on what to do within the game, and a great balance on how long an “age” lasts. (ages are like seasons for other games)
There’s much more that i can say about this game than i can here, but I gave it a 4/5. The details are shown in my video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vt-7MwCviQ&t=29s
– Real player with 60.5 hrs in game
Loving the game so far, very friendly and helpful developers in the discord as well. after playing the game for 20 hours or so, its a lot more in depth then the style would have you believe from the different classes and how they work, to the diverse amount of spells that can do anything from give you resources, reinforcements during fights, and just straight kill you. The game is definitely worth trying at least if you like strategy games.
– Real player with 54.2 hrs in game