Armoured Commander II
I strongly recommend Armoured Commander II to anyone who likes turn-based strategy games, games set in WW2 and/or roguelikes.
These are the things I love about the game:
1. Realism: Cannon shells can bounce off armour depending on the range, calibre and armour thickness. Weather conditions influence movement, hit and spotting chances. Units in cover are much harder to hit. Different weapon and ammo types are useful to different degrees depending on the situation. Your crewmen can not only be killed if your tank is destroyed. If you leave their hatches open, even a machine gun volley or sniper shot can wound or kill them. The performance of your crewmen can be affected by injury or shock. Each crewman who dies is gone for good.
– Real player with 824.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Tanks Roguelike Games.
A fairly unique and well-presented tank roguelike that does an amazing job of immersion in spite of being relatively simple in terms of scale and unit count. In most other tank games, you’re happy to have the biggest gun. In Armoured Commander II, you get to feel the pinch of having the biggest gun, because that means your tank barely has any ammo, especially HE. Oh and it probably doesn’t have very many machine guns.
And you want those machine guns and HE. By God, do you want them.
Armoured Commander and Armoured Commander II are the only tank games that I’ve played where the player is forced to care about MGs and HE because it isn’t laser-focused on tank duels. Quite frequently, you’ll find your tank under serious threat from infantry, ATGs, soft vehicles, etc. MGs and HE are useful both in the tactical hex battles and on the campaign map for purposes of recon-by-fire.
– Real player with 666.2 hrs in game
The Troop
On the morning of the 6th June 1944 the Western Allies began the largest seaborne invasion in the history of warfare. D-Day would mark the start of a vicious campaign to wrestle North West Europe from German control. The following months would see the ancient fields, farms and villages serve as a battleground for new, lethal weapons that would become legendary.
The Troop follows the campaign of British and Canadian forces as they face the German Heer and SS in Normandy. Take command of infantry, motorised and armoured units in desperate tactical turn-based combat against an AI opponent that is challenging and unpredictable, but fair and fallible.
Read More: Best Tanks Turn-Based Strategy Games.
Sands of Fire
Bring a cannon to a gunfight.
You hear the rumbling drone of approaching enemy tanks returning from a dawn patrol. The hapless armored vehicles have wandered directly into your trap. You wait until they’re in your line of sight and yell “FIRE!”, shattering the stillness of the quiet morning. After the ensuing engagement, you survey the burning wreckage. Another battle has been won, but the war is far from over.
Take control of forty tons of pure armored destruction! World War II is raging, and the enemy is fighting hard for every inch of territory in North Africa. Devastate the opposing forces with superior tactics, cunning strategy, and tremendous might. Leave the enemy forces smoldering in your tracks, and bring your fellow countrymen home safely!
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Engage in up to 48 realistically recreated tank battles from World War II from Tobruk and El Alamein to the Kasserine pass, Tunis and Bizerte.
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Carefully customize your loadout for each mission.
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Direct allies in battle and choose tank formations to give you an advantage.
Read More: Best Tanks Simulation Games.
Sudden Strike 4
Hi all,
I played the original Sudden Strike.
Though only the demo map that was released at that time, what seems now so long ago.. :)
But the title always stuck with me.
I see here allot of die hard fans who give very disapointing reviews and to some point I can definately understand as compared to the original I can remember that the game qua single player was more difficult, bigger (just that demo map was already imense), some units had more options and the missing of the binoculars from the officer seems also a big deal. ^^
– Real player with 822.2 hrs in game
I stumbled across Sudden Strike 4 on EA Origin. I didn’t quite know what to make of SS4 at first, but I eventually ended up playing 200 150+34 (so far) hours of the base game there! I finally decided I wanted to own - not just rent - SS4 here on Steam. Just as importantly, I wanted to directly support the developers and get the DLC.
I’ve been gaming since the days of the original Nintendo. This is the first military RTS game I’ve ever owned* and put simply, it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played, hands down! It’s readily apparent that an experienced dev team put some real thought and effort into Sudden Strike 4. The graphics and performance are excellent, and the re-playability makes it a superb value for the money. This game is basically a combined-arms tactical combat simulator that uses units up to company size. There are a wide variety of mission types, the complexity of which are further multiplied by the different doctrines available (Infantry, armor and logistical). The well-done AI and relative historical and geographical accuracy are also appreciable.
– Real player with 185.1 hrs in game
World of Tanks
Okay, lets start with: Lot’s of good AND bad. The good? A well and long developed game with plenty of content and tons of tanks to play. A good selection of maps and plenty of nations to try out. Lots of freebies (PR’s ((personal reserves)) and even event tanks, camo and decals, etc.).
The BAD, oh the BAD… Okay, let me start off with this: I have been playing this game since release, 2011. I wasn’t part of beta, I waited till full release. I hate betas, too much changes in a full release from the testing phase. This game, as it is now, isn’t the game I started playing back then, Period. They have changed every aspect of the game many times over since then. You see, Gold tanks, now called Premium Tanks, were sub-par to the Tech Tree tanks. Which means they were WORSE than the regular tank of the same tier and same nation. Gold tanks were to train crews and make you a few extra credits (Silver) doing it, period, that’s it. They gave you NO advantage other than that. Now…now the Premium Tanks rule, extra armor, better this, better that, you name it. So now if you don’t buy the newest OP (Over Powered) Premium Tank, you are going to suffer vs them. Sound fair? Okay, that’s just the tanks. Ammo… when I started Gold Ammo (now Premium Ammo) cost real money, like real $$$. So it wasn’t thrown around often, very very rare was the person that used the Gold Ammo constantly. So in ten matches you might run into two of them that someone was slinging Gold. Then came the change, you can now buy Gold Ammo with Silver! (the normal in-game money). Now of course the Premium Ammo (Gold Ammo) cost more than normal ammo, but hey, everyone can use it now… So suddenly armor meant nothing. You could have the best armored tank on the game (back then a KV-5) but now EVERYONE is slinging Premium Ammo like no tomorrow so armor suddenly means zip (BTW, the KV-5 had some GREAT armor, but the gun was the worst of the tier 8’s in the game of any nation and would only pen the weakest of spots on any enemy tank). Now my biggest gripe, MM. (Match Making) Has changed many times over the years, and not once, ever… for the better. The whole concept of a three tier match (your tier plus 1-2 tiers above or below you) is so out of date with the newer OP tanks it isn’t funny. Just as a one off example (and there are PLENTY more) you are in your new shiny Tiger I, a tier 7 tank, near as you can get to what the Germans had as a best tank for WWII (not to mention the lesser used King Tiger, etc.) and you hit that big red “Battle” button. In your mind you are thinking “I finally got some real armor!” and the battle starts. Guess what… on that other team you are seeing tanks that were pure fantasy or didn’t even come out till the 1960’s to 1980’s (Tier 9’s). Really? A 1940’s tank is supposed to fight a 1980' tank? Guess what, it goes very poorly for the much much older tank. Sound fair? So MM has been broken from almost the start, it just has gotten more so over the years. The problem with MM isn’t just that, it also is with how often it seems to place you at the bottom as well, in 10 games you are for sure going to see at least 6-8 of them at the bottom tier. Over time that wears on you. Hard. Next is the Cars (Armored Cars). In real life the armored cars ran away from the tanks in a battle as fast as they could because a single shot would end their life. A single shot, period. Not here, you can hit a Car with a 12.8 cm gun (128 mm) full on and get that fateful message “We didn’t even scratch him!” or worse, “Critical Hit!” yet he takes no damage and just keeps driving like nothing ever touched him. And just for fun the auto-aim on the cars hits you no matter what the car is doing, turning, flying (jumping), etc. Sound fair?
– Real player with 176.6 hrs in game
I’ve been playing since Closed Beta back in 2011, and still play daily outside of Steam, so don’t let these steam hours fool you.
As you can clearly see from all the other negative reviews, each of them basically say the same thing because it’s just flat out fact, instead of opinion. There’s a very big fundamental problem with this game but it will not change because we are nobody to them. The only way to have a drastic change, in a game as big and successful as this, would be to not spend any more money ever until they make the necessary changes. Unfortunately, this will never happen because not everyone has the same opinions/thoughts/preferences/etc. There’s only one thing you can do. Play the game, or find another.
– Real player with 15.8 hrs in game
Graviteam Tactics: Operation Star
Simply put, the best tactical wargame around, cardboard or PC. It’s not all that difficult to learn, nor is it loaded with tedious micromanagement, so don’t be indimidated thinking this is the land version of Harpoon/Command:MNAO. However, it is time consuming and the slower pace will likely bore those without a serious interest in Eastern Front military history. The manual/tutorials are not very helpful but the UI is really quite simple to pick up with some experimentation. If you’ve played less realistic games like the Wargame series, Combat Mission, or Theatre of War you should feel some familiarity. As far as subject matter, it’s primarily WWII eastern front, but DLC operations are available to expand it into the rarely covered Angolan Civil War as well as a Sino-Soviet border skirmish and a hypothetical Iranian intervention in the Soviet-Afghan War. (unfortunately if you want an actual Soviet-Afghan War scenario, you’ll have to look to GT’s other game, Steel Armor)
– Real player with 263.3 hrs in game
I grew up playing games like Close Combat and Combat Mission, but I always felt like those two games could be improved upon. Close Combat, particularly the 2nd and 3rd games in the series, were a great mix of highly tactical combat with campaign systems that allowed your units to fight battles which affected future battles and operations. While the later games went on to have bigger battles and maps, they lost a bit of the magic of the early games where the battles felt much more like struggles and where your past mistakes could lead you to be stuck in situations in Arnhem, or wherever, where you had 4 squads and needed to hold on for a half hour to get a decent cease fire. On the other hand, the Combat Mission series took the war to 3D but kept the extremely complex morale system and tank combat. Yet I never found the series quite as engaging due to a lack of any meaningful campaign system and clunky, abstracted interface and graphics. What I always wanted more was a strategic system like that of the later Close Combat series mixed with 3D graphics, and I think I’ve found that in the Graviteam Tactics series.
– Real player with 134.2 hrs in game
Steel Armor: Blaze of War
First off.. I am biased. But I am going to give a bit O brutal review. Not really that brutal.
1st off. This is a “remastered” SABOW that was released back in 2011. It had a borked release with publishers that where borderline stupid. The game was released in a state with game braking bugs. This had nothing to do with the dev. In fact they released a series of unofficial patches to fix the issues. They however, where not allowed to officially fix the game. However, the rights just returned to the dev’s. Where all that unofficial content was made official and many fixes and improvements where added in.
– Real player with 253.6 hrs in game
An unmatched level of detail in simulation, with sometimes odd AI behavior being near its single downfall. Gameplay is generally excellent and the interiors/systems modeling of the T-62 which I use near exclusively is actually superior to Steel Beasts as it stands right now. Small details like dust kicked up by the cannon (major factor in desert environments, where the game is mostly set) and the animation of the 115mm’s ejection sequence are what bring this game the extra mile.
I can only really field 4 complaints about this game, total- especially considering its age and price point
– Real player with 65.2 hrs in game
Tactics of World War I
Tactics of World War I puts you in the role of a military leader on the Western Front. Lead your men through some of the fiercest battles in history. But only if you plan your attacks thoroughly, and react smartly and quickly to your enemies actions you will succeed.
Two Single-Player Campaigns
The game features two single-player campaigns set on the Western Front. A German campaign about the invention of the famous “Sturmtruppen”, an elite infantry unit founded to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare. And a British campaign dealing with the deployment of the very first tanks to the battlefield.
The campaigns extent over the entire conflict from 1914 to 1918, including decisive battles such as the Battle of Flirey or the Battle of Passchendaele.
Realistic Small Unit Tactics
Tactics of World War I focuses on the tactical aspects of the battle like cover, suppressive fire, and flanking maneuvers. Resulting in a fast-paced gameplay loop accompanied by truly innovative, streamlined controls.
With more than half a dozen individual units per faction, from light infantry to heavy weapons, such as mortars or tanks, Tactics of World War One provides you with a variety of tactics.
![Armored Battle Crew [World War 1] - Tank Warfare and Crew Management Simulator](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/814740/header.jpg)
Armored Battle Crew [World War 1] - Tank Warfare and Crew Management Simulator
Nice little game once you get used to it. Was not sure about using WSAD keys for steering at first but once you are used to it replicates steering of WWI tanks perfectly. Mark V good choice for first tank as it was able to be steered by driver alone. Each different tank type has different performance and choice of guns. Tadpole good at crossing trenches but pig to steer and whippet fast but not as well protected. Like being able to upgrade guns,armour and engine etc as you play game and way tank performance varies depending on set up used. Would be nice to have German,French and Italian tanks as well. Armoured cars would be nice as well as used before tanks invented and armies got bogged down in trenches in Europe. Armoured cars used in middle east and in 1919 in Russia along with tanks by British helping White Russians fight reds. Would be nice to have tanks that were developed to late in WW1 to be produced in large numbers or get into action. Some pre WW2 tanks would be nice. (Thinking of Vickers independant). Seen complaint about not being able to communicate with other tanks and charge around like modern tanks. Not fair to compare early tanks with modern ones. Were slow and hard to even speak to crew in own tank and were prone to break downs etc. Really gives feel of being in WW1 tank and fun to play. Just keeps getting better with Rolls Royce armoured car being added and Troop carrying tank due in future plus tweaks to graphics and gameplay
– Real player with 124.5 hrs in game
Disclaimer - Early Access etc etc
I wasn’t instantly sold on this when I first saw it. It was ‘marketed’ to me by a third party youtuber on the grounds it was ‘Just Like Bomber Crew… but with TANKS’ and then proceeded to play the game very badly and give a complete false impression on what the game play actually was.
The difference - In My Opinion - between BC and ABC is that BC plays like a bit of a juggling act where you spend more time concentrating on keeping every crew member actually doing what you want and then missing the target because you were forcing the tail gunner to reload rather than looking down the bomb sight.
– Real player with 41.9 hrs in game
Panzer Corps Gold
NB : Comments from playing with the original Slitherine version.
Taking into account all expansions, I played over 300 PzC scenarios. And it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
This is first and foremost a “game” rather than a “simulation”, yet the game has plenty of historical chrome and details. It is really easy to get into the game even if you are not familiar with WW2 tactics. However there is plenty of room to showcase your skills whether tactical or for managing your corps. For those reasons I’m glad to see this game coming to Steam and a wider audience.
– Real player with 1823.0 hrs in game
I edited my review and put at the beginning the important facts I see after more hours of play. Below comes my initial review.
Here are the important facts new players (old PG players) should know:
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Better fighting rules. (Suppressing fire, easier attack when more units adjacent to attacked hexfield, etc.) Real good small things old PG players will love when they see it.
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Better overall units and stats balance. (no overpowered PzIVF2 with range 2 for example :))
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Special skills are transparent now: For good fighting units gain Iron Crosses (no effect) and brigade heroes, which give a random skill + 1 to 3 points. You see the result when hovering mouse over in detailled unit view or other GUI manifestations of these battle honours.
– Real player with 1169.0 hrs in game