Strategic Mind: Fight for Freedom
I am very happy with the new “Fight for Freedom”. I am a big fan of “The Pacific”. The game plays well like the other Starni titles. The developers have always been attentive to the players concerns.
This title IMO seems to be a little more inline with historical information, more or less. That is my only negative for “The Pacific”
If I have any negative feedback so far is with the music. Tracks like the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” are USA civil war music. If developers are going to use music it should be era tracks. There are numerous WWII era music tracks that are much more fitting for the Allies and the Axis. For me the wrong music departs from immersion. So I do not let it play.
– Real player with 117.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Tanks Wargame Games.
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the graphics and especially the hexes are extremely shiny and weird looking, like everything is constantly soaking wet and neon lit
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the videos are interminable and filled with atrocious voice acting. it’s a blessing that you can skip them
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history is at best a very rough guide to the theme only and mission design takes no account of it ex: Germans and UK with hordes of tanks in Norway (along with ZERO French presence), giant Norwegian navy fighting the Germans off of Norway, absolutely massive British airforce showing up once the airfield is captured… it’s a clown show that makes Panzer Corps look like a serious historical take by contrast
– Real player with 53.0 hrs in game
Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism
This is an outstanding game, and the first of the Strategic Mind games I have played
I’ve played almost all the panzer corps and the other many WWII wargames that use similar, and often improved, mechanics. This game is very similar in its basic concept but much improved. It is much more immersive in the well voice-acted cut-scenes before and after scenarios, and some dialogue during a scenario. Your units are also quite chatty (reminiscent of Stronghold) and I’m particularly fond of the female bomber pilots.
– Real player with 357.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Tanks Wargame Games.
IN A WORD: WORTHWHILE
IN A NUTSHELL:
WHAT TO EXPECT: WWII strategy wargame. Tactical turn-based battles. Narrative linked campaign of 20x historical battles. Cutscene briefings with voice-overs. Command a core force. RPG style army and unit customisation. A number of genuine stand-out combat mechanics. Detailed prestige reward model. HQ unit and command points Requires much more strategic planning than other games in the genre. Scenarios can feel heavily scripted and overbalanced. Some GUI ailments. Single-player only.
– Real player with 70.3 hrs in game
Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty
A story from the legends, but in real history
Winter War: over 500,000 Soviet soldiers attack Finland, a country with a population of 3,700,000, and the Finns drive them back, inflicting 5 times their own casualties. Continuation War: the Reds return with a total strength of 1,500,000 - almost half of the entire Finnish population - and the Finns stop them again. Finland’s survival in these two brutal wars against an enemy so vast was a true historical miracle. A miracle of heroism and valor. A miracle of the Finnish spirit of liberty.
Experience heroic struggle and make tough choices
You are the commander of the scarce Finnish troops. Your only goal - to save your homeland and your people from total annihilation. Would you risk losing your experienced troops to try and capture the enemy tanks? Would you try to save the stragglers during the retreat and risk losing everyone, or cut your losses and establish a new line of defense? Would you agree to negotiate with the Soviets that had treacherously attacked you twice before?
Play two campaigns: historical and “what if”
Historical campaign
Play through a number of missions throughout the 1939-1945 timeline, spanning three wars: Winter War, Continuation War, and Lapland War. The historical campaign will have smaller-scale but action-packed operations, covering all of the iconic historical battles.
Alternate history campaign
Play a shorter campaign with larger operations, centered around the “what if” events. Help the Germans take Leningrad, cut off the allied aid shipments to USSR by taking the port of Murmansk - that is only the beginning.
Immerse yourself into the (hi)story-driven gameplay
Primary and secondary objectives
Complete numerous objectives grounded in history and narrated by a number of historical characters.
Cinematics before and after each operation
Watch history unfold through the eyes of the key historical figures of the time - over 60 minutes of in-game cinematics with characters such as Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, Risto Heikki Ryti, and others.
Create and grow the army of your own design
Variety is the spice of war
The Finns had only 12 Vickers British tanks in 1939 against up to 6000 Soviet tanks. Even the odds by getting units from various other countries, and shape your rag-tag forces into a well-oiled war machine.
Trophies for everyone!
Where Finnish production is struggling to catch up, make up for it by taking advanced equipment from the enemy. Turn the Soviet guns against their creators.
Faithfully recreated historical units
Command the Finnish ski troops and captured Soviet vehicles, including BT-7, T-34, and KV tanks. Purchase German Pz-IV tanks, StuG assault guns, and Ju-88 bombers. Make use of pre-war British Bristol Blenheim bombers, covered by Dutch Fokker and US Buffalo fighter planes.
Upgrade your units to newer models
Make sure your forces are always up to date and up to the task. New models become available at historically accurate points in time.
Train your troops and choose equipment
Gain combat experience
Choose various skills for your men as they gain combat experience.
Combine units from different classes
Compose your own force from ten classes available: Infantry, Artillery, Tanks, Reconnaissance units, Assault guns, Armored trains, Anti-tank guns, Anti-aircraft guns, Fighters, and Tactical bombers. Utilize their unique skills and equipment to maximum effect.
Acquire diverse equipment
Equip units with various special equipment, such as Machine guns, Mortars, Smoke grenades, Anti-tank rifles and Molotov cocktails, Winter equipment, and many more.
Use transport vehicles
In the harsh Finnish winter, speed may be the difference between life and death. Provide your units with vehicles to improve their mobility, or have your Infantry use skis to outmaneuver the enemy in winter operations.
Assign historical heroes to your units
Unique heroes system
Every unit in your army could meet certain high requirements to generate a historical personality - a hero with a unique set of powerful skills.
The deadliest sniper in WW2 history - Simo Häyhä - will join your troops
With 542 confirmed kills, and an unconfirmed total number of 705, not only was Simo Häyhä the deadliest sniper of World War II, but perhaps the deadliest sniper of all time. His nickname “the White Death” was well-earned.
Manage your Headquarters between the operations
Learn Headquarters skills
Choose in which direction your HQ staff will improve as the campaign progresses. Your decisions will result in new passive and active abilities for various units: your artillery could fire twice per turn, or you could call in the air reconnaissance to get better intel on the enemy positions.
Get promotions and awards
Every operation is an opportunity to get new ranks and awards, increasing your Command points, which are used to activate your Headquarters skills and deploy more units.
Confer with your staff
Consult other high-ranking officers for their opinion on the upcoming battle, and get useful advice.
Use elaborate combat mechanics to overcome any foe
Manage Lethal vs Nonlethal damage
There are two types of damage: lethal and nonlethal. Dealing nonlethal damage to your enemies will make them surrender. Different units are prone to deal either lethal or nonlethal.
Use terrain differences to your advantage
Tanks are vulnerable in difficult terrain and cities, while Infantry can occupy buildings or hide in the forests to gain large defensive bonuses. All units suffer large penalties in swamps or while crossing a river, etc. Be aware of your surroundings, and use them to your advantage.
Take the “line of sight” and the “zone of control” into consideration
Some terrain and building obstruct firing unless you are using artillery or mortars. Approaching an enemy unit up close will finish your movement, unless you are using a Recon unit.
Activate various skills and equipment
Use incendiary or subcaliber shells to maximize your damage to the enemy. Order forced march in the most desperate situations. Employ aerobatics to increase your air force efficiency. Use your HQ skills to affect the entire battlefield.
Use a complex spotting system that represents the importance of reconnaissance
Call upon the air and ground reconnaissance to gather intel about the enemy before ordering your troops forward. No one likes to be ambushed.
Adapt to various battlefield conditions
There is a day-night cycle in the game as well as weather types such as frost or rain. All of these conditions impose penalties that must be countered with special equipment and skills. The finest of your troops may even use such conditions to their advantage. Use the cover of the night to sneak up on the enemy, or strike when the foe is freezing and immobilized.
Utilize the most advanced supply and infrastructure system in the genre
Ammunition and fuel
All units have limited ammo and fuel. Without ammo, your units cannot fight, and without fuel, your vehicles cannot move - and any aircraft will simply crash.
Supply hubs
Generate supplies and transfer them to your troops throughout an entire system, like a heart pumping blood through veins.
Supply points
Connect different infrastructure facilities and redistribute supplies. Supply points also allow your troops to change special equipment and renew its charges.
Airfield
Allows aircraft units to land for refuelling, repairs, and refit of equipment. Damage to the airfield would also damage all landed aircraft.
Seaport
Allows resupply and change of equipment for naval units. It also generates supplies, if there is a maritime hub nearby and the Seaport is not under enemy blockade.
Damage the infrastructure
All infrastructure facilities can be disabled if their HP drops to 50% or lower. It will then gradually regain its HP and its functionality. Strike at the enemy facilities to prevent them from resupplying.
Cut off the enemy supply lines
All infrastructure facilities are considered connected if a simple truck vehicle could move between them in one go. If you put your unit between the enemy facilities, it would create a zone of control, and prevent the enemy from transferring supplies. Leave the enemy units without much needed ammunition and fuel, then hunt them down.
Make sure your own units are supplied
There is a limit to how far your supply vehicles can deliver supplies - make sure you take that into account when planning your next offensive.
Welcome the successor
Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty is the fifth installment in the Strategic Mind line of games, featuring Finland in its 3 wars during WW2. It has two campaigns: historical and alternate history one.
Previous titles in the series:
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Strategic Mind: The Pacific - the first game, featuring both the United States and the Empire of Japan waging war in the Pacific.
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Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg - the second game, featuring Germany in WW2.
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Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism - the third game, featuring the USSR in WW2.
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Strategic Mind: Fight for Freedom is the fourth game, featuring both the United Kingdom and the United States in WW2 European and Africa theaters.
Read More: Best Tanks Wargame Games.
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.
Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg
Before I start I should say I really like this series of games. I played Strategic Mind: Pacific for over 500 hours and finished both the US and Japanese campaigns on “Reasonable” level and I have over 600 hours playing Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg (haven’t finished it yet, stuck at Moscow) and I am pretty certain I will be buying Specter of Communism.
I definitely recommend this game for hard core tactical / strategy players.
That said there are several things I find frustrating and or illogical, some things I would like to see and some hints for players. Which is where I start.
– Real player with 1290.6 hrs in game
In short - This game is for you, if:
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You’re open minded to or simply enjoy alternate history scenarios.
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You’re looking for a micro management strategy game within the WW2 era.
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You’re into hexagon strategy. Everything in here is about it.
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You’re not expecting a Company of Heroes 2 like experience graphical/gameplay-wise. ;)
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You’re not a slave to german/western schools' history-propaganda lesson*
(- You’re having the non-german version or are not disturbed by censored cutscenes (ongoing Status-quo Q4 2021, still WIP)
– Real player with 489.5 hrs in game
World War 2 Operation Husky
I started playing without reading the tutorial and after a couple of restart I figured it out.
Good game, thanks :)
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
I have a lot of fun playing this game. For those who enjoy playing Battle of the Bulge and Drive on Moscow, you will love this one. Operation Husky has additional units like bombers, artillery and paratroopers that make it greater. Similar to these two games, the battle ground is on one single map and the game has everything for a fast pace experience. The game is easy to play, highly tactical and is a very strategic wargame. Hills, forests and cities provide complexity and advantages in the Italian island of Sicily. Small imperfections found in the previous versions have been corrected and the AI was improved. Combats are fast, powerful and efficient and bombing or shelling supports are fun to watch. Graphics and sounds are professional. A game can be resolved in between 30 minutes to 2 hours.
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
War of the Human Tanks
Battleships and chess with lolis.
Fantastic fun, interesting story with many twists and several endings, engaging gameplay that demands strategic thinking and an incredible soundtrack throughout.
The game’s story is told through visual novel format, which sets the state of affairs and the stage for the battle to follow. Battles are fought in real-time, but with a sort of turn-based system that runs on ticks, for example after giving a unit orders to move you must then wait for it to radio in asking for new orders before it can be moved again. Battlefields are presented as a grid of octagons, and before the round commences you must first place your units as in Battleships. Each unit has it’s own special properties and characteristics similar to chess, for example some may move 2 spaces at a time whereas others may only move 1, or one unit might only be able to attack horizontally whereas others must attack at least 2 spaces ahead of itself. The aim of each battle is to eliminate the opponent’s ‘Command Tank’ before they destroy yours which, regardless of how many units they have remaining, wins you the battle. The battlefield is covered by a shroud as seen in most real-time strategies with sight range varying between your different units, so early game tactics may usually consist of Battleships-esque artillery strikes into the dark hoping you’ll hit something, as your units gradually advance closer to the enemy, thinning out their ranks until their command tank is within firing range.
– Real player with 73.6 hrs in game
The first time I saw War of the Human Tanks, I was put off by how obviously low-budget it is; that was a huge mistake. Apparently, the art style just needed some getting used to, because once I got into it, I thought the graphics were actually pretty good. There’s full voice acting, fun animations and even some really catchy music that makes me itch to buy the soundtrack.
But what about the meat of the game? That, for me, comes in two packages (or perhaps Amasson boxes): the story and the gameplay. Let’s get this out of the way: The story is awesome. I loved it. This is definitely not a “skip-the-dialogue” kind of game; in fact, after a certain point, the story became the main appeal. It’s simultaneously lighthearted and grim, with a really interesting setting that ends up being much more detailed than you might suspect at first. There are four endings (two main paths, with two endings each) that all end up being pretty radically different and are all fantastic in their own way. I’m really in love with the setting, and all the little things you can learn about the rather disenfranchised battle-androids they call Human Tanks; the story really exceeded my expectations in every way. The translation is great, and the writing is clever, funny and serious when it needs to be; some of the big twists were huge gut-punchers. I’d definitely say the story was maybe the best part for me, and it’ll stick with me and inspire me for other personal projects for quite a while.
– Real player with 53.0 hrs in game
Ogre
*** Updated for v1.2.2.0 ***
Short TL:DR - A faithful translation of the original boardgame with lots of potential, but still rough around some edges. Overall, good enough to get your “fix” for classic Ogre, but G.E.V. is still a ways off and some minor bugs still need to be addressed. I currently rate it a 4 out of 5 (previously rated at 3.5).
I’m going to try to itemize the good and bad as much as possible so you get an accurate view of what the game (v1.2.2.0) looks like. I was part of the beta test and there are a lot of things that have been improved since the beta, but there’s still more work to do.
– Real player with 471.3 hrs in game
I have experience with the Ogre 6th Edition board game, and this game feels very similar.
One thing I very much appreciate is that there are a few mechanics in place to speed games up. In the board game, if you target an Ogre’s treads, you have to fire individually with each unit doing so. In this PC game, you select your target first (like, the treads) then select every unit in range, and the game rolls for them all in sequence, faster than selecting each one individually. You can also stack multiple units on the same hex and move them as a group, which speeds up the process of closing with the opponent.
– Real player with 32.8 hrs in game
Panzer Strategy
There is a very good reason why Grand Funk Railroad and Kylie Minogue released a song called locomotion in the 70’s and 80’s (respectively). It was because it made a hell of a lot of money for Gerry Goffin and Carole King and the singer Little Eva in the 60’s. It became an instant hit. It became an instant classic. It became the benchmark. So every man and his dog did a cover in the hope it would do the same for them. I mention the first two artists because at least all the others had some musical claim to fame befor trying to cash in.
– Real player with 403.0 hrs in game
In short, if you are new to this genre of turn-based WW2 strategy games, I recommend trying the game Order of Battle first! Panzer Strategy is in my opinion too opaque in its rules and too unfinished for inexperienced players to get past the learning curve. On the other hand if you are already familiar with this genre then I wholeheartedly recommend trying this game. It’s got a demanding learning curve, but once you are past the rough bits, the game introduces much great new gameplay mechanics. I hope you get to enjoy them too and that you join the community to help the developers mature this game into a beauty.
– Real player with 336.8 hrs in game
Armoured Commander
Game is highly addicting. Makes me think of the movie Fury as a game with some retro graphics. Your choice determines the life of your crew and your tank. The game has much and much replay ability(If I spelled this correctly). Its a game that makes you think and at the same time reminds me of this older game named Across The Rhine.
I highly suggest this game if you think you can keep your crew alive during WW2.
Only a few cons:
It only plays in windowed mode but if youre okay with that than theres no problem
– Real player with 17.6 hrs in game
I booted up Armoured Commander, briefly mistook its application for a virus, and then realized, with delight and amazement, that this game is essentially the 1987 Avalon Hill solitaire war-gaming classic “Patton’s Best” remade on a nearly 1-1 basis. Which is great because the board game version is incredibly finnicky and unplayable, so to have essentially the same game available on our modern gaming rigs is pretty swell! The resolution mechanics are slightly altered (the original board game was all done on a percentile basis using 100-sided die rolls, whereas here the game uses 2d6 rolls, creating a bell-curve that replicates the essential odds but in a way more accessible way). The UI is pretty bad, but you get used to it. There are no graphics other than muddy terrain-zones on the world-map. That said, this game is basically DCS for US medium armor in WW2. The experience is very narrow, but it’s also very deep. One thing I appreciated about the original board game, and that I think is replicated here, is that if you engaged enemy units, they’d be much more likely to take notice of you and lob some shells back your way. So if you’re bouncing AP rounds off the frontal sloping armor of a Panther tank, that is a lovely, beautiful way to get yourself murdered. “Brew up” here has a different meaning than it does at your local brewery. World of Tanks this is not. If you are interested in historical tanking, give it a spin!
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game