Cauldrons of War - Stalingrad

Cauldrons of War - Stalingrad

This game is a good sequel for the last game of this series CoW barbarossa and it seems to have improved a lot. The AI seems much smarter in this game than in the last one and there are a lot more actions to do than before.

I intend to play this game for a long time just like I did with Barbarossa.

I RECOMMEND that you check the game out if you are interested in a large scale operational strategy in a WW2 setting.

Real player with 92.0 hrs in game


Read More: Best Tutorial Turn-Based Strategy Games.


Pros- URAAAAAA!

Cons- the 6th Army is surrounded in Stalingrad please send help.

I’ve had the game since the beta dropped, and I’m happy to say I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. It gives fresh perspective to the massive amount of challenges both sides face during 42', while still being very tasteful or pulling punches, which I respect.

It’s not a game where one strategy works every time, where yesterday’s blitz straight to Stalingrad means today’s attack will also proceed flawlessly. It’s not a game where the AI will sit and let you roll over them; it’s a fight, sometimes for every inch.

Real player with 58.3 hrs in game

Cauldrons of War - Stalingrad on Steam

Cauldrons of War - Barbarossa

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 Tutorial 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

Cauldrons of War - Barbarossa on Steam

The Conquest of Go

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


Read More: Best Tutorial Turn-Based Games.


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

The Conquest of Go on Steam

Power & Revolution 2020 Edition

Power & Revolution 2020 Edition

Its recycled from their previous editions so most 2019 features have bugs, The game itself is still bugged so clearly they never worked on that with this new release, the cheat codes for the game no longer work, something they didn’t fix, the same gamebreaking glitches from before are present here, only worse.

I can promise anyone reading this, This game is NOT worth anymore than £13-15, yet they charge basically £40 for the base game, more for the dlcs, Despite the fact you can clearly see they haven’t put the effort into this game.

Real player with 647.5 hrs in game

My recommendation for purchasing before I played heavily and time passed is directly below, which has led to the correct review of this developer and their products below the initial, good review.

(This review no longer applies, but is left up for others to see how great it is upon the first gameplay when purchasing)

[Power & Revolution is not for the faint of heart, or those who want a easy diplomatic game. I recommend it for the strategies and fun involved. If you are one who prefers peace over war, P&R will not be too difficult on the realistic settings as long as you do not select a country currently involved in wars (terrorist or nation v. nation). I personally enjoy creating contracts, upping the researches and viewing the Space Programs to see space, upping the quality of life, and increasing my military presence. Power & Revolution (2020 especially) can be challenging with the citizens happiness and keeping the countries out of debt. A great option is the ability play various countries at once, and the ability to create, join, and leave international organizations (NATO, UNO, WHO, ASEAN, etc…).]

Real player with 310.5 hrs in game

Power & Revolution 2020 Edition on Steam

Phoenix Point: Year One Edition

Phoenix Point: Year One Edition

Been following this game since announcement, could only buy it recently

Not as polished or filled with content as reboot XCOM titles and has a lot of balance issues, but i like it, i hope devs will keep on supporting the game.

The biggest difference from other x-com-like games is that you can aim at different body parts similar to fallout’s VATS system, effectively letting you disable individual bodyparts of enemy units or strike the least protected spots to maximize damage as guns fire projectiles and not just mimick that feel, making cover work as actual cover and not just decrease a chance to hit and damage received

Real player with 344.1 hrs in game

Phoenix Point is an evolution of the turn-based tactics genre. The free-aim system allows the player the control to make meaningful decisions in placement and in utilizing the soldiers rather than praying to RNG-esus to give us a good roll. Snipers don’t miss shots right in-front of their faces, there are no ‘99% but whoops it missed!’ moments. For this alone it’s a worthwhile and substantial upgrade to classic tactics games.

The over-world is on par with X-Com 2 with the player moving from point to point looking for cities and supplies in addition to trading opportunities. The great bulk of the player’s time in the over-world should be spent either moving to a mission or moving between havens to trade resources. One of the major missed elements of Phoenix Point, and what I see giving players an endless amount of consternation is in finding enough resources to make it through the game. I’ve also noticed the achievement for ‘Trading 10,000 Resources’ is also under 10%.

Real player with 177.2 hrs in game

Phoenix Point: Year One Edition on Steam

Anime And Your Life

Anime And Your Life

RANKINGS F’D ME

So there is not a lot to this game. The only reason I put in so many hours into it (which essentially is just letting the game run) is because I felt I could top the leaderboards.

Well, I did top the leaderboards. But apparently, right around 2.2 billion people, the score caps out and sets you back at 0. 1700 HOURS TO GET THERE AND IT SETS ME BACK AT 0.

Real player with 1703.0 hrs in game

Boring, bland “gameplay”. Your grind coins to dress your girl and money to upgrade earth(which was really buggy for me).

Not many options for customizing the girl(only one body shape).

The “card game” is way too random in my opinion. English is not my first language but I think it’s called “happy families”?

Any way it’s a very bland and lame version of it.

It also features an unnecessary calculator.

The featured webbrowser was ok I guess, tho I have no idea why it is there in the first place.

All in all I don’t think this was worth my money.

Real player with 11.7 hrs in game

Anime And Your Life on Steam

Corona Simulator

Corona Simulator

Its not a bad game to be honest. I thought it would’ve been. The game has great execution, a good amount of actions to do (could use more though) but it does need some things. It needs a sandbox mode and workshop support because I feel those both could really help the game reach its full potential. All in all…I completely recommend this game. Albeit it doesn’t have a lasting appeal because it only has like 5 missions or so.

Real player with 1.2 hrs in game

Corona Simulator on Steam

Lostria

Lostria

IF YOU’RE GONNA TAG THIS GAME ESPORTS

YOU NEED SOME BIG BREASTED TWITCH STREAMER AS YOUR FIRST VIDEO ON YOUR STORE PAGE CAW CAW

HUNT SHOWDOWN DID THIS AND LOOK HOW POPULAR IT IS NOW CAW CAW

Real player with 0.9 hrs in game

Lucky me gets to write the first review for Lostria.. I think? I feel like this is not the full, proper game, but a beta test, but this is unclear from the store page exactly what you’re getting into. For that reason, in an exception to my general rule (in fact for the first time in over 5,000 Steam reviews), I’ll invite the developer to correct me if I’m wrong about my observations and opinions about this game, because it does appear to be completely free, which earns developers a large amount of goodwill.

Real player with 0.1 hrs in game

Lostria on Steam

Starforge

Starforge

StarForge is a port of the strategy board game where you will take the role of a race in growth: the Terrans, but in the depths of the galaxy, an old enemy emerges from oblivion: the Goo! They are back and seeks dominance over the entire galaxy. Through the choice of tactics, building ships with gradual improvements and conquering worlds to obtain resources, you must stop the spread of the Goo, protect your home planet and the entire galaxy in the process. Help them, you’re their only hope!

Starforge on Steam