#Strategic war in europegame series

#Strategic war in europegame series

However, my personnel favorites remain the original Combat Mission trilogy, : Beyond Overlord, Barbarossa to Berlin and Afrika Korps. These require a bit less micro-managing, and each game is broader in scope.Īlternatives: Ukrainian game developer Graviteam’s Tactics offers a series of company-level war games with an operational layer. Though primarily focusing on World War II Eastern Front battles, meaty DLCs cover fascinating but lesser-known conflicts such as deadly skirmishes between Soviet and Chinese border forces in 1969 and the epic Battle of Cuito Cuanavale in Angola ( Operation Hooper). There’s also a whole lineup of World War II-focused games in the modern Combat Mission family ( Normandy, Red Thunder (Soviet Bagration offensive), Final Blitzkrieg (Battle of the Bulge), and Fortress Italy (Allied invasion of Italy in 1943), and even a spin-off depicting the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

Black Sea should be especially interesting in war gaming scenarios for a NATO-Russia conflict. Shock Force has been used as a training aid by the Army’s Command and General Staff school. Recommendations: Developer Battlefront presciently developed games focused on hypothetical wars in Syria ( Shock Force) and Ukraine ( Black Sea) prior to both countries tragically becoming consumed in conflict. The game often compels you to lower your camera to ground level to figure out just what your troops can see. Since 2000, Combat Mission has stood head and shoulder above its peers for its detailed and visually striking treatment of company- to battalion-level ground combat operations. The later games are played in real time, but liberal use of the pause command is necessary to issue orders to dozens of individually modeled infantry squads, tanks and forward observers. I played 2D Gateway and loved it, even though I wouldn’t have minded a bit more modernization. There’s also the modern-warfare Close Combat Tactics.Īrguably, the greatest in the series is a A Bridge to Far, which recreates the desperate last stand of Allied paratroopers battling German armor in the fall of 1944. Its tank-heavy successor The Eastern Front plays less to the game’s strengths, but is still a blast. Recommendations: Close Combat has gone through several generations without the core game play changing too much. The most recent iterations are Gateway to Caen and The Bloody First, which boasts a new 3D-engine. Close Combat games also feature an operational layer of varying quality. Beautiful, hand-painted and historically accurate maps are another draw.Īrtillery and air strikes are arguably a little too precise and effective, but convincingly convey why indirect fire accounted for the majority of infantry casualties in World War II. Soldiers are individually psychologically modeled, and may refuse to follow suicidal orders. Playing CC is all about maneuvering fireteams and tanks around rural hedgerows and war-torn city blocks, desperately rushing for cover while dreading inevitable ambushes it’s about teaming fire support unit that can suppress enemies with assault squads ready to storm a position. Close Combat is a top-down real-time tactical game all about fast and furious short-range firefights. It’s fun and accessible, yet smart and realistic enough that the Marine Corps and RAF Regiment both had custom-built versions of the game made as training tools.