any good world war 2 real time strtagy games? campaingmap/rts?

**Hamata** · 09-21-2011, 23:50

what it says on the title

**rajpoot** · 09-22-2011, 06:04

RUSE?

Anyway you can try Men of War. It's a pretty good game but IMO really hard.

**Graphic** · 09-22-2011, 09:38

Company of Heroes.

Some might not like it because it lacks deep realism, but its one of the best RTS games ever and one of the best games ever period, so by extension its one of the best WW2 RTS games ever (IMO the best).

**Veho Nex** · 09-22-2011, 19:14

Theater of War series is pretty good.

**al Roumi** · 09-23-2011, 13:56

Originally Posted by rajpoot

RUSE?

Anyway you can try Men of War. It's a pretty good game but IMO really hard.

And MoW Assault squad if you like multiplayer.

**easytarget** · 10-16-2011, 01:59

The Combat Mission series is the best WW2 simulation to date. The original set were turn based (called WEGO) which was rather brilliant in that each side planned and executed their turn, then the next minute of battle played out the results like a movie you could view from any part of the battlefield.

The newest iteration is called Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy, it features both WEGO and RTS, so you can now play it either way.

For anyone remotely interested in WW2 this is one to check out: http://www.battlefront.com/

Note though: this is a simulation, so this has little in common w/ style TW games. The weather, ballistics, armor, fatigue, morale, cover, LOS (to each individual unit) AND communication (or lack thereof) are modeled. It makes for a very hard game. If you want to check out just how hard and take up the challenge, grab the demo and try any tactics that vary appreciably from standard doctrine commanding a platoon in WW2 and see what happens.

The CM series is the pinnacle of WW2 games, the learning curve is steep, the pay off as is often the case, is commiserate to the effort and then some.

**Montmorency** · 10-16-2011, 20:02

Ha, I've been playing the old CM games for 5 years, and I'm still a marginal player.

It already takes an hour to plan out a single minute in a big battle - no way am I going to zoom down to evaluate the elevations around each and every squad.

And that's my downfall. :P

I've always had a couple of nitpicks about it, though:

1. Why are routing soldiers so stupid? Yes, I get that thousands of rounds (or even HE shells) are plastering your general vicinity, sure. But if you're in good cover, then why the

would you run out into open ground?! I lose many good platoons that way...

2. Air combat is an afterthought. But perhaps it's for the best. One can come close to winning a battle, only to have a friendly Stuka drop a payload of murder right in the midst of one's advancing infantry in the last 5 minutes, only so many times.

**easytarget** · 10-18-2011, 01:56

Ah, nice to hear from someone here aware of the series, good stuff, I've liked them all.

As for routing, well, it is true the guys will freak on you a bit if you put them in real harms way. But you can control for it, by keeping them w/in command and control via a commander and keeping them w/in communication of upper echelons, of course run them as fast as they'll go in open fields (and preferably call arty smoke to cover their movement before hand), and lastly, you can use units who are vet and won't crack under pressure, the cost more, but hey, you get what you pay for.

I sort of agree on the air piece, but I know why they didn't do it, they're a really small development shop, in fact, there's really only ONE main guy doing the coding.

Anyway, if you've not checked out the new one, you should, it's a hoot seeing every individual platoon member modeled, that's just cool to see when you are coming from the first series, and not having borg spotting is interesting, now the units that don't see stuff, don't know about it unless they are w/in comm to someone who does, that's a big deal.

**Montmorency** · 10-19-2011, 00:04

As for routing, well, it is true the guys will freak on you a bit if you put them in real harms way. But you can control for it, by keeping them w/in command and control via a commander and keeping them w/in communication of upper echelons, of course run them as fast as they'll go in open fields (and preferably call arty smoke to cover their movement before hand), and lastly, you can use units who are vet and won't crack under pressure, the cost more, but hey, you get what you pay for.

Ah, no, I was referring to specific manner of routing. If you are routing because shells are landing all around you, why would you get out of good cover and sprint out into flat, open space where you will certainly die in 2 seconds? It would make more sense if the player just lost control of the units, without them actually shifting positions.

Anyway, if you've not checked out the new one, you should, it's a hoot seeing every individual platoon member modeled, that's just cool to see when you are coming from the first series, and not having borg spotting is interesting, now the units that don't see stuff, don't know about it unless they are w/in comm to someone who does, that's a big deal.

Maybe one day. Seems wargamers have some of the worst hardware specs...

**Risasi** · 10-22-2011, 02:22

The Close Combat Series. Yes, I know it's top down 2D. No that doesn't matter, you feel more like the commander of the battleground because of this. Yes, I know the original came out in 1996, but that doesn't matter. They are still actively developing the game engine and have an active community. They also have improved the campaign battle system. I think it was Cross of Iron which actually has online servers running 24/7 games, you jump into a battle or string of battles and it plays out in the campaign system. The mechanics of troop morale, limited ammo, realistic battle physics and environment are just stunning. This engine has actually been used by the military as a teaching device for tactics and strategy.

Plus there is something really sweet about having some guy who has been in your platoon for several battles suddenly go berserk, wipe out a squad of the enemy and go Rambo with some grenades on some tank who was stupid enough to get so close to the building where your man was hiding. He'll get a medal for that...

**easytarget** · 11-15-2011, 02:40

Originally Posted by Gelatinous Cube

Combat Mission! Play them. All of them. And then play them by email. All of them.

Also, maybe not quite the kind of game you're looking for, but the Hearts of Iron series from Paradox is downright legendary.

Yes, funny, you should mention it, I was just giving you a hard time in another thread about Paradox in general, but I consider HOI one of their best efforts. Still think CM series is head and shoulders above everything else I've played, probably cause I'm such a sucker for WEGO, I just think that's brilliant, but then I've been a sucker for intelligently designed turned based games dating all the way back to the grandfather of them all: X-Com.

P.S. Loved playing CM by email, getting the turn, firing it up to watch the minute of battle to see what transpired, then plotting your next minute and firing it off your opponent. Good times, good times.

**easytarget** · 11-17-2011, 01:07

Yep, arty raining down on your poor little troops, and all you can do is watch in horror. Or the tank that has moved into view of an opposing armor unit only to once again watch in horror as your tank fails to acquire the target as soon as the opposing tank, which then gets off the first shoot and scores a hit.

It was the anticipation of what happened in the minute of battle that makes the entire CM series just so compelling (well that, and the fact that before CM the whole freakin war game enterprise was made up of boring hexes!).