Advanced Tactics Gold

I've got over 600 games in my library, most of them strategy games, and I've been spending hours over the past few months digging into this, Shadow Empire, and the Decisive Campaigns series. Vic's games are amazing and deep, and he probably more than any game designer since Sid Meier understands how to distill complex systems down to a point where you're just having fun making really satisfying decisions. It takes time to understand how games work in his world, but once you get where he's coming from you'll wish every game designer had his creativity. That's why you see so many people with 1,000 hours plus in his games, they are complex and deep, but they handle it elegantly. I love games that make me still think about them when I'm away from the computer, and this checks that box as well.

For the most Shadow Empire-lite experience play on a Phoenix map (land only to start out with) with map shrouding on and a one-city start. It seems the earlier game types (Standard, Classic, etc.) have more bugs than Phoenix, I hit no issues so far in Phoenix. Overall I think Shadow Empire is still the better game, but this does have more of a quick-play Advance Wars feel to it! Previous Review: I bought this hoping it would be a faster to play version of Shadow Empire, and in many ways it is like that (research with just PP, no model design on standard mode, etc.) and the AI rushes to war. Unfortunately it is very buggy: I had two crashes in just 40 minutes - one when accidentally clicking unit analysis on an empty formation which gave a null pointer error, and another where the game suddenly gave an error about not being able to path to non-existent Hex (-1, -1) which locked out the game controls. The UI is also much more clunky than Shadow Empire - especially for unit transfers. Road-building and asset upgrades are also a lot more micro-intensive via engineers. While Decisive Campaigns at least benefitted from its almost pure focus on tactics, this just feels like an inferior game to Shadow Empire in every way.

This is a wonderful war game. And the best one available. In all such games, the unit strength, the combat, and the supply follow the same principle. They only differ in detailed implementations. (For example, in DC: Barbarossa, you are playing a commander and use your interactions with other commanders to raise your unit strength.) The control of production in ATG makes this game the best one. This is like a WWII version of Warcraft, Age of Impires, Starcraft....(of course, with the supply factors). Production => Supply => combat. Another good thing is the control at division level. The detailed components of each division can be manipulated, which makes you a true master of war. The AI has some shortage. It leaves many troops behind in big cities, rather than pushing all of them into the front-line. You can play with AI++, which has 250% production over you. Then the units in the front-line will give you the trouble you wanted.

They are still updating this game!

Please put in UI scaling. More wargames absolutely need this. I have not been able to play games like operational art of war 4 because the text and buttons are too small. Otherwise, its a pretty fun wargame with graspable mechanics and fun AI

Literally my perfect war game. Only thing I could ask for would be a slightly more user friendly editor, making it easier to create scenarios set in different conflicts and eras - i.e. civil war, WW1, Cold war, Modern warefare.

An All Time Classic. Latest update was fantastic, endless replayability and customization, still figuring out how things work many years later but this is my go to time sink game. Thank you to the Devs!

I think I've owned this game for a long time -- several years. I tried to learn it soon after I bought it, and was simply too impatient, and didn't spend enough time with the documentation. But the recent and surprising major update rekindled my interest, and I reinstalled it and became determined to understand it. Suddenly, I can't imagine why I didn't stick with it originally. After spending time with the documentation this evening, it became obvious what a deep and well-crafted game this appears to be. Tonight, I finally understand why this has received very positive reviews. Of course, I haven't figured out how to win against the AI yet. But that doesn't really matter: I've figured out how to create units blended and structured as I want them to be, and then how to take them into cyber-battle on the map, against what appears to be a competent AI. My first real battle turned into a siege. My units eventually fell back into my remaining town and tried to fend off an attacking army with artillery and brief skirmishes outside the city. It was no way to win. But I now see the astonishing potential of this game, which I had previously, and inexplicably, failed to appreciate. I certainly appreciate it now. I now clearly perceive its vast potential replayability. This may not look as pretty as some newer games, but it looks admirably old-school and quite nice enough -- and I find it to be a serious and interesting war game, with huge scope for creative and individual play. Once I understood how to play it, I played into the wee hours tonight, and barely noticed the time passing. Thumbs up.

Fantastic and in-depth game. I am really stoked that developer keeps updating this wonderful game. True labor of love. This game is a strong buy recommended!

Great game. A true classic. Takes a while getting to grips with and there is a lot of micromanaging but the victories are all the more satisfying (and the defeats all the more ***t).