Afghanistan '11

I'm pretty torn up about this game, since I sincerely believe that there is a gem hidden under the rough surface, but this is just... a typical Slitherine wargame, which means three things. Ugly, like very much. See, I play video games for 34+ years, I don't really care about graphics, but I do care about messed up/badly mapped textures, or when all units look like the same and such. It's just ugly, devs seemingly didn't care to the level that it affects functionality/gameplay experience. Quality of life / parts of gameplay is broken. I think that's the main dealbreaker here for me. As much fun as this game could be, the lack of QoL and some of the gameplay aspects just break it for me. Sometimes you cannot load a unit to the chopper, you can setup your convoy, but as soon as it gets to a FOB, it gets disbanded and many, many griefs. Doing supply runs is a pain in the ass (that should have been at least semi-automated), you don't get a warning/prediction when a FOB runs low (is going to run low) on supplies, and the list can go on. A game is supposed to be fun, and here, like 50% of the time you will frantically click left and right, figuring out your supply situation, which could have been simplified, so you can focus on the more meaningful things. Also, some stuff is simply not explained, like basics and it has the worst tutorial ever, very long, tedious and easy to lose during it. Last, but not least price. I never had problem to shell money out for a good wargame and I understand the monetary aspect (wargames not necessarily sell that much, exceptions apply for sure, e.g. Panzer Corps series), so I don't really have a problem with it. But I actually have an issue with the first two things. Should you buy it? Eeeeh, I don't know. It feels like a labor of love, but frankly, while the core gameplay is solid, it really would have needed some additional time to playtest and improve. There are some super simple improvements, which could go a long way to improve the gameplay experience, albeit I doubt that this game will get significant updates. Either way, I wouldn't get refunded, even if I could, maybe I will return to it time to time. Also bought the DLC to support the dev, hope the next game will be better.

I love this game, played a lot before owning it on Steam, but dropped cause of brightness critical bug which prevented you from playing the game past 30-40 turns cause of how bad the screen hurted your eyes. Now it is fixed, but the game still is so damn rough and counterintuitive in some aspects, that it can be played only by COIN fans exclusively, cause it just have not enough competition on a market. Games from this developer are unique and scratch the itch of counterinsurgency simulator. It is really good mix of logistics, politics, combat and economy. The most important is logistics, of course. So the game fundament is there and is pretty solid. I probably going to play it even more. BUT the game is absolutely user-hostile in some mechanics, for example: 1) Disappearing ANA Special Forces units after disembarking from the helicopters which can result in ruined turn or even critical error. 2) I still dont understand why the same supply trucks traverse different amount of road hexes when moving in convoy and outside of it. Imagine building your FOBs to perfectly fit the travel distance of supply trucks in 1 turn and then creating a convoy which moves 2 turns between them for some reason... [strike]It seems like there is reverse scaling between distance to travel and number of units in the convoy.[/strike] No, in the end this is the game thinking that supply trucks dont have movement buff for roads when they're part of bigger convoy comprising of different vehicles. But this is just hilarious, because you can still drag your units one by one at a normal traverse distance and achieve the same goal taking trucks at the destintation but 2 TIMES FASTER. This is something only guys who already played the game can understand but it is a HUGE deal in this game where 80% of time you're doing logistics. But this is not even the end. Once you disband your convoy, you will still have movement debuff on all trucks included in this convoy previously. Oh boy, this convoy system is so broken. And yes, I've read that the bug happens only if you mix your convoy with supply trucks and other vehicle types. But isn't it the point of the convoy to make it protected? I mean this is weird. The feature that was promised to ease a life a little bit just made things SO much more complicated. I mean if the convoy applies movement penalty, but you still can move individual trucks at normal speed, then what the point of using convoys in this game? Mechanically, it doesn't make sense. 3) Highlighting unit at FOB while enemy unit is in adjacent hex is triggering a fight. I mean what? I am trying to click on unit to see if some action is available, it resurfaces at FOB and enemy counts it as a movement in their direction, which is causing the ambush to trigger. Insane thing, making sometimes your units locked at FOB cause you cant risk damaging your heli or Special Forces unit which are frequently present at FOBs. And if you dont have any unit that can remove this blockade by enemy unit, you may find yourself even passing the turn for these units. 4) Managing Action Points is painful, because the game never tells you how much AP you gonna spend on the movement, only number of turns. It makes you to literally count hexes when planning movement, especially for patrols, convoys and supply trucks / helicopters. Multiply this headache by 10 every 5-10 turns when you will have a lot of elements in your supply chain and patrol system. These are the major complaints about the game, and this is weird these things were not fixed in the game which is 7 years old. So, I can't recommend the game to curious people who dont exactly know what to expect from the game. And I can barely recommend it to someone interested in COIN games, cause of just how frustrating the game is, where your first enemy is not the Taliban, but bugs and questionable design decisions. I mean, sure, you can play around these problems and try to adjust your gameplay so you wont deal with too much pain meaning: - never use ANA SF for reconaissance - never use convoys unless all units in the convoy are of the same type - never highlight units at FOBs with adjacent enemy unit unless you want to engage in a fight with this unit - always count hexes But for real, these things should've been fixed.

TLDR: There is combat but you spend most of your time thinking about logistics, planning the delivery of a few resource types to various units and locations safely. Depend on your preferences that's either the most boring sounding thing in the world or the game's main selling point. Combat: The combat is present and in a sense it is very traditional with various ranged and melee (not literally) units to hit the enemies with percentage based odds of wining or loosing. On the other hand it is very asymmetrical. The enemy is an irregular force so they can tunnel to somewhere unexpected and cause trouble, and then scatter away when confronted. when it works, it feels like an engaging simulation of asymmetrical warfare. When it doesn't, it feels frustrating and unfair game of whack a mole. Logistics: There is rations, FOB supplies, ammunition, Fuel, and UN aid. These 5 resources need to go to soldiers, bases, artillery positions, vehicles ,and villages. As the game progresses, those move further from your base. Meaning that your (usually) unarmed and unarmored delivery vehicles can get ambushed, potentially bringing down your whole supply chain. Its not the deepest system in the world (for example you don't manage stocks of anything) but I think it gets the job done pretty well. This is the aspect of the game I spent the most time on and I suspect it will be the case for you as well. End game "twist": I mainly play the skirmish mode instead of the campaign and at the last 10-20 turns of each game, the Americans leave. Unless you have been training Afghan forces and getting them involved, you'll find your self ... well, in the position that the Afghan government found itself. Things go south pretty quickly. I really like this aspect of the game.

Basically this is Vietnam '65, but they added a broken tutorial and IEDs that spawn instantaneously and for free directly outside of your bases every time there's an election. In Vietnam '65 you and the AI played two different games, but it was balanced and had its charm. In Afghanistan '11, the AI gets defibbed with free things every 20 turns regardless of how little income you have left them with. Yawn. Cheating AI is lame, man.

This game is a pain in the ass to play. The game seems to break its own rules, several times I've had empty spaces within the detection range of a drone or special forces and swept for IEDs, then I'll move vulnerable units through what should be perfectly safe terrain yet still have helicopters shot down in ambushes by units that can't possibly have moved to there or trucks blown up by IEDs no one could have placed. Your units are also woefully underpowered, the most advanced jets, howitzers and attack helicopters in the world often just kind of push the enemy around, which wouldn't be a problem if maybe you needed to get in close with infantry, but no, you're highly trained soldiers will frequently launch attacks only to get slapped around. Maybe you need combined arms? No, unit coordination consists almost solely of spotting for indirect fire. Load up a base with multiple squads and watch helplessly as guerrillas you see coming march across open fields to gun down your forces behind their sandbags and machine guns. The UI frequently screws up too. I often lose turns when I tell a transport I want it to move something; the game shows the list of available units; I click on one; the menu closes and I finally click on the destination and the transport moves out- empty. Likewise with convoys, order a supply truck to follow a minesweeper and send them out and watch the truck zoom off alone before disappearing in an explosion seconds later. Having to constantly stop and ask myself "did the game actually do what I just told it to?" is obnoxious.

Great game! Brother was in the 10th Mountain Division and I was in the 101st Airborne Division. Deployed to Afghanistan from 2010-2011. Brings back memories both good and bad.

So this is a fairly decent and fun COIN game--if a bit unrealistic. The developer though, with it's choices in new titles like the Rhodesian Bush War is really giving off... umm... how do I say this? Basically they are making a game that simulates the white apartheid government of "Rhodesia" (modern day Zimbabwe) and its attempt to preserve apartheid (white minority) rule in Zimbabwe during the "Rhodesian Bush War." The memory of "Rhodesia", incidentally, is currently quite popular among many white nationalists. With this in mind, I sadly can no longer recommend any games by this developer.

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Just wanted to write a positive review to counter the communist's review below. Yes, these games tackle hard topics. Yes, sometimes you have to play as factions that Leftists find highly objectionable. No, playing a side in a wargame does not mean you endorse their beliefs. This is absurdly obvious but due to the high presence of commies in the reviews, I have to point it out. THAT SAID..Vietnam '65 is the one to get. It's polished, not buggy, fun to play, straightforward. Afghanistan '11 isn't terrible, but it has not aged well. Was great on launch, there are a bunch of fairly serious bugs now. The DLC is a disaster, and introduced a lot of fiddly elements (like vehicle traffic/car bombs). You can't disable this, even though an option in "settings" supposedly allows you to! That should give you an idea of the lack of polish and functionality here. If the main menu is bugged, a lot of stuff is bugged. Devs just aren't fixing it, so I had to move on. Angola and the other games are very promising, but rough around the edges. Wait and see after this one.

no support, not playable, no debugging. stay away from this!