
The first strategy game to capture the essence of the entire South African Border war, from Omugulugwombashe to UNTAG (Aug'66 - Mar'90)
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All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English**languages with full audio support
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Reviews
Themes across 40 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
Yet another COIN game to add to the hoard. Dev has been very responsive when reporting bugs, can't wait for the completed version. This one has much more complexity compared to the previous games, Very enjoyable.
The 10 episode tutorial video series are a must watch. Then the game is great
UPDATE NOVEMBER 2024: As of November 30th, I'm pleased with the state of the game. There were an awful lot of bugs at launch, but they've been chipped away with extremely regular updates (we're at version 1.48 now). It can still be a bit janky sometimes, but it's at a level comparable to other hex-based wargames and is at an acceptable level. If you're interested in a hex-based, turn-based wargame that covers counterinsurgency and/or the Angolan border war, I highly reccomend Angola '86. I'm leaving my initial review up for posterity, below: Good Concept, Bad Execution. I'm a pretty big fan of ESS's work- i played both Vietnam '65 and Afghanistan '11- and I love the central gameplay of this series. Angola '86 features even more unique mechanics and depth to represent the situation in Southwest Africa/Namibia/Angola. The basic gameplay is very good for fans of the genre. However, bugs and poor performance are very frequent. My experience with this series has been that Vietnam '65 was the most stable, and both subsequent games have had more bugs and worse performance. In Angola '86, units often move in broken ways. Movable units will sometimes overlap with a base instead of entering it, you often need to hold your mouse over a tile or icon for a second to bring up a context menu (especially for combat), and I once had a UNITA militia spawn in at my main base instead of in Angola, and had to walk it all the way there. I also had south african reserve infantry show up at the UNITA base somehow, and *couldn't* get it back. Fortunately i could rotate that unit out. The game will quite happily let you load infantry into your logistics trucks (despite the 'manual' saying otherwise), and only the fact you can't ever deploy the infantry indicates something's wrong. The developers are updating the game frequently, so i'm hopeful that things will improve, but the sheer number of bugs makes this game difficult to recommend at the moment. Afghanistan '11, the previous game, is still a lot clunkier than I'd like. The other reason I'm writing this review is that ESS has planned releases for 3 other games based on the same engine over the next year and a half, with the first, covering Northern Ireland, targeting a Q4 2024 release. This makes me nervous- I would describe Angola '86 as being in an early Beta state, and would encourage ESS to delay further games until this one has a lot more polish. Otherwise, I suspect that further games in this series will be just as buggy and difficult as this one. UPDATE: The "loading infantry onto supply trucks" has been fixed! I have been very pleased with the Developer's responsiveness and the regular bug fix updates we've gotten. ESS has also stated that they'll hold off on future releases until they're satisfied with this one. Right now, I'm keeping this a "not recommended", but I am optimistic that I will be able to change that sometime in the next 6 months.
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Hours played at review time, across 40 reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Bought this game to help with testing so will post when I have something. 1. When you deploy a unit the game freezes. 2. When you send all five trucks from the supply depot into the field you are then out of supplies for the rest of the game. Surely, the trucks should automatically return to base. 3. My main battle tank got destroyed by an enemy supply truck..... 4. My units seem to destroy enemy trucks rather than capture them. 5. Units run out of fuel too quickly. 6. Airfield should have enough slots to have AT LEAST one of each aircraft type. 7. Battle Group should have enough slots to have AT LEAST one of each type of unit. Due to running out of supplies I can't go any further in the game and I've only just started. 22 June: Again, I don't see the point in working through the game if you run out of supplies after you have dispatched your five logistic trucks. 21 July. If you scroll to the end of the 3d map and then zoom in it pulls the camera back from the edge. This means for example if you are fighting near an enemy village at the edge of the map you cannot see where enemy units are. If you have a unit selected you cannot zoom in. ASDW does not work on the 3d map. When there is "contact" there is no review to say who you had contact with and the outcome. Airstrikes cannot happen in Angola? How do you capture enemy vehicles? 24 Jan 05 You can save but can't load a game...
Ich persönlich finde dieses Spiel nach einer kurzen Einarbeitungszeit sehr gut. Als Nachfolger von Afghanisten '11 und Vietnam '65 weiß man ungefähr was man zu erwarten hat. Die Übersicht auf der Karte finde ich gelungen, man erhält direkt visuell die Informationen welche man für seine Entscheidungen und Planung der Züge benötigt. Auch das Nachschubsystem finde ich gut angepasst gegenüber den Vorgängern. Das ein oder andere Eckchen muss noch gepatch werden, aber für mich zu diesem Preis für Hexfeld-Strategen ein klarer Kauf. Für weitere Eindrücke schaut euch gerne das Video an. https://youtu.be/DFSTMp6tkXI Beste Grüße Feierabend General
The game was designed by an actual bush war veteran and is clearly a passion project, with the dev being very active and updates frequent. In terms of the gameplay, its status as as the passion project of a developer with limited resources unfortunately shows, and it and has a clunkiness that fans of the genre will be able to look past. A lot of headache could be saved with an undo button, since I often find myself moving things unintentionally. The gameplay experience of trying to prevent PLAN insurgents slipping in from Angola and mining the roads can't be had elsewhere. Players unfamiliar with handling logistics in their strategy games (myself included), might find breakdowns and simply running out of gas at least as much of a threat as any insurgents. There is a tutorial series as well as a manual, but even after going over all of it I think the game has a bit of a learning curve for those who haven't played other COIN scenarios. It is nice to see a spotlight shone on a lesser-known conflict!
Good but it's lost opportunity what you can't play from FAPLA side.
Si te gustó Afganistán 11 y Vietnam 65, Angola 84 es el siguiente título de la saga de wargames COIN (COunter INsurgency) de éste estudio. Más grande, más completo y más puñetero, con un escenario muy interesante por lo poco tocado (las Guerras Fronterizas africanas). Está en beta, aún tienen que mejorar el UI y los gráficos, pero las mecánicas están ahí casi todas (excepto el combate aéreo, por implementar también). Ésta vez, en lugar de varias misiones como en los anteriores, lo que tenemos es un gran mapa de la zona fronteriza entre Namibia y Angola, que cambia de forma aleatoria cada partida. Sigue habiendo que patrullar mucho, buscar a los guerrilleros enemigos tras tus líneas, y ganarse los "corazones y mentes" de los locales. Si has jugado a los anteriores, sabes el tipo de droga dura que puede ser éste juego. Si no, pues se describe fácil, la típica frase tan cierta de "SÓLO UN TURNO MÁS".
Very rough on the quality of life and UI still. But it's one of those few games that models counter-insurgency warfare. Dealing with non-conventional and conventional forces. What makes it different from the Afghanistan and Vietnam games is that the insurgents are actually tracked and don't spawn randomly. That makes the gameplay way more organic and interconnected. Hope he continues with that. I don't know much about this particular conflict but it makes me want to learn about it. I own all the COIN games from Every Single Soldier. I just hope he brings the graphics and UI up to like Afghanistan 11 levels. But it doesn't really matter to me. I'm more of a gameplay man. I 'd rather he add more complexity tbh.
The game is in EA! Eeverything I experienced until now looks pretty good and I am confident it will be a great game in this rather niche genre. So if you are into: "turn based counter insurgency themed strategy games in a cold war / proxy war scenario" ...you should check this out."
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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