Destiny of the World

A good game overall, difficult, and the A.I doesn't roll over easily.

In the last couple weeks I decided to get serious about learning this game. Only a couple videos on YouTube but it has a nice manual with tutorial videos. Once I got the hang of the UI things kind of fell into place. Graphics are clean with plenty of tooltips to help out. I appreciate all the data presented. It made sense but didn't feel overwhelming. Complexity level for production, supply, etc. really clicked for me. The details from combat are excellent. My favorite WWII grand strategy game. I highly recommend.

Played this game for 10 hours so far...the more I lplay it, the more I like it. I have played a lot of strategy war games and this one hits a spot many others dont. Its like HOI but turn based and the turns are simultaneous which is different than Strategic Command. There is a lot fo depth to this game that I am still diving into. The mechanics are really interesting and the combat resolution is satisfying. I like seeing actual troop and equipment totals instead of just a basic combat value. This game has combat values to but also shows troops and equipment totals. The graphics are basic...but the more I play and understand the map, the more I am impressed with the design choices. I am still learning this game and hope it continues to be developed and updated. I would like to be able to play as more countries and to be able to view battles again, or see the line by line report(not super important, just would be cool if easy to add). Keep up the good work developer!

I must highly recommend this Indie wargame. I am impressed with the design and development of DOTW. I started playing AH board wargames back in 1968, graduating to computer games in 1981. I have collected most strategic WW2 board games and WW2 computer games (SC series, HOI series, GG WaW, Strategic Command, War in the Pacific and Warplan/WPP). I have also done official beta testing on several of these titles. I am a history buff with my special interest in the WW2 War in the Pacific. I tried to get into HOI but it was too complicated and time consuming for me. This game covers most every aspect of playing a WW2 belligerent: production with realistic build times and costs, research, domestic economy, international trade, espionage, combat leaders, experience and upgrading of combat units. It even covers nuclear research and usage. I really like the weekly turn system, where you input all your move and attack orders. Then the game executes yours and the AI player's moves, in a fixed order, in sequence. I like that you can order units to support an attack from an adjacent region, or support a defence of the same. As armour units can move up to two areas, it is possible to simulate blitzkrieg attacks with breakthroughs and encirclements. The supply rules are very detailed and historical. There is a Production Manager module, which takes much of the work out of producing units, goods or infrastructure for every region with a factory. I like that you can only play one belligerent country, not the entire group of Axis or Allied countries, as this would take too long to play out. As Italy's war actions were often not approved by the Germans, it is realistic that you do not play both countries. The Developer is still fine tuning the game and is very open to suggestions on improving the game. I recommend that you download the manual to learn all about this great game.

OK, so I love the idea of having a war game that has a production and transportation element that must be taken into account. In case you're thinking that i'm someone that would rather be playing a 1st person shooter, i assure you that's not the case. I was excited to start geeking out optimizing supply trains and production lines. This game however has entirely failed to be an enjoyable experience. The graphics aren't just archaic, they're downright ugly. And they fail to give the player an easy, quick view of the strategic situation. Poor contrast, limited zoom/expand and it's just plain hard to look at it and quickly see what your armies are doing. Stacked cards? Really? Each turn is minutes upon minutes of watching red cards flit around on a red background and blue cards flit around a blue background. This is beyond tedious. The pacing is agonizingly slow. The production screen has the appearance of offering a great deal of flexibility that it doesn't really have. There's really not that much for you to do. There needs to be order of construction so regions can be developed. Like, build a few factories first, then you an emplace some air defense and radar. Or a naval base if on the water. i want to be able to decide where to develop. why can't i build radar on Hawaii? 52 weeks to build a single naval transport and i can only build 2 or 3 at a time?! When historically the usa built thousands of these things in the span of 18 months! It needs a LOT of work on the basic controls that move and form up the armies. Doing anything in the game is just plain clumsy. Simple things like i can't open the tech screen if i have the production screen open. If I'm trying to open one menu, then CLOSE THE OTHER ONE! DON'T MAKE ME MOVE THE MOUSE BACK AND FORTH FOR NO REASON! Maybe a button within each menu to move to the next. These quality of life items sound like little things, but they add up to a frustrating, annoying experience if they're not there. i think it was a mistake having separate production screens for each territory. it's too much. It is enough to manage the production and transportation of the nation as a whole. the whole idea is to support military units in the field, but it feels like the combat and unit deployment was an afterthought. I hate to dump on it so bad. It is amazing to have a realistic supply, transport, production engine. But the balance in this game has missed by a mile. What i wanted to see was a serious tactical turn based combat game where units can be grouped into larger formations when appropriate. The player controls the units at the battalion or company level, but each turn they can also make some moves at the corp or army level as well (like shelling with big Corp level artillery, or using 3rd Army transportation pool trucks to assist an offensive). Combat power isn't just a duel where my if tank has a slightly bigger gun and 1" more armor I always win. Rather a unit has multiple stats including supply, morale, artillery and AT support, entrenchment, training, battle experience, command & control, visibility, close air support and of course the performance of their equipment/tank/aircraft itself. If you can cut your enemy off from their supplies, neutralize their artillery support or cut them of from their command & control you can disorganize them so they can't fight effectively, or force them to run out of ammo or food and surrender. But if two opposing forces feed troops into a frontal assault against each others prepared positions and both sides have intact supply line and support, then it will be a meat grinder (that's how you lose the game). You win the game by focusing on building the right equipment and always building enough transportation to get it to the battlefield, defending your supply lines while attacking those of your opponents, researching the right equipment and scientific advances and looking for weak spots and using combined arms to break into your opponents rear area to destroy their supply, support and command structure so that you can defeat his armies without taking massive casualties. That was the military lesson learned during WWII. You can try going for a big strategic bombing offensive but like in real life it will cost an immense amount in terms of production and casualties. you can plan to build large amounts of adequate equipment, or else a smaller amount of advanced equipment and maybe win either way if you play to your strengths. If playing as the USA you can choose to keep a huge workforce building war material for your allies or you can choose to build more divisions for yourself. Either way can win, but if your allies suffer too much they may not be able to assist as much as they did historically which would be counter productive. We need better maps that make better use of terrain and a more refined way to improve those territories (building roads, fortifications, mine fields etc) without being cumbersome. The tech screen needs to be an actual tree. you start with a couple main branches and direct where you want to be in a year or two when it could matter most. 5 levels of torpedo improvement is way too much commitment when you only have 5 to 7 tech points and the reality is that for the USA at least, almost ALL of these things were pursued concurrently. I know, I know. make your own game if that's what you want to play. I might. Anyway... sorry to be a jerk. I applaud the effort, but this one is painful to play. The core gameplay just isn't fun. The UI is awful. The controls are clumsy. The pace of the game is glacial. It's going to attract a limited audience of players that crave a strategic WWII combat game stressing supply & production. I'm the core audience. It needs a lot of work.

I have played them all.. hearts of iron, Grigsbys Games, strategic command... this one hits a sweet spot, sitting very nicely between the over-convoluted complexitiy of many grognard games and the mass of "strategy" games out there, that isn´t much more than risk-variants. There are quite a lot of unique features, that blend into each other quite nicely and the AI gives you more of a challenge than you would expect at first glance. Don´t let yourself be fooled by the somewhat amateurish look. There is depth beneath, but of a manageable kind.

After having played over 100 hours on my first play through, this is a very good WWII strategy game. Well worth a purchase. I'd love to see some improvements, and the developer (s) is very responsive to questions and suggestions. I'll update this review later, but the main thing I'd like to see upgraded is the ability to play some of the less minor nations in Europe, especially countries like Greece, Finland, Yugoslavia, Spain, Sweden etc. I'd like a bigger map with more significant terrain. I'd also like oil technology to have bigger benefits, probably tripled. I'd like the ability to improve transport infrastructure in each province, perhaps with the option of bombing to degrade it. The amount of supply and fuel throughput can be determined by this infrastructure. Perhaps a road or a rail symbol could appear when a threshold of infrastructure is achieved and lost when bombed. This could be made more difficult by requiring construction by engineering units. It would be great to be able to have some sort of map filter which allows transportation infrastructure to be visible. Visualising convoy routes is sort of similar. I'd like a greater range of specific targeting options for aircraft. For example, I'd like to be able to send tactical bombers to target ships specifically. Another example, I'd like both strategic and tactical bombers to be able to target supplies in specific provinces. I had alot of difficulty eradicating a large enemy force surrounded for four weeks. It would have been good to attrit them to capitulation much sooner.

The worst, most boring game I've played in my life. Primitive, difficult and overheard.

the production manager is broken, it will confirm some items but not others. and even manually making anything other than troops its a hit or miss. why does it take 1 minute for turns to finish after you hit end turn??? thats way to long. hopefully the devs fix this. they have not fixed it this game is pointless. if your looking for a good game for turn based for ww2 play strategic command. 0/10 rating

Destiny of the World is a strategic level game covering WW2 from the Invasion of Poland to 9-02-45 (end of the war). PROS: - Capable AI that makes logical decisions - Developer is VERY responsive. Updates are timely and bugs are quickly addressed. This is clearly a labor of love for him! - Economy is well developed, supply/logistics are well done, - Not a sandbox, this game is based on historical realities. - Good FOG of war that espionage can help peel back. - Game comes with some planning tools to facilitate building CONS: - Basic graphics, nothing that is an eye sore or fuzzy - Slow loading of the game initially, thereafter it loads quicker - Some bugs during the game however the developer does a good job of squashing them quickly. - I would like an earlier start date and a more open end date. Static end dates are not realistic. - A bit more flavor with the factions and events would be welcome. Game gets a strong recommendation from me. None of the cons impact my enjoyment of the game.