Master of Command

Great concept but the lack of variation in maps and battlefield scenarios results in an incredibly repetitive experience that sucked the joy out of the game by the end of the first campaign.

I played very little of it before asking for a refund. The deal breaker for me was when I realized your troops can mostly ignore obstacles (for example, you can walk over churches and rivers). For a game focused on tactics, that's completely absurd.

Definitely my favorite historical real-time strategy/tactics game right now. The feel of it is like playing a real-time table-top miniatures wargame. My only recommendation to make it even better would be that units cannot cross or operate on rivers without using a bridge or fording site.

This game is Empire Total War as it always should have been. Not in terms of the city/province building mechanics that Total War offers, because Master of Command doesn't touch upon that, but the army building and battle mechanics. Master of Command brings 18th century style warfare to life in a manner that makes it quite user-friendly to approach, but without sacrificing historical accuracy in the process. Armies need to be supplied, but you have a campaign map in which to make that happen fairly well. Troops are bound by real world limitations such as the stamina and the need to reload, but having the right equipment in the hands of veteran regiments can make those precious seconds count in your favour. My only gripe with Master of Command is the battle map. Features such as hills, streams, towns and cities become rather meaningless once you realize that the battle map is as flat as a piece of paper and your troops will march wherever without any meaningful hindrance. Fixing the battle map from a flat sheet into a map that actually reflects what is placed upon it would change this game from 'very good' to 'exceptional.' All in all, however, this is definitely a game I would recommend, especially to fellow history lovers. Hopefully, the developers will continue on this game for many more years and add more nations and armies in time for us to play.

I'm not entirely sure if i should recomend this game or not, it's good fun, and the battle mechanics are good - so far the AI has been deecent. HOWEVER I'm pretty sure the game art uses AI generated images, which, like if I had known I don't think i would have bought it (eg, the main menu screen has an image of a cannon with a big hole at it's back - kinda hard to take the game's claims to historical accuracy at face value). I *really* would have appreciated a notice. How can I be sure the art is accurate and not just some random grab-bag of visual tropes a machine

Игра, конечно, понравилась, но есть парочка огромных НО: 1) Абсолютно, решительно непонятно, кто и против кого эффективен. Встретил своей тяжелой пехотой, тяжелой кавалерией и тремя арт батареями армию, которая была меньше по всем параметрам, так еще и почти вся армия - легкая конница. "Ну сейчас я повеселюсь" - подумал я и...легкая конница втоптала всех. И тяжелую конницу, и тяжелую пехоту, и линейную, и артиллерию. Вообще всех. А кем тогда ее контрить, подскажите? Каким чудесным образом 7 отрядов легкой кавалерии, идя в лобовую атаку на укрепления, на улучшенные штыки тяжелой и линейной пехоты, еще и против 4 отрядов тяжелой кавалерии, вдруг, смяли буквально за секунду? И вот как играть дальше я не понимаю уже. Кто знает, вдруг увижу 4 отряда легкой пехоты, которые перестреляют мои 4 армии. Даже не удивлюсь, честно. 2) Артиллерия...слаба. Три арт батареи, с точностью 70+ каждая, улучшенными пушками и прочим. Стреляли в один отряд линейной пехоты около 10 минут и...ну, она дрогнула. То есть три отряда за 10 минут смогли кое-как справиться с одним. Гранаты туда же, урон прям мизерный. Совсем нередки случаи, когда кавалерия и пехота, за кратно меньшее время боя, набивали больше, чем артиллерия за весь бой. 3) Урон, в целом, наносится крайне странно. К тому же, есть ощущение, что точность не зависит от расстояния - как отряд за залп, на максимальной дистанции, положил 30 человек, так те же примерно 30 положил, когда враг подбежал вплотную. 4) Можно отнести к первому пункту, но выделю, наверное, отдельно. Есть разнообразие юнитов, отлично. В тотал варах есть краткая сноска, по типу "хороши в ближнем бою", "снайпер" и т.д.. А вот как понять, для чего тут вообще, у той же Пруссии, легкая пехота? Я честно пытался найти ей применение, но так и не смог. Урона она наносит не сильно много, дохнет быстро, в ближнем бою никакая. Для фланговых атак? Так они тут, скажем так, ну не очень и проще использовать кавалерию. У гренадеров нет ГРАНАТ, сначала купить их надо (что мешало дать одну-две гранаты гренадерам, они один фиг урона наносят копейки). Ну и да, 5) Странно работающие фланговые и тыловые удары. Я фанатею от кавалерии, а уж удар "молотом" по "наковальне" - прям ухх. Но тут я не заметил сильного профита от фланговых маневров (с двумя перками на них). Если тыловые еще более-менее (но усталость кавалерии спустя 40 секунд бега и 10 секунд боя - мда, конечно), хотя тоже есть вопросы (они же должны вмиг боевой дух ломать и потери, если уже связаны боем, должны быть минимальны - но иногда можно таким образом потерять чуть не четверть отряда), то вот фланговые удары как будто такие же, что и лобовые. Может, потери на пару юнитов разнятся, но это не так важно, в общем объеме. В остальном игра понравилась, разве что не совсем понятно, как так сильно скакнула сложность после второй мисси, что в третьей тебя начинают унижать буквально легкой конницей в лоб. Что, всей армии колья ставить и в круговую становиться? И да, было бы неплохо добавить параметр "дальность", чтобы он был виден, а то пространное "уменьшает дальность" или "увеличивает дальность" не особо помогают. Буду играть, надеяться на правки. Но пока что, за неимением чего-то нейтрального, палец вниз.

A complete work of love by the developer, who has been working tirelessly to create a wargame in the age of muskets and cannon. Before I get into the review proper, I just want to give a shout to the people who made this, as they continue to work post-release on game balance, AI, and DLC. There is a lot of back and forth with the community, and it is wonderful. (Known as The Armchair Historian on Youtube, they have some fantastic videos on battles and history animated with the same techniques as used in the game. The channel isn't putting out new videos anymore, but everything they did is still there and well worth checking out if you have any interest in historical wargaming). As for the game proper, it is a wargame in the vein of Total War without the city management. In this, you are managing your army as you wage campaign, and how you grow it and add to it plays a big part in how you do. The game is divided between a "province" map, with towns, events, armies, forts, and other things, and the battle maps you wage war on. Your army is persistent, so: 1) Any losses you take you will have to replace with fresh recruits 2) You will have to earn gold to hire new units and purchase helpful items for them, as well as supplies. 3) You will need to purchase food, as your army eats a certain amount per day, and ammo, to replenish your gunpowder between battles. 4) Your units gain exp, so they can eventually turn into better units as the campaign goes on, as well as attain vet status (which affects morale, combat power, etc). 5) Your officers gain exp, will gain trains, and can die in battle. As you pick which nation you want, (England, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and DLC added Holy Roman Empire), you begin Act 1 on the province map. You have several stances you can pick to govern how fast you move, how much food you consume per day, etc, and you engage with settlements, events, forts, slums, battlefields, etc. When you run into other armies, patrol, stationary, or field, you engage in battle on a separate battle map. This is where the action takes place. All the units are represented well and have several formations, (governing how fast you move, how much damage you take), and are represented on the battlemap on all their spritely glory. While there is no blood, rifles and bodies do pile up as the fight goes on and the guns kick up huge amounts of smoke. The AI is pretty competent, especially after several post-release updates, and they are continuing to tune it as time goes on. The end result is a game that plays well on the battlefield, and manages to give a real sense of a persistent armed force without hitting you with region management in something like Total War. There is still plenty to do, as your performance on the region map will dictate how well you do in battle, and there are many things to engage with. (Encounters, forts, looting, etc). Overall, the game is extremely solid and a great entry representing an era of wargaming that we have needed for a while. Do yourself a favor; if you have any interest in this gunpowder wargames or historical warfare in general, pick this up. Join the discord, as the community is very friendly and the developer is extremely active with the community. And remember, attack. Always attack. :)

Disclaimer: My complaints with the game are problems that will be solved as I improve as a player and as the game improves with future updates. As of writing this review, the game is still relatively new, and the dev team is a dedicated team of history buffs, not a AAA game development company. This game does an excellent job of scratching the itch Total War fans have had since the days of Napoleon: Total War. At its core, it’s a roguelike strategy game where you have limited time to progress through three "Acts", strengthening your army, managing your resources, and defeating large "Boss" armies to progress to the next act. It blends a Bannerlord‑style real‑time campaign map with battles that look and feel like classic the Total War battles. The gameplay loop is genuinely fun. Thanks to its well designed roguelike structure, each campaign feels distinct and you never feel like you’re repeating the same campaign. The game offers a solid variety of factions, each with unique strengths and weaknesses, allowing strategy game fans to find a playstyle that fits them. The game also clearly strives for historical authenticity. Its mechanics strike a nice balance between realism and practicality, which creates an immersive and action packed experience without bogging the player down with micro-management during the battles. The battles are a blast, and from the bird's eye view, they look and sound great. They are fun and engaging, and they grow in scale as you progress through each act. The campaign AI is simple but effective. Weaker armies retreat, stronger armies pursue, and overall it behaves in a way that feels logical. Battle AI is passable, but on higher difficulties it tends to devolve into exchanging a couple volleys before charging in massed bayonet assaults across pretty much the entire front. This becomes frustrating because leveling up your troops prior to these battles is slow and expensive, and by the later stages of a campaign the enemy almost always has higher‑quality units. These elite units will reliably beat your lower‑tier troops in melee, and the AI often gives you no time to thin their numbers before closing the distance with a charge. Of course, the point of the game is to learn how to beat these stronger armies, that’s the fun of a roguelike. But the AI’s combination of superior troop quality and generous item distribution can push things from “challenging” into “unbalanced.” With the campaign structure punishing players for lingering or leveling up your army, you’re often forced to sprint to Act III and then desperately micro‑manage troop leveling before the boss army hunts you down. It works, but it doesn’t always feel fun or fair. To the game’s credit, it does warn you that losing is part of the intended experience. You’re not supposed to win every time, and if you are, it’s probably time to kick the difficulty up a notch. However, the campaigns seems overly punishing even for me, and I have thousands of hours poured into the Total War franchise and other strategy games. Even I struggle to beat the AI on medium difficulties and It never seems like the fault lies with me, it always feels like I did what I "should" have done but I just lost the coin toss on who breaks first and its usually because even my best troops can't beat the AI elite armies and their 500+ gold worth of items that all of their units have equipped. Not to mention the Act III "Boss" army is larger than your max army size, so you can't even beat quality with quantity. The Act III "Boss" army is so large, it is wider than the width of the map so you can't even try to turn a flank or get around it. You have to somehow beat an army that will outnumber you no matter what, will be of similar or higher quality than your army, and will charge your army as soon as it closes the distance. This boxes you into a corner where you either end up save-scumming your fight against the "Boss" army until you finally manage to beat it after multiple attempts or you face the music, lose the run, and restart your sprint to Act III. The best way to keep ahead on resources is to raid every settlement you come across which kind of breaks the immersion when you're raiding every settlement in the region you're supposed to be "Reinforcing" or "Defending." Some campaign side objectives feel too “high‑risk, low‑reward” to justify taking them. For example, a convoy event might offer ~90 gold with no consequences, or ~150 gold if you fight a full enemy field army. The extra gold is never worth the casualties or the cost of replacing units, especially when artillery upgrades cost ~1000+ gold and decent infantry weapons cost ~200. There are many situations where the game presents interesting options, but the punishment outweighs the reward so heavily that you simply never pick them. This has improved with recent updates, but you’ll still encounter situations where the “optimal” choice is to ignore the more exciting option. The UI and menus look great. They are clean, easy to understand, and very on‑theme. The overall art style fits the historical vibe perfectly. The customization for your army and its regiments is unmatched by any other game of this type. You have total control over the weapons, items, and appearance of your units. You can mix and match who commands what, and create armies organized in whatever way your heart desires. This opens up the door for many unique opportunities and unexpected victories on the battlefield. Troop movement and placement works well enough, though the cover system still needs some work. That doesn't take away from the fact that its always fun to watch thousands of little soldiers scurrying across the battlefield. Using different troop formations will effect their walk speed and combat effectiveness. For instance, marching in column formation will improve the walk speed and reduce the firepower of that unit while using the line formation will have the inverse effect. This helps make the battles look and feel more authentic. The battlefield graphics leave a lot to be desired. The 2D textures for the map combined with 3D troop models just looks "off" and it makes it difficult to quickly judge the terrain. Individual soldiers look like low‑poly scarecrows with mustaches. It’s clearly an optimization choice, and after a few battles you barely notice it since you spend most of your time zoomed out anyway. What the game lacks in graphics, it more than makes up for with functionality and stability. I have about 56 hrs. into the game and I have not experienced any major lag issues, game-breaking bugs, or crashes. All in all, the game is incredibly fun and functions well. You can tell that everyone involved in the development of the game has a real passion for history and enjoys working on the project. It's a must buy for any Total War fan that missies the good ol' days of Napoleon and Empire. The game still needs some work, but overall it is worth the money and offers hours of unique and exciting campaigns. I can't wait to see what future updates will bring.