Nations At War Digital Core Game

Super Spiel. Es spielt sich flüssig und nachvollziehbar logisch. Besser wie Panzergeneral finde ich persönlich.

I really like the scale and scope of this war game. It is easy to learn and enjoyable to play.

Multiplayer doesn't work on Mac.

With all the caveats of this being early access, this is a very slick implementation of the NaW hex-and-counter game. The system is particularly beginner friendly, with a relatively light ruleset that privileges fun over simulation. The really well edited and presented rules can be downloaded for free (and are also accessible within the game's UI). LNL is really one of the very few traditional wargaming companies that has fully embraced digital. While their LNL Tactical series has spent more years in development and is thus more feature complete (and really great too), visually NaW is a step up from its older (and more complex) sibling. If LNL can stay the course and keep investing in NaW, it's likely to become the best accessible hex-and-counter experience on PC.

fun little secret pleasure, AI is a little weak but still a lot of fun. I'm a huge fan of World at War 85, Nations at War sister game and always wanted to try NaW. Bought the $5 demo and loved the 2 scenarios so much that I bought the first scenario pack (DLC) after a couple days.

Nations at War is a WW2 tactical level platoon based war game. It’s quite similar, to AH’s popular 1970s war game trilogy “Panzer Blitz”, “Panzer Leader” & “Arab Israeli Wars” with the added layer of command and control & randomized player turns. The game looks great, having quite nice graphics. Play is relatively easy to learn and the command and control aspect adds some depth. In overall terms, its a decent game but one with a number of drawbacks. Drawbacks: AI: As mentioned in other reviews, the AI is subpar: For example: defending enemy units in improved positions will, on occasion, move out of their hex to charge your troops. Vehicle’s will sometimes move around in a circle or back and forth for no reason. In some cases, enemy units will just never move. However, it should be said that the AI isn’t terrible, for the most part it functions well enough to be mildly challenging. Unit Accuracy: Unit’s combat characteristics are modeled poorly for AFV: One example: the Tiger’s 88mm KwK L/56 & Sherman's 75mm L/38, along with the Pz-IV, StuG-III, Cromwell, & 76mm Sherman, all have the same AP firepower value of three. This, no doubt, is due to the game makers decision to compress AP penetration data down to ridiculously low representative numbers. As a consequence, unique differences between AFV are lost, with most tanks falling into three generic types: light tanks (AP 2/ Def 2), medium tanks (AP 3/ Def 3), & heavy tanks (AP 4/ Def 3). Overrunning: Another flaw is the game’s ridiculously OP overrun effects. In fact, its fairly easy for any combat unit to wipe out enemies of any kind by overrunning them. In other games (like Panzer Blitz/Panzer Leader) overruns are limited to AFV only and require a large movement penalty along with restricting overruns to open hexes only. In Nations at War pretty much any unit can overrun another in any terrain. Terrain & Movement: Another strange characteristic of Nations at War is that terrain has little or no effect on movement outside of road movement. Infantry can move through forests or hillsides as fast as flat open ground. Similarly, vehicles can fly up and down hills as fast as in an open hexes. Bugs: The game displays a few annoying bugs, the worst of which is that saved files don’t load data properly, causing numerous errors when restarting a battle in-play. Another bug I ran into was a German AT gun that was invincible. Fortunately, this “invulnerable unit” bug seem to be rare. Value/Cost: Finally, I find Nations at War overpriced. In my opinion, the base game isn’t worth more than a couple dollars, and DLC modules, which have nine meager scenarios, shouldn’t be priced any higher than about five or six dollars. The Nations at War's low value could be mitigated if a scenario editor was included in the game (either included in the base game or as a DLC), but its not. Outline of the Game's Qualities: Positive aspects: - Easy to learn rules. - Game looks great/ Very nice graphics. - Good UI. - Simple, but decent, modeling of unit command and control. - Overall fairly entertaining to play. Negative aspects: - Firepower characteristics poorly modeled for vehicles & ordnance. - AI sometimes makes irrational moves. - Overruns are too easy and deadly. - Other than roads, terrain has little or no effect on movement. - Base game & DLC modules overpriced. - No scenario editor. - Some bugs with saved files.