Strategic Command: World War I

The game is okay... except it's set in one of the most boring periods in military history. It's fun at first, but as with the real war, it turns into a slow grind fest. The biggest problem with ALL of the SC games from Matrix is that you can't stack anything. It's amazing how a few squadrons of planes can take up an entire hex. Or only a single corps can occupy the same. It's the way these games are designed and I knew that going in. The A.I. seems to be the same as with the other SC games. It doesnt recognize strategic threats (like leaving gaping holes in the front.) The only saving grace here is you can't easily exploit them like you can in the WW2 period. However, the A.I. does use cavalry like tanks and can surprise you if you're not careful. I'll still give it a thumbs up. It's relatively bug-free, stable, and a history lesson for WW1.

Great WWI strategy game that has a fair amount of depth without being overly complex and requiring you budget down to the cost of every bullet. You can be as creative as you want, meaning you can take the war in a completely new direction and be pleasantly surprised or you may pay a big price. Anyway, if you enjoy strategy, but do not want to review spreadsheets all day to play, AND you want a WWI genre, this is the game for you. Enjoy!

Read the reviews and rating of this game and decided to give it a go as I have played and enjoy strategic wargames. After playing the vanilla game on normal without customisation I am extremely disappointed. The graphics, sound and music is fine for a game of this type and although some of the tables used for production and research etc could be improved the most egregious concerns could be found with many of the game design decisions which are headscratching to be polite. A couple of specifics as way of example, there are many hard wired scripts and actions that happen during the game based on real life events during this time and while interesting from a historical perspective if you play differently to how the real WW1 unfolded ( and you will need to) the events still happen and in many cases directly oppose what you may be doing, (yes you can turn these off in advanced but not really the point). You can research Armoured Vehicles using very scarce resources to do so and it takes some time as it should and finally you get there and go to produce your first tank but wait that research only got you half a tank which is not really very helpful so you have to research armoured vehicles again, this could have been designed so much more elegantly and as an aside Tanks can be used in mountains which is just ?? Combat involves supplies, links to command HQ, terrain modifiers for you and the enemy, level of weapons technology, supportive artillery and planes and all need to be factered in for successful combat but if say you run through that combat several times you will see that RNG will alter the outcome by 50 to 100%. RNG should be a component but not to the degree that it supercedes all the tactical decisions you make otherwise what is the point, I have seen very few wargames where RNG has this sort of impact. I could outline a great many other isues but clearly lots of people enjoy the game, I did not, so will go and find something else to enjoy.

Strategic Command is one of my favorite series/platform for war gaming. For WW1, I've so far mainly played the Balkan War as represented in the "Empires in Turmoil" DLC. I'm thoroughly enjoying it every time I go back to SC. It's so timeless!

A classic. Well made, good fun and a challenge. Good balance between playability and history. Grab a beer, some crisps and enjoy :-)

Overall: 9/17, minimum pass. I don't understand why most NM Objectives are 1-tile resources near enemy border and changed hand in real history, when other resources aren't, so I turned most of them off. I wish the developers to not use Mercator in a regional (not world) map. Developers did well in decreasing micromanagement, but I still want to cancel individual HQ rating (only maintain research) to not think of which HQ buffs which corp. The following is my play style, 1914 Call to Arms as central (spoiler warning). In short, Germany attacks Russia, AH attacks Russia, Ottoman attacks Egypt, appease Italy. 1. Advantage and Drawback 6 major ententes are separated in 5, only France and Italy share a land border; 3 major centrals are separated in 2, only Germany and AH share a land border. Therefore, it's harder for entente to aide each other. Central can use this advantage to knock them out 1 by 1. Central occupies far less resources than entente, so late game is in favor of entente, central must attack from at least 1 front. 2. Russia first Among hostile entente majors (France, Serbia, Russia), Russia has the longest border with central, and it's mostly plain, an easy-to-attack terrain. Central can deploy all troops to attack Russia, while it's too narrow to deploy all troops against France or Serbia. I dislike declaring war on neutral countries, because this tells all neutral countries that the declarer is evil and gives all hostile countries a reason why they fight for this war. (From UK's opinion, WW2 Germany declaring war on Norway is a blunder, UK people turn from Munich appeasement to finest hour.) 3. Relocate It doesn't need so many troops on Western front against France. Where to operate, Eastern Germany or Eastern AH? I have no idea which 1 is better, I select to deploy in Eastern Germany because HQ from a country can only assist land units from the same country. 4. Caucasus Mountain If Ottoman also attacks Russia, it's a 3V1, Russia will surrender quickly? No, the terrain is too bad to attack for both sides, it's too hard to surround a unit in all 6 directions. My fightings on Caucasus usually give little help to Germany and AH. But UK has a drawback: it's too hard to deploy troops in Egypt and Kuwait. It means with every 1 kill, UK has 1 fewer troop there. Even without occupying resources, Ottoman can win the battle. 5. Appease Italy This makes Italy almost impossible to join entente. Italy has 20k NM, while appeasing only makes AH -8k NM. France has a wider front to attack, so the production of lost territory is less than reinforce cost. Romania relationship is only entente 55%, still hard to join entente. The only drawback is that Ottoman needs a landing to occupy resource-rich French Maghreb. 6. Encircle of Warsaw Germany army is stronger than AH army. When appeasing Italy, AH army gets a 1-time debuff of some turns, making them unable to attack, or even defend. Therefore, I prefer that Germany army attacks deep into Russia, while AH army encircles Warsaw from Lemburg. Encircled troops are too weak to break the encirclement, even when AH suffers from Italy debuff. 7. Rule the Waves Although weaker and being separated into 2, central navy can still do some easy tasks, such as protecting Norway convoys. After Russia surrenders, central navy can be more aggressive and sail into English channel to cut UK and France, disable their ability of aiding each other. If a channel is 2 or 3 tiles wide, it's a good idea to lay a mine. Enemy is dealt the damage unless reconned, while the channel is still navigable for minelayer. Yes, I am referring to Corfu and Smyrna. 8. Diplomacy convoys Among all convoys, Greece is the only 1 starting in favor of, but not join, entente. It's easy to diplomacy Greece to lean to central side to disable this convoy route. Then either invest all on Greece until it joins central, or separate some to protect Denmark convoy. Although starting at 0%, the same as Denmark, Norway doesn't need to be invested to protect convoy. UK's unrestricted naval warfare annoys Norway. 9. After Russia surrenders Among my playthroughs, I have seen once Russia collapses into 8 countries, and once Russia surrenders with entire territory occupied by Germany. There is no longer a target that requires all central troops (at least Germany and AH). Serbia is definitely 1 of the targets; maybe the next phase of war includes amphibious UK (sealion) or French Maghreb, but only 3 corps (1 from each central major) can embark, it's too slow. I don't want to invade Northern France, where there are UK and France troops.

Good game.