The Seven Years War (1756-1763)

The production economy in this game basically does not work. Production in The Seven Years War (TSYW) is a matter of making basic goods, transporting them, and using them in production, construction, and mobilization. So far, so familiar. The vibe is similar to games such as the Anno series and nothing about the concept is wrong in itself. The issue that this game has is in transportation. The ability of your own and AI economies to use anything but primary materials is hindered so badly by your (and their) teamsters' (cart operators) refusal to move stuff around as to make it more trouble to run an economy than it is worth. Both you and the AI will get timber to construction sites just fine. Getting bricks and iron there may well not happen once the initial stock runs out. To use a brick in a construction project, you have to mine loam and then: 1. transport ti to the provincial center, (2). transport to the province the brickmaker is in, if different. 3. transport to the brickmaker. 4. transport bricks to the provincial center, (5) transport to the province the construction site is in, if different. 6. transport to the construction site. A single failure kills the whole supply chain. A broken supply chain for either bricks or iron means you can build almost nothing past about the first year or so. Including buildings required to make bricks or iron! The game gives you abundant tools to make teamsters do their duty - prices, haulage and construction site priorities, and stockpiling being four - but the basic system is terribly convoluted, cumbersome, and - worst of all - delicate. Furthermore, reasons for or solutions to failure are never provided. Stuff doesn't get moved, and you are left entirely on your own to find which, if any knob, will make it stop failing. I was never able to find such a knob. Nor is the AI in much (if any) better shape. Construction of buildings critical to their economy hangs year after year waiting for that last brick or iron bar. I can only suggest not purchasing this game. I earnestly wish the developer every success with his current and future endeavors, but - with equal forthrightness - state that he's wasted enough of my time with this one.

I bought Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865) and decided to buy this one. I was not disappointed and am totally enjoying it. It has a strategic economy and tactical battles. Exactly what I was looking for in a wargame. Also the Seven Years War is an interesting time period.

I am a fan of both history and 4x games. I bought this thinking it was a good cheap version of Europa Universalis IV, and also to support a small time game creator. In theory this game should work, but it didn't seem right to me. It was slow to run, there were details I didn't understand, and the tutorial was confusing. So this game largely collects dust while I play better produced games. Eventually I did buy EU IV when it went on sale, and I like that purchase much more than 7yrs War.

This is a pretty good game. I love how the developer managed to merge a real time campaign with real time battles, much like a mix between Paradox Interactive strategy games and the Total War series. Its not without its flaws though. Unless you have the speed set to its maximum on the campaign and battle map, everything will look like its going at a glacial pace (even then the campaign is still very slow at max speed). So it's not for the impatient player. The economy system is perhaps a bit too abstract to understand on first playthrough, but ultimately the only thing you have to do is make sure your producing more goods than you have demand for and try to reduce your reliance on foreign imports (for example, you have a demand for Iron of 22 but you produce 10 Iron in your own craft buildings, the economy AI will make up the rest by importing from foreign countries). Just try to reduce your dependence on foreign imports and you should be fine overall. If you play as one of the 5 Great Powers in the game you'll probably be fine as they have the starting cash to make being bad at the economy mean very little. But play as Sweden and you'll struggle to stay afloat before the War start if you don't manage the economy well (don't be afraid to get loans as the historical events in game will bankrupt you sometimes). Luckily, there is an option to let the AI run the economy for you, but with the slow pace of the campaign, there's very little else to do for the 6 years before the war starts, so you may as well try and learn how it works. It also sports several starting points so that you can skip the lead up to the war, getting straight into the action instead of that's what you want to so. I will give a major bug notice for the economy. For some reason after 2 years in game the supply of Iron on the global market will just vanish. The enemy AI just doesn't seem to prioritise the production of Iron and after that 2 year mark construction projects and goods production buildings that require Iron will just stop and they will never start up again. This is certainly true in the "Road to War" start date. So that's the bad side of the game, the good side is mostly when the war starts, but I do like the building and goods production side of the economy, even though I barely understand how it works. Its a level of depth I've been missing from Total war games lately. The way the warfare works is tense. Since it's a real time campaign, you have to be very conscious of the enemy armies around you and pick your battles. You have to make sure your not fighting away from your supply hubs (the cities) as over stretching yourself does have consequences. Soldiers desert, morale tanks and if you get into battle under those conditions, you can kiss your army goodbye even if you outnumber your enemy. The strategic depth of this game is great and its again something I've been missing from Total War games. This game is definitely worth a try, but do go into it with the knowledge that somethings probably just won't make sense when it comes to the economy.

The Seven Years War is a grand strategy/wargame set during the Seven Years War period of 18th century Europe. Unfortunately despite being released in 2015, the game engine feels like it's 10 years older than that, and does not come up to scratch. Alt + Tab causes a fatal crash which requires logging out and back in, or restarting, to fix. The game does not allow selecting resolutions higher than 1080p... they don't even fit on the screen because the drop down menu is too long! The quality is just far too low compared to any of the Paradox games in the same genre... but this is also three times the price! Simply inexcusably poor quality and grossly overinflated prices don't work when there's far better. cheaper competition from games like the Europa Universalis series.

I thought this game looked really interesting, and the economic management and campaign was really fun to play with. Unfortunately, the battle component is essentially unplayable - constant crashes, graphic errors, etc. Looking at the community forum I see plenty of other people have the same types of problems and there has been no posted solution, quite disappointing to be honest.

Well after 8 hours of boring play, I can't recommend this game. If you love statistic,s you might enjoy it. There's way too much going on here, and there's no way to understand it. It's just a statistical nightmare. So far I have not been put into a tactical battle. I don't think you have that option. The computer decides who wins and looses. It's not any where as good as Total War's Empire and Napoleon. Graphics not too good either. I'll still try playing for a while, so if I find out how it works I'll change this review, but I don't hut much faith in that.>

I love grand strategy games. I've played the old school TC2M and the like for years. I understand that this was done by one man and that is and incredible feat!! The campaign may be deeper than any other I have ever played. It is also set during a unique period. However the gameplay is so flawed it can't be overlooked. First, it is slow. even on 4 times fast forward, it felt like it was in slow motion. In addition, the battle system was frustrating and unrewarding. Add in terrible pathing issues such as ships will sail to the middle of the ocean so they won't have to hug land, it makes the game unplayable, which is sad because there is so much potential.

This game could have been fantastic, but there are some UI issues, along with constant crashing and bugs. Hopefully they fix these issues in their next game on the Civil War; another time period that is intriguing and has been done well in recent years.

Amazing! graphics are getting a little dated but the economics and battles are incredibly well implemented. A bit of a steep learning curve but when you get it, its so much fun. Would love to see this set in the Napoleonic period. Some bugs here and there still with crashes when loading in battles or at different points, but not enough of an issue to tear me away. Hope to see the next iteration.