RTS - Wargame: European Escalation

Just bought this game through Steam since they were advertising an online beta for it today, and I managed to play it for a few matches so far. It's... different from what I was expecting. But since probably none of you guys have ever even heard of this game, I'll give a brief introduction as to what it's about.

Basically, it's a Real-Time Tactical game similar to World in Conflict or RUSE, but much more realistic. The story is pretty simple: basically it's about WW3 breaking out in Europe during the later years of the Cold War, and it focuses on the large ground battles that would've hypothetically happened as a result. Your units have limited fuel and ammo, some suffer more damage from being hit in the rear while other vehicles are well armored on all sides, troops have morale, tanks and heavy vehicles can get stuck in the mud and are generally sluggish whereas jeeps and IF Vs don't, and combat ranges are realistic, with most units being able to shoot farther then they can see in some cases.

First up, the good points about the game. The level of detail in this game is impressive, and definately one of it's stronger points. You can zoom in the camera so close up to your units that you can actually make out facial features on your infantry or see the bullet holes on the side of your jeeps. The maps are HUGE: the smallest map is probably over several kilomaters in diameter, with the bigger ones going over 15km. If you've played RUSE before, then you've got a general idea of the scale I'm talking about here.

Second, this game doesn't play like the typical RTS, so Command & Conquer, Company of Heroes, or Star Craft style gameplay is definately out, basebuilding included. The best comparison I can think of would be RUSE, but much more realistic and less speedy. It's more about pre-positioning units to be in the right place at the right time, map control, using scout units to help your guys aim more accurately, and hiding your units behind or inside forests and buildings. That also means you wouldn't have to worry about too many annoying/vulgar 12 year-olds or "Dude-Bro" types either, since games like these are like insect repellant to them!

And then the bad points... First, this game isn't very newb-friendly. Trying to jump straight into the multiplayer matches means that you're going to be sitting around cluelessly trying to figure just how to even create or order a unit until someone who's figured it out helps you. This is the first time in a long time where I've had to use the PDF manual to even figure out the most basic stuff. And like I said earlier the gameplay isn't like most RTS games out there so the only knowledge I've had to fall back on was what I knew about modern army combat doctrines... and that still isn't helping much. Seriously, BF 3's jets were more intuitive than this.

Second, the trailers would have you believe that most of the battles are going to be massive, with platoons of infantry, tanks, and aircraft slugging it out all at once. In reality, this game actually has a pretty slow pace, and you'll usually only have about a dozen units total under your command when the fight breaks out. And when it does, it's usually scattered around the map with small units bumping into each other. But to be fair it could be because I'm playing the game wrong, so who knows: maybe the better battles are supposed to appear in the mid-to-endgame of things?

All in all it's still way too early to give a final verdict But from what I've seen, while this game's ideas are definately fresh, it better have a good tutorial system or else the depth available here is gonna end up scaring some potential players away...

I've been keeping an eye on this game since I first found it on steam. I've seen a few videos of people playing in the beta and it does look quite fun. I'm always a fan of "Big Picture" strategy games that force you to actually deal with things like logistics, so I'm already pretty much sold just from what I've seen.

From what you've been playing so far, how many people are normally on at a time? Is it easy to get a game?

Surprisingly, yes, and a lot of friendly english-speakers too, so you can ask them for gameplay advice if you feel lost. Even better right now is the fact that nobody is ridiculously leveled-up up right now, with the exception of a few players. Hell, the reason I finally managed to get a hold on how this game works was because one player I went against upon hearing me ask for advice, sent over an unarmed recon jeep to watch my battle opening moves. He then basically starting telling me what I was missing, what are the first moves I should make, what units to upgrade to, how recon and artillery works - everything. Gotta admit, it's rare to run into players like that these days!

One more question: How demanding is it on your hardware? My computer is about four years old and is really starting to show its age, so I'm concerned it won't be able to play the game.

Hmmm... hard to tell. I'm capable of running that thing on the max setting with no lag or slowdown whatsoever. Thus I can't really say if you can run it or not. But if you've played RUSE before and were able to run that game with no issues then you should be alright from what I've heard. This is supposedly the "minimum" requirements:

OS: WINDOWS XP SP 3/WINDOWS VISTA SP 2/WINDOWS 7

Processor: AMD/INTEL DUAL-CORE 2.5 GHZ

Memory: 1024 MB (XP)/2048 MB (VISTA/7)

Graphics: 256 MB 100% DIRECTX 9 AND SHADERS 3.0 COMPATIBLE. ATI RADEON X1800 GTO/NVIDIA GEFORCE 7600 GT OR HIGHER

Direct X®: 9

Hard Drive: 10 GB

Sound: DIRECTX 9 COMPATIBLE

edited 15th Feb '12 9:17:21 PM by SgtRicko

I'm finally starting to get the hang of this game. Few new things I've learned:

-You don't win by ahniliating the enemy - instead, you have to earn a certain amount of points before he does. This is done mainly by destroying enemy units and taking and holding territory, while at the same time avoiding losses on your side. (yes it took me this long figuring out how to win...)

-The way you choose units to field is through "Decks". Basically, there's a menu where you get to select which units you want to compose your army out of, but you're limited to 5 types per role: ex. 5 tank types, 5 infantry units, etc. Cool part about that is the fact you don't have to stick to a particular Nation: if you wish, you can mix it up with British IF Vs carrying German Panzergrenadiers following behind a platoon of US Abram tanks!

-Oh yeah, that brings me up to the next point: the only decent unit they give you in your entire starting deck for either NATO or Warsaw Pact is the artillery, supply trucks, and infantry. You'd best quickly upgrade everything as soon as you earn the command stars, starting with the tanks and AA units. Pitting a T-62 against a German Leopard tank is NOT fun.

-You need to take special care to protect your command units. You only receive a very small amount of them, and they cost more resources than most units. Best way to protect them is to hide them in a forest and keep a couple of AA units nearby to keep away scout choppers and recon jeeps.

-When choosing units to unlock with the command stars you earn, in addition to comparing their stats you need to also keep an eye on how many you can actually field. For instance, it might sound like a great idea to unlock the US Supply Chinook due to it's reasonable price and the obvious bonus it has by being an air unit that doesn't need to refuel, but you're limited to only 4 of them at a time. You do NOT want to base your entire supply strategy on that!

-The Warsaw pact units tend to be more flexible than the NATO ones, especially when it comes to dealing with infantry and light armor. For example, the Warsaw pact supply trucks have armored variations that even carry a .50 cal machinegun, and some of their older artillery designs are even capable of aiming their cannons at tanks that managed to sneak up close. Granted I would never recommend using either of them for actual combat roles but nonetheless it means that your rear echelon is slightly better protected than NATO's.

-NATO's advantage is the wide variety of units they have. Most of the good stuff on the Warsaw Pact side of things tend to be Russian or East German, with everything else being variations of Russian designs. NATO on the other hand has a lot of high-end units spread throughout the various Nations, meaning more choices for you. That, and it'll be easier to roleplay!

The game's been released today on Steam and the official website. Retail release should come in a couple days as well! I'd recommend downloading it from a US server though, apparently it hasn't been downloaded to other servers around the world yet.

Gonna try out the campaign before jumping online again though...

There's a special for the game on Steam for $23.99, including new maps! Jump on it while you can!

Free DLC coming in the near future as well.

The DLC was released the same time the Steam sale started.

I could've sworn this thread was FAR more active than it actually was... took me almost an hour just trying to find it. TV Tropes' search function was useless as always; what ended up working was going all the way back in my search history until I finally found a relevant post in this thread - all the way back in 2012. Makes me feel old. :/

Anyhoot - the actual reason I'm posting here is twofold: Eugen Systems is creating a new RTT named WARNO, which is military shorthand for ‘warning order.’ And shucks howdy, does this thing look EXACTLY like the Wargame franchise. Eugen's even openly touting it as such, and emphasized on how you'll now choose your forces based upon divisions instead of nations - something which the Steel Division games pioneered. Oh, and less "Unicorn" or one-off prototype units - that's gonna suck for countries with more limited arsenals.

Anyways, here's the trailer:

And the game's Steam Page: WARNO

Edited by SgtRicko on Dec 19th 2021 at 3:00:16 AM

Hey, I recognised that music!