Do you know the Twilight Empire? This is a board game that we tried out in the circle of friends many times, but never finished because it is just so terribly complex and sometime in the morning at five no one has a head for the complex rules. So take a few weeks off if you want to play the entire world war and allow around an evening for a well-considered train. You don’t even control one country, you control either the entire Axis powers or the entire Allies. And it almost feels like some Allied commander decided in 1939 that the conduct of the entire war should now be placed in the hands of one person. It assumes that you have already worked hard to find out how it works and therefore know exactly what you are doing. And, well … the game doesn’t explain anything. Not an easy decision? Unless, of course, you know the consequences and have played through this scenario a thousand times.Īfter all these trains have passed, I can give orders myself for the first time. Here, too, you often had to wait for what felt like an eternity until the opponent made his moves (the game had incredibly trashy real film cutscenes, by the way. This can take several minutes and I admit that, despite the lack of interactivity, it awakened pleasantly warm memories of the larger Battle Isle 3 maps. All countries declare war on each other and move their first units on the map. Because the computer first creates the basic requirements for the coming conflict.
After you have started a game, you have to wait first. In a world war that means: the whole world. Let’s start with Strategic Command WWII: The game has hex fields and offers several scenarios from the Second World War, each with the aim of depicting the entire war. Both titles have a reputation for being absolute hardcore strategy games and they live up to that reputation. I looked at two games for this article, once Strategic Command WWII: World at War and on the other side The Operational Art of War IV. Perfect! Except for the tiny fact that I somehow failed because of it. He specializes in strategy games, especially those with hex fields. But what am I best moving where?Īt some point I came across British developer and publisher Slitherine. Battle Worlds: Kronos was great, but hey, there must be more? The Paradox games are great, but somehow I missed the strategic movement of units on hexes. And because I miss this experience a little today, I looked for alternatives. I don’t know how many hours I sunk in it, just that my childish to youthful self didn’t get very far in it. Both titles offered a strategic depth with simple graphics and a lot of time to think, after all, they were completely turn-based. Many years ago I played Battle Isle with great joy and also the World War II offshoot Historyline 1914 – 1918, which appeared a year later. Paradox Do you think Paradox games are complex? Try the Slitherine!