shots
| Strategic Command: European Theater PC review | |
| patched to: | v. 1.06 |
| developer | Fury Software |
| publisher | Battlefront |
| author | John Helebrant |
| date | May. 17, 2004 |
| graphics |   |
| sound | |
| gameplay | |
| value | |
| reviewer's toast | |
| overall | |
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| pros: Great replay value, addictive gameplay, stable as a rock, easy to learn. | |
| cons: Can only be purchased online, no printed manual, could turn off hardcore grognards. | |
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But is it for me?
It’s hard for some of us old-time gamers to break out of genres that we’re used to and into new ones we haven’t explored. Each one of us has our own style whether it is shooters, real-time strategies or role-playing games. One of the genres you don’t hear about too often aside from your hardcore grognards is war gaming. There is a small fraction of the PC gaming market that has played the old board-game counterparts and feels right at home with the complexities of hexes, counters and engagement rules. It’s not easy for a gamer that is used to playing FPS’s like the new Unreal Tournament 2004 or Battlefield: Vietnam to feel completely entertained or immersed in what lies before them on their computer screens. So what is the cure for those that have longed to learn about war gaming, but are afraid that they’ll be turned away by textbook style manuals and learning curves that make an astrophysicist blush? The cure is a beautiful little gem of a game called Strategic Command: European Theater which is easy to learn and tough to master. This is the type of game that has you doing the pee-pee dance turn after turn transfixed on what is happening.
The Skinny...
Strategic Command: European Theater is a turn-based grand strategy game set during different stages of WWII from the onset of Germany attacking Poland to Operation Overlord. Where the game truly shines however is the ability to learn it quickly and not be turned away simply by what looks to be a complex simulation with counters. First, you start by choosing your campaign as well as which side you’d like to represent. You can alter your preferences for the scenario such as enabling/disabling fog of war, turning on/off the hex grid and displaying summaries of the last turn played. You can also manipulate the rules such as allowing for free French units which increases the chance of the United Kingdom or any other minor allied nations to gain control of French units upon surrender and Soviet and Yugoslavian Partisans which enable units to be created behind enemy lines if these lines have been drawn inside these countries borders. These are just a few options you have at the beginning of each campaign. One last option worth mentioning is that of politics which allows you to choose whether each side plays with historical, random or neutral settings largely affecting when countries historically enter the war. Once you’ve done this and picked your difficulty settings, you’re off and ready to go.
After the campaign loads, you are presented with a world map where much of the game takes place. Yes, you use counters to wage war, but it’s much more simplified than your traditional hex-based simulation. Strategic Command uses three main terrain types which include forest, marsh and mountainous regions. It also uses six main strategic resources including cities, capital cities, ports, oil wells, fortifications, and mines. Each of these resources net a certain amount of Military Production Points or MPP’s after each turn which can be used to reinforce units, conduct about a dozen different types of research, purchase new units and perform certain other actions such as transporting ground units across bodies of water. There exist a dozen units in the game, some of which include battleships, carriers, air fleets, armies and tank groups. There’s also a headquarters unit which increases characteristics of others around it within a certain range. These characteristics exist in all units in the game which include strength, supply, experience, readiness, action points and entrenchment. Without getting into too much detail, you examine these characteristics displayed at the bottom of the screen with the combination of terrain and surrounding units to coordinate attacks.
So what do I do now?
Well, during your turn you first want to examine your units’ characteristics and fog of war as well as your resource efficiency. Then place your orders, conduct political actions, and invest in new units or research by using a combination of the buttons on the sidebar or by context-sensitive menus by right-clicking on units. After you’ve done this, you’ll want to examine the status of your units, the position of other countries, and calculate your MPP’s. You can also view the smaller war map which displays the entire European theater where you can declare war on neutral countries and view the current allied and axis nations. You can also view a report at any time which displays a separate layout of industrial and military strengths in bar graph and pie chart form. After you have reviewed all of the available information and have made your moves, end the turn by simply clicking ‘DONE’ located on the right along with the other game buttons. If this isn’t enough information for you, you can examine information at the top of the screen by moving your mouse over any unit which will describe the type, its location and what side it belongs. You can also select one of your units and determine how many action points it costs to move one or more hexes. The available hexes or destinations are highlighted when clicking on a friendly unit to make it easier for coordinating your moves. And that’s Strategic Command: European Theater in a nutshell.