85% Commander review

[IainMcNeil]

They just keep coming! Another amazing review of Commander - Europe at War.

"Commander Europe at War is guaranteed to bring hours of enjoyment in turn based strategy game fans and newcomers alike. It’s about time we see a game worthy of Panzer General’s legacy!"

For the full review go to EGC Games Review at http://www.egcgames.com/content.php?id=437&page=1

[firepowerjohan]

Great score for our game and especialy since we got an amazing 88% in the Gameplay category in that review

[syagrius]

Congrats to you guys, it is well deserved

[lesthesarge]

Well to be fair, the people at EGC games appear to be new on the scene, and that might tend to temper one's feelings about the review.

But to look at their about us credentials, they don't seem new to wargaming.

Then again, neither am I

But I think their review was a good one all the same, and I think you guys earned it

[borsook79]

A good review overall, while I understand the Replayability: 65 score is due to AI faults, I do not understand Story: 60 score...

[Maj_Battaglia]

A good review overall, while I understand the Replayability: 65 score is due to AI faults, I do not understand Story: 60 score...

Well the whole backstory is a bit unbelieveable. In a civilized age some madman takes a country to war and is actually able to conquer territory from the Pyrennes to the Volga? Yet despite these gains, in only a couple of years the country is sent packing? Really? Plus, the story could use some zip. There's no magic; perhaps the leaders could have spells to use.

Seriously, what do they want for a better score here? Some rich history of WWII? Not to mention I don't see anything on their site that explains methodology. If they are going to assign points, what criteria do they base their point awards on?

[crazygeorge]

First of all congratulations on a very good game.

Just to clarify a few issues with respect to our review, especially the 'story' score...

I was expecting more historical events and triggers that have some effect on the overall game similar to what Paradox has done in their Hearts of Iron series. No spells, no 'abilities' or anything of that sort after all it's a WWII wargame

However, there is a distinct lack of immersing the player into the theme and atmosphere, there's only a 'sanitized' map overlay plus veteran units could have had more attention so the player could feel more 'attached' to them. Real life formations could have been used such as fighter aces or elite units such as Guards or the Grossdeutschland corps keeping -you-know-whos- out of the equation of course. Granted the game engine is based in Java from what I can figure out so maybe there were a few limitations (pardon my very limited coding knowledge).

As for the conflict's full history that's not really necessary but a few bits and pieces here and there would add to the overall 'experience'. To put an example, take a look at Panzer General's voice-acted briefings before each scenario which were beneficial in creating the illusion...

Keep up the good work.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

You get veteran units in CeaW because of the XP levels each unit can get. This the bonuses to a unit compared to units without XP.
XP level 1: +1 quality
XP level 2: +1 survivability, +1 quality
XP level 3: +1 survivability, +2 quality
XP level 4: +2 survivability, +2 quality

So an XP level 4 armor unit will have +2 survivability and +2 quality compared to a regular armor unit. You can always rename that armor unit to Grossdeutschland or 1 SS or whatever you like to show it's elite.

You get XP bonuses for naval and air units as well. So it's possible to have an XP 4 level tac bomber and call it the Hans Ullrich Rudel tankbuster unit.

The only "bad" thing I think about the XP is that it's so very hard to maintain XP levels. The reason is that when units get losses they're replaced with XP 0 troops and that lowers the average XP level. I therefore often see a XP 4 unit drop to XP 3 or even XP 2 when repairing a few steps.

I think this could be altered so the XP levels will never drop, but you gain new XP levels more slowly. This will make it so much more valuable for e. g. Germany because they have more experienced troops in 1940 and 1941 and perform better because of that. The Allies and Russians will have to attack for some time before they get the same XP levels.

With the current rules you can't really appreciate a high XP level unit because it won't keep the XP for long. E. g. a XP 4 fighter will lose most of its XP after a heavy air combat. If the XP levels would always be there then it means the XP 4 fighter will be a feared opponent for the enemy until they get high XP level fighters too.

[crazygeorge]

With respect to units maintaning their XP levels I wonder if an 'elite reinforcement' system could work.
In essence there could be an additional option in the Repair tab to reniforce a unit with better-than-average replacements but at an increased cost.

Playtesting for balance should be conducted though to avoid steamroller types of units.