Top 5 Wargames in 2023’s Steam Summer Sale
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- čas přidán 27. 07. 2024
- Intro - 0:00
Honorable Mention - 1:58
The Great War: Western Front - 6:16
Grand Tactician: The Civil War - 9:21
Unity of Command 2 - 13:38
War on the Sea - 16:35
Command Modern Operations - 20:28
Get the Games Here:
Command Modern Operations: store.steampowered.com/app/10...
War on the Sea: store.steampowered.com/app/12...
Unity of Command 2: store.steampowered.com/app/80...
Grand Tactician: The Civil War: store.steampowered.com/app/65...
The Great War Western Front: store.steampowered.com/app/21...
Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2: store.steampowered.com/app/17...
Strategic Command World War 1: store.steampowered.com/app/10...
Cauldrons of War Bundle: store.steampowered.com/bundle...
In today’s video we’re going to take at the games which I think are the best wargame options to pick up during the Steam Summer Sale.
#strategygame #wargame #sale - Hry
Finally I've found a youtuber who is singing the praises of CMANO. Its a terrific simulation which has as steep learning curve. Not for the faint hearted. The database alone is worth the price of admission. It usually gives me a headache, but I continue and try to master the system.
Is it truly a game/sim?
I've heard it is more of a complex puzzle, with one particular way to resolve a conflict.
One particular way to resolve a conflict? eh, I've never heard of CMO described that way... its certainly not a puzzle game, and effective tactics vary greatly depending on era and weapons systems/platforms... that said I'd argue its more of a Sim and less of a game.
@@thehistoricalgamerit's a database sim
The AI makes bad decisions on both sides.
@@MultiVeeta This. It's a huge database with what likes to be called AI, but it's just a bunch of preset rules with very little flexibility. Air to air combat is especially underwhelming if you have any experience in combat flight sims.
You should try Graviteam Tactics Mius Front. Its a hidden gem in the WW2 rts genre. Its on sale as well along with dlcs. I'm honestly surprised you haven't covered it yet. Its a battalion level combat simulation game and you can watch your battle take place. You can have thousands of units fighting in real engagements that took place in WW2. It has a learning curve as well but its sweet!
How on earth do you figure out that game?
I can't even get started.
@@SK-lt1sodude I have 100hours in it and just figured out how to put air support spotters in my battle group lmao. I watched a lot of videos on it to figure out how to play it.
@@SK-lt1soid play a smaller turn engagement first to learn it
I tried to get into their Steel Beasts: Blaze of War tank game about the Iran-Iraq war and I couldn't figure it out... the UI is literally like hieroglyphics ... I want to like their games but its such a time commitment to even learn the UI its whats kinda given me pause. It is something I should give a real go though, either Mius Front or the North Africa one... I do own them... I just have barely played them.
@@thehistoricalgamerthe UI is rough for sure but it’s great once you get passed it . A couple good channels have run downs on it like tonci87 and the war simmer.
Very much enjoying your approach and presentation.
Hope you and yours are well.
The last war "hex" game that I enjoyed was the Steel Panthers series from the early, mid, and late 90's.
A very useful video, thank you. It is gratifying that I already own many of the games mentioned, and to see you endorse them. The rest are now on my wishlist and will probably get one or two before the sale ends. Thanks again.
lol I kinda feel same...of the five, already have four of them and they're all great; I wouldn't quibble with THG's selection of any. Given that, looks like I need to give some serious consideration to picking up Great War: Western Front before this sale ends tomorrow. And looks like a great time to finally pull the long-intended trigger on the Cauldron bundle as well.
The modders have added a great campaign for War on the Sea for the east Indies covering Java etc which is really nice.. oh and Tokyo Express mod also !
Is the AI gotten any Better ? Seems very bad in most Reviews…
Great suggestions, thank you.
Thanks for this, very helpful
It’s not on steam but War in the Pacific Admirals Edition is the best turn based war game I’ve ever played
It’s also not on sale at the moment. But I’d agree it’s a top 10 all time game in my book.
GT: Civil War is honestly aesthetically one of the better period specific games I've ever played - you got regional actors like Engand, France, Spain, Mexico, you got aesthetic touches like messenger horses and telegrams being sent out, you got period specific events, etc, I dunno the whole title is just a well done piece coming together quite well. Same issue of Hoi4 with being populated by lost causer / wehraboo tankies etc because of the content/period covered but strat and game wise even the fact it recognizes that battles / etc could last several days and so on make it a fresh kind of tactical strat game that actually kinda feels like it's delivering something new vs. how a lot of total war esque games handle it.
It mystifies me how, in the last year or so, CZcams has been bombarded with know-it-alls complaining about 'Lost Causers' and claiming to 'debunk the Lost Cause' and blah-de-blah-de-blah; the point of which seems to be denigrating the very idea that the Confederates were anything other than uniformly evil monstrous racists who did evil because evil, with no facts presented. It's lazy, stupid, and ahistorical. The South was not shy about their grievances. The North-South divide colored national politics for decades leading up to the Civil War, and was the subject of deliberate political acts and compromises. Political violence was widespread; including Northerners murdering Southerners, burning their property, and launching what amounted to 19th century versions of terrorist attacks (which included beheadings with swords; very ISIS). And, mysteriously, these attacks by abolitionists only targeted Southerners; not Northerners who owned slaves. Not in Delaware, for instance.
The logic and rhetoric of Confederate secession was taken from the American Revolution; deliberately so. It was even referred to as The Second American Revolution BY the Confederates. 'The Civil War was about slavery!!1!' No, the Civil War was about regionalism and independence. It was about slavery in about the same way that the American Revolution was about slavery; which is to say, not, except for the fact that one side was broadly (but not uniformly) slaveholding and the other side broadly (but not uniformly) was not. It was about a distinct culture refusing to be ruled by another distinct culture in a system that was theoretically about democratic power sharing, and that ruling culture starting a war over it (in case you didn't know, and from context here I bet you don't, the firing on Fort Sumter was deliberately provoked by President Lincoln so he would have an excuse to invade the South; this was widely [and correctly; historical documents from his administration prove it] discerned and so triggered the second wave of secessions).
ACTUAL history is more complex and interesting than lame morality tales. Even the freaking Nazis had genuine grievances stemming from the Treaty of Versailles, dysfunction of the Weimar Republic, and widespread leftist violence, agitation, and sabotage. The Reachstag fire gambit worked because everyone was ready to believe communists did it, because the communists had been setting things on fire, attacking police, etc. for years.
Great you picked Command Modern Operations as #1 I totally agree it's a great game that does not get enough praise.
A youtube channel about historical based games? Subbed🤩
I recently got into Hearts of Iron 4. I'm having a great time learning about the different systems in the game. 10 out of 10 for me.
Unity of Command 2 looks like it could be a lot of fun. Something else to spend my money on!
I really enjoyed HOI IV vanilla when it came out despite some long timers not liking the changes they made. I really should give it another go sometime.
If you have a bunch of friends to play with, fine. It's a good enough game. If you play solo, it's pretty much unplayable. The computer is gamebreakingly bad; it's unable to work with several essential systems. I'll mention the different designers for one. Specifically the ship designer. You will find yourself running into seriously outdated ships, as the computer simply doesn't design new aircraft carriers, etc. Paradox doesn't seem to care. Most of the issues with the "AI" has been present for years, and they don't even reply to threads about these issues on the official forums. It's all about releasing new expansions, adding more stuff into the game, thus leaving the "AI" even further behind. I have played Hearts of Iron since the first one came out. Hearts of Iron 4 has killed my love for Paradox, and that is a feat!
@@thehistoricalgamer Wow HOI4 vanilla when it came out suffered from some MAJOR issues. I'm surprised you liked it so much, it's in a really good state right now and honestly, people complain about paradox DLC but the game they make ends up having easily 10x the content of any other AAA game, whilst people pay 70 bucks for poor AAA titles and complain about 150 bucks for a proper game with 10x the content and time you can sink in.
The only way to play HOI4 is with the Black Ice mod. Black Ice touches everything up everything. It makes the game more complete and complex. Not for the faint of heart
@@Arcimedes might as well just play hoi3 black ice at that point.
UNITY OF COMMAND 2 is a great game. The game mechanics are not complicated but possibilities are. A real bargain in the sale, very replayable.
Plus most of the DLCs are on sale also giving a ton more gameplay options.
Nice to see the updated successor to Harpoon. I still have my Harpoon in CGA 5.25" Floppy Disks. Nothing to run them on of course. I also have the Commanders Edition. I believe that when that was current the Australian navy may have used the Commercial version in training at that time. I may be mistaken though. I still play it occasionally. I may have to check this out.
I have Harpoon-Ultimate Edition from Matrix games, Harpoon Battle Book lying around somewhere and Harpoon (Third Edition) by Game Designers Workshop. I also drag it out occasionally.
Harpoon was awesome. Microprose I think. Too lazy to look it up. They made so good games.
Great video thank you
love this video, just the sort of info perspective wargame buyers need - thanks THG!
P.S. SCWW1 is my current favourite strategy war game - playing the hell out of it.
Glad you liked it! I also enjoy SC generally but specifically the WW1 game… it’s the perfect war for their system imho.
Good review , I Agree bcoz 3 of them in my wishlist and 1 in my libary before i watch this
I was able to participate in the CMO early beta (felt very alpha) test. The level of complexity was off the charts for its time. Harpoon IV on steroids.
Harpoon IV? I’m guessing you meant HOI IV?
@@technocardy Harpoon 4
@@pizzafrenzymanlol back in the day when games came with a physical manual... in the case of the Harpoon series, a three ring binder.
@@detroitbucknut hehe yes
Great list. I have had CMO for over a year now and have never played it. It reminds me of another game that was just like it that I used to play back in the day. But I think that one had more graphics.
Janes Fleet command is similar ish with graphics but far smaller scale.
I thoroughly enjoy your game play videos, well done and keep it up. Ironically, your play through of the 'The Great War Western Front' made me pause on buying it. The repetitive nature of the tactical battles just looked tedious after a while. Overall, the game looks great, I'm just not sure I want to have to tactically fight round after round on the same game hex. Also, after a certain point in the game, it looked like you had the AI pegged and could/did routinely defeat it. I do think I will give Grand Tactician: The Civil War a try based on your videos and recommendation. I am a fan of and have played through Ultimate General: Civil War, but I dislike the linear play through of historical battles without being able to change the strategy. 👍
16:36 War on the Sea is insane good, the save files is in txt, so you can edit the save very easy. Ressurect ships, unlimited resources, unlimited planes ect, for you and the enemy if you want. i have 100 hours in it after 3 weeks. Tokyo Express is a great mod too. Also if a ship is sunk it is gone forever in the campaign unless you edit the text file. Custom Battle is really fun where you have unlimited options and ships to throw in.
CMO is the best simulation ever made. Very realistic, complex and instructive about modern air war.
Computer simulation you mean. Its insignificant next to the big dogs on the table, games like Advanced Squad Leader. CMO was written in the 90s, and largely forgotten. ASL is an 80s game. ASL still gets new releases - every year multiple products are designed. Nothing on the CMO side, though. The Historical Gamer mentioned XP games. Harpoon is an XP game. CMO is just Harpoon with a face lift.
@@horrido666 CMO still got major beta updates every 2-3 months though
I wouldn't say modern air war is what it's good at, the data is off the chart but the ai tactics are shocking.
@@MultiVeeta *BVR and notching goes brrr*
I absolutely adore War on the Sea, ive sunk countless hours into it playing and modifying the campaigns. I got it on sale and it was well worth the $20
Fully agree. Great game. Like any game, isn't perfect, has some drawbacks. But it's certainly one of the best offerings in an admittedly small genre. Well worth the purchase.
I bought the Cauldron bundle based on this video. I really like it so far!
Thank You
Please try and or do a video on these two amazing games ==" Graviteam Tactics Mius Front" and "Comman Ops 2"
One thing I have kind of wondered a bit about is if there are any Fantasy WW1 type wargames arround?
I have found board wargames like that, but I don't know about computer ones. The closest I have found are mostly 4x type games?
i tried grand tactician CW and I just couldn't get into it which sucks. I'll just have to wait for you to play it again
I recently surprised by Call to War 2, you can play on PC and cellphone, it's surprisingly complete for a free game
You should revisit The Troop imo. Its a great xcom like turn based ww2 strategy game.
i bought that but never played it lol is it good you said it like xcom might install it and see
@@buchan448 I like it. Its Xcom like with overwatch ability which you can enable in settings but you can't upgrade your troops and they don't carry over next battle (unless you play beta test battlegroup mode).
Cool channel, have you played Wargame: Red Dragon? I play it with my friends all the time, it's so good.
I have played it, though not recently.
I keep going back to Operational Art of War. I would be interested in Gary Grisby's War in the East 2 but not for a 80 dollar price tag.
Unity of Command 2 is 75% off on Steam right now until July 24
What does it mean to be a wargame? Easy.
1. Historic theme (or fantasy/sci fi - but simulated historic accuracy in its place.)
2. Does not require twitch skills, so no dexterity game mechanics.
3. Has conflict.
#2 is required or you will get games like Call of Duty, which I hope we can all agree is not a wargame. Where tabletop games destroy computer wargames is in #1. You will not see authors sacrificing historical accuracy in the name of game play. For example, you rarely see someone add something because its fun. On the tabletop side there are three big genres, 1. Euro game (like Settlers of Catan), 2. Ameri-trash (like Zombiecide), and 3. Wargames.
Euro games are designed differently wargames. With a euro, a designer invents a cool fun game mechanic, and wraps a theme around it. With wargames its the opposite. They start with a conflict, and try to wrap a fun game mechanic around it. The result has a completely different feel. The reason you know Gary Grigsby is not because of his game design chops. The competition is almost no existent in the computer wargame design field. Contrast that to the tabletop side, where people like Mark Herman rise to the top. Go look at his work, and see for yourself how far behind the video games are.
another good game on sale rn is wargame: red dragon it’s an awesome game, also total war: atilla
What is the ship of the line game in the intro and one of the globe with the icbm?
Icbm is the globe one with icbm … age of sail ship one is ultimate admiral age of sail
I've been watching Grand Tactician for years but am waiting for a decent strategic and tactical AI to be implemented. How are the developers coming along on this front?
Its about as good as it will be, but there is one more update coming along with the release of the DLC. There is also the AOM mod, and that mod has a "hard mode." I lose battles that's for sure.
What’s the AOM mod? I haven’t heard of that.
@@thehistoricalgamer "This mod aims to improve the base game in every single way possible, but also to make it more authentic and realistic to the actual war. AOM is currently in its early stages of our ambitions to make this the ultimate mod for GT:TCW." I highly recommend the AOM mod with the Hard mode can be added on top of the AOM mod. I've had some of my best campaigns with using the mod. The files for download can be found in the mod section of GT:CW. Unfortunately, CZcams is not letting me post the link.
I'll have to check it out, thanks!
I love War on the Sea and I bought it when it first came out, it can be fun, especially when playing with the mods made by the community, but the game has gone months without a single update or any news from the developers and it looks like it's been abandoned so I wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for a fully fleshed out game.
Didn't they originally say they wanted it to cover the globe and the entire war? I seem to remember that back then, but without mods it's still just the Solomons.
@@pilferedserenity1570 They did and I don't think it will ever happen but someone made a mod of the full pacific theatre and it's good.
I remember they had some UI indicators that made it sound like they had many more theaters planned, I'm not sure the dev ever said anything official though.
terra invicta is another interesting one. I got old world as well but honestly wasnt that impressed and switched over to playing endless legend for my turn based fix.
Yea I wanna give that a look, haven’t played it yet though hence my not mentioning it.
I thought Old World was a pretty good well-done game. I enjoyed it a lot. That said, they tried to make it sound like more than it was, some sort of revolutionary redefining thing. i.e., replacing the Civilization series as the gold standard for the genre. Which it wasn't. In other words, they oversold it, and failed to live up to their own hype with what was otherwise a very solid game.
It would probably be more accurate to call these Grand Strategy games. Wargames is a very large category that ranges from very simple games all the way to grand strategy which are incredibly complex and are definitely not for most people.
I was waiting for Panzer Corps II, but the complete edition is still stupidly expensive at 75€ even on sale because they got so much DLC. Ended up just removing it from my wish list because I don't think it's worth that much.
The base edition is one sale at the moment, I'm debating on it since I really like Panzer General when it was out.
@@91bravic12 yeah but the base version is not the complete game. It's whatever base edition they had on launch day. Who wants a game with cut content?
Cut content? I'm pretty sure the DLC's introduce new scenarios/campaigns but the base game has its own wholly contained campaigns which the DLC doesn't change. I never got the sense that Panzer Corps had content removed for DLCs.
@@thehistoricalgamer ehh all these DLC are planned out beforehand and back in the day you would have gotten the game with DLC included, it was just called "the game". I know, it's just how the industry works and we have to deal with it, but I'm taking the liberty to call a game without its DLC incomplete, since stuff was not added (aka cut) for release.
Grand Tactiician is the best civil war game available in my opinion.
I bought Grand Tactician Civil War because of your channel. But to be honest it seems a tad complicated. And that's coming from someone that is fairly decent at EU4, CK2-3 , etc. Also got war in the East 2. And Unity of Command 2 but I really don't like that game. It's a puzzle game where certain combo of moves is the win. From playing all the Panzer Generals in the day, pretty much done with puzzle strategy
damn, already got them all. except the great war:WF, tried the demo and really wasn't into the arcadeish-ness of it all tbh. didn't really feel like it was taking itself serious at the time
😂😂 I brought UG: Age of Sail a few days ago 😂😂 .
That was on my extended list of honorable mentions but I didn’t have time to make a list of 10 games :p
@@thehistoricalgamerI’ve been a Civil War game Nut since Sid Miers Gettysburg I loved UG Civil War so I thought try Age of Sail out
Sadly War on the Sea has been abandoned by the developers, no updates or promised extra campaigns. The only thing going for it is User Mods.
Eh that happens, still worth a purchase on a steep discount imho… I wouldn’t imagine a 1-3 man/women team like Killerfish Games to support a fairly niche wargame indefinitely.
War on the Sea... so flawed and yet a game I keep coming back too. I'd strongly recommend The Tokyo Express Mod (TTE) for anyone who wants to give it a try. The base game suffers a "runaway win" problem where every enemy ship sunk increases your requisition to purchase ships. TTE heavily weights these points towards bases held and how much you've upgraded them. Even modded the game is far from perfect. In order to reduce complexity, the developers eliminated a lot of mechanics that you'd see in something like WitP. Ships have unlimited range, damaged aircraft are instantly repaired, pilots are never fatigued and can fly endless missions, no pilot quality so you can have whole squadrons wiped out and then get replaced at base with no loss of skill, no mechanical problems for ships or planes other than damage et.... None of these decisions is "wrong" individually, but all add up to a game where there is no operational friction, and you can just put out maximum effort 24/7/365. At the same time, nothing else scratches the old Taskforce 1942 itch quite like this does.
Call to Arms : Gates of Hell?
what about steel division 2?
I kinda bounced off it when it came out, which is odd cause I really liked Ruse and Air Land Battle. The campaign felt a bit too wack-a-mole and I’m not a huge multiplayer guy, but maybe I should give it another look.
I loved SD1. 2 was spam . Throw as much as you can in the fight to win. Though you can slow the battles down it also gets to the point where you have a hard time keeping track of the entire battlefield. Setting up each battle especially for defender is also tiresome
Interesting to see a lot of these comments like this as if its a brand new game. It was released 10 years ago. Its current more advanced iteration is four years old.
What? CMO? The video is about best wargame deals on this sale, it’s not saying they’re “new”
Not on sale..but Rule the Waves 3 is brilliant.
I’ve been playing it a lot on the channel :)
War on the sea seems abandoned by the devs:(
The problem with Command is that it has no multiplayer, something that Harpoon has since more than ten years. It also lacks dynamic weather and the possibility to have multiple windows open, each one of them centered on a different area of the map and capable of showing independent information (again, you need Harpoon for that).
Harpoon may be old but it still offers features lacking in Command - MP being the biggest one.
Ah Harpoon, good memories, Soviets nuking my Ticonderoga and my Iowa sailing next to it needs new painting on the starboard side!!!
Multiplayer would be nice, but I doubt I'd ever play it. I've sort of loosely fantasized about it being a nice addition, which I think they will add eventually... or I hope so, but honestly the other quality of life enhancements that CMO has over Harpoon make CMO a far superior game to me. If I was a hardcore Multiplayer gamer though I might feel different I suppose, so I can see that point of view.
Actually, its had dynamic weather for most of its existence back to CMNAO. It also has local weather and day/night/visibility restricted for aircraft flight. You can have multiple windows open including the main map, a strategic map, multiple database windows open. Been like that for quite a while.
Ok im gonna spent my money
Been eyeing Atlantic Fleet, War on the Sea seems dead
Can you please expand / expound about WotS? It’s high on my list of games to buy whenever my life allows me time and money enough to get back into gaming. If its ongoing support has stopped or it’s otherwise gone off the rails I’d like to know.
I spy my art in the thumbnail!
Oh no! He caught me! Lol… it’s legit one of my favorite pieces of art!
Are you sus kidding me? You sus have been spending your jack on this stuff while i am enjoying it for free... yes free!!!
Grand Tactician Civil War was on sale from it's 44 dollar price to 33
Isn’t that what I said in this video?
@@thehistoricalgamer didn't stick around to the end, cut out when u mentioned you didn't have 5 or something to that effect 😂
WARNO
top wargames without hoi4? lol
Hearts of Iron is a fine game, I've enjoyed my time with it, but while its probably the most polished and highest production value games in the genre I don't think I'd put it in the top 10 wargames on sale right now. I think CK3 is a better game actually, but CK3 isn't a wargame, its a strategy game with war as a component.
War on the Sea?! That game is DEAD.
Dead in what sense? A game doesn’t need to be under active development to still be enjoyable.
There are several mods that expand on the original game that are quite good. One covers the early 42 Duch East Indies area and another that covers the entire pacific.
So, do you have an actual point?
@@sourfrog Believe what you want to believe, I pointed out there are some great mods out there that prove the game isn't dead but you do you
@@1stpogo??? I responded to the original post friend.
Grand Tactican can't be worse than fucking Ultimate General bullshit! Where the game straight up cheats, with enemy units never breaking or getting captured (even though the rebel unit has been whittled down to a single soldiers and is literally in contact with two us cavalry units for the past ten minutes), while your own units get captured immidately the instant they waver and a confederate cavalry unit is close by (not even in direct contact), or has simply an unending amount of reserves and equipment to throw at you until you're exhausted.
In conclusion fuck Ultimate General.
Heh… we’ll to each their own? I had fun with ultimate general personally, but if you want an more realistic (conga lines excluded) civil war game, I’d look at scourge of war.
😅😂🤣....That's how I feel about Unity Of Command!
Well the AI doesn't cheat, but it is a lot clunkier. I remember an overhaul mod for ultimate general made it pretty fun, though I can't recall the name.
hey motor mouth....get to the point. I have a life ya know
Thank you for your insight.