Need a good PC wargame

[5RANGLIAN]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a good PC WWII wargame? My needs are simple :

Company/battle group level combat;
I don't want to have to micromanage lots of individuals, just work with units/sub-units;
realistic scenarios are preferred, i.e. not just capturing towns, but being able to win against the AI by destroying their combat power;
I'm not bothered about where or when in the war the game takes place.

Thanks for any tips!

[Tom Houlihan]

The only one I really get to play is Steel Panthers.

For WWII, you'd want SP I, or SP III. SPI is a lot of company/battalion level combat. SPIII gets up to brigade/division level.

[Mansal D]

The Total War series or Empire Earth series.

[Steiner]

The only one I really get to play is Steel Panthers.

For WWII, you'd want SP I, or SP III. SPI is a lot of company/battalion level combat. SPIII gets up to brigade/division level.

Steel Panthers kicks butt. I love that game!

Steiner

[Erik k.]

Hi,

On this moment i am totally adicted with Company of Heroes.
A ww2 RTS where you can command multiple units.
There is an active group of mod makers.
It is just what you are looking for.

Erik

[Leving]

I totally Agree. Company of Heros is the most realistic RTS game for WW2. There is also an expansion pack due to be released.

In addition, Medal of Honour: Airborne will be coming out. It is a first person shooter, however, the clan side of the game can be extremley tactical.

[Charlie645]

If you want an emphasis on strategy at the platoon to battalion level with a great deal of historical accuracy, try the "Combat Mission" series by Battlefront.com. These games offer one-minute turn-based moves with decent graphics and a full scenario/operation editor. There is a large community involved in creating very accurate historical battles.

[Schultz]

Try (its free) Steel Panthers World at War great game lots of scenarios just google Matrix Games. as well the Close Combat series is great.

Schultz

[Epaminondas]

Going up the strategic level with units down to divisions there is Hearts of Iron 2.

[HerrGothic]

There is no better WWII computer wargame than the Close Combat series.

Get a copy of Close Combat V "Invasion Normandy" online.

Then go to http://www.closecombatseries.net/CCS/ download one of the mods, they are outstanding.

Klaus

[hucks216]

I'd recommend the two games PANZERS: PHASE 1 & 2. You pick the forces you think are required to capture Russian villages & towns or to defend a base against a British attack and depending on the mission you can have artillery support or recce planes on hand. Phase 1 tends to deal with northern Europe and the Russian Front while Phase 2 tends to deal with Africa & the Balkans. You cab choose to be the Germans, Russians, Americans, British or, in Phase 2, a partisan. Very addictive. They are currently going for between £3 & £8 on Play.com, and for less then £2 each on Amazon.co.uk.

[dusty825]

I have to agree with the close combat series, my favorite one was close combat III The Russian Front. It's a older title hard to find but good, secon I would go with the Call of Duty games..

[sebastian]

call of duty series is the best fps you will ever play,in a few days the 5th comes out:world at war.Its a game splitted in 2 and cover the war in japan i think the salomon islands,and the fall of berlin ,im counting the days to go and buy it :-)

[ijontichy]

The best operational series of wargames is the World@War series (Operation Crusader, Stalingrad, D-Day Operation Overlord) and its predecessor, the V4Victory series (Velikiye Luki, Utah Beach, Market Garden, and another one I can't remember). But this is an old series of games, DOS games, and you will have troubles getting it to work on modern Windows operating systems. You can probably find the games at some abandonware site. And maybe you can get the games to work on a DOS emulator like DOSBox. The games all use a planning-execution model: you plan your actions for every unit, the other side (human or AI) plans its actions, and then the game will execute those actions simultaneously or concurrently over the simulated duration of the turn. More realistic, IMHO, then moving and attacking with units one at a time, and one side at a time.

For tactical wargames, which are not really my thing, Steel Panthers and Combat Mission are the best. And Close Combat is good, too.

[MadDog]

Ah, those were the days. V4V and W@W were the best, and I think still are. I was a betatester for the W@W games and I really liked them. Sadly, there are still bugs in them, some of them pretty fatal to gameplay. I really wish Atomic had sold the code to someone.

There a similar game coming out, Combined Arms, from Matrix games. It should be going into beta soon.

Mad Dog