Warplan – A Quickie Review by a Picky Player
BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) - An easy to play Second World War Grand Strategy game in the ETO with solid Board Wargame DNA and commensurate nuance, granularity and challenge. Nothing flashy graphics-wise, but solid, clear presentation and easy to parse interface. For the Board Wargame experienced, think WiF-like, but without a wheel of pain and using an Action Point system for units. Diplomacy is fairly simple (simplistic?) and the game doesn’t have endless scripted events or wacky alternate history options, but still gives the players room for strategic alternatives to historicity. Sometimes it feels a little sterile, but it’s the most solid wargame (not RTS-thing, 4x pretending to be a WW2 game, or dressed up Panzer General) on PC I have played. In a while. Maybe ever. Think a Board Wargame design where the guy just decided to do it cleanly and competently on ‘puter.
Rating – I will play this.
Note: There is an excellent manual for the game with charts, explanations, terminologies and explanations about how the game works. About 60 pages, like a manual for a wargame. In the below I used it sparingly, just trying to play the game, and then referring to it if I wanted a deeper understanding of things. Hence, I’m not gonna break down the details of costs, effects and whatnot, but just give a broad-brush of game details below.
Basics – The game deals with the European Theater of Operations in the Second World War at a Corps/Fleet/Air Wing Level. Play is IGOUGO. They map stretches from the East Coast of the USA to Iran and from Scandinavia to Egypt and a bit south into Sudan. Turns are weekly. PBEM++ enabled, two players.
Map – Easy to read and functional. Cities, Ports, Rail Corridors, Mountains, Forest and Desert are the basic terrain types. The map uses Hexes.
Interface – Relies on R click and L Click; but with unit windows and options/upgrades that can be selected in unit windows.
Economics/Building – Production points, that may be stockpiled are tied to city values. Also Resource hexes with numeric values (Coal, Oil, Minerals) are included in the calculations for production points. As well as various unit types, there are “Support” categories that may be built; Shipyards (shipyards increase build capacity for all Naval Units and support types), Airbases, Landing Craft (one use craft needed for invasions by both sides), Escorts 9for convoys) Transports, Merchant Marine (convoys), Anti-Air, etc. Different research categories called Advancement exist for different military-related categories classified in level quantified using a year as the benchmark (Breakthrough ’39, Anti-Tank ’40, Naval Training ’41, Close Support ’42…that kinda thing). Units when built can have different capabilities baked into them at creation. As the tech levels increase those capabilities increase
Units/Stacking – One Ground, One Air and unlimited Naval stacking in Hexes.
- Ground – Ground Units are either Infantry, Mechanized/Motorized, Armored, Airborne, Marine and Headquarters (there may be a few randos I am forgetting). There are also Coastal Defense and Garrison Units. Infantry Corps can be built either as Large or Small (two types). Large Corps can be split into three divisions. So ground “stacking” is essentially allowed for some units types; the question is how much mass you wish to concentrate in a hex. Units may have different assets/abilities when built that are linked to technological Advancements that can be researched (Assault, Breakthrough, Anti-Tank, etc.). Units may also receive Specialization points that are accrued at a rate tied to the Nation’s production points which can be used to give any unit such a specialization (Elite, Engineer, Heavy Artillery, Infiltrator, Tank Destroyer, Winter Combat) that give different combat bonuses. Think of it as having Corps assets attached.
- Air – Air Superiority, Ground Attack, Tactical Air and Strategic Air are the basic types. These gain different nuance capabilities on construction based upon the basic Advancement type the unit has baked into it when built (ex. Interceptor, Escort, Close Support, Fighter Bomber, Naval Training, etc.).
- Naval – Battle Group, Patrol Group, Carrier Group, Cruiser Group, Submarine Group. Similar to Air above in the use of an advancement to provide a sub-type to each of them.
Movement and Combat – This is a simple L Click unit select and R Click destination of desired action affair. You select a unit and lighter area of hexes shows you the Unit’s range and a graphic show you how many Action Points it takes for a Ground unit to move into the target hex (keeping in mind terrain, ZOCs etc). So a standard Infantry Unit with a 5 move could move 3 AP’s worth and attack for one AP, reducing it’s combat value that round, slightly and then attack again for another AP. Ground attacks may be combined by selecting one unit and then others holding CNTL while doing so. Odds for attacks are pre-displayed. I haven’t parsed out the gory details of the combat chart, but it’s a fairly standard 3:1 means you’ll likely win kind of affair. Note that all the above combined, provide a lot of nuance and subtlety to moving and attacking. The end result is a very sophisticated combat dynamic for a 'puter game, with all the control in the player’s hands. IGOUGO used to max effect. Air units all get two missions. One or both could be bombardment. One or both could be a move. Air Units have four basic settings in their control panels; Bomb Armies, Bomb Fleets, Bomb Airfields, Bomb Cities. Airborne Corps show a normal move range like above and anything beyond that with a lil Parachute if a hex is in paradrop range. Naval Units attempt to attack if near each other. Air Units may Participate. Air Escort and Interception kinda happen automatically. Naval Units function a lot like Air Units in their basics above.
Coming soon: more commentary after some PBEMing.
That’s enough. If anyone has any specific questions, puhleeze ask.
@ironsight regarding the PTO, if they use the “WiF method” of making scale in that theater 2x what it is in the ETO, it will function in a baseline way but IMO suck (it’ll make China a grind-fest, and take all nuance out of PTO as a whole). As well a lotta oomph and extra functions/options/capabilities will have to be added to air and naval to get it working, as well as a heckova lotta more sophistication to Sea Supply. IMO strictly.