Real-Time Strategy all purpose discussion thread

Yeah Men Of War is kind of amazing.

Actual ballistics and whatnot, though the micro management could get to be a bit much.

I can’t go back to other recent RTS games after Wargame/Steel Division because I can actually zoom out in those.

You sound like anyone who’s ever played Total Annihilation. :)

-Tom

TA’s still got the best damned videogame soundtrack of all time.

It’s certainly up there, yes.

YESSSSSS…

TA is a high point in my early RTS career. Several years back I played a game with several people from this forum but I totally forgot. River Divide? (map)

I bought Grey Goo in Summer Sale. It’s kinda meh. I hate playing as the goo because you have to micro the process of building your units. This is terrible.

I remember playing it most of the time to 0.25x speed!

I think I had already heard of MoW but not given it much thought. I’ll probably buy it soon, feeling that itch.

Which one should I buy?

I remember preferring the original, which I finished. Don’t think I ever beat the Soviet one.

I beat the original Men of War too. It was good. The Soviet one is really long. I’m stuck on the first mission of the penultimate chapter. They throw so much armor and infantry at you…it is a hold out mission. You have to clear the area first and you only have like 5 minute to prepare land mines and other defenses before the Nazi onslaught.

Welcome to the Alamo

So I tried MoW once but the amount of micromanagement required and general chaos was a tad overwhelming. You guys are saying that there’s a good game in there worth putting up with all those initial hurdles?

If you find Men of War overwhelming (and it can be) you can try playing the first game in the series - Soldiers: Heroes of WW2 - which is much more manageable.

Huh, I thought S:HoWW2 was a modern Commandos/Desperados clone. Time for a second look!

Depends on the mission honesty. In general you micro a bunch of troops but in reality you could micro a single troop very well and take out scores of Nazi’s with just the one unit. Also there’s a lot of mission variety.

As a aside, the feeling of a fully manned tank against nothing but infantry is great…but don’t get too close or they can easily throw a anti-tank nade and end your fun. It works both ways.

I remember that one being a nightmare, but I beat it. Then there was a later assault that was also insane and that’s where I stalled out.

So some cursory reading says MoW doesn’t have base building at all?

I’ll still keep it on my radar but I was looking for CoH but better.

Now we’re talking. I loved that game, and it was a co-op dream over LAN.

The funny thing is that it kind of is…? Most scenarios have you controlling only a handful of soldiers, which not only gives this “commando” feel, but also makes the “micromanagement” aspect shine. It’s much less “puzzly” and much more emergent than Commandos/Desperados ever was, though.

Then came Faces of War, which combines the “commando” feel with a more “platoon/company” feel, and then Men of War focuses on the latter. Diving head-first into Men of War can be overwhelming, but for those who experienced the series from its inception, it’s much more manageable. Well, sort of. It can be hard to let go of the micromanagement, but if you don’t do that, Men of War will indeed be utterly overwhelming. :)

One of the nice things in MOW was that you could take control of one character/unit and do all the movement/aiming using normal wasd controls with mouse aim (if I remember correctly). Remember controlling a sniper was pretty handy.

I could’ve mixed things up, since it has been a fair bit of years since that video was made.

Thanks for the recommendation, I think I will heed it and start with S:HoWW2, following it with Faces of War-- both games have been in my backlog for too long!