Hello guys,
first of all, i'm new here so i whish you all the best for 2021, stay healthy! Second, i apologize if this topic was brought up before but i didn't find anything similar on the forums.
So my story in (rather not) short:
I'm 36 yo, just had a newborn last september, a vivid PC gamer who likes WWII settings (mostly). I went through them all starting with Medal of Honor and CoD series, through BiA to more serious titles like ArmA, Squad or Post Scriptum. I'm not a WWII's weapons, armor or strategy/tactics guru but i've watched many documentaries and somehow while getting older and older i was getting more interested in tactics of small squads, platoons and whatever.
I really fell in love with CoH2 and i'm still playing it to this day, but i think i'm getting too old as i can't keep up with the other players and overall pace of the game is just getting too fast for me while at the same time, playing against the AI using PAUSE is really easy even on the hardest difficulty. So i've started to look around for a slower, maybe deeper game, that is still immersive enough. I remembered Sudden Strike from my childhood days, but after playing it together with Blitzkrieg series i see they're not what i'm looking for.
Steel Division .. the first game was not the best thing i remember but i found SD2 to be a much better game for me for one reason - smart orders. I really like their try on Operational side of war mixed with realtime battles in the campaign and i think the 2 is a really big step forward but still .. the overall size of the army is so overwhelming that most of the time my forces end up in chaos.
I've also tried TBS games like Panzer Corps and for a while it was a nice change but then again .. i found it to be too much abstract to what i really want to see or play (still looking on HoI from time to time, but i really would not play games like that for a long time).
So i end up looking on 3 games that i tend to not like that much to buy them in the past but now it looked like they're really my only options now.
Close Combat .. after i couldn't get over the graphics and top down view iof Last Stand Arnhem, i bought The Bloody First .. went through manuals for both games ... it looked like a perfect recipe for my taste ... but it just didn't clicked for me .. i really don't know why i felt like all of that was happening was just abstract like in those turn based titles .. really couldn't get into it.
Graviteam ... all of this had already started last winter when i bought Mius Front .. this year i bought Tunisia 43 .. i was trying hard .. but going through the weird manuals and trying to learn everything .. i just didn't had the time and patience for it .. again i really liked the mix of operational phase mixed with realtime battles ... it's just the learning curve of the mechanics and UI that i just don't have the time to learn. I don't know .. maybe next year?
Combat Mission ... the last series on my list .. i was on the fence multiple times ... tried all the demos but was put down by the price and updates politics vs the graphics ... but now ... NOW it all comes to what is important to me .. and that's a slow paced, turn based tactics game on a platoon or company level that's trying to simulate tactics and all the nuanses of WW2.
Battle for Normandy, Red Thunder, Final Blitzkrieg.
I've played all the demos and can't tell if i like one over the other one. If it's western or eastern front, summer or winter, doesn't mean too much to me. From modding perspecitve and overall "best value for the buck" CMBN looks like the best deal. But i have a different question for you seasoned veterans.
What if i like to start small? What do i mean you ask? Well .. i don't want to be overwhelmed with big scale attacks of 1-3 companies or end up defending with 2-3 battalions in my first few missions. I would really like to start small .. maybe commanding just a small squad in a bigger battle .. if that won't be possible .. which game has the best introductory campaign to the game itself and gives the least amount of troops under your command gradually in small steps (mission after mission)?
So folks, this is my question. I don't really want to buy a game that would let me command a battalion, when i really don't know how to do it correctly on a squad or even a platoon level, if you know what i'm saying.
Sorry for the wall of text but i thought you should know the background, where i'm coming from. Hope you can understand and i'm really looking forward to your advice.
I played SF2 demo and no thanks .. i'm really not into conflicts resolved from one corner of the map to another (please take this with a large amount of salt :)). I'm really interested in the WW2 titles. Just not sure which one would get me going slowly with the amount of forces to let me command ... Another things are the Quick battles ... would i be able to make a custom QB with one squad vs one squad if i wanted to? Asking because i was really dissapointed by the way Close Combat: The Bloody First implemented custom battles into their game (whole platoon or nothing).