Commander: Europe at War

World War II strategy gaming is going strong. In the last few years we’ve seen Hearts of Iron from Paradox, Making History from Muzzy Lane and two games from Gary Grigsby. Each of these titles appeals to a different side of the hardcore audience – even the ridiculous outcomes of Making History are based on a research and economic system that requires divided attention and diplomatic finagling. And that’s part of the problem with historic strategy and wargames today; unless you’ve already bought into the program, there’s little for the newbie. The beer and pretzel barrel is almost empty.

This context is essential for understanding why the idea of Commander: Europe in War is generally appealing. You have the Allies and the Axis, a simple industrial resource system and a clock that counts down the years of the war, with things roughly happening at their historical pace. If you play the Allies, you can count on Hitler invading Russia sometime in 1941. If you play the Axis, you’ll need to wait a bit for the Italians to sign on. There are no stacking rules, simple supply paths and none of the research detail that we’ve come to expect from our grand strategy games.

Commander: Europe at War bears a striking similarity to the recent Strategic Command games. As the title suggests, the game is limited to the European theater and environs (North Atlantic and North Africa) and it’s hex-based. You have similar scenario options letting you start at key moments in the war. Units have a base strength of 10 which can be worn down through attacks and beefed up through reinforcement. You can upgrade your units when newer versions become available but pay an organization penalty for doing so as your troops get used to their new equipment. You can also attach generals to those units you want to give an extra push.

The most significant differences are in the research and industrial power areas. Each major power can invest production points to buy labs to develop new weapons and doctrines. As the war goes on, you can build more labs and focus your research efforts on particular avenues of development. To reflect the gradual ratcheting of the war effort, most nations start with only partial commitment to the enterprise, meaning that they only earn a portion of the industrial points they would normally get.

This has the potential to cripple a small nation like Britain, but Firepower Entertainment has integrated the Lend Lease Program. Every turn, supply ships work their way across the Atlantic, adding to the British industrial pool once they dock.

This one element has significant design consequences, because, finally, the Battle of the Atlantic matters. The supply vessels can be targeted and weakened or destroyed by enemy warships – ideally submarines, invisible unless they attack or are stumbled upon. Now the Royal Navy has something to do besides shell Kiel. Even after the USA enters the war, Allied survival depends on these Lend Lease points. For the Axis, cutting off this lifeline becomes an important part of the strategy, especially if the Eastern Offensive stalls – by 1942 the Soviets get in on the Lend Lease thing.

Commander’s simplicity could turn off a lot of the more hardcore strategy and wargaming crowd. Your diplomatic options are limited to declaring war and you control an alliance, not a nation. So you can’t take command of the Soviet Union in 1939 and prepare Mother Russia for the German invasion. The Germans will invade, too; unlike Strategic Command, there are no variable settings to make the Eastern Front or American entry less predictable.

The biggest problem, however, isn’t the simplicity but the simple-mindedness of the computer opponent. It will sit on hundreds of industrial points while the Red Army pushes through Prussia instead of spending them on something useful. Like an army. This problem isn’t apparent in the early war, when the AI is more than competent at its assigned tasks, but by 1943 the whole thing often comes apart. A small holdover could be attributed to the design decision limiting reinforcements to a single unit per city radius per turn. But this would only reduce the number of actual units on the map, not the number you could buy.

Though adept at encircling and destroying forces, the computer opponent is easily cut from its own supply lines, mostly because it can’t keep a front together for long, leaving lots of holes for you to poke through. It’s almost as if it appreciates how important it is to cut you off from supplies but isn’t quite sure if the same rules apply to its own armies. When you are dealing with the cramped space between the Low Countries and Switzerland, it’s easy to ignore this, but it becomes a game breaker on the Eastern Front where infantry and armor rush around doing mop-up work on stranded soldiers.

The ease of amphibious landings doesn’t help matters. You can land your troops along any coastline, so there is no limit on where you can send in the Marines. This speaks to Commander’s ease of use, but it also makes the cross channel invasion a cakewalk. Not that the AI is smart enough to cover a lot of coastal hexes. Cities are manned, but there’s rarely any reserve in place to beat back invaders.