Grogheads Reviews: Strategic Command World War I

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frontier wars 728x90 KS

Strategic Command WW1 (WW1) is a strategic level wargame encompassing all primary theaters of World War 1.  WW1 is developed by Fury Software, primarily by Hubert Cater and Bill Runacre and distributed by Slitherine/Matrix.  I purchased WW1 using the exclusive Grogheads discount offer upon release.  This review is based on twenty plus hours of play including completing the 1914 core campaign.

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By: Avery Abernethy

Strategic Command WW1 comes with three corps level games.  1914 Call to Arms starts in August 1914 with the player taking the side of the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) or the Entente (France, Russia, Great Britain, and Serbia).  1914 Triple Alliance adds Italy to the Central Powers.  1917 The Fate of Nations starts the game with the 1917 historical situation.

Two division level games are also included.  These are 1914 The March on Paris where the goal is either to capture (or prevent the capture) of Paris by Germany and 1918 the Ludendorff Offensive when the Germans came very close to breaking the Entente in France before sufficient US forces reached the lines.

1914 Central Powers Western Front Deployment

1914 Central Powers Western Front Deployment

The corps level games are large scale, strategic wargames.  Players make national level resource allocation decisions.  How will national resources be divided between research to improve the economy, improve combat effectiveness, build new forces, reinforce damaged units, or wage diplomacy?  Which theaters will your forces be allocated?  What is your overall strategy?

Germany is the economic and military powerhouse in World War 1.  She generates far more resources than any other country.  Since research can further boost both economic power and military output, Germany has the lead and can pull further ahead during the war.  But Germany alone cannot defeat the Entente and her ally Austria-Hungary is a lightweight.

1914 Central Powers Deployment

1914 Central Powers Deployment

Great Britain has naval superiority, but a very small army.  France has a large army and navy, but is much weaker than Germany.  Serbia has a strong army for its size, but can be crushed whenever the Central Powers make their defeat a primary goal.  Russia is stronger militarily than Austria-Hungary, but much weaker than Germany.  Turkey is weaker than everyone, but shares remote, inhospitable borders with her enemies.

1915 Turkish Russian Front

1915 Turkish Russian Front

The United States starts as a neutral with a powerful economy.  If the United States enters the war and achieves full mobilization, the Entente can crush Germany.

Strategic Command World War 1 captures this hair-balance strategic military situation.  If Germany builds power by invading Belgium or launching submarine warfare against Great Britain, the United Kingdom and eventually, the United States, enter the war.  If Germany can effectively capitalize on this short run strategic advantage, they win.  But if they cannot quickly knock France and Russia out of the war, the Central Powers lose when the United States enters the War.

Both the Entente and the Central Powers are shackled by their weaker members.  Austria-Hungary and especially Turkey are easily defeated if the Entente can concentrate enough forces against them.  Russia will be defeated by Germany and Austria-Hungary if they concentrate most of their military might against her.  Serbia is too small and too isolated to survive if the Central Powers ever devote the resources to eliminate her.

November 1915 Russian Front

November 1915 Russian Front

However, nothing happens quickly in World War 1.  Supply is critical.  Distances are vast.  And it is so, so easy to get distracted from your primary strategy by chasing short term tactical advantage.

Strategic Command WW1 allows players easy access to “what if” scenarios connected to World War 1.  The game has a huge number of scripted events that can be enabled (or cancelled) before starting any game.

In my victory as the Central Powers, Germany decided not to invade Belgium, never entered the North Sea or the English Channel, and her economic and military might crushed Russia knocking her out of the war in the Summer of 1916.  In the scripts I disabled everything enabling the USA to enter the war (blockade of the United Kingdom, sinking neutral shipping, the Zimmerman Telegram, etc.) since my strategy was to avoid provoking the USA.  Amazingly, the AI United Kingdom initially entered the war, then withdrew and went home since Belgium’s neutrality was not violated and the German Navy made no threatening moves.  This was reasonable given the United Kingdom’s diplomatic goals at the turn of the century.

December 1915 Russian collapse

December 1915 Russian collapse

The WW1 AI is improved over the previous release.  Any time I left the slightest opening my opponents attacked and exploited gains using Calvary.  The absolute mindless and hopeless French attacks on the Western Front seen in previous releases have been drastically toned down.  The AI Naval enemy is very, very dangerous.  Your AI opponent is crafty.  The only major deficiency I’ve noticed in the AI is using too many resource points to shift forces between battlefields, especially by the Russians.

I have played previous releases of Strategic Command.  The two most common criticisms are an inability to stack units and the naval model.  Strategic Command World War 1 is played at the corps level.  Given the geographic size of the hexes, stacking corps is unfeasible from a logistics standpoint.  In divisional games the reduced square mileage per hex make stacking divisions implausible.

The Naval model is improved, but units should be permitted to combine into Fleets.  In reality, the size of sea hexes enable huge fleets if desired by the admiralty.  But the game allows players to pick off naval units because they cannot be stacked in a hex – counter to reality for a strategic level game.  I suggest Fury Software carefully reconsider some macro decisions on their naval model.

Victorious Austrian Hungarian Navy 1916

Victorious Austrian Hungarian Navy 1916

The manual could be improved along the margins.  For example, I could not find how to make screen shots.  Hubert Cater responded almost immediately on the Matrix forums informing me how to make them [F11 & F12 keys for .png or .jpg accordingly].  The screenshots are taken without a sound, leaving the player in the dark if a screenshot was taken.  Last, overlays (like battlefield updates, the Strategic Map and some other features) cannot be captured by screenshots.  This oversight is irritating.

Is Strategic Command WW1 a fun game?  Absolutely!  The AI is challenging.  Email and Hotseat games are available.  And with the easily adjusted scripts for each game you can tailor each game for any reasonable “what-if” situation desired by players.  Some irritating combat flaws from earlier editions have been eliminated.  My game ran smoothly and if I did not carefully follow my strategic plan the AI would clobber me.  Game difficulty can be easily adjusted so everyone should find a challenging game.  My games with no advantage to either the AI or the player were epic struggles.

July 1916 deployment at end of the war

July 1916 deployment at end of the war

I thoroughly enjoyed Strategic Command World War 1.  It captured the agonizingly difficult strategic choices facing each side.  It enables interesting what-if situations to be easily incorporated into the game.  The AI has been improved and provides a challenging game.  The PBEM allows players to challenge others across the world.  The game is fully moddable with detailed instructions in the manual.

About the author:  Avery Abernethy is gainfully retired.  His grandfather was a blacksmith in the 105th Engineering Regiment of the 30th “Old Hickory” division of the American Expeditionary Force.  Avery’s greatest personal disappointments of the plagues of 2019-2020 was the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Basketball Tournaments and the cancellation of his three-week World War 1 Battlefield tour for Fall, 2020.  May God have Mercy on the Souls of all who died during the Great War and the Plagues of 2019-2020.

 


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